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Women in the Insurgency
- Manju Thapa
Fifteen years ago,
Pampha Bhusal was staying in the Ishwori Girls Hostel of Tribhuvan
University at Kirtipur and studying Master of Arts in Sociology. Today,
some of her friends of those days are professors and some are engaged in
different non-governmental organizations. However, she is in the central
leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which is drawing
everyone's attention. Hisila Yami, who was teaching at the Engineering
Campus at Pulchowk one and a half decade ago, is also a central leader
of the same party now. And, Jayapuri Gharti of Rangsi, Rolpa is working
as the president of the All Nepal Women’s Association (Revolutionary) or
ANWA (R) affiliated to the Maoist Party.
An entrepreneur of
carpets and woolen fabrics till a few years ago, Manu Humagain at once
left her flourishing enterprise and joined the armed struggle. She
worked underground for the industrial department of the party, and, at
present, she is the treasurer of the ANWA (R). Arrested while working in
the party’s cultural sector, Chunnu Gurung was raped and killed. Uma
Bhujel, who had set a new record by leading a jail-break operation in
Gorkha, is still working as a brigade commissar of the Maoists’ People’s
Liberation Army (PLA). Devi Khadka, who witnessed ruthless murder of her
elder brother and suffered cruel and horrific torture herself later, is
now taking up a serious responsibility in the party. In the Maoist
party, there are numerous such names and deeds, which the party should
never forget in these days of cease-fire and peace process.
Numerous tales of
contribution, struggle, pain and sacrifice of many women like Pampha,
Hisila, Jayapuri, Manu, Chunu, Uma and Devi are hidden in the background
of the present strength and stature of the Maoist Party. One of the
specific characteristics of the armed struggle launched and led by the
CPN (M) is the participation of women and the role played by them in the
struggle. Pampha Bhusal says that when the Maoists commenced armed
struggle, there were hardly 12 women cadres in the party including
herself, however, in the ten-year's time, women’s participation in the
party has reached almost 40 percent. She says, "It is nearly 50 percent
at the district level." It is not easy to verify such claim. The
scholars, who have studied the Maoist movement closely, hold different
opinions about the data related to the women’s participation in the
movement.
According to Shova
Gautam, a human right activist, the participation becomes 40 percent
only when the militias who were involved in courier service in villages
are also counted. Expressing his suspicion about the Maoist Party’s
commitment to develop women's leadership, freelance political analyst
Jhalak Subedi says that their claim can be true at the village level but
women’s participation at the topmost or leadership level has not been
encouraging. How much workforce is involved in the Maoist Party and the
organizations affiliated to it has not been disclosed by the party. Its
leaders argue that these figures cannot be made public in wartime.
According to an article of Sadip Bahadur Shah published in Samaya
Weekly, there are 67,000 workers in the CPN (Maoist) including its
army, cadres and committed adherents. Its sympathizers are 200,000.
Assuming that at least 30 percent of their cadres are women, the total
number of women involved in the Maoist insurgency including their
supporters becomes 20,100. Thus, amid the various estimations, the exact
figure of women engaged in the Maoist insurgency cannot be said with
certainty. However, it cannot be denied that in comparison with women’s
involve ment in other political parties, the extent of women's involved
in the Maoist insurgency is much larger.
The above fact
notwithstanding, a large number of these women involved in the Maoist
Party are ordinary cadres. Though the party has involved women in an
encouraging proportion, it has not been able to pay proper attention on
improving their capacity and promoting them to the leadership level.
Jhalak Subedi infers that probably the androcentric thinking embedded in
the party has created this kind of obstruction. However, differing with
that notion, Pampha Bhusal argues that the difference between the
leadership capacity of men and women is simply because men have long
political experience but most of the women have entered politics and
have developed their leadership capacity during the last ten years only.
However, Pampha and other Maoist women cadres accept the fact that since
the Maoist leaders and cadres have also come from a patriarchal society,
the remnant of superiority complex in men and inferiority complex in
women have affected leadership development to some extent. This
acceptance indicates that in reality even the Maoist Party has not
fully become a champion of gender equality.
Women have been found to
have involved in the Maoist insurgency during the ten-years period in
three ways. First they are organized in different sister organizations
of the Maoist Party. The largest number of women are organized in the
ANWA (R). This is the first entry point for the majority of the women
involved in the Maoist insurgency. According to Pampha Bhusal, the All
Nepal National Independent Students’ Union (Revolutionary) and the All
Nepal Farmers and Workers Association are the most favored entry points
for women to join the Maoist movement. Apart from these varied sister
organizations, a large number of women have also joined the insurgency
through the Maoist army (PLA). At present, it is said that there are
about 40 percent women in the Maoist army; such a claim will soon be
validated when the process of confining the Maoist army in temporary
cantonments is over. There is not a single woman commander at the
division level, the highest structure of the Maoist army. Under the
division, about six women are working as deputy commanders and deputy
commissars, at the brigade level. At the battalion level, under the
brigade, it is said that the number of commanders, deputy commanders,
and commissars is equal among men and women.
According to Pampha
Bhusal, women cadres are approximately 50 percent at the district level
of the party organization. However, there are just 25 percent women in
the party’s district committees. She further claims that the figure
would have reached near to 35 percent, if the party’s central committee
meeting held in Chunwang, Rolpa last year had not demoted the members of
all committees one rank below in the name of party rectification. Though
a large number of women are engaged in the Maoist Party as ordinary
cadres, there are very few women in the policy level. Showing her
concern in this regard, political leader Shashi Shrestha says that the
leadership capacity of women may remain low. In the Maoist Party
structure, where the number of women decreases as one looks upward,
there are two women in the central committee, while the number of women
in the standing committee and politburo is nil.
