Throughout my time in Nepal I have learned a lot about the country, myself and any number of other subjects such as human rights, rule of law and post-conflict development. I have also had the privilege to meet a large number of interesting, kind and inspirational people. An overwhelming majority of these people have been men. My life here in Nepal has, in that sense, been very representative of the larger situation at hand. Women are, in almost all facets of public life, vastly underrepresented. As with lots of the discriminatory practices in Nepal the undervaluation and maltreatment of women is rooted in ideas and practices perpetuated by traditional cultural values and practices. This has made change very difficult to initiate and slow to take root. The fact is that the education, income and freedom the gap between men and women remains vast. Within the world of human rights and political activism this problem is a problem almost as much as it is in society as a whole.

While the discrepancy between the absolute numbers of female and male political and social activists has limited my encounters with female activists I have come across several. Perhaps the most active of the female activists I have met is Karuna Giri. Karuna is the treasurer for Pridit, a COCAP member NGO that focuses on the issues of the Dalit community. Karuna’s specific passion is the empowerment of Dalit women through encouraging financial independence. She has set up women’s savings and credit groups, helped advocate for ensuring that women receive inheritances and most recently she has been leading income generation programs. Essentially Karuna and many other women’s rights activists believe that what allows men to prevent women from participating in decision making processes is that the men have a complete monopoly on finances. If women can generate their own income and control some of the family finances themselves they will be able to participate more at home, or at least have access to funds that allow them to be less reliant on their husbands. If they are more independent, women will also be able to choose themselves what is best for their future and to participate more outside of the house as their husbands will have less power over them to prevent their participation.

Karuna’s current program (funded and run by Pridit) is an income generation program, it might generally fall into the category of microfinance programs. Essentially Karuna is herself teaching impoverished Dalit women how to tailor clothes. If they can take this skill and start a small family business to generate some income they can reduce their financial dependence on their husbands. These types of programs are certainly not without their flaws and you hear of their failures as well as their successes. Karuna has the sort of silent confidence that gave me the feeling that her program would not fall into the failure category. I wish I had some exciting or moving quotes from Karuna on this particular project or on the subject of women’s empowerment, but she is an extremely understated woman. She has a soft smile and a quiet manner and does not speak more than is absolutely necessary. This quietness is not to be confused with weakness, as Karuna is a woman who is all about power, and if more women follow her lead then Karuna and all Nepali women will have more of it.