-Jyotilal Wan

Some illustrations: Organisations working for Dalit interests launched a big movement championing the right of Dalits to enter and worship at the Shaileshwari Devi temple in Silgadhi, Doti district. As a result, Dalits and non-Dalits alike had an equal opportunity on Magh 28, 2059 Bikram Era to proceed up to the door of the temple and offer their worship.

Despite this partial success in securing entry into Shaileshwari temple, there has been no alleviation in caste discrimination and the inhumane practice of untouchability in the district. Some examples of this follow:-

l. Dalits cannot take their dead through Silgadhi bazaar on the way to the cremation site. This restriction remains unchanged even today.

2. Dalits still have to carry the litter for non-Dalit women, plough the land under the haliya system and do other work for no pay (begari).

(Mane Lohar of Daud VDC and his family, who refused to carry the litter and do work for no pay, were beaten up by some non-Dalit individuals on Falgun 15, 2059 and suffered severe injury, but nothing was done to provide justice to the victims and bring the perpetrators to book.)

3. Untouchability, indifference and contemptuous treatment are meted out at schools and other public places even now.

(Around the third week of Jestha, 2060 Bikram Era, teachers at Bhubaneshwari Primary School at Durgamandu, who were distributing high nutrition food to the school children, forced the Dalit children among them to form a separate queue. Sunil B.K. and a girl child who protested this discriminatory and insulting treatment were beaten up, and then paraded with their hands tied behind their backs. They were also fined Rs. 5,000 each. Some NGOs working for Dalits exerted pressure to take action against those guilty in this incident, but no action has been taken so far.)

While the world has started off on the path of ultramodern science and technology and the progressive human civilization of the 21st century, inhumane customs of ultimate caste discrimination such as the haliya, khali, bhunde and begari, which reflect the relentless feudalism of the middle ages, continue to be practiced in the hill areas of Nepal’s mid-western and far western regions. The incidents mentioned above are just some general examples of this.

Caste discrimination and mistreatment is rife not just in the mid-western and far western hills but also in the Terai region, as illustrated by the examples which follow.

1. Munadevi affair: Fourty year old Munadevi Damai of Kailali District, Dhangadhi Municipality Ward no. 12, Jugeda was beaten up by local residents Bir Bahadur Thapa and Parbati Thapa on Chaitra 25, 2059. This incident which became synonymous with beastly mistreatment and caste despicability came in for a lot of public attention and comment. Legal action was initiated against the guilty. Some organizations active in Dalit affairs heaped honors on Munadevi, some extended a helping hand and others took the initiative to bring the guilty to book. But this whole incident has left no impact on the antipathy, contempt, discriminatory conduct and mind-set born of caste differentiation.

2. On Jestha 26, 2060, a team including some top political leaders of Kailali District, human rights activists, representatives of Dalit organizations and the Chief District Officer entered the Gwansi Samaiji Bhagawati temple at Sripur VDC Lalpur and the Patakhanidevi Durga temple, along with some local Dalit individuals. They also ate together. While returning home from that program, an angry group of some 100 local people hurled abuse at the team and threw stones at their vehicle, causing some injuries. Following that incident, local non-Dalits have stepped up oppressive and blockade-like measures of vengeance such as not giving the Dalits any work, not allowing them to draw water and not letting them enter non-Dalit villages, it is learnt.

Compared to eastern Nepal, the state of caste discrimination and oppression is worse in the mid-western and far western regions of the kingdom, where feudal traditions and norms are growing in influence and which are way behind in terms of economic, social and cultural development.

Other parts of Nepal are also not untouched by the problem, although the situation is somewhat better compared to the mid-western and far western regions. The carcass incident in Siraha (where the Musahar people, who have traditionally seen to the disposal of animal carcasses, boycotted this task and subsequently the non-Dalits subjected them to an economic and social boycott from Asoj 1, 2058. A big movement was launched against this with the help of various human rights organizations and those active in Dalit issue), the temple entry incident of Dhankuta (when some Dalit youths of Murtighunga-6 tried to enter the temple of Chintangdevi on Jestha 24, 2059, they were stopped by some non-Dalits including the temple priest, and this resulted in a tense situation), and the water incident in Mahottari (Rohit Baraillee, 22, of Hathilet-6 was beaten up by Santosh Khapangi and Ganga Rana of the same locality on Jestha 14, 2059 on the charge of touching a water pitcher at a public well) are just some examples showing that caste discrimination and untouchability exist in eastern Nepal which is considered relatively more developed.

