Women of Nepal

Ram Kumari Jhakri

President of All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU)

Born on May 23rd 1978, in Myalpokhari VDC, Gulmi district

Ram Kumari Jhakri ran for the presidential election of ANNFSU, a student wing of the CPN (UML), in its 19th National Conference in Pokhara in September 2008. After a keen competition with a male candidate she could have come out as a victor. She rewrote a history of Nepali politics by becoming the first woman president of any student organization in the country.

Ram Kumari was born as the sixth child among seven (four daughters and three sons) in the lower middle class peasant family of Magar in Gulmi district. Since her childhood she has always played a role as an 'ice breaker' in the society. When she was five years old her family was about to send her off for sheep-herding; but she didn't go, instead, she went to a school with her brothers, having become the first girl from her village who had entered a school. Ram Kumari said, "I had a strong interest with reading books since I was a small child. I learnt how to make poems and stories from my elder brothers before I joined a school. So, after having studied for few months in the first grade, I got promoted to the second grade."

She had little difficulty to study in the primary level (up to fifth grade) because she didn't need much money to go to a school. But she had to fight with her family when she was advanced to sixth grade. Because of the financial problem her parents didn't want Ram Kumari to continue her study. "I still feel that a struggle I had with my parents at that time was the toughest one in my life," she remembers. When she failed to convince her parents even after several months of crying; one day, she joined her classmates who were on the way to their school, by telling her family that she was going to a bazaar. Since that day she had never stopped going to a school, located in a distance of two hours' walk from her house.

When she was in higher secondary level she used to get books and notebooks as prizes in various competitions in her school, such as volleyball games, marathon rallies, quiz and debate programs, which were enough for her to use for the whole year. She says this made her independent and her parents accepted their daughter to continue her education.

When the multi-party system was restored after 50-day-long people's movement in April 1990 Ram Kumari was just eleven years old. Soon after this political change a committee of All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU) was formed in her Prithivi Secondery School. She became a joint secretary of that committee. That was the beginning of her political life. Next year she became a president in her school. Then, she worked as a president of a regional committee from 1991 to 1993. She was the first woman president in the region. Ram Kumari always walked one step ahead of girls in her community, which encouraged other girls to come out from their tradition.

Since her childhood Ram Kumari was a girl with rebellious mind. She was highly influenced by Karl Marx's ideology on class struggles which she had heard from her teacher when she was in sixth grade. She said, "Marxism gave me a perspective to look at the society. I was also influenced by my brother Padam Jhakri who was politically active during school days. Through my brother I established my connections with people related to the political party." Even after the political change in 1990 she felt that there was no change in various kinds of discrimination in Nepali society. As a woman from a poor family in a remote village that belongs to ethnic minority, Ram Kumari herself had to face various hardships. She wanted to end all kinds of discrimination.

After she passed the examination of SLC (School Leaving Certificate) in 1994 she came to Kathmandu for her further study. She arrived in the capital on the very day when Manmohan Adhikari of the CPN (UML) became the first communist prime minister in Nepal. Although she came to the capital she had no clear idea about which career she should take. Her parents wanted her to be a doctor and she once thought to take a course to be a nurse. But after her brother told her to follow her own will she decided to work for her dream to eradicate all the discrimination in the society. She joined Padma Kanya Campus for her intermediate degree, where her journey in politics as a student leader started. She became a member of a campus committee of ANNFSU in 1995 and became its president in 1998.

In all the movements launched by political parties in Nepal students have played an important role. Even when then King Gyanendra took over the power by dismissing then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in October 2002, it was students who first came out in the streets to protest while political party leaders were hesitating to take quick actions.

"We knew that the true intention of the king was to form his 'puppet parliament' and pass the bill to restore an absolute monarchy in Nepal," she said. In the beginning only students were in the streets to protest against king's take over. But later members of the civil society and political activists began to come out. Seven student organizations formed an alliance to jointly launch the movement. ANNFSU got a responsibility to lead a series of protest programs. In the meeting Ram Kumari who was a chief of Central Department of Liaison of ANNFSU was asked to lead the first street demonstration. She easily accepted it.

