Core of Dalit’s problems

- Uday Pariyar
ud.pariyar@gmail.com

Just before the CA elections a local transport operator on a rural road hired a boy of 14 to work as a helper or Khalasi. He and the driver used to be fed at the house of the jeep owner. As he belonged to a Sarki family he had to eat outside and do his dishes. He also had to ‘purify’ the space he occupied in front of the house by scrubbing the ground with cow-dung. He was often shouted at by the owner’s wife as an ‘untouchable.’ The driver, a higher caste man, did not have to endure any of this. Soon the boy could take it no more and left the job. Interestingly, all these happened at a house right in front of the local YCL office.

This incident from Gorkha district, Chorkate VDC (from where Baburam Bhattarai won the CA elections with largest margin) explains the fact that not much has changed for Dalits, despite all the political changes. This is just one example of the pain and suffering of the lower caste. Everyday they are looked down upon, dominated and humiliated. Still there are many landlords even in Kathmandu who are reluctant to give their rooms on hire to Dalits. The medieval feudal practice continues in Loktantra and it is unlikely to go away in the proposed Republic and the Maoist’s regime as well.

What is most worrying is that there is still no sensitivity towards this critical issue. It is still not prioritised by the major parties, including the Maoists. Following his party’s election victory, Prachanda promised ‘economic miracle.’ The former rebels have also claimed to bring about many other changes in their imminent regime. But we have not yet heard any senior Maoists claiming to work seriously to put an end to the illegal practice of untouchability.

Even more worrying is the fact that the Dalit activists and leaders themselves are also not concentrating on the main issue of Dalits - untouchability. They always appear to be after quotas and special rights and positive discrimination. What they are not demanding is that the undeclared state terror (in the form of untouchability) should be abolished.

Of course, nobody has the magic wand to put a full stop to the practice at once. But the state can and should start taking the issue seriously and make it a priority. People wish to see some progress in the right direction not just in economic area but also in social, cultural, political, linguistic and other areas. They want to see some tangible changes to their day to day lives.

What the five million so-called low caste citizens crave to see is the progress towards putting an end to their humiliation and suffering. This is the core of Dalit’s problems. Token inclusion is no different from exclusion.

There were many other bad practices in Nepal, some of which have disappeared because the state took them seriously. For instance, there is no longer the problem of Sati here. The state not only outlawed it but also enforced the law rigidly. However, the evil practice of untouchability continued because none of the past regimes made a slightest attempt to tackle the problem.

Some of the democratic governments declared the practice as illegal but their declaration was limited to the pages of the constitution or law. The rulers themselves did not give up caste discrimination. The nature of state remained unaltered in terms of Dalit’s ascribed positions. In other words the rulers of this country always supported and promoted the practice instead of discouraging it. That is why even now police refuses to register the cases of Dalits in many places.

Still many party leaders, activists and others wrongly claim that evolution alone will do the trick. The practice will automatically come to an end when the older generation is displaced. This is a long-held belief which has proven completely wrong over the past centuries and decades. If this hypothesis was correct, the practice of untouchability should have been wiped out in most parts of the country by now.

Dalit’s social position, irrespective of their economic position, is basically the same now as three decades ago. So it should now be clear that evolutionary social change will not automatically delete untouchability. It is now time to do justice to the traditionally dominated and suppressed masses. Besides sorting out the political agreements, it is time to start concentrating on social changes.

Political changes do not last long unless cemented with social and economic changes. What is needed is a genuine political will to do away with the practice of caste discrimination. All that Dalits are demanding is their self-respect and dignity. They want their looted civic and human rights back. The new rulers should begin from the basics instead of aiming for the hypothetical miracles.

Also published in “NewFront” in Nepal.