Women of Nepal

Sapana Malla Pradhan

Advocate, Member of Constituent Assembly, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)

Born in 1963 in Nawalparasi district

When Sapana Malla Pradhan came to Kathmandu from Nawalparasi as a simple Tarai girl around 36 years ago, she did not possess any big dreams. But following years of studies, struggles and dedicated works, she won a seat as a member of the Constituent Assembly, and she is now responsible for drafting the constitution, with special attention to secure women a dignified position, both in the family and the state.

Born to a well-to-do family in a small settlement of Khasiya in Nawalparasi district on November 1963, Pradhan studied in a public school in Parasi until fifth grade. She then came to Kathmandu for further education with her cousins.

Pradhan's mother and grandmothers on both sides were empowered decision-makers. Both her mother and father were politically active. Her father, Govinda Bahadur Pradhan, was a democracy-fighter of the Nepali Congress, who broke jail in the 1950s. Similarly, her mother Radha worked as personal secretary to Ganesh Man Singh, known as a supreme leader of the 1990 People's Movement. Thus Pradhan had a lot of inspiration from her family and all elders gave emphasis to the education of girl children and their freedom.

In Kathmandu, Pradhan joined the Nepal Adarsha High School. It was a different environment and there was tough competition among students. Local girls were dominating, but all became friendly after she proved herself in her studies and extracurricular activities.

Passing the School Leaving Certificate in 1979, Pradhan wanted to study Engineering. Her mother wanted her to study Science while her father encouraged her to study Law. She listened to her father. Her family was involved in traditional law in the village without formal education. "It was a great decision of mine to study Law. It is such a subject which has relation with the state, society and family as well, dealing with cross-cutting issues and with democracy," she said.

When Pradhan studied law, the number of women lawyers was very small and they faced discrimination from male lawyers as well as the whole judiciary. Around 1993, she worked to form a Women Lawyers' Association, an independent platform for women lawyers. At the beginning there were less than a dozen women lawyers with professional reputations. The association established the idea among lawyers that there are prominent women in the profession and encouraged new women to join. She was also elected chairperson however the association later collapsed due to a lack of committed leadership.

Pradhan completed a Bachelor of Law (BL), working with several renowned lawyers while studying in the campus. After studying, she married Ashok Kumar Malla in 1987, but married life never hindered progress in her profession, nor her struggle to achieve the best. Her husband supported her in every step. "Only three months after marriage, I went to New Delhi in India for one and a half years to do my masters. It would not have been possible if he had not helped me," she said.

In New Delhi, Pradhan saw a real life, a need for education and competition for success. Delhi University gave her inspiration to become somebody. After completing a Master in Law in 1990, she returned to Nepal and started teaching in the Law Campus. After three years, when she contested for a lecturer's post, she passed her written test during interview as she was doing a course in Italy for Development Lawyers' Training. The course helped develop her skills for legal practice.

The time-consuming profession of law is more difficult for women as women often have a dual responsibility, at home and at work. Previously, the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) was very male-dominated. Today they have opened the gates for women. Pradhan even became a central committee member of the NBA. "Even today, it is difficult for women to work as a lawyer, despite the fact that there are some cooperating and encouraging male lawyers," she said.

Meantime in 1993, with group of lawyers returned from Delhi, Pradhan established the non-government organization (NGO) Pro-Public and concentrated on fighting for environmental, as well as other issues through Public Interest Litigation; in other words, by filing cases in the court for the benefit of the public. She was also making progress as a corporate lawyer, working for the Hotel Association of Nepal, at a time many hotels were having labor problems, and making significant improvements in the issues.

Pradhan promoted the Legal Aid and Consultancy Centre (LACC), a body to provide legal support to women victims. She met many women seeking legal support against torture and/or discrimination. But she was helpless due to the discriminatory nature of the state's judiciary structure. After participating in the Beijing conference in 1995, she was more exposed to discrimination against women worldwide. She realized that an organization which has legal expertise as well as an activist element to fight for gender equality, in society as well as in state, is necessary in Nepal. With support from like-minded women lawyers and activists, she formed the Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) in 1995.

