November 15, 2024, Friday
Nepal 1:37:26 pm

No Dalits, only two women in Oli cabinet

The Nepal Weekly
July 16, 2024

In the 22 member cabinet headed by K.P. Sharma Oli, there are only two women, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana and Education Minister Bidhya Bhattarai. Rana is the wife of Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba. There are no member in the cabinet from the Dalit community. Even the Ministry of Women and Children is held by male minister, Naval Kishor Shah Sodhi. Cast-wise speaking there are 13 ministers from the Khas Arya community, five from Madhes community and three from Janajati.

Although Nepal adopted proportional representation and inclusion as inseparable part of the Constitution, this has not been put into practice so far.