Binda Pandey

Binda Pandey (Born December 30, 1966) is a Nepalese politician who was a member of the 1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly representing the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). She was Deputy General Secretary of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) in 2004-08.

Pandey was born in Rawalswara, Khanigaun Village Development Committee in Nuwakot District, the second youngest of twelve. Her parents had sent her brothers to the traditional Hindu religious school, Gurukul. She has two master's degrees in Gender and Development Studies and in Botany, as well as two bachelor's degrees in Education and in Law.

On March 27, 1981, on the day of a general strike, a rally was organized by students at her school against then autocratic Panchayat rule. One of the demands of students was to release student activists who had been arrested in Kathmandu some days before, one of whom was her youngest elder brother. She took part in a rally walking in the front row, chanting anti-Panchayat slogans. After the elections of Free Student Unions were held in 1981, in which Pandey's panel won, a district level convention of the All Nepal National Free Student's Union (ANNFSU) was held and she was elected as a treasurer. Later, she and her comrades had a dispute with a school principal and she went to Kathmandu to continue her studies. In Kathmandu she joined Kanti Ishwori Secondary School.

Pandey was involved in the Student movement for more than a decade from 1980 to 1992. In 1992, she joined the All Nepal Women Association(ANWA) which was affiliated with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) CPN(UML). She was elected as a treasurer of ANWA in November 1992. She was given a responsibility to organize women laborers through its Central Women Workers Department (CWWD) of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT). She later became the secretary of the CWWD, for which she worked until 2000.

Working in the trade union movement, Pandey represented GEFONT in the Committee for Asian Women (CAW), a regional organization working for women workers in 13 Asian countries. She spent three years in Hong Kong as a program coordinator of CAW from 1994 to 1997. After returning from Hong Kong in August 1997, Pandey continued her role as secretary of CWWD and then took over additional responsibilities as a secretary of the Foreign Department and as a member of the Education Department of GEFONT. In the third congress of GEFONT in 2000, she was elected as a chief of the Education department. Since 2004, she has served as a deputy general secretary of GEFONT. After working closely with laborers and women activists inside and outside of the country, she decided to obtain some more academic knowledge and joined a master's course on Gender and Development Studies in Asian Institute of Technologies in Bangkok in 2002.

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