The FWLD's major goal is to support the government to form equality-based laws. It has brought great change in Nepal's legal structure from a women's perspective, winning the Margaret Sanger Award (US) for its contribution to legalizing abortion. Pradhan also recently won the Gruber International Women's Rights Prize under the category Advancing Gender Equality for the year 2008, for her role in amending laws related to women's rights in Nepal.

There are many political and social activists working for women's equality. The FWLD works solely on reformation of laws. It uses legal strategies and political activism, fighting from all sides in such a way that the government can understand the enormity of an issue and initiate change.

After 1999, Pradhan slowly become a women's rights activist. Having worked for almost a decade in the field, she admits there are contradictions between political leaders and social activists, though both fight for women's rights. While some social activists try to undermine political leaders, leaders also do not recognize the contributions of social activists. "Change in perception of both is necessary. One should respect the strength of another. Only harmonization and collaboration of the two forces will make the dream of emancipation of women possible," she said, and added that only a collective effort that will result in fruitful change in the perspectives of the state as well as society.

It was a pleasant surprise for many when Pradhan was nominated Proportional Representative candidate for the Constituent Assembly by the CPN (UML) and became a member after the election in May 2008.

"For long I have been a leftist but I never went for party membership. A CPN (UML) leader called me and said that the party would like to take me to the CA because of my contribution as a women's rights activist and my legal expertise. It was difficult for me to decide. And I thought people like us must go when the whole country is drafting the first constitution. It would be great if a civil society member who gives technical input could represent there," she said.

Pradhan's experience as a CA member is exciting as well as discouraging. She is happy with her involvement so far and has been given important roles in bodies such as the Procedure Regulation Committee and the Main Draft Committee. The whole draft will be finalized by this committee. Pradhan also chairs a sub-committee for final domestic violence law.

She finds it discouraging when a leader confines him or herself to a party interest and overlooks what's best for the people. Moreover, many concentrate on street protests when the state should devote more time to constitution-drafting. For this, she blames the government for being unable to deal with potential dangers and refusing to face challenges.

Pradhan sees two major issues for women which require special attention as far as the constitution is concerned - 1) citizenship (women's dependence on fathers or husbands), and 2) reservation. She said that while women lag behind men due to political and social circumstances, there are also differences among women from different social groups, such as Dalit, Janajati, and Madheshi women. There are even class differences within women of the same group.

She has found that the number of women in the CA is quite encouraging. However some, from who people in general expect a lot, have not delivered enough in terms of women's rights. She said women may belong to different political parties, but when it comes to drafting the constitution, they must not forget the fundamental issue of women's liberation. "Women from all political parties and other walks of life should come together and stand firm on their issues. Otherwise, the women will again suffer the same discrimination and domination for centuries," she warned.

Some women in the CA insisted a women's committee was formed, but the CA formed only issue-based committees. Pradhan said, "Formal caucus was also not allowed to form, then women CA members demanded to have a women's committee in Parliament. But what happened was 60 percent of all women members are kept in a women's committee as a result, and in other major committees women were included for only 15 to 20 percent of all the seats." She said they should not have gone for a women's committee, and should rather have decided to form caucus. She added, "Now we have formed informal caucus by ourselves. Why do men have to give and do women have to beg? We can decide by ourselves to have our own caucus." She argued that women should not be kept in one room, and instead 33 percent of women should make up each committee.

She added that in the districts people are not happy with women members in the CA as only incompetent women were elected in the name of inclusion, creating hurdles in smooth operation of the process. Targets should be made for result-oriented reservation, she stressed.

After traveling to several Terai districts, Pradhan has found that women in districts are more aware of women's rights than those in the city. "We need to deliver our commitment against violence, for property, guarantee of political participation and their participation in the decision-making level," she says.

At this point in her life, Pradhan doesn't feel herself extraordinary. She instead believes she has taken her responsibilities sincerely and fulfilled them with strong commitment and consistency. This very nature has set her apart from other activists and brought success to her feet.

Written by Razen Manandhar