Picture Courtesy: Nikita Gautam

Women empowerment has been one of the topics of concern in context of Nepal. Women empowerment is basically empowering women through every possible means, making them capable to face any of the worst situations. We see different weird practices of women empowerment from women seat on public buses to girl’s quota on scholarship. ‘However, do such methods really empower women?’ is a question to ponder upon!

Nepal recently got women candidates as President and as Speaker of Parliament of Nepal. Onsari Gharti Magar is in-charge of controlling members of Constitution Assembly. It’s a matter of pride for all the Nepalese, especially for the 51% of Nepali population which constitutes women. Moreover, the country will now be governed by a woman for the first time in Nepal. Bidya Devi Bhandari (the Nepali President) will now be handling the activities concerning the nation and will be involved in its path to progress. There are lots of expectations from everyone. Will the new representative be able to empower the yet underpowered women in patriarchal Nepali society? There have been some progress in context of cities in Nepal; women are able to take a stand for themselves and work freely in cities. However, people can still clearly see that women in villages lack empowerment. How is our new President planning to bring reforms to the untouched aspects of women empowerment? I hope whatever happens, happens for the better!

On my personal note, the only way to uplift an individual is through education. If each and every girl is sent to school, she can be self-empowered. If none of the girls are prevented from voicing out, they can speak and act freely. Then, there will be no need of schemes like separating seats for women in buses. Women aren’t meant for receiving schemes. They aren’t sympathy boxes. This practice of coming up with such schemes is unsatisfying. I think it is just a way of government to tell women that ‘you are weak; we need to separate off schemes for you’. It might help women to some extent, but we cannot term it as a way to empower women. If educated, one will be self-empowered; one will certainly reach destination. There should be equal opportunity and no stopping on the way of women.