A large section of the
women involved in the Maoist insurgency is active in the local people’s
government (sthaniya jana-satta) of the Maoists. The party
has established village people’s government (gaun jana-sarkar),
district people’s government (jilla jana-sarkar), etc. in the
areas of where it has strong domination. The Maoists claim that in local
people’s governments, the participation of women is almost 50 percent.
While a few women are engaged in the people’s court (jana-adalat),
some work in the cultural front. Certain factors are responsible for
the involvement of women in the Maoist insurgency in such a huge
proportion despite the risk of oppression, torture, murder, and violence
from the state. The condition of being insecure even at home, the desire
for vengeance for the murder and oppression of their kins the longing
for emancipation from socio-cultural exploitation and discrimination,
and other causes have motivated women to involve themselves in the
insurgency. Moreover, the power of firearms held by the CPN (Maoist)
also attracted them.
These women, who worked
for the party associating themselves with its different bodies, have
undertaken several roles such as extending the organization, leading the
fronts of social struggle, commanding and fighting in the battle fields,
providing service and treatment to the injured in war, conveying
information, conducting publicity, and so on. Jayapuri Gharti says, in
the course of these activities, more than 2,500 women belonging to the
party became martyrs. Among the widows created by the armed struggle,
estimated to be 6,000, most of them are the wives of those who were
killed for being a suspected Maoist cadre or supporter. In the process,
many women had to endure detention, battering, sexual harassment, mental
pressure and tortures, whereas some women were even raped. Many other
women, who were not whole-time members of the party, were found to be
supporters of the party and the insurgency. During the insurgency, they
carried out jobs like arranging food and shelter for party’s leaders and
cadres, maintaring communication; and boosting up the morale of the
whole-time cadres.
The Maoist leaders, till
today at least, have generously praised, in their speech and writing,
women’s contributions that helped bring the armed struggle to the
present stage. The leaders have been telling that the struggle gained
such strength in such a short time due to the unprecedented
participation of women, their greater ability to maintain
confidentiality, and take stand against surrender etc. Emphasizing the
need for women’s participation and leadership in the futur, Chairperson
of theCPN (Maoist) Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) writes, “Because of the
high morale inherent in women for rebellion against oppression,
emergence of a group of women leaders capable of providing ideological,
political and organizational leadership is indispensable, not only for
the success of revolution but also for the prevention of
counter-revolution. ... Considering that women’s leadership role in
revolution, army and every part of the state-power, in comparison with
that of men, provides enormous guarantee for safeguarding against the
danger of counter-revolution is the significant specialty of our
ideological synthesis (Mahila Dhawni, vol.21, No.1).”
In view of such
evaluation of the Maoist leaders, and the increasing rank of women ready
to sacrifice for the revolution during the past decade, it can be easily
predicted that women will soon occupy the central stage of the
mainstream politics. Nevertheless, the analysts affiliated to other
parties apart from the Maoists have the perception that the continuity
of women’s participation at present and the condition for their
leadership development will be determined by the policy and program the
CPN (Maoist) formulates in the days to come.
Pampha Bhusal believes
that if the insurgency makes progress as in the past, women’s
participation in the party, its sister organizations and other bodies
may reach near to 50 percent both qualitatively and quantitatively in
the coming 10 years. But, one does not have to wait for long to see if
her beliefs will turn into reality. There is a vast difference between
the challenges faced while executing underground politics and those
after joining open politics. There are no bases to guarantee that after
coming to the open, the pace of women’s participation and activism will
remain the same as the pace and intensity with which they had organized
themselves in the party and engaged in the struggle while working
underground. For example, the central committee member of the CPN (UML)
Surendra Pandey acknowledges that nearly 25 percent members in the then
CPN (ML) were underground women cadres before 1990, but after the party
came to open politics the proportion of organized women cadres declined
about eight percent.
It will be a great
challenge for them to acquire proficiency and develop the skill
necessary to stay persistently competitive in the open politics. In
order to develop their competitive quality, the CPN (Maoist) has to make
clear-cut policy and programs, and implement them effectively.
Therefore, nothing can be said at present after coming to the open
politics whether the Maoists, will create an environment in which women
are cast aside gradually or create condition to ensure proportional
representation by developing women’s participation. However, in view of
the male-centric views like ‘it is not essential to have women in the
dialogue committee to raise the issues of women’, ‘women have to come
into the leadership positions only through their ideological and
political competitiveness’, often expressed by the Maoist leaders like
Baburam Bhattarai and Krishna Bahadur Mahara, no one can be assured that
there will be women’s equal participation, activism and full gender
sensitivivity within that party in the future.
The agreement to from an
interim legislature by November 26, 2006 has already been made between
the Maoists and the government of the Seven Party Allianc. Since the
present parliamentarians will continue to stay in the interim
legislature, the number of the members representing other parties will
be less, whereas the Maoist Party will have 73 members. If the Maoist
Party really respects the contribution made by women during the time of
armed struggle, and if it wants equal participation of women, or in its
own words, of the most oppressed groups, in politics, it can start the
proces from the establishment of the interim legislature.
The Maoists should
nominate women for 50 percent of the seats given to it in the interim
legislature. Otherwise, all its claims and promises pertaining to women
made so far will be nothing more than its political tactic designed to
deceive the women affiliated with the party in particular and all the
women in general. The first real test to know whether the Maoist male
leaders are just power-hungry or truly sensitive to equal rights and
participation of women will be the establishment of the interim
legislature.
-Rajdhani,
November 14, 2006,
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