Jagaran Media Center E-bulletin: Issue No. 19, Date 11 July 2006

“Equal opportunity is good, but special privilege is better” Chennault, Anna

In this Issue:
- Disparity in relief money provided to family of Dalits’ killed at Kashmir, India
- After being raped, a mute Dalit girl gives birth to a child
- Inhumane act of a teacher upon an innocent student
- Dalit woman restricted at water sprout of district headquarters
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Disparity in relief money provided to family of Dalits’ killed at Kashmir, India

The family members of nine Dalits killed by militants in Kashmir, India have claimed that they have been discriminated by the Nepalese Government just because they are Dalits. As compensation for the murder of their loved ones, the families were given only Rs 25,000 each, while relatives of Nepalese killed in Iraq were provided with Rs 1 million each.

Among the nine people killed in Kashmir, seven were from the Dalit community. The victims were from very poor families that do not have any source of income. They live in small huts on the riverbanks of Bakraha River, in the remote Govindapur VDC-1 in the South-east part of the Morang district. As they are landless people, they live on the wasteland of the riverbanks.

School was a distant dream for the deceased, who left for Kashmir seeking jobs on 11 April 2006. The whole settlement is reeling in shock after the seven males were killed by the terrorists. The victims’ families are demanding that the government investigate why the terrorists chose to kill Nepali people. They are also demanding that the government support the family members of the deceased and provide for their livelihoods.

Neither any of the NGOs working for Dalits nor any other organizations have supported the families or spoken out against the injustice nor has anyone been to the huts of the victims. While there are more than 100 Dalit NGOs registered in the Morang district alone, interestingly, most of the local Dalit NGOs are not aware of the incident.

Even a regional committee formed by the Eastern regional office of the Dalit NGO Federation to study and monitor incidents related to Dalits has acted indifferently to this grave incident. The committee includes journalists, advocates and local Dalit leaders.

Those killed in Kashmir are Kalu Rishidev, Bilsa Rishidev, Dhallu Rishidev (smaller one), Dhallu Rishidev (larger one), Chiku Rishidev, Dayananda Rishidev, Laxmi Singh, Rabi Tajpuriya and Dina Mandal. They were involved in construction work in Kashmir.

Srawan Rishidev, the chief of the Morang district People’s Government of the CPN Maoists, strongly protested the discrimination in the relief fund. Balidan, another regional Maoist leader, also denounced the discrimination while addressing the function organized to handover the relief money.

An 11-member relief management committee has been formed under the leadership of the Maoist leader Rishidev. The committee has stated that, in addition to managing the fund, it will also fight for compensation for the victims’ families. They have also said that any kind of politics in the name of relief would be rejected.

The women members of the families living here work in the fields and barely manage to feed their children with the minimal wages they receive. Being illiterate and lower caste people, they receive only a meager amount of money as wages.

Maoists had tried to obstruct the function organized to hand over the relief to the victims, claiming the government discriminated against the poor people. A number of people, including chief district officer Mod Raj Dotel and Member of Parliament from Nepali Congress Amod Prasad Upadhyay, reached Govindapur on 21 June 2006 to attend the function. The Maoists allowed the relief money to be handed over only after the CDO Dotel assured them they would come up with further relief funds later.

The Dalit families, who live in Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s district, have been living handicapped lives since the murder of the male members of their families. Geeta Rishidev, who had married Chiku Rishidev just four months ago, has been widowed before even celebrating her honeymoon. Chiku had left her at home after deciding to have children only when he returned home with money. Geeta now regrets their decision not to have a baby.

The age of the deceased ranges between 20 and 25 and all were married. No support has been provided to the nine widows, who are all from a single village. Locals have commented that the victims could not receive any relief because they have no access to the concerned authorities. The innocent children of the victims spend their time playing with the sand at the riverbanks while their mothers’ lives are filled with tears every day and night.

Jhalu Rishidev, mother of Sano Dhallu, has no alternative way to earn money or buy bread after the death of her only son. Suko Rishidev, wife of Dayananda, could not think of what to with the meager compensation she was provided. Though it was the first time in her life she have ever seen such a large sum of money, she is confused whether to use the money to build a hut or feed her children. She fainted when she saw the cash amount of Rs 25,000.

