Bagmati is the only province that has taken a positive step
KATHMANDU, JUNE 10
The new constitution's provisions related to the empowerment of ethnic and linguistic minorities remain largely unimplemented even seven years after the promulgation of the constitution.
The federal government, which was supposed to enact a federal law to implement Article 56(5), has not enacted the law. Article 56(5) states that any special, protected, or autonomous region can be set aside by the federal law for social and cultural protection or economic development. The federal government has not made any such law yet.
Section 99 of the Local Government Operation Act stipulates that the federal government, in consultation with provincial governments, can declare any area, local level, or district special, protected, or an autonomous region. Section 9 of the Act also allows provinces and local levels to declare areas under their jurisdiction as cultural and tourist destinations.
Bagmati is the only province that has taken a positive step to implement Article 56 (5) by announcing in its policies and programmes that it will declare Chepang protected areas in Chitwan, Makawanpur, and Dhading, where Chepang inhabitants live. It's yet to be seen how Bagmati Province acts to fulfil its pledge. Rakshirang Rural Municipality of Makawanpur district has, meanwhile demanded that the federal government declare the rural municipality as Chepang protected region.
Indigenous rights activist Advocate Shankar Limbu said that first the Local Levels' Restructuring Commission deviated from its duty of creating special, protected, and autonomous regions.
"We were expecting the governments formed after 2017 election to create such regions to empower linguistic and ethnic minorities, but the three tiers of governments have failed to take major steps in that direction," Limbu said.
He said seven local governments had taken the initiative to recognise Tharus' Bad Ghar which could be replicated by other local governments across the Tarai.
Limbu said the constitution's spirit was to create special, protected, and autonomous regions with full autonomy where none of the tiers of the government could interfere.
The Supreme Court had issued a directive to the government to create special, protected, and autonomous regions, but that order was also not implemented by the government. "The spirit of the constitution is to grant self-rule to ethnic and linguistic minorities in their place of origin so as to enable them to protect their identity, culture, and economic interests. Protection of minorities' rights is key to their political empowerment," Limbu said.
He said prejudiced views about the rights of minorities and their identity were the root cause of non-implementation of the constitutional provisions, including Article 56(5).
Former chair of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Jagat Bahadur Baram said indigenous rights activists and institutions had been constantly reminding the federal government to make a federal law to implement Article 56(5), but the government had not paid attention to them. "Minister of Federal Affairs and General Administration Rajendra Shrestha has told us that he would form a structure to work on the formation of special, protected and autonomous regions," Baram said. He added that a study must be conducted to know how many special, protected, and autonomous regions could be created across Nepal.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 11, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
