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Dalit children
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In
almost every VDC and municipality of Palpa district, communities
of dalits can be found. Children who have surnames like Viswakarma
and Pariyar are all being deprived of school education, because it
indicates their dalit status.
According to the available data, the total population of Palpa is
2,65681 mill. Among them Vishwakarma are 6.9 %, Nepali 3 % and
other dalit community including Pariyar are 3 % of the total
population.
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Minbahadur Nepali of Majgauda VDC says that his eyes fill up with
tears whenever someone talks about buying copy and pencil for
sending their children to school. He adds that his children also
want to go school but he is notable to send then.
Most of the dalit families are struggling to put food on the table
every day, but some of them send their children to school.
Gunbahadur Nepali sends his four children to school, although the
response he gets from the villagers is negative, they ridicule him
and try to demoralize him. "Villagers always raise the question
about output of educating children " He says.
In Palpa district there are 356 primary schools, 93 higher
secondary school, 78 high schools. In those educational
institutions 4689 boys and 4364 girls are attending primary
schools likewise 696 boys and 602 girls are attending higher
secondary school. According to District education officer Navraj
Sharma. "Although so called dalit caste like Kami (Iron smith),
Damai (Tailor) and Sarki (Shoemaker) have source of income due to
their traditional profession but they do not send their children
to school due to lack of awareness. But now the situation is more
improved than before."
The
content above has been produced by The Regional Media and Resource
Centre in Nepalgunj. It is taken from one of the bulletins, titled
“Barrier” which is published on frequently basis and distributed
to various media, decision makers and NGO’s in Nepal. The Regional
Media Resource Centre/NPI is one of MS Nepal’s partners.
For further info click into NPI’s website
www.npiktm.org or
take a look at the partner profile at our
partner section.
Photographer: Morten Rarroe
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