Women of Nepal

Mina Acharya

Economist and women's rights activist, General Secretary of Tanka Prasad Acharya Academy

Member of the Working Committee of International Association for Feminist Economists

Born in 1941 , Kathmandu

Mina Acharya is one of very few women economists in Nepal. She was born in a political family in Dhobikhola in Kathmandu seventy years ago. During the time of the Rana period which collapsed in 1951, both the state and society hated politicians and their family members, even small children. Acharya, who experienced such prejudice herself, has been thinking of ways to increase Nepali women's access to various resources in the economic field for a long time .

Ach arya was born the daughter of famous politician and former prime minister Tanka Prasad Acharya who stood against Rana rulers and was jailed for a long time. In those days, activists who acted against Ranas were tortured, and sometimes even murdered by the state. The state even had trouble with family members of those activists. As a result, the people were afraid to behave well to children of political prisoners. "After my father was jailed we were hated by the society and were in trouble both economically and socially. We were not in an economic situation to get enough foods and clothes," Acharya remembered.

"As we were the family of a person who was put in a jail, nobody dared to rent us rooms to stay and we had to sleep in the street in Ram Temple in Battisputali." After all their property was confiscated by the state, Acharya's family was compelled to split. Her mother went to stay at her maternal house in Kathmandu with her younger sister Shanti, and Acharya was taken to her father's house in Dhanusa district where she lived with her grandfather until she joined school in 1947.

On joining school, Acharya c ame to realize the poor economic situation held by many politicians . She never studied with new books. But as her mother Rewant Kumari had enough political consciousness, Acharya and her sister had a chance to study.

Acharya was admitted to Gandhiwadi Adhar School in Gaushala in 1947. Her mother used to teach her two daughters at home.

"In my childhood my family was in an economic problem. As we could not buy ready-made clothes, my mother used to sew kurta suruwal for us. After my father was jailed, our own relatives, even my father's sister, didn't dare to give us lodging. Even under such conditions I was educated , all due to my mother. My case is a good example that if mother is conscious about education she can make all her children educated."

In the middle of various problems, Acharya managed to complete the IA course from Padma Kanya College. After the Rana regime collapsed, her father Tanka Prasad Acharya was appointed as a prime minister by King Mahendra in 1956. She could have Acharya was appointed Prime Minister by King Mahendra in 1956. She had support from then Queen Ratnarajya for further study in India. After obtaining a bachelor's degree from there in 1960 she went to Moscow for higher level study through winning a scholarship. Acharya obtained her master's degree i n Economical Cybernetics from Moscow University and returned to Nepal in 1966. She then joined Rastriya Bank as a research officer, where she worked for 15 years. Then, after working at the World Bank for two years, Acharya completed a PhD on the issue of economic development from the University of Wisconsin in the United States.

Acharya said her mother was politically-conscious, just as  her father was. So when Tanka Prasad tried to have his daughter married at an early age her mother opposed it, claiming girls must also study. "Owing to my mother's will, I studied up to PhD level," she said.

It could be said that though Acharya has never joined a major political party, she has always been active in politics in the field of women's development. "My mother used to teach us about the importance of politics. She was the main resource person who had pulled me to the fields of women's rights," she said. While her mother Rewant Kumari was doing various works through the contact of the Nepali Congress in Jayanagar, she founded the organization 'Adarsha Mahila Sangatan' in 1947 in Janakpur, with the help of Hemlata Pradhan, mother of DP Pariyar and others. This was in fact the first organization of women in Nepal and her mother was the first organizer of a women's organization. In the same year, Rewant Kumari became involved in the formation of Nepal Mahila Sangh in Kathmandu, whose first president was Mangala Devi Singh. "I am taking the way my mother took as a social reformer and a women's rights activist who was dedicated to education."

Acharya has experienced having to struggle for her own rights. While studying in Russia she married for love with a Russian man. In those days there was a clause in Nepali law which stated that any Nepali woman who married a foreign man would have her citizenship fortified . In 1963 she appealed to then king Mahendra to retain her citizenship so she could keep her parents' surname and work for Nepal. Following Mahendra's direction she managed to keep her Nepali citizenship. Two years afterwards , the Citizenship Act was amended to allow Nepali women who married foreigners to keep their Nepali citizenship until she abandoned it.

After completing her study, Acharya and her family returned to Nepal. She lived with her husband for 14 years, but divorced him as he wanted to return to his own country. She has since been living with her daughter. Though Acharya worked in World Bank for two years she came back to Nepal to do something for her country.

