Women of Nepal

Usha Nepal

Former Chief District Officer
Commissioner to the Election Commission

Born in September 1943 in Mahottari distirct

Usha Nepal raised the flag as the first woman to not only win the tough seat of Chief District Officer (CDO), but also handle the complicated days of the infamous 1992 Hindu-Muslim riot in Nepalgunj in such a subtle way even male champions were wowed.

Born in 1943 in the Terai village of Jabakh in Mahottari district to a big Brahmin family, Nepal was not very demanding during childhood. Her family had little time to share with each child and although her family was not highly educated, it was oriented to Sanskrit education. Her father hired a teacher to teach all children in the house. To the family, this was enough for the girls; however Nepal sought a level of education equal to that which male members were given. She acquired the belief that education was a must, though there was no such motivation from the family. The girls could study, but they had to accomplish all household chores, which were expected to be done only by girls in those days. But Nepal made no complaints for doing those things. While her sisters worked in the kitchen, she preferred to go to the market or other such assignments which would allow her to go out.

Nepal was a real tomboy in her childhood. She was not afraid of her friends or the neighbors of her age, or even those older than she. She remembers thrashing elder boys in her neighborhood. In school, she was not 'very good' in her studies, but was above average.

Nepal was enrolled in many schools. She first attended a local school in Janakpur before her family had to move to Kashi (India) to look after her grandmother who was living there. After her grandmother's death, they returned to Nepal and she again attended a school in Janakpur. After some time she was shifted to Biratnagar to continue her schooling. Later, Nepal sat the School Leaving Certificate examinations as a private student. She continued her higher education at Allahabad University, Banaras Hindu University and Patna University under various circumstances, obtaining a Masters in Psychology from Patna University.

It was around 1965 when Nepal established Montessori school 'Shishu Nikunj' in Biratnagar. It was her effort to introduce a Montessori education system in Nepal and also to counter the flow of people and money going to Darjeeling for education. Nepal's time at the school went smoothly for several years, but a personality clash among promoters made her eventually leave.

In 1967, Nepal was invited to Kathmandu to teach Psychology at Tribhuvan University. She started her teaching career at the country's oldest Tri-Chandra College and continued at Ratna Rajya College, as well as several others. In those days, teaching in colleges was truly a government service.

After several years, she moved to the Women Teaching Centre in Jawlakhel as a teacher. Working for women's education was a major turn of events for Nepal which lasted over a decade. The centre was designed for the overall development, offering education and vocational training for women who would go on to teach their skills to women in villages. This provided Nepal the opportunity to meet women from different classes and also study their practical problems. Hardly any women in those days were aware of women's rights or ideas of equality, and it was a tough job for her to teach them about their rights as equals. She said, "In a sense, we planted the idea in those raw minds that women should be independent and equal to men."

After a couple of years, she was transferred to Dhankuta in eastern Nepal as a regional chief of the Women Teaching Centre, in charge of 16 eastern districts. The centre offered vocational training for hemp and Dhaka weaving, and also supported them in the processing and exporting of these goods abroad.

In the early 1980s, Nepal helped local women form a women's club in the remote district of Sankhuwasabha. She remained patron of the club, which was formed with an objective of making a cooperative of local women engaged in the spinning, dying and weaving of indigenous fibers. It was the beginning of a drive to raise awareness for women to be united and organized in the village.

She visited Japan under the UN Regional Development program in 1980, as well as the UK for training in 1981 during her tenure in Dhankuta. After working for a decade or so in an area densely populated with people from the Rai community, she came to learn that indigenous women could become even stronger than women in the Brahmin-Chhetri community if they were made financially independent. "Those were the days. The locals also never let me feel that I was an outsider. The whole village was my family," she remembered.

In 1977 Nepal came back to Kathmandu and joined the Ministry of Supplies as an undersecretary. Amid male competitors, all loaded with male-chauvinistic mentality, times were really tough for Nepal, particularly after working liberally and creatively for a long time in Dhankuta. "I came to the Ministry on a whim. It was indeed a dirty end of the stick. I found bureaucracy is as it is often portrayed; undemocratic, not enthusiastic and male-dominated," she said.

