Dalits protest against ‘govt bias’

Kathmandu, January 25:

The dalit students are being discriminated against even by their school teachers, but none of the guilty persons has been punished yet, the participants of an interaction on “What measures to take to end discrimination at school” organised by Education Journalists Group here today, said. The participants questioned why the government was showing indifference to such discriminations against the dalit students.

Very few of the instances of discrimination are reported, but even in these cases, the culprits are seldom punished, a teacher at the meet said.

Section officer at the Department of Education, Ganesh Prasad Poudel, said the department had authorised its regional offices, including the district education offices, to deal with such cases and stated policies against discrimination in its School Improvement Plan.

He informed that the government had already launched the Inclusive Education package in 60 schools in eight districts last year to ensure greater participation of all children at schools. The programme would be expanded to another 210 schools in 14 districts throughout the nation, he added.

Sher Bahadur Parki, another participant, put forward examples of discriminations from the school textbooks. Shiromani Dhungana, a host of a Dalit radio programme, said local authorities had been covering up the instances of discrimination.

Secretary of Nepal Teachers’ Union, Madhu Timilsina, said the culture of impunity had made the matter worse in rural areas. Gajadhar Sunwar of Dalit NGO Federation said the body was studying and monitoring the cases of discrimination and helping to bring them to light.