Ram Kumari was always in the streets to give directions to student activists. "Everyday we sat and made plans on what kind of protest programs we will do. We discussed how we could protest without being arrested." With rebellious personality she was always determined with her beliefs. "When I fight for my beliefs I find a divine power that leads me. There will be neither hesitation nor fear, only beliefs and determination for the change," she says.

In the first week of January 2004 the alliance of student organizations made a plan to burn king's effigies in the Ratna Park, just several hundreds meters away from the royal palace. Ram Kumari was leading the rally carrying an effigy. It was a cold winter day and the security forces were deployed with a water tank to control student demonstrations. Protesting against the state suppression students lied down on the road. Suddenly, police started beating protestors with lathis (bamboo sticks). Ram Kumari was also badly beaten; "I felt warm liquid flowing through my face. At first I thought it was water thrown by the police but I realized it was blood coming from a wound on my head." She soon lost her consciousness and later came to herself in the hospital.

A wound on her head was so serious that she had to go through a surgery and stayed at the hospital for two weeks. Despite a doctor's advice to stay in a bed rest for at least one month even after being discharged, she came out in the street to attend protest. Her well wishers gave her helmets and caps to protect her head. In particular, after this incident, she became the center of media attention. Both national and international media began to cover her. Soon after that, students along with members of civil society launched the biggest protest rally. Then, five major political parties followed them. The movement against a royal take over slowly began to take a momentum.

King Gyanendra carried out another coup on February 1st 2005, adopting even more suppressive manner with the support of the army. This time King himself led the government, which detained most of senior political party leaders. Political parties could have hardly done any protest programs under strict suppression by the state. On February 18th when Ram Kumari was heading for Bhedasing from Asan, the center of old bazaar, after having participated in the rally she along with other student leaders were arrested by the police. Then she was taken to Kharepati, where she was kept in detention as the only woman detainee among some sixty to seventy students and civil society members. She felt frustrated while staying there without communicating with outside people for months. No one from her party came to see her. Ram Kumari complains, "In the situation where most of senior leaders had been arrested and communication was totally cut I didn't know about our future plan. We only thought about how to get out of there in order to re-schedule our protest programs."

She got a ray of hope when some human right activists were released submitting the writs of habeas corpus. Ram Kumari and some others filed a case of habeas corpus with the help of Nepal Bar Association. She finally got out from the detention center after two months. As soon as she was released she was in the street again. Even after that she was arrested again and again. "Detention center became like my second house. Whenever we were detained we filed writs of habeas corpus and came out," she said.

She again got a head injury by police lathi-charge in July 2005 during a protest rally. At that time she was not taken to a hospital, instead, she was arrested and taken to custody after getting dressing, which gave her problems of infections time and again. "After I got wounded for the second time, I felt nothing worse can happen to me and I became more courageous."

After the alliance between the seven political parties and the CPN (Maoist) was established in November 2005 the movement took a momentum with its climax. 19-day-long People's Movement that had started on April 6th 2006 finally made the king quit his power to return sovereignty to the people, which finally led an end of a monarchy. She thinks this achievement is only a half and there is still a long way to go; "We won the democracy but we got more important responsibility to make a new Nepal. Political change is not enough. We have to change the society, economical conditions and living standards of the people. Leaders of old generation are not suitable for that task but it's our generation's responsibility to bring those changes."

Nepali history shows that students played a crucial role in all the major political change. Even during the Panchayat period students played a role of a catalyst in most of political movements. In the latest movement which brought the biggest political change, that is, a republic, students such as Ram Kumari and Gagan Thapa of Nepal Student Union, were the major forces that raised a voice of a republic while most of political party leaders were hesitating.

Ram Kumari was chosen by the CPN (UML) as a candidate for proportional representations in the Constituent Assembly but she withdrew her name from it. She explained a reason; "ANNFSU is seeking for an independent role as a student organization. If I accepted an offer from the party ANNFSU would look like just one of departments of the CPN (UML). I didn't like that. Instead, I made up my mind to contest for the election of an ANNFSU president."

She was the first woman candidate to stand for a seat of a president in the history of any student organization. Her slogan for the campaign was "Make the History - Break the History!" and she made a history by winning the election. Winning the election was only the tip of an iceberg. Her potential as an 'ice breaker' is much bigger than that.

Written by Smita Magar