Lahan, August 20:

The Dom and Mestar communities have said they should not be forced to take up their ancestral profession of cleaning streets and disposing animal carcass.

The highly marginalised Dom and Mestar communities have been cleaning streets and disposing carcass in the Terai region as part of their ancestral profession. However, they now feel the profession should be modernised. They say the decision to either quit or continue with the profession should be theirs.

Members of the communities expressed this view at a two-day eastern region-level community meet held recently, the president of the Dom and Mestar Community in the Sagarmatha Zone, Mukti Lal Marik, said today.

According to the 2001 Census, the population of Dom and Mestar community stands at 8,931.

Marik said participants in the meet discussed ten incidents of maltreatment and exploitation of members of the communities in public places.

“Not a single case has been filed with the authorities against people practicing caste-related discrimination,” Marik said.

While most people in the two communities are landless, only six persons in the eastern region have passed the SLC examination and only one has passed the higher secondary level education, president of the Dalit Janakalyan Yuba Club, Binod Bishankhu, said.

The meet also passed a resolution to request officials concerned to provide permanent appointment to the Dom and Mester community people who have been working as temporary employees in the government, semi-government and non-government offices.

The meeting also demanded free education at all levels with facilities of free accommodation for students of the communities and proportional representation in the constituent assembly. Participants also demanded that the officials concerned be more serious about their issues.

The meeting also decided to organise a sit-in protest at Bhadrakali in Kathmandu on September 3 and to take up their case with all central offices of political parties.