Learning of one’s candidacy on the radio

Rukmini Chaudhary

Rukmini Chaudhary was only 12/13 years old during the popular People’s Movement of 1990. Her father Krishna Gurau Th aru was the Regional Chairperson of the Nepali Congress, Constituency-4 in Chitawan. Th ere used to be torch rallies, and strikes under his leadership. She was responsible for informing her father about the arrival of the police while he used to conduct meetings at home. Other than during meetings, her father never stayed home. Police would take them to the police state t question about the whereabouts of their father. However, despite several attempts by the offi cers, they never divulged any information.
She recalls, ‘Although they would try to lure us by giving us food, we did not say anything. When our uncle came to take us back, we would be released.’ Rukmini’s father was actively involved with for Nepali Congress for some 40 years. It was her father’s political involvement that inspired Rukmini to get involved in politics, accept challenges and face them with determination. But after she married Sanatan Devi Satgauwa Th aru of Deukhuri, Dang in 1997, she spent a few years as a housewife adjusting to her new home. Her husband was in a technical assistant post in the VDC. She says, ‘When my husband’s job was going to be permanent, it was politicized.

Th e VDC Chairperson was affi liated to CPN (UML). Since my uncle Parsu Narayan Chaudhary Th aru was in the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the UML tried to take my husband’s job away on charge of him being in the RPP as well. Later, I myself asked him to leave his job. It was then that I promised myself that I would reach the policy making level one day.’ Having being born and raised in Chitwan, Rukmini did not speak Th aru, which is the language primarily spoken in Dang. Since the community started to look down on her for not speaking Th aru she started an adult literacy class for women. She would teach the participants to speak Nepali and she in turn would learn Th aru from them. Impressed with her work in adult literacy, the District Education Offi ce (DEO) and the Informal Education Centre approached her to work for them so she started working through the DEO. In 2001, the income, saving and credit program for women was in the pilot stage. She shares that after the success of the program conducted through a local organization, Community Research Centre (Samudayik Adhyaya Kendra) in three districts, the Information Education Centre, Bhaktapur has been conducting the program in every election constituency around the country.
She is currently the President of the Shree Sisahaniya Community Research Centre in Dang. Rukmini also worked as a Community Mobilizer for three years in Dang during a project of Nepal Family Planning, which was implemented to minimize the incidences of girls’ traffi cking. Rukmini quit Nepali Congress just before the CA election because she felt that although the party was not ideologically wrong, there was a trend of self-centeredness in the party and the Th arus were being taken advantage of as ‘vote-banks’ in the name of inclusion. She participated in movements organized by the United Th aru National Front (Samyukta Th aru Rastriya Morcha) when Laxman Th aru was the President. She demanded that there should be fully proportional election based on ethnicity after the Interim Constitution declared 20 districts in Nepal as that of Madhes.
According to Rukmini, when United Th aru National Front participated in the 19-day movement, she broke her right foot due to police atrocities and was left behind as she was presumed dead. She says, ‘I led the women’s groups and used to gather 500 women. Th e security forces would beat me up for taking up leadership.’ After incurring huge losses on the 13th day of the movement, the government called for talks. She was treated in the hospital for her broken foot and recalls going to Baluwatar for negotiation with the aid of crutches. On 1 March 2008, the United Th aru National Front signed a fi ve-point agreement with the government. Later, some factions of the United Th aru National Front and Federal Republic National Forum (Sanghiya Ganatantrik Rastriya Morcha) formed the Federal Democratic National Front (Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch). Rukmini participated in the CA election through this newly formed party. Although there were 96 candidates from her party, only two reached the CA. Rukmini was one of the two. Rukmini had never imagined becoming a CA member, the party had put her name as a candidate and sent it to the election commission without her knowledge. ‘I only heard about it on the radio and started campaigning thereafter,’ shares Rukmini. According to her, she received a lot of support from her family members, including her mother-in-law, who was the VDC Chairperson during the Panchayat regime, and is currently working as a volunteer. She says that even her father-in-law provided her with fi nancial support for her campaigning. Rukmini had never entered Singha Darbar before becoming a CA member, and it was challenging to represent her party at a national level. However, she faced the challenges and moved ahead with confi dence. She had initially thought that the constitution would be made easily and that everyone’s issues would be taken into consideration. But the process of constitution drafting was not what she had imagined. Due to party lines needing to be adhered to and the culture of giving little attention to the issues raised by women, Janajati/Indigenous and other backward groups, she feels she was not able to contribute as much as she would have liked. Rukmini is a member of the Constitutional Committee in the CA and in the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee in the Legislature Parliament. Rukmini says that she demanded fully proportional representation in all state mechanisms on the basis of population. She also demanded that when the country goes federal, it must be done so on the basis of historical background, language, and region and that federal autonomous states be granted the right to self-determination. In addition, she has also demanded that the new constitution ensure the political rights of indigenous communities according to ILO 169, that there be a secular state, and that indigenous population be given preferential rights over local natural resources. Although many CA members, including herself, have been raising the issues of indigenous population, she feels that the big parties have been turning a deaf ear to these issues. She emphasizes that since there is diversity among Nepali women in terms of ethnicity, language, economic status, religion, culture and social status, it is important that the quota system must be adopted on the basis of 51 per cent women’s population in order to bring equality among these diverse groups of women. She fi nds the lack of unity among women has also made it diffi cult to have women’s issues be eff ectively addressed. She also adds that leaders of the parties are given more chances to speak, and since most of them are men, women hardly get the opportunity.
According to Rukmini, it is wrong that a foreign man marrying a Nepali woman has to wait for 15 years to get citizenship while a foreign woman marrying a Nepali man can immediately get their citizenship. She feels that men and women need equal treatment when it comes to citizenship. Rukmini is positive about what she experienced and learned in the CA. She says, ‘We faced challenges in the process of learning, and got ideas about what we want to do in the future.’ She also says that although she had thought it would be easy to navigate national-level politics, she experienced quite the opposite in the course of her political journey. She says, ‘National-level politics is not like staying in the village and asking leaders to give work to our children. In addition to many other problems, no one cares to listen to a small party like ours.’

Read on Nepali 

Personal Information:

Fullname: Hon Rukmini Chaudhary Tharu 

Address Permanent : Sishaniya -2, Arnahanpur, Dang, Rapti

Temporary : Shantinagar-34, Kathmandu

Date of birth : 21 August 1977

Place of birth : Shukra Nagar-2, Bashattha, Chitwan

Mother’s name : Dharmi Gurau Tharu

Father’s name : Krishna Gurau Tharu

Husband’s name : Sanatan Dev Satgauwa Tharu

Education : Intermediate (Ongoing)

Political party : Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch

System of election : Proportional Representation

courtesy Women's Caucus