Women of Nepal

Dharmashila Chapagain

Vice president of the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary) (ANWA-R)
Elected member of the Constituent Assembly, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

Born in January 1973, Jhapa district

Dharmashila Chapagain could not stand the social injustice her father imposed upon her whole family through his polygamous lifestyle, a common practice in Nepali society. After having five daughters with his first spouse, her father tied the knot with another woman, smothering the feelings of the whole family. Chapagain, the eldest daughter among five, deeply felt the presence of male domination in society when her father married his second wife. Along with her four younger sisters and her mother, Chapagain suffered from the moment her stepmother entered the house. Physically and mentally tortured by the woman, she began to seek a way out for the sake of her education as well as ensure a better way of life for her sisters and mother.

The conflict within her family turned Chapagain from an innocent village girl into a rebel, who began a quest for social justice. She was only nine years old when she faced domestic upheaval at home. "My struggle began from the very day when my father married another woman just because we five were daughters and he wished to have a son. My father and my stepmother used to treat us in a bad manner," she said.

Fortunately, her mother was somewhat educated and could read and write. Through her mother, Chapagain approached various gender-sensitized publications during her early teenage years while at school. She realized there must be a change in the whole political system to end the deep-rooted discriminatory attitude in society.

Her father pressured her to marry at her early age of 13. He even prevented her from going to school for this very purpose. Chapagain could not tolerate the pain of discrimination she was getting from her own family. Consequently, she was keen to find a solution to these domestic problems, and eventually found reason in communist ideology.

The lower middle class family eking out a living through farming shifted to Chandragadi from Budhabare in 1977, where Chapagain hooked herself into formal education amid family conflict. Her schooling started when she was admitted to primary school in 1978. As her whole family was fraught with chaos, Chapagain and her sisters had to strive hard to complete their education.

Despite the hurdles created by her stepmother, Chapagain passed her School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination in 1993 from Bhadrapur Secondary School. Three years previously she had failed the examination and her growing interest in political and extracurricular activities resulted in discontinuity of her education. After failing to attend the exams for two years, her enthusiasm to fight against injustice boosted her to conquer the "Iron Gate".

After her SLC, Chapagain joined Mechi Campus to pursue higher studies. With the entry of college life, her participation in political activities gained motion. In the campus she was associated with the student organization affiliated with the CPN (Masal) led by Baburam Bhattarai, which later merged with the CPN (Unity Centre) led by Prachanda, present chairman of the UCPN (Maoist). Chapagain had formally joined the All Nepal National Free Students' Union (ANNFSU), a sister organization of the CPN (Masal), in 1989 while she was in a high school so it was only reinstatement and connection of her previous tasks.

She still remembers how she passed those stony paths from home to party condensed between social injustices. Women were supposed to confine themselves to their house and carry out household work. After her parents divorced in 1993 she stood against such customs and ploughed the field, engaged in farming for five years as a tiller as her mother faced economic crisis and could not hire tillers. Chapagain challenged the traditional norms of society.

Chapagain grew up within a very political environment, where communist activists of the Jhapa movement, who had launched an armed struggle against landlords in 1970s, were the norm. Communist leaders such as Chandra Prakash Mainali and Dhruba Adhikari, who led the movement, were her relatives, and her mother used to provide shelter and meals to those communist activists. Regular contact with such leaders gave space for politics in her mind. Influenced by their thoughts, she took the initiative to transform social patterns possessed by her own family. On the other hand, Chapagain was deeply touched and tortured by being a woman. "If you are woman, then your sufferings begin from your own home. There is no respect for you in your own family, you have to live under the domination of men," she said.

On February 13th 1996, the Maoists launched its armed struggle mainly in mid-western Nepal. They were interknitting its organizational activities in eastern Nepal as well, in which Chapagain played a vital role. In the time of initiation of the insurgency she was president of Jhapa district students' coordination committee as well as a member of the Mechi Campus Free Student Union. She dropped her studies after completion of proficiency level in the same year. The following year in 1997 she left home to go totally underground as part of the insurgency. During her school days she even didn't know what 'underground' meant. "Later on, I came to know that since 1990 our party was working underground for the preparation of the 'People's War'," she said.

