Mainstreaming Dalits

rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration ofregarding Dalit issues. It worked rather within
Human Rights (UDHR) provides human society aconservative and autocratic frameworks. But the
genuine basis for understanding and applying thesuccessive governments formed following the
general concept of democracy. The norms andrestoration of democracy have clearly lacked a
values of almost all of the Articles in the UDHRgenuine vision for the Dalit community. The
have been incorporated into world's democraticdocuments of major political parties do not
constitutions. Even transitional democracies haveprovide any evidence that they have any
mentioned a lot regarding their citizens' political, civilsufficient analysis on Dalit issues. The Nepali
and socio-economic rights, trying to be asCongress and the CPN (UML) have nominally
proximal to the UDHR as possible.mentioned Dalits in their election manifestos.
No ideology today can isolate itself from theThose interested in knowing what these major
UDHR. In order to concretize the concept ofpolitical parties think and plan to do for
democracy to a larger extent, the specificationsmainstreaming Dalits feel disappointed when they
of human rights contained in the UDHR are whatread the party documents. However, top leaders
all nations should promise to conform to.often mention the names of Dalits in their
More than five million Dalits belong to the mostspeeches. But the Dalit wings of their own parties
marginalized and oppressed community in Nepal.are marginalized within their party.
They are still in search of the human dignity thatAs far as the state's efforts regarding Dalit issues
is the rudimentary aspect of the UHDR. In overare concerned, the National Dalit Commission
3,900 villages, the practice of caste system is(NDC) formed in 2002 is in a dormant state.
deep-rooted. Dalits are treated as 'untouchables'Nobody knows what it has been doing so far. Nor
by the so-called upper-caste people in the ruralare they in a position to give any concrete
parts of the country. They are not allowed toanswers. Some observers say it is not an
enter public temples, teashops or hotels. They areautonomous body of the state and is under the
extremely exploited and forced to live the life ofsecretary of the Ministry of Local Affairs though
sub-humans.the NDC claims otherwise. However, what is true
Dalits are often disdained and misbehaved. Suchabout them is that they are also affected by the
practice is strong in far-western Nepal and thenation's political instability.
terai bordering India. But Dalits cannot express theAs an effort to uplift the Dalit community,
psychological torture caused by suchanother government department under the
de-humanizing behaviour. There are obviouslyMinistry of Local Affairs, the Dalit Develop-ment
notable reasons for their helplessness. They areBoard has been assigned the duty of
politically, economically and socially the mostimplementing Dalit programmes launched by the
excluded community of the country.government. The Board has been distributing
Dalits to this day do not have access inscholarships to college level Dalit students. But
policymaking. A few individual Dalits handpicked bybesides such nominal efforts, the government has
major political parties or other elites representnot declared any major policy for the Dalits. The
their favour-providers rather than the DalitNational Dalit Strategy Report formalized by the
community. As they are the victims of massgovernment in 2002 is mainly based on INGOs
poverty and illiteracy, they remain outside theand donor-based reports. The government itself
mainstream politics though they cast their voteshas never launched any national research
every time election is conducted.programs on the Dalits. The National Dalit
This political exclusion of Dalits has hadStrategy Report itself proves how superficially the
far-reaching effects on their socio-economicgovernment has dealt with Dalit-related
condition. Low socio-economic status, mainlyinformation. It is a strategy report without any
caused by their political exclusion, furtherstrategy.
de-humanizes them. Absence of Dalits' politicalThe international community has recently begun
representation at national level deprives them ofto show interest in Dalit issues. But unless the
decision-making power. This in turn furtherNepalis themselves take this issue seriously and
marginalizes them. Such practice creates morehonestly, I/NGOs cannot do much.
convenience for those discriminating them.Should the Nepali policymakers, development
What is most embarrassing in this context is thatagents and intellectuals take Dalit agenda as lightly
it has been more than four decades since theas before or only as an opportunity to personally
declaration of Muluki Ain (civil act - 1963) by Kingbenefit from it, the plight the Dalit community will
Mahendra. Although he banned the practice ofworsen further, complicating multilateral
untouchability, it has not been implemented to thiscontradictions and conflicts. There is a need to
day.plan and work for the mainstreaming of the Dalit
The Panchayat regime did not have any conceptcommunity in practical terms.