These illustrations show that "even today caste discrimination and untouchability remain a vexed problem in Nepal, that while efforts have been made to end these practices such efforts have not been effective".

The country code of 2020 Bikram Era left no place in the existing law for provisions on "untouchability, high and low caste", and provided for punishment for all on the basis of equality. Thereafter in 1971 AD, Nepal endorsed the International Convention against All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The democratic constitution of Nepal framed after the people’s movement of 1990 and the amended country code made discrimination on the basis of caste and community and the practice of untouchability illegal and punishable.

Such "commitment" shown by His Majesty’s Government and the legal "arrangements" made have also turned out to be ineffective when it comes to implementation. A National Dalit Commission only came about nearly 12 years after the promulgation of a democratic constitution. This commission has not been able to make headway as expected and as planned. Government bodies refer to caste discrimination as undesirable under the law and in principle, but in practice those in high office who make the decisions can themselves be found giving protection to the social norms of caste discrimination.

Those adhering to democratic and communist ideals, principles and values have held sway in the governments formed after 1990. Both these ideologies look upon discriminatory conduct between man and man as undesirable and inhuman. And in the pursuit of their political objectives they give out assurances about putting an end to social malpractices including caste discrimination and establishing social justice and equality. But they are hardly to be found continuously engaged in the honest and faithful pursuit of ideals, principles and values.

Some political parties have, with the objective of strengthening their political reach, formed popular organizations to work for the Dalit and oppressed. But such organizations are more absorbed in promoting their respective parties than in doing what is needful and relevant for ending caste discrimination. In case any activity or movement is taken up with the focus on a particular incident or problem, they go so far as to tackle the problem at hand but hardly ever manage to give continuity to the movement itself.

According to information received from the Social Welfare Council, there are to date (Jeth 2060) 228 international NGOs (102 registered at the Council and 126 that remain to be registered) and about 55,000 NGOs (14,878 registered at the Council and some 40,000 registered at the district administration offices) operating in Nepal. Of these NGOs, the number of those working on Dalit issues exclusively and registered with the Dalit Non-governmental Federation (DNF) has apparently reached 116. While it cannot be said for certain what the situation is with Dalit NGOs which have yet to register, it can be surmised that they may outnumber those which have duly registered. Apart from the Dalit NGOs, almost 50 percent of other NGOs are partly involved in helping out with Dalit empowerment and activities related to the Dalit movement.

Besides NGOs which receive grants from donor organizations and are active on a non-political basis, some of the popular organizations affiliated to the political parties have also been taking financial help from donors to run their programs. Thus the NGO tendency has extended to popular class organizations working in areas other than Dalit issues (such as workers, peasants, women, etc.).

NGOs, which first appeared in Nepal in 2007 Bikram Era, began to proliferate excessively after the changes of 2046. This proliferation may have been encouraged by the liberal economic policy adopted by His Majesty’s Government. It cannot be denied that along with their numerical growth NGOs involved in community-based socio-economic development as well as human rights and social justice have positive achievements to their credit. Other NGOs such as Dalit NGOs and those whose programs partly involve Dalit work have helped advance the movement against caste discrimination and untouchability and to a certain extent enhanced awareness and awakening.

But, the dishonesty and aberrations that developed in some NGOs in Nepal have overshadowed whatever positive aspects there were to be seen. Carrying out just perfunctory work with funds received for a particular purpose and only fulfilling one’s own interests, spending too much on unnecessary ostentation, not keeping the expenditures transparent, taking up uncalled for programs that do not address the needs of the community, running programs more with the aim of keeping a project going and earning wealth rather than resolving the problems, spending program funds on wining and dining to please political leaders and other influentials are the tendencies seen in some NGOs and which sully the image of all NGOs.

Such tendencies have found fertile ground in NGOs working on Dalit issues. Running projects concerning Dalit issues, which are of special interest to foreign donor agencies, has become very profitable for these NGOs.

The Dalit movement and other awakening activities took on a special dynamism after 2047 Bikram Era. These mostly included entry into temples, eating together, the movement to allow Dalits to draw water and pass it on to others, awareness generation against untouchability, Dalit empowerment and the movement against mistreatment. Similarly, the entry into the Pashupati-Guhyeswari temples on Bhadra 13, 2058, the approach made up to the door of Shaileshwari temple in Magh, 2059, the movement for drawing and passing on water in Kavre, Kharelthok in 2055, the carcass boycott movement launched by the Musahars in Siraha in 2058, and the protests against the feeding of feces to Munadevi Damai in Chaitra, 2059 are among the activities which took on special significance during the past 13 years.

