Kathmandu, March 30. An interaction program was held with Basil Fernando from Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on an initiation made by Jagaran Media Center (JMC) Buddhanagar, Kathmandu. Hongkong based rights organization AHRC works internationally in raising issues of Dalits. The organization AHRC is mainly interested in Dalits of Nepal as they are in poor condition within the south asian region.

The interaction was mainly organized because there is extensive homework going on for making a new inclusive Nepal. To raise the issues out the voices of voiceless in the international arena for effectiveness, various Dalits as well as non dalit personalities were sat together. They provided their views and experiences they have gathered in the long run of Dalit emancipation movement. They provided not only the views on caste based discriminations, but also covered various other groups which were less cared for in the past. Views on donor flooding money for Dalits and discrimination on job vacancies were the ones that caught the great attention of the participants.

Mr. Fernando was highly pleased to gather knowledge from the participants. He clarified that a local issue can be internationalize within 5 minutes of time because of the available networking these days. He opined that Dalits and the concerned should work together for raising the issues of Dalits for meeting the measurable objectives. Interaction of the participants and the other concerned in Dalit issues were meant to provide ups and downs of Dalit movement to AHRC, as they can and will disseminate the information to the international arena. He also tried to collect the model of repression here of Nepal when Dalit community asks for their rights and come to the streets. He gave a new concept of organizing Dalit human rights education to the activists. He strongly criticized that if some international organization aren’t effective enough to address the issues related to Dalits, then they should be condemned by lobbying.

Reported by:
Prakash Mohara
Jagaran media center (JMC)
Buddhanagar, Kathmandu
Nepal.