Engaging in society
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| Photo ©: Deependra Bajracharya and the team |
Sita Devi Boudel was attracted to politics, wanting to do something
about discrimination on the basis of a person’s class, caste, region,
and gender, and also because of the economic, cultural and social
discrimination prevalent in society. She entered politics as she
witnessed the inhumane treatment that the Dalit community had to face,
and to help the Dalits, Janajati/indigenous, women, disabled,
marginalized and minority communities, all of whom fall below the
poverty line and fail to reach the positions of decision making in
government.
Madanpokhara Village Development Committee (VDC) is considered a
model in terms of agricultural productivity and political awareness. Yet
this VDC has been accused over the years of ‘having more than just a
whiff of communism.’ Since communist leaders like Madan Bhandari and
Jeevraj Ashrit stayed in Madanpokhara during their underground days, a
majority of the people in this area support communism. Sita’s father
too, Ambar Raj Boudel, was a local leader affiliated to the CPN-UML (The
Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist and Leninists).
Influenced by her father’s political allegiance, Sita too became
the Village President of the Student Unit close to UML in 1993. But
after realizing that the liberation of all from class, caste, gender and
regional traits was not possible through UML, she changed her party
affiliation and in 1997, she became the President of the Higher
Secondary School Unit affiliated to the then CPN (Maoist). In 1998, she
became the Treasurer of the Shreenagar Cultural Group and District
Member of the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (Revolutionary
ANNFSU-R).
Political activism
Later in the same year she became a full-time member of the Maoist
party. After becoming involved with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
in 1999, Sita became the District President of ANNFSU - R) the following
year. Having served as the Area Secretary of the party in 2001, Sita
became a Member of the Peace Negotiation District Committee in 2003. She
has been serving as the Central Committee Member of the All Nepal
Women’s Association (Revolutionary) (Akhil Nepal Mahila
Sangh-Krantikari) since 2006 and is also working as a member of the
Awadh State Committee of the UCPN (Maoist).
As the daughter of a low-income farming family from a Dalit
community, she experienced all forms of discrimination in her community.
She joined the Maoist party to liberate the Dalits from this
discrimination and the negative attitude they had to put up with.
However, the social pressure she faced after she joined the Maoists was
immense. With the whole village supporting the UML, it seemed Sita was
responsible for any unwarranted incident that happened in the village.
People in the community began to ostracize her family at social events
and limited their association with them. After being continuously
followed and harassed by the police, she was impelled to become
completely committed to the Party.
She says, ‘What was more painful was the fact that the police
raided our house 13 times. My father was threatened at gunpoint.
Although my brother was not involved in active politics, he was
kidnapped by the security forces and disappeared for three months and
was then imprisoned for 16 months.’
Everyone blamed Sita for the police showing up at their house and
for their family members being tortured. Her younger brother Deepak
Baudel was physically and psychologically tortured by the army for five
months after being taken into custody. Even after being released, he was
kept in check and taken into custody time and again. As a result of the
torture, he too became totally committed to the Maoist party and became
involved in the armed struggle. But just 16 months afterwards, he was
shot by the army in Galda VDC of Palpa on 6 November 2004.
Personal struggles
Sita married Chandra Bikram Gurung of the PLA on 1 November 2002.
When Sita was three months pregnant, her husband was arrested by the
army. Just five months after losing her brother, she then lost her
husband when the army killed him in Chitwan on 27 April 2005. Her
newborn baby was just 22 days old.
Despite this, Sita continued her fight against social evils and caste-based discrimination experienced by the Dalit community.
Although Sita had a mission and a vision while she was struggling
at home, in society and on the battlefield, she never thought that she
would one day become a Constituent Assembly (CA) member. Sita, who was
elected to the CA from Nawalparasi Constituency as the third candidate
on the party list, feels happy about being elected from a marginalized
community. But more than that, she felt a sense of responsibility to
achieve something on behalf of marginalized communities.
In the CA, Sita is a member of the Committee for Fundamental
Rights and Directive Principles and the Security Special Committee in
the Parliament. In these committees, she has raised the issues relating
to fundamental rights, inclusion, demands for 50 per cent of positions
reserved for women, and special rights for Dalit women. In addition, she
also demanded an end to the practice of untouchability of Dalits,
ensuring the rights of women, Janjatis/indigenous, and marginalized
communities, and ending the two-tier educational system. Similarly, she
also demanded equal property and inheritance rights for women, and the
use of proportional representation at every level of government - from
district to national level. She says that most of the issues she raised
in the CA have been addressed in the preliminary drafts for the
constitution.
Sita feels that she has played an important role in having
included in the concept papers and draft committee reports the different
social, economic and political issues raised by women, the
Janajati/indigenous, Dalit, Madhesi and Muslim communities. She
considers that there will be a positive change of status for women and
Dalits if the constitution is prepared on the basis of the draft reports
of the committees,
Sita has experienced differences in the status of men and women
inside and outside the CA, especially with regard to leadership.
Although she has fulfilled her responsibility, she feels sad about the
failure of the CA to promulgate the constitution on time.
Her political life has been a blend of both happy and sad events.
Bringing an end to the monarchy and ushering in republicanism, and
starting the process of creating a new constitution, have been positive
experiences. In the future, she wishes to remain in politics in order to
implement the proportional representation provisions for castes and
ethnicities.
Sita says that although a lot of women participated in the war,
their number in the party is decreasing over time. Talking about the war
and its achievements, she says, ‘I lost my husband and brother in this
struggle. Thousands of martyrs sacrificed their lives and they are a
source of inspiration for the Nepali people. All women should learn from
this struggle.’
This is a shorter version of the chapter originally published in Women Members of the Constituent Assembly: A study on contribution of women in constitution making in Nepal.
source:- http://www.idea.int
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