Political parties and the people’s class organizations concerned could only become partially active in such movements, with mostly the NGOs concerned taking the initiative.

Although activities protesting caste discrimination and untouchability are widespread, the gains have been insignificant. While on the one hand all manner of activities to eradicate this problem are taking place, caste antipathy, untouchability, mistreatment and similar instances of discrimination remain widespread not just in the remote rural areas but also in urban areas which have developed expected levels of social awareness. A factual reckoning of the situation shows the following to be the main underlying reasons.

1. A disorganized, unbalanced, unstable state system in which individuals with a discriminatory, feudal mentality hold sway although the system is said to be democratic.

2. Social values and ideals informed and constrained by the traditions and customs of Hindu religion and culture.

3. A general mentality of caste and communal antipathy derived from this tradition, which in turn has brought about inter-caste discrimination and antipathy within the Dalit community itself.

4. Vested interests among those running programs aimed at tackling such a difficult problem, a project-oriented tendency, inability to give continuity to their work, giving of greater priority to ostentatious activities calculated to please the donors and generate publicity for themselves, turning social service into a business, and the like.

5. Giving priority to publicity-oriented, inciting activities (forceful entry into temples, demonstrations and slogans of a questionable nature, hyped up publicity, etc.) rather than to work aimed at bringing about conceptual change.

Problems and incidents related to communal discrimination have become fertile soil for outfits working in this field. The more difficult the problems seen, the greater the number of inhumane incidents taking place, the greater the amount of mistreatment meted out, the more will be the opportunities and possibilities of bringing in grants. Whoever engages in greater publicity-oriented and inciting activities are likely to be awarded projects on that same basis and enhance their reputation. That is why when any weighty (more inhumane or likely to have a wider impact) incident occurs or an issue arises that can trigger a movement with likely impact on the masses, organizations and entities active in Dalit issues fall over each other for a piece of the action which will enhance their own standing, rather than take a coordinated and cooperative approach towards a possible solution. No matter how much they may talk of ideals, it is for their potential for advancement that they look at these problems and incidents.

Although of Dalit origins, those with higher education, who are in high ranking posts, and are clever and resourceful and men of means, do not have to put up with discrimination and insulting behavior to the same extent as the Dalit masses who face mistreatment to an excessive degree. Not that efforts are not made to put an end to such inhuman ways, but such efforts have not been as effective as they should be. The reasons for this have already been dealt with above. But rather than just scrutinize the problem, it may be better to look for options for resolving it. Some options are presented herewith.

1. The system of governance should be democratic and pro-egalitarian in practice, not just in speeches and expositions on paper, and capable of striving honestly and with priority for ending social aberrations.

2. Discriminatory and superstitious legends of the Hindu tradition should be exposed and art and culture (cinema, drama, song, literature, etc.) that project egalitarian and scientific thought should be brought to the
people.

3. School curriculums from class one onwards should teach why communal attitudes, discrimination and untouchability are wrong and, depending on the class level, erroneous Hindu traditions refuted on the basis of scientific and social values.

4. Awareness programs should be launched to inspire co-existence, egalitarianism, mutual respect and affection between Dalits and non-Dalits.

5. Social values cannot be changed through the enactment of laws alone or the use of force. It calls for change in people’s thinking, their way of looking at things. That is why encouragement should not be given to forceful entry of temples, and speeches, slogans, street demonstrations and other enciting activities that breed communal animosity.

6. Rather than giving special priority to the question of reservations for Dalits and other backward groups like the ethnic communities, it would be better to create an environment in which they will develop as able citizens who can secure their own rights.

7. The state should takes measures to eradicate bondage-like traditions such as haruwa, haliya, bhunde, kamaiya, khaliya, begari, bali and doli which are vestiges of medieval feudalism. Revolutionary land reforms should be implemented to end extreme inequalities in land ownership, and a just distribution of land carried out.

If a movement for change as indicated above can be put into practice, caste discrimination, along with other social inequalities, will be headed towards eradication. If measures for change are to be confined to the kind of activities now under way, they may result in partial improvements, but the likelihood of creating the conditions for social equality is minimal.

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