Kathmandu, September 25

Members of the parliamentary Financial Committee and Sustainable Development and Good Governance Committee have stressed on the need to formulate plans and policies for sexual minorities in order to ensure their access to dignified life.

Speaking at a workshop on ensuring LGBTIQ’s rights organised here today by Mitini Nepal with the support of UNDP, six lawmakers of both the committees urged the government to formulate necessary plans and policies.

Speaking at the workshop, Krishna Prasad Dahal, chairman of the financial committee, said although the constitution guaranteed equal rights to the people of sexual minorities, they were not able to enjoy these rights. “We need to allocate reservation quota for sexual minorities as well,” he added.

Main objective of the workshop was to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals-2030, which envision progress of various  17 human development index as set by the United Nations.

Ram Kumari Jhankri, a member of the Sustainable Development and Good Governance Committee, said since the country had ratified the SDGs, we should not leave any one behind including LGBTIQ. “We should develop a mechanism which will help sexual minorities to be accepted by their families and society,” Jhankri said.

Various people representing the LGBTIQ group also shared their stories of struggle and hardship for their acceptance in the society. They also talked about the difficulties they had to face in order to get education, health care facilities and jobs. Sarita KC, executive director of Mitini Nepal, talked about the strategies the government could adopt to address the issues of LGBTIQ. She said the government should allocate quota for sexual minorities in civil service, provide scholarships and allocate budget for their development and create new job opportunities for them.