Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Finance Minister of Nepal, the second most powerful leader in the Maoist led government met today a delegation of Dalit activists from Professional Development and Research Centre (PDRC) and Dalit Studies and Development Centre (DSDC) to discuss the Dalit issues for incorporating in the forthcoming budget.

Kathmandu, April 13- Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Finance Minister of Nepal, the second most powerful leader in the Maoist led government met today a delegation of Dalit activists from Professional Development and Research Centre (PDRC) and Dalit Studies and Development Centre (DSDC). The activists were Ms. Kamala Hemchuri, Birendra Bishwakarma and Dal Bahadur Bishwakarma from PDRC and Mr. Hira Vishwakarma and Rajan Lohani from DSDC. In the meeting Dr. Bhattarai asked what would be the issues of Dalits and Mr. Hira Vishwakarma commented on the provisions made in the current budget of the government by mentioning the old age allowance for Dalits with the age of 60 where as it is 70 for others and making education free upto grade 12. He further suggested increasing the budget for Dalit Development Committee as current 50 million is peanuts for 4 million Dalits of Nepal. He suggested to follow the 3 years interim plan of Nepal government which aims to improve the inclusion index by 10 points. He emphasized the need of more investment on Dalits and Muslim to increase the Human Development Index of Nepal. Mr. Dalbahadur Vishwakarma stated that government’s policy of recruiting one teacher in each school has not been implemented. In reply Dr. Bhattarai said he would like to meet the more representatives of Dalits while he develops the next year budget and asked to come up with recommendations in writing. At the end President of PDRC Ms. Hemchuri thanked the minister for seeing the delegates of Dalits and hoped to have more interaction with the minister.

Report by:
Hira Vishwakarma
Executive President DSDC