Kathmandu, January 2:

Gender balance sought for statute-drafting process.

Women members of the Constituent Assembly (CA) today demanded that women CA members be allowed to chair 50 per cent of all the CA-related committees and parliamentary committees to ensure gender balance in constitutional making process.

There are 14 CA-related committees and 10 parliamentary committees in the CA cum legislature-parliament. Elections of all the committees are scheduled for January 9.

The women CA members came up with this demand in a meeting of all the 197 women members representing different parties in the CA. The meeting was held at CPN-Maoist’s parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar. They underscored the need to form a caucus of all the women CA members to evolve a common stance on gender equality and issues to be incorporated in the new constitution. A three-point proposal discussed at the meeting regretted that the CA regulations and parliamentary regulations passed by full House of the CA did not incorporate a provision of a caucus of women CA members.

A provision of a caucus had been ensured in the previous interim legislature-parliament but the same was not included when CA regulations were adopted. “We, therefore, demand a caucus of all women CA members to identify common areas of gender equality and our concerns,” the proposal, which will be submitted to the CA chairman Subas Nembang and all political parties at the end of the meeting, said. They also demanded proportional representation of women CA members in all the committees. Addressing the meeting CA chairman Nembang said that it would be difficult to adopt new constitution if the CA members were divided into ethnic, caste, gender and regional lines. “The process of drafting new constitution has kick-started and this epic task will not be complete in the absence of all parties’ consolidated unity,” Nembang said.