Kathmandu, March 8

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today said the government was serious about ending social as well and as legal discrimination faced by  women.

Issuing a congratulatory message on the occasion of International women’s Day, the PM said that the government would continue its efforts to end all problems of women that stem from social backwardness, superstitious beliefs and wrong traditions and cultural malpractices.

“I assure that the government will take effective measures to end such anomalies,” reads the statement issued by the PM’s Secretariat. The prime minister said the government would end such problems by educating people, making them aware and revising legal provisions.

The PM stated that despite several attempts of the government, women’s access to education, basic health and  employment was poor. “All concerned agencies should play effective roles to improve the status of women,” reads the statement. He said special provision was made in the constitution to increase the number of women in the policy- as well as decision-making bodies. The constitutional provision that president and vice president, speaker and deputy speaker, chair and deputy chair of the National Assembly should be from different gender and community is an important achievement, according to the PM.

“Nepal is among a few countries where the head of  state is  a female,” he  added. He said that more than 33 per cent women representation in the federal Parliament, over 34 per cent women’s representation in the provincial assemblies and over 40 per cent women’s representation in the local levels were an inspiration to the world.

Stating that the country was party to several international treaties on women, the PM said that the government was serious about implementing them.