Four people, including Binde Rishidev, sustained injuries during the same incident. Binde Rishidev’s life was spared, but he suffers from four bullet wounds and is in critical condition. The Central Government has not provided any compensation to his kin. However, the District Development Committee of Morang had provided Rs 2,500 each to all the injured during the incident.(Contradiction) Binde Rishidev has four daughters. His wife, Lalu Rishidev, has no way to feed her daughters and she often falls unconscious.

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After being raped, a mute Dalit girl gives birth to a child

A 15-year old mute girl, who gave birth to a child after being raped, is still waiting for the police to arrest the culprit who attacked her.

The District Police Office of Kanchanpur has assured her they will find the culprit and take action upon him as soon as possible. The victim of Bhujela of Mahendranagar-1 has been staying at the rehabilitation house of Serve Nepal, a NGO.

Nobody raised any questions about who made the girl pregnant during the nine months of her pregnancy. Her mother, Parvati Luhar, said she was unaware that her daughter was pregnant. Luhar said she came to know only a few days prior to the birth of her daughter’s child. She then informed the local Mother’s Group, who in turn informed the police station. The young girl was then taken to the rehabilitation centre of Serve Nepal, located at Gadda Chowki.

The girl claimed that she was raped by an Indian national working at the Sharada Barrage. She shouted at the man when he appeared at the Gadda Chowki. However, the police did not take any action upon him claiming that they had no authority to arrest any foreigner.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office Ram Kumar Khanal, however, said the police can interrogate any foreign national while he is within the country and he can also use Interpol to arrest someone who is out of the country. He has already ordered his men to arrest another suspect, Shyam Nepali.

The social organization, Serve Nepal, has said that it cannot keep the girl for long as the organization only deals with trafficking victims and their rehabilitation. As a result, the girl will have to face the problem of finding a place to live. Locals have pointed out that she will not be safe if she is taken to her home because her family is very poor and lives in a small hut.

The young Dalit girl needs to be kept in an appropriate rehabilitation center. Locals have accused the concerned authority of not taking the issue seriously just because the girl is from the Dalit community. “Had she been a non-Dalit, she would have received justice long ago,” one local intellectual commented.

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Inhumane act of a teacher upon an innocent student

A teacher of Janajyoti Primary School in Basaha VDC-1 Udayapur of Biratnagar forced a seven-year old student to lick human feces some 2 weeks ago.

Prabhu Babu Basnet forced the first grade Dalit student, Rajan Biswokarma, to lick his own excreta after the child, due to an illness, lost control and got sick in the classroom. Instead of taking the child for treatment, the teacher forced him to lick the excreta three times in front of all of his classmates. To add to the injustice, the principal of the school, Goma Khadka, forced the child to clean the classroom.

When his parents reached the school the next day, both the teacher and the principal acknowledged their mistakes. Biswokarma’s father, Jagat Bahadur, and his mother demanded that the teacher be expelled from the school and that strong action be taken against him. Basnet, however, attempted to explain his actions by claiming that he only asked Biswokarma to pretend to be licking the feces in order to warn other students not to repeat such acts.

The eyewitness Bachan Rai confirmed the incident claiming that was very inhumane act on the part of the teacher and the principal, who were supposed to love and care innocent children.

The District Education Office of Udaypur is not aware of the incident. The officiating district education officer of the DEO said he was unaware of the incident. While talking over phone he expressed commitment to take action against such teachers investigating over the incident.

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Dalit woman restricted at water sprout of district headquarters

A non-Dalit woman shouted at a Dalit woman and misbehaved her when the later tried to fetch water from a public pond situated at Gaurikundal of Dipayal Silgadi Municipality-4.

The victim Nanda BK of Niroula VDC -7 has been living at the Doti district headquarters along with her husband Amar BK in course of his training.

She used to fetch water from the same pond but it has been restricted since 25 June 2006. A number of organizations works at the Doti district in the name of Dalit welfare but the incidents of such discrimination are frequently reported from different parts of the district. The frequency is much less at the remote areas of the district. The victimized woman has reported the case at the District Administration Office and demanded equal right to all the people on the public pond. She had also demanded strong action to Khima Devi KC who had imposed restriction to BK. The case was dismissed after both the parties agreed to sort out the problem with mutual understanding.

KC agreed not to repeat such act in the future in the presence of Kumar Singh Tailor, the president of the District Dalit Network and a local Adhiraj BC.

However, the Dalit rights activists have commented that the cases should not be ended in agreement. “Dalits should establish their rights so that their rights are never violated.”

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