- Bhakti Nepal
for nepaldalitinfo

In Nepal, the year 2007 closed with a note of a great achievement towards fulfilling the aspirations of the people stepping a milestone for an inclusive democracy. The third amendment of the Interim Constitution was passed by the Interim Legislature- Parliament on Friday the 28th of December. The bill passed to amend the Interim Constitution declaring, “Nepal will be a federal democratic republic.”, although the declaration also noted, “the decision would be enforced by the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly.” Along with this decision, mixed electoral system including proportional representation as the major component was also passed.

Particularly for the Dalit movement in Nepal, the year remained largely an encouraging year, though with a mixed feeling of much still remaining to be done alongside of what was achieved. Some of the highlights of the year are given below.

A significant achievement this year was having the largest number of Members of Parliament (MPs) from Dalit communities ever in the democratic history of Nepal. The CPN (Maoists) while entering the interim Legislature-Parliament as a part of the peace process based on its agreement with the seven parliamentary parties, fielded 12 MPs from Dalit communities, making up 15% of their members in the interim Legislature-Parliament. This fulfills the minimum acceptable level of proportional representation in the parliament assuming the fact that Dalit people comprise at least 15% of the total population of Nepal. Among the pre-existing parliamentary parties, CPN (UML), Nepali Congress and United Left Front nominated two, one and one each MPs from Dalit community. Two ministers in the Government representing Dalit community were also a record of Dalit representation in the history of governance in Nepal.

Consolidating Dalit forces
Dalits are very slowly but steadily are getting organized consolidating their forces in the form of Dalit parliament, Dalit Citizen Assembly, and Dalit conference. The Dalit NGO sector making up hundreds of NGOs across the country continues to get better organized, but still remains divided into two umbrella organizations, Dalit NGO Federation (DNF), Dalit NGO Federation – Nepal (DNF-NEPAL). In the political sector, all the Dalit wings of political parties remained generally alert and proactive—Dalit Mukti Morcha (Unified) from the Maoists’ camp remained the most proactive and vibrant throughout the year. National Planning Commission initiated a series of consultations with dalit groups for preparing 3-year interim plan for their development. Hira Bishwokarma and Ranjit Kanaujiya led the consultations. The reorganized National Dalit Commission remained largely in low profile, although the dalit community organizations have been demanding for a strong organization at the status of a constitutional body.

Dalit Media
Media representing Dalit communities continued to grow this year. The nepaldalitinfo, an international network of Dalit information remained vibrant with the easy and readily searchable news and information sources in English and Nepali. Dalitmediahome, a blog site run by Rajendra Bishwakarma supplemented much of the information largely for Nepali readers. Jagaran Media Center added a feather in its cap with the opening of a FM Radio station dedicated to Dalits, in addition to its other media transmission including an electronic newsletter– JMC e-bulletin.

International organizations and events
The USA based Nepal-American Society for Oppressed (NASO) Community and UK based Srijanshil Nepali Society are the two known organizations outside Nepal that endeavored integrating Nepali Dalit diaspora. Empower Dalit Women of Nepal (EDWON), a Boston based non-profit organization continued its important work of creating awareness and helping empower dalit women in various parts of Nepal. Nepali Dalit activist DB Sagar Bishwakarma had spoken as a panelist in the “Nepal Today: Challenges of Inclusive Democracy”, a conference organized in May by India China Institute of the New School University in New York, taking stock of Nepal’s inclusiveness situation. Amrit Sunar also made his remarks in the conference.

A group of intellectuals and academics in Freiburg, Germany is endeavoring to spread the word against caste-based discrimination and untouchability practiced in Nepal; the group also organized a public photo-exhibition in Germany for creating awareness against the evil practice rampant in Nepal. Prof. Steve Folmar from Wake Forest University, North Carolina organized a professional photo exhibition for creating awareness among American people about the Dalit people, which also served as a fund raiser for a small Dalit community in Nepal. Dr. D.P. Rasali spoke on health inquities, inequalities and disparity in Nepal, showing data that Dalits were the most disadvantaged in all health indicators of Nepal at the Canada Forum for Nepal in Ottawa. He also initiated a cross-atlantic consultation by visiting his community members and the organizations like Srijanshil Nepalese Society and VODI in UK. Durga Sob, the President of Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO) made a presentation on the plight of Dalit women in Nepal to a group of academics at the McGill University, Montreal, Canada. There was a significant rise in Dalit intellectuals and activists entering graduate studies in the western Universities, while at least one person was able to rise to a position of high responsibility in a foriegn government ministry. Over an annual luncheon of United Nations Association of National Capital Area, Washington DC, USA, held early this month, DB Sagar Bishwokarma, a Nepalese Dalit activist and graduate student of American University in the city was recognized with a human rights award, while the International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR), led by him continued to make its mark by reacting over some of the important issues around the rights of Nepalese Dalits.

Continued victimization
Most people from Dalit communities continued to be victimized in Nepal. A long standing difficulty is continually faced by Dalit citizens of Nepal particularly from Badi and other communities in securing their citizenship certificates. Dalit students continued to face difficulties finding rooms for rental for their residence during the schooling or examinations in towns and cities. Appointments of high ranking positions in the governments- like ministerial secretaries- continued to be filled without any Dalits’ representation, though one person has been named as an Ambassador of Nepal to a foreign mission. Incidents of atrocities to dalits resulting in cases such as rape, murder, injuries inflicted to a group or individuals have continued undeterred as usual.

The dalit information covered by nepaldalitinfo during the year 2007 can be found at the following link:

nepaldalitinfo archives 2007