Women leaders have said the constitution cannot be effective without the state honouring the 33 percent quotas reserved for females.

They express fear that this “good” affirmative measure could be relegated to mere tokenism, rather than being used as a tool to boost women’s leadership quality, if the political leaders do not take the constitutional provision seriously.

“The constitution clearly states that there must be one-third women in all state organs. But the government is not doing enough to bring women in the Cabinet, within political parties or the civil service,” said Prativa Rana, president of the Inter Party Women Alliance.

Article 38 of the constitution says women have the right to proportional and inclusive representation. Before the government nominated candidates for ambassadorial positions, women leaders had called for appointing at least 33 percent women, to no avail.

Sita Devi Yadav, minister for peace and reconstruction, is the only female minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Puspha Kamal Dahal while there are two female state ministers. The Cabinet headed by KP Sharma Oli, the first after the promulgation of the constitution, had only two female ministers—Rekha Sharma and Shanta Manavi—and one state minister, Kunti Kumari Shahi. “A new prosperous country cannot be built by excluding women,” Garima Shah, a CPN-UML member, said at an interaction on women’s rights.