One important aspect of constitutional reform that got left out during editing my piece (Why do we need constitutional reforms?, #84) is the reference to gender-empowerment through electoral equality. This is vital for the socialisation of democracy because much of development and democracy are really meaningful to women at the grassroots where they reside. I suggested a system of electoral segregation where at the VDC level women chose two women and if they have the majority in the population one more to comprise village panchayats. At the district level each political party fields a male and female candidate, as a team for DDC/Municipality leadership. For real devolution, all taxes must be collected as per the national parliamentary decrees by the VDC Tax Office and earmark 50 percent for use by the District Treasury. It is also necessary to decentralise the judiciary into district-based family courts, criminal courts, appeals courts and arbitration courts.

Madhukar Rana
Patan