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Briefing Paper
on Dalit Rights and Democracy Crisis in
Presented to House of Commons, the
Honourable
Members of Parliament and Friends,
I feel proud to have this
opportunity to be here today at the House of Commons with the Honorable Members
of the
1. Current Security threat to
Rights Activists:
After the Royal
Coup by King Gyanendra, security personnel and Government administration
immediately started to make phone calls and write letters to various rights
activists and leaders to come down to District Administration office to make
positive support/commitment to King’s steps, and those of the rights activists
or political activists who went there and showed their disagreement on Royal
Coup were taken into custody. There is no security guarantee of rights and
political activists, leaders especially Dalit rights activists/leaders. Many
Rights activists received a letter from the Government requesting their
presence and support. On Feb 3rd,
2005, sensing the hazard in the offing, Dalit NGO Federation (DNF) immediately
wrote letters to the ambassadors to the United States, United Kingdom, European
Presidency and UNDP requesting international community and the diplomatic
missions located in Nepal to give attention towards the current democracy
crisis and fundamental rights as well as security concern of rights
activists/leaders especially for the dalits leaders/activists all over the
country.
State
machinery that was supposed to guarantee safety to Rights/ political activists
was after them, as they had strongly denounced the Royal Coup, which was not in the best interest of the
democracy, fundamental rights and Dalits whose voice had been silenced for 30
years during similar takeover in 1960.
Many Rights
activists and politicians are barred from the traveling abroad. However, some
of us managed to escape the police security, and were able to safely leave the
country for the sensitization to international community on current political developments
and fundamental rights of Nepalese people including Dalits. Many of Rights
activists and politicians are under area detections in Katmandu valley, and
police (in plain clothes) had searched their apartments and taken all the
books, important documents from their houses, while the security force is
threatening to activists and leaders.
2.
Caste-based Discrimination or Dalits Rights:
In
Because of this displacement they
are unable to claim or receive even the most basic and essential humanitarian
needs such as, medicine, clean water, shelter and clothes. Their children can
no longer go to school, and the adults are unable to find employment or the
opportunity to earn their own livelihood in any other ways. Dalits suffer from
205 different kinds of discrimination on the basis of caste, or work and
descent, in
Fig. 1. Percentage make up of the different Dalit
castes in
“Those people, who have own
traditional occupation/skill, labor, rich arts, culture and who are social
architects are considered as Dalits” -DNF. However, their occupation and skills
have always been misused by the state and society. As Nepali society developed
and Hinduism took hold of the society, the Dalits' skills, arts, cultures and
talents were considered lowly classifying them on the basis of ‘Caste', and
eventually the society and the state labeled them as ‘lower-caste',
‘untouchable' or ‘the depressed class' community, and treated them accordingly.
This status is determined and defined by the Hindu caste system. The Chart (Fig.
1) shows percentage make up of the different Dalit castes in
• those
who are considered pollutant and ‘water is not accepted from them' people (Pani nachalne,
until 1963 as per the law of Nepal);
• those
so-called untouchable communities requiring water-sprinkling purification;
• there
are 22 caste groups identified by National Dalit commission and Dalit National
(NGO) Federation-DNF who are officially defined as Dalits.
• the Civil Code of 1853
termed them as inferior human beings, and those people who come into contact
with them require ritual purification;
Issues of Dalit Rights are as
follows:
• Dalits
of
• Dalits
have been denied access to education, wealth and job in government services.
• 80%
of Dalits are landless.
• Dalits
have inadequate representation in the politics and parliament.
• Dalits
have no representation in the lower house and limited representation in the
upper house but do not have the power to present a bill entitled “Status of
Dalit Movement after the Peoples Movement of 1990”.
• The
leadership of the Dalit movement is being shifted to a relatively younger
generation.
• Dalit
issue no longer remains just a national issue but also is becoming an
international issue thanks to internationalization of human rights cause.
• Lots
of attention to the issue has been created by civil society.
• Significant involvement of
international development agencies, human rights institutions and solidarity
groups/forums.
Poverty eradication, conflict
management and restoration of peace and complete democracy are the current
burning issues of
3. Why
Democracy is based on Rights-based movements in
Rights based or social justice movements are growing
significantly after the 1990’s multi-party democracy. Dalits and marginalized
community have nothing substantive achieved in the mainstream political
process. The major leading political
parties have failed to reform the state machinery and bring the dalits, women,
indigenous nationalities and minorities groups into the national mainstream.
However, the minority, dalits, women groups have began to organize themselves
in a broad base only after 1990’s multi-party democracy.
• to encourage and pressurise
Nepal's judiciary to act independently towards guaranteeing the basic rights of
the people and register habeas corpus cases as well as cases filed
under the non-suspended rights categories.
• to
ensure the safety of Dalits and Human rights defenders, journalists, and
lawyers so that they may carry out their legitimate activities without any form
of interruption.
• to reinstate all
fundamental human rights of the citizens, such as equality, freedom of
movement, freedom to political rights, and freedom of opinion and expression.
• to ensure the equal
representation of all communities including Dalits, women and minorities in the
mainstream political process to ensure a process of absolute democracy and the
attainment of human rights.
• to
implement affirmative action policies for Dalits, women and
indigenous/nationalities for equal access to the resources of the state.
To conclude, I would like to
express my confidence that this briefing program will prove effective in
identifying ways and means of fighting against and eliminating caste–based
discrimination and strengthening the absolute democratic process in
Therefore, I would also like to
urge for an international diplomatic initiative to resolve the prevailing
conflict and restore ‘absolute democracy’, peace and security in
Thank you.
D.B. 'Sagar' Bishwakarma,
National President
Dalit NGO Federation,
Email: db_sagar@hotmail.com;
dbsagar@yahoo.com,
dgssm@wlink.com.np
(This briefing position
paper was presented to the UK’s House of Commons on 09 March 2005, on behalf of
Dalit National (NGO) Federation-DNF, Nepal, by National President Mr. D.B. ‘Sagar’
Bishwakarma.)