Rights defenders, youth activists, civil society members, and political leaders took out a rally to protest some of the provisions in the draft of a new constitution which they claim are discriminatory against the female gender. They said that the constitution draft, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, has disregarded the issues that women's rights groups have been raising for a long time. The rally participants called for a constitution that ensures gender-friendly provision regarding citizenship, equitable and meaningful representation of women in state bodies, and women’s reproductive rights, among others. “The first draft of the constitution has failed to address the rights of women, especially their right to citizenship. It is our demand that the new constitution grants equal rights and representation to women,” UCPN (Maoist) leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha said.

The constitution draft has proposed a provision that makes it obligatory for the Nepali citizenship applicants to show that both their father and mother are Nepali citizens. Women rights activists, however, have demanded that one should be eligible to apply for Nepali citizenship if one of the parents (father or mother) is a Nepali citizen. Concerning naturalized citizenship, the constitution draft has given continuity to the old provision, which states that a foreign male married to a Nepali woman should have stayed in Nepal for at least 15 years in order to become eligible to apply for Nepali citizenship, while a foreign female married to a Nepali male could immediately apply for Nepali citizenship after marriage. Former Constituent Assembly (CA) member and advocate, Sapana Pradhan Malla, said they will continue their struggle for women's rights and equality until the unjust provisions in the constitution draft are duly rectified. “There are many provisions in the draft of the new constitution that are unacceptable for us, women, and other marginalized groups. We plan to strongly lobby against those provisions,” Malla said. She added that they also plan to take their protest outside the Capital.

Durga Sob, the president of the Feminist Dalit Organisation, said the constitution draft has woefully failed to guarantee greater representation of women in parliament and local bodies. “At a time when there has been a demand for 33 percent elected women representatives in parliament, the draft constitution mentions that only one-third of the total candidates shall be women. We strongly condemn this regressive step,” she said.