But she was determined to make an impact on the Ministry, and her performance was appreciated, even in male circles. Because of this, Nepal won opportunities for several types of international training and studies. In 1988 she was granted the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship for Human Resources Planning and Management, and consequently graduated from the International Agriculture and Rural Development Department Ithaca, USA. When she applied for the fellowship, her seniors helped her, perhaps thinking she would not win. When the unexpected result became known, she faced harassment from her colleagues, to the extent that the Ministry disallowed her to take leave and she had to fight against its decision.

Many offers to work in international non-government organizations came to Nepal after she returned from the fellowship, but she preferred to remain in her government job and face the challenges. Working as as a high level government officer was a great experience for her. She even took the responsibility of a spokesperson, which hardly goes to a woman and never to an under-secretary, as it is only for a joint-secretary.

Nepal felt a drastic change in the bureaucracy after the people's movement of 1990. First, civil servants experienced unlimited freedom. They looked over the rules and tried to be outspoken. But they later turned their loyalties back to the ministers whenever they came to power. The whole situation only made Nepal more desperate to join the bureaucracy.

In 1991, she moved to the Ministry of Home to get relief from 'suffocation'. She wanted to do something new, something others would not. Still, it was totally unexpected for her to be offered the tough job of Chief District Officer (CDO). A CDO is in charge of the security of the entire district, and has to control the district's police force and mobilize it after quick decisions are made. After a short dilemma, Nepal accepted the role as a challenge, almost blindly, and to set an example for women bureaucrats throughout Nepal.

Nepal was first assigned to Bhaktapur, a region full of headaches. She was engaged in trivial disputes, but did her best to be gentle with the uneducated farmers there.

In 1992, she was then sent to Nepalgunj to take on the Herculean job of dealing with election-related violence. It was very difficult to remain neutral and not favor any particular party during the election. Political activists in government jobs believed they could do anything they wanted, and party leaders felt they could do away with a woman administrator. "But they had to change their mind after I physically pushed a boy down when we had a hot discussion."

After that incident, Nepal faced unexpected riots between Hindus and Muslims. The week-long unrest perhaps marked the toughest days of her life. She was busy meeting people from both Hindu and Muslim sides, both out in the open and also in secret. One wrong step could reignite the riots and set the whole country on fire. "I don't even want to remember those days. All day and night I was surrounded by people, god knows who. And I had to find key persons from both sides and hold endless meetings with them to keep things under control. I knew how difficult it was to bring the balance and I did it successfully, I have to say," she said.

She added that success comes only when there is no vested interest or prejudice against anybody.

In 2001, after a long tenure as CDO, she led the Nepali side of the National-level Coordination for Refugees and the Joint Verification Team, a body that was formed to identify the authentic Bhutanese refugees staying in various camps in Nepal. However, this episode of her career also made history when she was charged with presenting false document to the government. Things were going smoothly for Nepal before she was handed a letter of termination of service, with allegations she had furnished a false birth certificate at the time of joining the government service. She was dismissed from her job.

"The charge was intolerable. I knew it was part of the conspiracy the government officers could play when I, as a woman, was doing progress in the government job, a role they would otherwise think only a man's job," she said.

Nepal was strong enough to file a case against the government on its baseless allegations, and the Supreme Court finally issued an order for her reinstatement at the Ministry, fining the secretaries of related ministries for harassing a government officer.

Nepal ended her career as a commissioner at the Election Commission during the election of the Constituent Assembly, held in April 2008. She was in and around Rolpa and Pyuthan districts prior to the election, and had faced rough days when election fever was at its peak throughout the country. She said the election was held successfully due to people's wholehearted participation, and that management of the election was made possible due to strong leadership and teamwork in the commission.

After working for almost three decades as a government service-holder, Nepal is now enjoying retired life and believes women's proportion in the civil service has been very weak. According to her, there are two reasons behind this. The first is that educated women are not attracted to government service on account of its male-dominated environment and scanty payment. Secondly, women cannot create an environment for the preparation they need to gain entrance into the government service in the first place.

With her suggestion, the Public Service Commission, with support from different donor agencies, held a program to support women contestants in the examination several years ago, which resulted in a positive turnover of women newcomers. However, this success failed to continue.

Nepal adds that women's substantive representation in the civil service is a must. In one way, the country benefits from a woman's perspective, while in another women are rarely involved in corruption. "It is unbeatable truth that women are sincere, committed and hardworking. It is not ability which they need, they are just looking for opportunity to enter and perform," she said.

Written by Razen Manadhar