The issues of indigenous peoples/women with disability were pertinent in Nepal, as Nepal has diversity in many forms and aspects. However, there was no acceptance of these issues from Indigenous peoples, disability, women’s movement and the state mechanism. Our president, Pratima Gurung, has a long history of engagement in research on gender and disability in the community and has personally experienced and examined the critical situation of Indigenous Peoples and Women with Disability. And even though the Indigenous peoples/women with disabilities gathered informally since 2009, they could not unite collectively due to a persistent multitude of challenges.
Our formal institutional journey began post-earthquake in the year 2015, where young Indigenous Women with Disability were in critically unsafe conditions of apparent and more insidious natures; -institutionally, structurally, and indirectly. These experiences were a major catalyst to collectively begin our journey with the initiation of Pratima Gurung. Pratima Gurung, who was engaged in research about gender and disability at the community and grassroots level, had a long-standing realization that young Indigenous Women with Disabilities from rural areas who continue to struggle for even the basics to living, were one of the most vulnerable, if not the most vulnerable for short term-long term crises.
Underrepresentation of these Women with Disabilities in society remained invisible to the rest which is the root cause of violation of their rights due to which we felt the need to bring these stories to light.
As we struggled to find a structure that could represent all of us due to the multiple identities we have and acknowledges the need of creating an inclusive association to bring awareness about intersectional discrimination that we face in our daily lives. Thus, intending to give voice to the voiceless and create a more inclusive world for them, NIDWAN came into being. NIDWAN came forward in an effort to shed light on the intersectional identities and issues of Indigenous Women and Girls with Disabilities.
Today, NIDWAN works for groups having multiple identities and to build synergy, both at the grassroots and global levels collectively with various minority group organizations and with all relevant stakeholders by cross-movement collaboration. NIDWAN is a member of the National Federation of Disabled Nepal (NFDN), Asia Indigenous Women Network (AIWN), Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) Feminist Global Network, and Indigenous Peoples with Disabilities Global Network (IPWDGN). We are involved in development delivery works that advocate and empower our kind; encouraging meaningful participation from these women and respecting the diversity and collective identity of each individual.