In the history of the women's movement in Nepal, Acharya belongs to the second generation. "My mother Rewant Kumari, Shana Pradhan, Sadhana Pradhan Adhikari, Punyaprabha Devi, Kamala Rana, Snehalata Shrestha, Mangala D evi Singh and Kamakchadevi were the women who started the women's movement in Nepal. We are the generation after those women," Acharya said. According to her, many women's rights activists of the second generation, such as herself, Shanta Thapaliya, Tula Rana, Chandani Joshi and Bina Pradhan, raised the issues of women's rights while keeping their distance from politics.

She said there were three kinds of women's rights activists during the Panchayat period. Punyaprabha Devi, Kamala Rana, Tula Rana and others raised women's issues within the Panchayat system; Shanta Thapaliya and others worked in the fields of legal rights; and Acharya, along with other women, worked to establish women's economic rights, such as an equal property right, the right to education and women's participation in all fields of development.

Acharya started work in Nepal Rastriya Bank as a second-rank research officer in 1966. She, along with Ly nn Bennett, Bina Pradhan and Indira Shrestha, conducted the first research work on Nepali women and published a report entitled 'The Status of Women in Nepal' in 1981. According to her, special programs for women were made based on this report. For example, the program to provide loans to women in remote areas started with the support of Nepal Rastriya Bank and the Nepal government. Loans and training programs for modern agriculture were given to women farmers as part of the Small Peasants Program. Some NGOs also began to give training programs related to development. In fact, t he concept of women's accountable budget came from those activities.    
In this way, women in the Panchayat system worked to organize women in remote areas for representation and legal rights. Women activists who were involved in underground politics in those days struggled for political change. "Struggle for democracy is a part of the women movement, because in the situation where there are not the fundamental rights of civilians, women's rights also cannot be established," Acharya said.

"The agenda of the women's movement has changed. Women's rights have been, or are being, established as a policy, but have not yet been implemented. So we still have to continue the women's movement. Particularly, we still have to fight for the equal rights of education, jobs and parental properties," Acharya claimed. She added, "The way of the women's movement has also changed. Now, from the government sector to the NGOs to the political sectors, the issues of women' rights have beg un to be raised strongly and became not only for women but also for politics. Though some changes have been brought in the traditional social view to see women and women's social roles, it is still not enough."

Acharya, who has been working to empower women economically, still commits to work to establish economic rights for women. She maintained that it is necessary to make the 197 women members in the Constituent Assembly conscious about women's issues. She said especially Maoist women members from remote villages who participated in the armed struggle should be taught to raise their own issues more powerfully, as those who fight class struggles tend not to take gender issues seriously.

Having worked in Nepal Rastriya Bank for 24 years Acharya reached a high rank position and beca me a candidate for deputy governor. But after another person was appointed to that position on the basis of political background after 1990's political change she resigned from her job. She was the first women to reach such a high ranking position in Nepal's banking sector .

Winning public recognition as a Nepali woman economist who worked in various ways both officially and unofficially, Acharya was recently elected a member of the working committee of the International Association for Feminist Economists (IAFFE). More than 600 women economists from over 40 countries, including Nepal, are members of IAFFE, which was formed to locate economic discrepancies from a feminist viewpoint , to play a leading role to bring change in traditional economics, and to publish women economists' thoughts through its publication.

Acharya thinks Nepal's economic section is still not sensitive enough with regards to gender issues. She said, "Education in our country has not yet been able to include women's rights and women's issues. Issues in sociology began to be raised from the women- friendly viewpoint, but economics are still being taught in the traditional way. In Nepal, as there are very few economists who are sensitive with regards to gender issues, the economic condition of women has not been able to improve as quickly as it should."

Only men are responsible for making economic policies and a budget for the country. They don't understand women's necessities. Women's voices were included in the forming of the Five-Year Plans, but no discussions have been made regarding their implementation . Acharya said, "The government began to bring the gender-related budget but the process of implementation, monitoring and discussion have not yet been established. The sum of the budget allotted for women is not the main issue, but the important thing is that enough of the budget is allotted for necessities of women and for the protection of women's rights. So far, no research and no discussions have been conducted on investments that ha ve already been made. That is why the government cannot make a new plan."

After a long years' involvement in the economic section, Acharya reached the conclusion that only after they become economically empowered can women become powerful in other sectors. Since 1975, Acharya has published many books and writings related to the economic field. Recently published books include - 'Nepalma Mahila Bikaska Prayatnaharu (Efforts of Women Development in Nepal) (2005)' and 'Mahila Sashaktikaran (Women Empowerment) (2007)'. Much of her research and writings related to women's rights were published inside and outside Nepal.    

Written by Laxmi Basnet