In November 1997, along with three male comrades, Chapagain was arrested by the police while she was addressing the masses in the premises of Bhadrapur Secondary School in Jhapa district. She was released after a month-long detention. To support herself financially, she began to work at the factory of Momentary Garment in Jhapa district as a security guard. Of 22 hundred employees 90 percent were women, and she again saw the gender suppression and severe sufferings of women laborers. "That was another opportunity for me to lead the mass as a labor leader," she said.

Employees in her factory would work for years being paid a mere Rs 900 a month. This went against the labor law which stated that a worker will become a permanent employee after six months and his/her salary will also increase accordingly. She united laborers and established a labor union in the factory, but failed to register the union as her party was underground. Later on, the CPN (UML) registered it under their party. On her initiation, laborers put demands to the factory owner and the company signed a 6-point agreement, including the formation of the provident fund and other labor rights. She simultaneously worked to extend her party organization in the garment factory. Due to these activities, she was fired after one month.

Chapagain went to Ilam district with other comrades as a student of Ilam campus at first, before extending party activities across the eastern region. As Maoists didn't have enough cadres in the region in those days she handled all kinds of activities. She strived to expand the party, while organizing both women and students. She also participated in military actions, serving as a squad commander for Maoist armed forces for two years around 2000.

She was one of 13 Maoists who participated in a raid on the Forest Office of Jalthal VDC in Jhapa district in February 1998. The purpose of the action was to seize two rifles held here. Their mission was a success in that they captured one rifle along with five bullets. This marked Chapagain's first military action.  

Rebels tend to break social norms. Chapagain also followed a rebellious path and broke several such norms. She married a fellow comrade, Shanker, who studied at the same campus. Shanker joined the Maoists after the CPN (UML) divided into two parties. Shanker was in a more junior position in the party than Chapagain. The fun of their romance was that Shanker was secretly in love with Chapagain yet would not confess. However, after Chapagain came to know his feelings she herself proposed; something women rarely do in Nepali society. The couple married in May 1999 following party regulations.

Like many other Maoist women, Chapagain continued her duties even after she fell pregnant. When she was five-months pregnant she participated in military training in Mechi-Koshi region. During this period, she also went to Punjab (India) in February 2001 to attend the Second National Assembly of the CPN (Maoist). After this assembly she got the post of regional bureau member.

She continued to participate in military action four days before she delivered her daughter in June 2001. Although it was common for Maoist women to engage in party work right up until the eleventh hour of their delivery during wartime, Chapagain's case was quite serious as she suffered for three days with labor pain. Despite this creating a risky situation, her colleagues took her to the local hospital in Biratnagar, where she was operated on.

During the first truce Chapagain was assigned party in-charge of Morang district in September 2001. It was around one month after the Maoists broke the cease-fire and the government declared the State of Emergency when Chapagain was detained again, together with her six-month-old daughter. She spent four years in jail, subject to all forms of torture. She heard the tragic news of her husband's death while in jail, killed by government security forces in Ilam district after 33 days' detention in July 2002.

"I had no hope of his survival when I heard news of his detention. I and my daughter had lost all the hope," she said, her eyes full of tears. She suffered both the mental torture of her partner's death and physical torture, being so badly beaten by the jail's security personnel her surgery stitches were broken. Chapagain kept her daughter with her in jail; however neither received adequate nourishment there as her baby was still breastfeeding.

In July 2006 Chapagain was released from jail, two months after the royal rule finally ended. She had never given up her political ideology or loyalty to her party even while in jail. Immediately after her release she became party in-charge of Sunsari district. In the 5th National Assembly of ANWA-R, the women's wing of the party, which was held soon after the Maoists came to the peace process, she was elected vice president. She was also appointed a member of the Interim Legislature which was formed in January 2007.

Chapagain won the Constituent Assembly election held in April 2008 in one of the constituencies in Jhapa, defeating renowned NC leader and former Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola. She continues her struggle against social injustice, gender discrimination and other social evils as a CA member. She believes if she is determined to accomplish a task and achieve a goal for society, she will definitely see her dream come true. Chapagain has taken a difficult path in life, but will continue until her party completes its mission.

Written by Binju Sitaula