Dalits and Women in Constituent Assembly in the Context of Creating New Nepal

- Bharat Nepali

The case for inclusion

Despite the serious deterioration of the pre-electoral environment, Nepali people are very eager to participate in the CA election and see the materialization of the republic free from violence and unrest. The historic Jana Aandolan II (Peoples Movement II) 2062/063 gave a mandate to seven political parties and its leaders of guaranteeing the basic rights of the Nepali citizen to formulate their constitution for themselves and to participate in free and fair Constituent Assembly elections in an environment free from fear. The Interim Constitution, 2063 of Nepal has already existed through political consensus, for an interim period until a new constitution has been made by the Constituent Assembly.

According to the provision made by Interim Constitution, the political parties will have to keep the principle of inclusiveness in mind while choosing the candidates for First Past the Post (FPTP) and listing the candidates pursuant to Proportional Representation (PR) based electoral system. They must be serious to ensure that people like women, Dalits (suppressed group), underprivileged tribes, aborigines, backward region, Madhesis and other classes are proportionally represented according to law. In order to resolve numerous outstanding issues and to develop a national consensus for the future of Nepal, it is essential that the CA is inclusive of all its ethnic groups, in particular women, Dalits, Janajatis and Madhesis.

The inclusion issue has been much hyped about in the recent political discourse but the political parties alone are not enough to address the situation of Dalits and women. One of the rising challenges within political parties is resentment against the lack of inclusiveness. Dalits and women feel alienated by the political parties, in terms of their participation and mainstreaming of their issues. The submissions of candidates for the CA election from the political parties of Nepal have not guaranteed proportionality. It became clear that the Interim Constitution and the Election Law could not achieve inclusive proportional representation, following analysis of candidates submitted by political parties. There is no guarantee of “inclusive proportional representation” of Dalits and women in the geographical constituency elections, though the parties are supposed to observe the “principle of inclusiveness” while selecting candidates.

Analysis of candidates for the Constituent Assembly

According to EC, 54 political parties have fielded a total of 6,000 candidates to contest the election for 335 seats allotted under the PR system. Of 6,000 PR based candidates, 3,047 (or 50.78 %) of the candidates are women and 2,953 (or 49.22 %) are male. It was found that among 685 (or 11.41 %) Dalits candidates, Dalit women and Dalit men are 376 (or 6.26%) and 309 (or 5.15) respectively. The Election Commission has published a list of 3,131 candidates for FPTP Electoral System from 54 political parties, in which only 322 (or 10.28 %) candidates are women; Dalit candidates only 177 (or 5.65 %); of which Dalit women are 27 (0.86%). Incorporating independent candidates, the total number of FPTP candidates is 3,947 numbers: male – 3,583 (or 90.78 %), female – 364 (or 9.22 %), Dalit male – 172 (or 4.36 %), Dalit female – 27 (or 0.68 %).

With regard to the candidates nominated by the 19 major political parties (those which have submitted more than 90), among the 4,090 PR based candidates, females occupy 2,052 (or 51 %) followed by males (1,968 or 48.95 %) and Dalits (489 or 12.16 %). Of 485 (or 12 %) Dalits, there are 280 (or 6.96 %) Dalit women followed by 209 (or 5.19 %) Dalit male. Under FPTP system, there are 2,644 candidates in all major parties. Among these, males occupy 2,372 or 89.7 % followed by women 272 or 10.28 %, and Dalits 108 or 4.08 % (Dalit male - 93 or 3.5 %, Dalit women – 15 or 0.56 %).

The lists of candidates shows that out of 1,670 PR based candidates within the seven parties alliance, 844 (or 50.5 %) are women, followed by 826 (or 49.46 %) male and 206 (or 12.32%) Dalits (Dalit women – 110 or 6.58 %, Dalit male – 96 or 5.74 %). The FPTP based candidates of seven parties’ alliance reveals 1,240 total candidates. Among them, male candidates occupies 1,069 (or 86.21 %) followed by women 171 (or 13.79 %) and Dalits 60 (or 4.83 %). Of 60 (or 4.83 %) Dalits, there are 49 (or 3.95 %) Dalit male and only 11 (or 0.88 %) Dalit women.

Political parties must include in their list people from various specified groups. The current rules require that 31.2 % must be Madhesi, 37.8 % Janajati, 13 % Dalits, 4 % from backward region and 30.2 % others. In each group 50 % must be women. Though a party may be able to have no Dalit candidates in the geographical constituencies it can not behave the same way with women. Counting both election processes together, 33 % of the candidates must be women. Half the list of party members must be women, so that each party must still have about 17 % women among its geographical constituency candidates in order to achieve 33 % over all.

Nominations of Dalits and women candidates not sufficient

If women are reserved 50 % seats in PR system and all women candidates won FPTP election, women will still not be represented to 33 % over all. Dalits got about 12 % of the proportional representation seats from counting all seats of 54 political parties, which is a significant number. However, Dalits hardly have got 4 % of the FPTP candidates and so if they cannot win any seats at all from any given geographical constituencies, they would be haing less than 5 % of the whole number of elected seats (both electoral system) in the CA. Without proportional representation of Dalit and women in the Constituent Assembly, the aspirations of excluded people can not be reflected in new constitution.

Political parties are not listening the demand of special rights (compensation) put forwarded by Dalit communities. Although Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) data indicates that the Dalit population is 13 % of the whole population, Dalit organizations and research scholars don’t accept this. It is not possible that the Dalit population is reduced every ten years, as shown by the census. Some of the study carried out by Dalit organizations shows that Dalits occupies more than 20 % of whole population in Nepal. Accordingly, Dalits are demanding 20 % share in every aspect of political, social, educational enhancement process in the nation building campaign. Special provisions for Dalit inclusion is a prime agenda of Dalits to ensure proportional representation in creating a new Nepal.

The way forward

Dalits want respect, a decent life and end to discrimination and untouchability through adoption of the principle of proportional representation by the state based on inclusive principle and process. In order to end rampant caste discrimination and exclusion, to ensure proportional representation of Dalit community (on the basis of their population) at all levels and structures of the State and provide them with additional compensation, a strong pressure is required in the process of (new) constitution making and restructuring of the state. It might be a good time now to encourage a collective expression of solidarity from like minded groups and organization, so as to step up the Dalit movement by using a common agenda to influence and be involved more effectively in processes like the constitution making process. Since the Dalits do not need a separate state in a federal set-up, the new constitution should have a package policy to resolve the economic, political, administrative, social and cultural problems of Dalits in the federal state along with provision of representation.