The participants expressed their sufferings and sought solution from concerned authority. Akali Devi Sada, Dalit Woman Member, Koshi rural municipality-5 said, “Guests came from Maina Kaderi with marriage proposal for my daughter. After the proposal was accepted, the groom side demanded four hundred thousand rupees but we could not afford such a huge amount therefore we bargained for hundred fifty thousand rupees instead. After hearing this, the groom side made an excuse saying that the marriage will be final only when a groom’s maternal uncle will meet our daughter. We have not heard from them from that date.”Suleman Mansuri, Ward Chief-3 said, “Compared to men, women are seen more demanding as they view dowry as social prestige.  Women are quite competitive when it comes to taking dowry which has increased the practice.

Raj Kumari Shah, Ward Chief, Koshi rural municipality-1 noted lack of education and awareness as major causes of dowry practice and suggested girls education and awareness programs to overcome this social problem. Similarly Ashok Shah, Chief Administrative Officer, Koshi Rural municipality suggested to announce Koshi rural municipality, a dowry free zone and legal punishment to both the parties giving and taking dowry. He further raised a serious issue, “Though we have been saying that by educating daughters’ dowry system can be eradicated, the story is different in reality. More the girl is educated, higher is the demand for dowry as we match our daughter’s education with her home to be. If we reject to do so, marriage of daughter is impossible.” He expressed his commitment to make his daughter skillful and independent and marry off her with rather poor boy but the educated one without giving a rupee as a dowry.

As a result of this advocacy meeting, chief of Koshi rural municipality announced to make Koshi rural municipality dowry free zone and suggested participants to give social pressure to those taking dowry as their protest to this system. For example- not attending wedding function which has promoted dowry system, excluding them in social programs, raising awareness through road drama, rally, etc. As a personal commitment, the deputy chief of the municipality declared that she would not take any dowry in his son’s wedding. Further, the participants were encouraged to collect evidence of such activities which shall ease in taking legal action as on when required and make the implementation part stronger.

SAMAGRA organizes such programs to draw attention of policy makers for policy reform and refresh already in place polices for proper implementation. Similar interactive session against dowry system was held on Gaushala,Mahottari on 17th Baisakh, 2075.

The interaction program was attended by 112 participants which included 24 locally newly elected leaders ( Gaupalika Chair, Vice Chair, All ward members, Particular ward elected, non-elected of major political parties), 68 SF members, SAMAGRA’s central and district staffs and media personnel. The interaction program aimed to orient the newly elected local leaders on their function as per new constitution and instruction circulated by GoN and provide an interactive platform to SFs and local leaders to interact on accountability and governance issues.

Mr. Dornath Neupane, Executive Director, SAMAGRA felicitated all the local representatives and wished them for their successful tenure. It was then followed by a brief presentation by Mr. Amar Adhikari, Program Officer, SAMAGRA to shed light on functions of local elected bodies/representatives as per new constitution and instruction circulated by GoN. This was fruitful to both the local leaders as well as public as it helped to build a common understanding on local representatives/bodies function and made them accountable towards public.

During the interaction session participants had an opportunity to share their problems/expectations to their newly elected local leaders. President of Sungava SF said, “I have been using four plastic tunnels for vegetable production but due to inadequate irrigation I have been facing lots of problems. Local bodies should include such issues in their plan to solve problem of small entrepreneurs like me.” The local representatives exhibited strong commitment to work for betterment of people and not let their votes go in vain. The Gaupalika chairperson, Arjun Gurung who is a member of SF and past motivator of SAMAGRA showed commitment to work for welfare of people and sought support from public on this regard. Vice-President of Marshyangdi Gaupalika , Mr. Hom Bahadur BK said, “ Being a Dalit, I know the type of discrimination that dalits have to face. I will ensure fair and equal distribution of resources and will not let favoritism and nepotism influence it by any means. Narayan Thapa, President of Ward-09 showed strong commitment to practice good governance and discourage any kind of misconduct that violates good governance. (Other 3 members of council of Marshyangdi Gaupalika namely Narayan Thapa, Mishra Pariyar and Baburam Thapa are also members of SF).

The participants thanked SAMAGRA for organizing such interaction program which gave locals an opportunity to directly communicate with their locally elected representatives, share their expectation to leaders and make them accountable towards public. Such interaction program is a regular program of SAMAGRA and it plans to conduct series of such program in its program districts.