Kathmandu, June 11 :

The Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Urmila Aryal, said the political parties should first adopt the the policy of 33 per cent reservation for women within their party system before it is practiced in the state mechanism.

“The political parties have to reshuffle their central level and village level committees and initiate the process of implementing the recently-passed reservation policy,”

Aryal said.

She was speaking at a programme, ‘Debate on challenges and strategies to implement the proposal concerning women’s rights passed by the parliament,’ organised by the Forum for Women, Law and Development.

“Women comprise 50 per cent of the population; therefore, they should have proportionate representation in the constituent assembly and should be given opportunity at all levels of the state mechanism,” she said.

She added that the Ministry is drafting bills to execute proposals passed in the House of Representatives (HoR).

She also said that budget this fiscal year will be allocated for programmes that would address issues of women from the indigenous nationalities and other disadvantaged groups. All the line ministries should incorporate women issues in their plans and policies, she said.