Women of Nepal

Purna Kumari Subedi

Vice-Chairperson of the Constituent Assembly

Born in 1958 in Lamachaur VDC, Kaski district

Purna Kumari Subedi, who was involved in the anti-state insurgency, became one of twenty-four women candidates of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) who won a First Past the Post seat in the Constituent Assembly elections. She was then elected as vice-chairperson of the Constituent Assembly in December 2008.

Born to a family of Pandits (Brahman priests) in Kaski district, Purna was very young when her family migrated to Chitwan. It was here she started her schooling. Even after marrying at the early age of 14, she continued her education without facing any significant problems. She gave up her education after completing high school, and although Purna had a feeling of regret at that time, she later came to realize that being enrolled in school is not enough to be "educated" in a real sense.

"Education means understanding. We need to develop a capacity to understand the society, explore the problems inside it, and find out the solution from within," she said, adding that she still believes true education is self-study, study of society and confidence development, rather than merely following formal education.

Purna entered politics during her school days. Along with other students she conducted a two-month strike in their Madi school of Chitwan district, demanding the school administration grade their school level up when it was only a primary school. Following the strike, the school was upgraded to a middle high school.

She explained how she came to be involved in politics, "My husband (Prakash Subedi) was actively involved in student politics. So, I naturally got active in politics in my school life. Furthermore, Chitwan was known to be a progressive district where there were many activities against the Panchayat regime. This environment surely affected me."

Even before she was affiliated with politics, Purna wondered why there were only six or seven girl students in the whole class. But she soon came to understand the reasons behind this and determined to do something to eliminate exploitation and discrimination against women in society. She was especially concerned about the extra work daughter-in-laws do in their husband's houses, so she conducted a campaign in the village against the consumption of liquor and playing cards.

By 1978 Purna joined the Communist Party of Nepal (Fourth Congress). Through the support she received from her husband and elder brother Dandapani Neupane, she became more interested in politics. Following her affiliation with the party, Purna became a member of its women's organization and began to work more actively in the locality, looking for solutions to the problems women in the community faced.

Purna migrated to the Banke district in western Nepal in 1987, where she continued her activities towards the emancipation of women. She raised a black flag in demonstration against the Panchayat regime during the People's Movement of 1990. After restoration of the multi-party democracy in 1990, four leftist parties, CPN (Fourth Congress), CPN (Mashal), CPN (Masal) and Sharbahara Shramik Sangathan, formed a coordination committee. She became vice-president of the All Nepal Women's Association (ANWA) formed under this committee. After her election to president of the ANMA in 1994, Purna found herself fully involved in party politics.

Purna was involved in the Maoist 'People's War' since the very beginning. When the Maoists began the insurgency in February 1996, she was a district secretary of Surkhet in western Nepal. In those days, her assignment was to bring circulars from the central level to local committees and inform central committees about local activities and programs. In such, her role was more of a medium, though she undertook many types of activities in the party.

Purna also participated in and survived many military actions, but faced the terrible experience of losing many of her colleagues. She remembers having to leave friends behind in ditches after they were shot dead. "While we were walking towards the place we were attacked, nobody showed his/her fear of being killed. But we used to make plans on who would take responsibilities of the persons who were injured or killed in the action. During the action, we had to prepare stretchers and other carriers for injured comrades, and dig ditches for the dead," she said.

She still cannot forget the death of peasant leader Hari Krishna Bhandari, who died after sustaining a bullet injury during the district convention of peasant organizations in the Kalikot district. For her, another military action she will never forget is that on district headquarters in Jumla in November 2002, in which the Maoists' toll was twenty-seven, while a further seven persons died in a snow-slide while trekking to Jumla. Others died in incidents which took place after the major attack, leaving a total of fifty dead.

"This is how we spent our 10 years of People's War. When we went to the actions we didn't know who would be killed, but we had never been afraid of being killed. Our concern was only if we could carry out our actions successfully," she recalled.

"We fought the People's War to bring peace, change and economic development in this country. With a strong determination for social change, we moved forward. We believed that justice should not be a matter of transaction when most of the people cannot buy it. Because we fought for the people, they made us a big political party."

Purna belongs to an educated family which supported her in her political activities. She thanks her family members, especially her mother-in-law Hrisidevi Subedi who helped her even during the 10-year conflict. "She used to walk in a demonstration carrying a party flag during 1990's People's Movement. During the People's War, my mother-in-law used to help my party work, carrying pamphlets for our party hiding inside her girdle. Even after her son (Ishwar Subedi) was killed by the state and her nephew disappeared, she never stopped helping me. If there had not been her support and I had to do struggles in my house, I could not have reached the present position."      

Thanks to family support, Purna believes she did not face the discrimination or hurdles many women in her chosen path did. "Although I did not tolerate any injustice since my childhood and stood against it, I, myself, didn't experience such discrimination in my family and in the society. Even in the party as I was in leadership since the beginning I had never had to face discrimination as a woman. Still, we women cadres had to face physical problems during wartime. Many women had to walk in jungles and fight in the battle fields even during their monthly period, and many had to deliver their babies in difficult situations. But actually, as we had a bigger mission, we didn't have time to talk about these things."

"It is a fact that we have to do additional struggles in all places; in our houses, in the society and in our party because we are women. In spite of those problems, women have been working without showing any weakness to men in the party."

Despite all the struggles women faced in the party, why is their participation in party leadership so low? Purna gave her explanation, "According to communist policy, only capable persons can come to the leadership. We have to admit that the feudal patriarchal way of thinking is still prevailing in political parties in this country. This tradition has not ended, even in our party."

Purna stressed that it was time to end discrimination against women, both in the house, in society, and political parties. "We are now in the Constituent Assembly to achieve this. We must secure women's economic, social, cultural and political rights through a new constitution to be drafted shortly in the CA."

Being a vice-chairperson of the Constituent Assembly, Purna believes her role is politically free and impartial so she would work hard to draft a constitution to guarantee all rights of women. She points out the need to continue the politics of coalition and understanding among parties for the constitution. "Problems may arise if the parties fail to change themselves. The parties must be more serious and responsible on this. Political commitment is a must to constitute a new constitution and a new Nepal," she said.

In addition, Purna said women outside the Constituent Assembly must be aware of and fight for their rights, whatever their occupation. Housewives should come out of their houses for their rights and party workers should fight within the party. They must be united for their common issues and ideas. And men should also learn to share housekeeping duties when women return from the office. Brothers, fathers, as well as husbands, must understand that they should support women to secure their rights.

Written by Laxmi Basnet