NEPALI WOMEN MAYORS
Few Nepali women rise to the highest level of municipal government
Pabitra Devi Mahatara Prasain, Mayor of Birtamod since 2022, says male mayors receive more respect than women
August 2024: There are very few women at the highest levels of Nepal’s local government. While at the country’s national stage, women have achieved some significant breakthroughs – last year, a woman (Sewa Lamsal) was appointed foreign minister and in July of this year, Lila Devi Gadtaula became head of the Nepali civil service – the position of mayor is still very much in the hands of men.
Out of 293 mayors in Nepal, only seven (2.4%) are women. And only 11 local council chairpersons are female. Women have been more successful at lower levels of municipal government. After the May 2022 local elections, some 276 women were appointed deputy mayors. (Deputy mayors act as heads of committees that advise in areas such as consumer rights, justice, local revenue and others. The justice committees are critical as they are the first port of call for citizens seeking justice.)
In a recent article, Sumitra Karki, Director of the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE), wrote that despite the advances women have made since the early 1990s, many challenges remain. “Women in Nepal continue to face patriarchal norms, violence, and economic barriers that hinder their full political participation. Nonetheless, the increasing number of women in political roles, supported by advocacy groups and legal mandates, reflects a significant shift towards gender equality.”
Khim Lal Devkota, an expert in federalism and municipal government at the Kathmandu Post, commented in November 2022 that despite local government laws male local politicians still manage to circumvent rules that require equal representation of women. “According to local-level election laws, political parties must nominate one woman out of the two candidates for chairperson and vice-chairperson of a rural municipality and mayor and deputy mayor of a city. But this rule only applies if they nominate more than one candidate. This has drastically reduced women's representation at the local level, with the parties forming electoral alliances and nominating only one candidate out of the two posts as part of their deal.“ He added: “It is necessary to reform the thinking that political parties only choose women for the deputy mayor or vice-chairperson. This is a political issue.”
Pabitra Devi Mahatara Prasain, who, after she distinguished herself as deputy mayor, was elected mayor of Birtamod (population 147,000) in 2022. Following her success, she said: “Initially, society doubted women’s ability to handle the demanding schedule of being in politics, which requires them to be ready to go anywhere at any time. However, there is no other option than to ignore all of these things and move forward. When I attend events, I notice that people have differing perspectives on male and female mayors. I face a challenge in proving myself among people who treat a male mayor with respect but find it difficult to show even basic formalities to a female mayor. Here, it is important to explain that we were elected mayors based on position rather than gender.”
As the daughter of Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Renu Dahal (Bharatpur Metropolitan City, population 370,000) is one of the country’s most prominent and influential mayors. First elected in 2017, she was re-elected in 2022. This year she received the International Mayor Award of Political and Public Life, sponsored by the London-based consultancy firm EPG, for her contribution to the development of the Bharatpur metropolis.
Women in Nepal
According to the latest data from UN Women, considerable work still needs to be done in Nepal to achieve gender equality. “32.8% of women aged 20–24 years old who were married or in a union before age 18. The adolescent birth rate is 63 per 1,000 women aged 15-19 as of 2018, down from 88.2 per 1,000 in 2015. In 2018, 11.4% of women aged 15-49 years reported that they had been subject to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months. In 2022, less than 50% of Nepali women had access to sexual and reproductive health care.”
Sources: UN Women; Our World in Data; Kathmandu Post