International Women’s Day (March 8) is globally recognized as the day for celebrating the social, economic, culture, and political achievement of women. However, not all communities has such privilege to celebrate the achievements as women of marginalized communities’ still lack far-behind in terms of all the context mentioned earlier. Gender inequality is worse among marginalized communities all around the world. Similar is the case of women of Musahar community in Nepal which is extremely marginalized community of Nepal categorized as Terai Dalits who are struggling with the basic needs and rights issues related to landlessness and even receiving citizenship certificate from the government.
In this context, for the upliftment of the Musahar women 32 WOMEF formed by SAP Nepal has been conducting various social campaigns for enhancing awareness on social issues. On the occasion of the 112th International Women’s day, mass campaign was led by WoMEF on 8 March 2022 in 4 municipalities of Sarlahi with support UNDEF and collaboration of respective municipalities and local police. The rally was conducted under the theme “gender equality today for sustainable tomorrow” with the major objective of raising awareness against unequal pay, labor exploitation, and social harmful practices of the community.
During the event, more than 650 Musahar women of all 4 target municipalities actively participated in the awareness rally against the social malpractices of the community enchanting the slogans “stop labor exploitation, stop alcoholism, let’s maintain equal pay to both gender, educate daughters, and promote habit of saving”. In all four municipalities, mayor and deputy mayor were invited as chief guest who also gave speeches for raising awareness of public in the issues raised. e distinguished guests stated in that this rally has significantly contributed in raising awareness of the community regarding gender equality, rights of marginalized and many more.