Enlarging the debate and involving other members of the society must be seen as an indispensable aspect of this fight against caste discrimination. Will non-Dalit citizens be ready to listen?
Caste discrimination remains a persistent issue in Nepal, and members of the Dalit community are still victims of many abuses. While there have been considerable improvements following the civil war that the Maoists justified as a painful but needed episode to unshackle Nepal from a political system based on the primacy of certain castes over the others, there is still so much that must be done.
Two questions must be answered.
First, how to change this status quo? Second, is it even possible to forecast a timeline within the next 10 years to truly get rid of caste discrimination?
To better understand the issues at stake, I approached two renowned members of the Dalit Community, one living in the Nepali diaspora, the other based in the country. In many ways, both have set the benchmark on what citizens from the Dalit community can do in terms of personal and professional success.
Dr. Drona Prakash Rasali is a distinguished academician – a veterinarian by background – based in British Columbia, Canada. Dr Man Bahadur Bishwakarma is the first member of the Dalit Community to reach the position of Secretary in the bureaucracy. He is also a former Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Brandeis University in the USA and holds a PhD in Social Inclusion in Microfinance in 2010 from Tribhuvan University. Both of them are leading, together with other activists, the organisation of the Global Conference for a Caste-Free World held in Brampton, Canada, from May 25 to 27.
I wanted to know from them about the current status of the play in terms of the fight against discrimination and what should be done. Additionally, I was curious to learn why a conference in Canada can become an important milestone to create a just society in Nepal and the whole of South Asia.
First of all, one of my takeaways from the conversation is that improvements since the end of the civil war and more specifically since the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015 should not give space to complacency. Dr Rasali highlighted the importance of dealing with casteism in Nepal as a matter of structural changes needed within the society.
"Legislation alone," he shared, "are not enough, we need a systemic shift in the society and, in particular, within the political structure of the country."
At a personal level, I do believe that laws are paramount, including a stronger affirmative legislation framework even though quotas always trigger a strong debate about fairness and their impact.
As Dalit intellectual and commentator Mitra Pariyar often writes for the Kathmandu Post, to tackle caste discrimination, we need a profound rethinking of religious practices and rituals. Religion has enabled and allowed discrimination to spread within the society, and this must be taken into account.
According to Dr. Bishwakarma, there are three key areas that must be confronted with urgency. First, even before coming up with new legislation, the existing ones must be fully enforced. A good legal framework is already available, but it must be implemented. Politicians must show a strong will and determination to show the way in this area beyond the usual rhetoric.
Second, representation in government is essential. "We are still very far from it. The number of members of the Dalit community in the highest echelons of the Federal Administration is still negligible, and this is unacceptable", Bishwakarma explained.
Third, we need equitable distribution of resources. Dr Bishwakarma brought up the example of Lumbini Province where in the past only 0.1 per cent of budget resources were allocated to uphold the political and social economic rights of Dalit citizens who are approximately 40 per cent of the population in the province.
Moreover, the budget at the federal, provincial and local levels is not designed based on the concept of social justice.
According to Dr. Rasali, these three pillars must be integrated in a systemic and structural way, and political representation is paramount. "I was very focussed on trying to create more educational opportunities for youths from the Dalit Community," explained Dr Rasali, who also played an instrumental role in setting up Nepal Open University.
"But I realised that these efforts, while key, are at risk of being undercut by structural inequities existing in the society. That's why having more citizens from the Dalit community holding political power in real rather than tokenistic ways is indispensable if we want to change the status quo," he said.
According to Dr. Bishwakarma what is needed is to challenge and defeat the whole caste system and not just focussing on fighting caste discrimination.
But why organise a conference in Canada? One of the most important goals of the organisers is to "internationalise" the issue of caste discrimination. The aim was to better involve and engage the international community, including the United Nations, by conducting academically rigorous events
The Global Conference for a Caste-Free World that had as its academic partner a world class institution, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, and where around 400 participants attended, was the first step in this process.
The outcome of the conference was a declaration with an ambitious but essential target: eliminate caste discrimination by 2035.Will 10 years from now be enough?
This is a priority, but how to ensure that broad coalitions of citizens come together to fight unjust systems? Enlarging the debate and involving other members of the society must be seen as an indispensable aspect of this fight. Will non-Dalit citizens be ready to listen?
Will those involved in the caste discrimination movement be capable of reaching them out persuasively and in an engaging way? Answering these questions might help reach the 2035 target and relegate discrimination to the annals of history.
