Free of Discrimination and Untouchability?

Dalit leader and master planner of the Indian Constitution Dr. B. R. Ambedkar once said, “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realize that our people have yet to learn it. So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.”

Dalit children staying in remotest region of Nepal

Nepal’s House of Representatives (HoR) on Sunday (June 4, 2006) unanimously announced Nepal as a state free of discrimination and untouchability, something that had been overlooked in its previous proclamations.

Thus Dalits and those under the absolute poverty line shall have opportunities to elevate their status through the mobilization of special economic programs for education, health and employment.

The proposal, which aims at an inclusion policy towards Dalits for active participation in the process of drafting a new constitution, was presented by a Communist Party of Nepal (UML) parliamentarian, Parasuram Meghi Gurung. It also proposed to end all the prevailing discriminatory laws and bring Dalits into the country’s mainstream for a society with equity.

“If discrimination and untouchability prevails, what sort of newer Nepal would we conceptualize?” General Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (UML) Madhav Kumar Nepal told OhmyNews, before leaving for his visit to South Korea.

Amik Serchan, chairman of Janamorcha Nepal, a communist party among the seven-party alliance, also admitted that the achievements of the people’s movement would be greatly reduced without addressing the issues of marginalized peoples. In a TV interview, Mr. Serchan integrated the Dalit problems and its final solution as described by communism — the classless society.

Dalits are tainted by their birth into a caste system. They are regarded as impure and living a life less than human. Despite the parliamentary declaration that Nepal was a nation free of discrimination and untouchability, headlines from the mainstream Nepali newspaper on the same day were telling their stories: “Bonded Laborers in Kathmandu Valley Protesting against Status of Landlessness”; “Poverty Causes Dalit Children to Refrain from Education”; “Dalits Prohibited from Entering Temple.”

Dalits are not allowed to touch and drink water from public wells; their lives are threatened if they try to pass through upper caste people, and they are prohibited from entering so-called higher caste people’s houses. Raising pigs and helping cremate the dead — are still the tasks of so-called lower caste Dalits.

National, regional and local governments dministration and even polices still support the caste system. The constitution of the kingdom of Nepal in 1990 prohibits all types of discrimination against citizens on the basis of caste, gender or religion.

But a number of discriminatory provisions and laws were still in practice. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the government to make a law against caste-based untouchability. The situation had become so dire that a growing rebellion resulted in the killing of more than 14,000 in course of almost 14 years.

Meanwhile, discrimination against Dalits became so pervasive that the HoR is compelled to make an historic announcement about eradicating untouchability. There are a number of popular commitments being made. Thirty-three percent of reservation for women in every government system, matrilineal citizenship, cutting off King’s power, changing National Anthem and so on is the political commitment this time. Are these for the sake of public popularity or based on reality as well?

Nepal’s caste system has its origins in the Indian caste system. In Nepal, however, the caste system has a history of only a few hundred years whereas in India it has been deep-rooted for thousands of years. Achieving a casteless society in Nepal might need Indian as well as U.N. support.

In the U.N., there is a committee called the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In its 61st Session in August 2002, CERD, took a historic step in openly condemning caste discrimination and similar forms of inherited status as human rights violations in a General Recommendation on Descent-based Discrimination, unanimously accepted without a vote. This CERD General Recommendation clarifies and specifies for the first time that descent-based discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of caste, is a human rights violation, and provides a comprehensive framework for addressing it.

Fighting the caste system among Dalits and non-Dalits is equally tough as fighting caste system among the Dalits. Equally hazardous is untouchability amongst Dalits themselves. Even Dalits are divided into so called upper and lower caste too.

Hence, for a Nepal with social equity, there are countless tasks to complete in advance. How prepared are the parliamentarians? Do they think caste can be abolished by inter-caste dinners or stray instances of inter-caste marriages? Those might be components on the way but we need to have a bigger heart with wider vision.

Caste discrimination doesn’t end with development or prosperity. An LLM in Constitutional Law advocate, Tek Tamrakar suggests an elimination of untouchability and caste-based discrimination by mentioning it as a heinous crime in a new constitution. Constitutionally there should be a provision recognizing it as a crime with stringent punishment for the perpetrators. Right to compensation should also be mentioned clearly to provide reparation to the victims of caste-based discrimination.

Mentioning only the right to non-discrimination is not sufficient to eliminate caste-based discrimination. Along with the right to non-discrimination, provision of positive discrimination should also be brought under the ambit of constitution specifying Dalit as beneficiaries. Right to have compensatory discrimination is also imperative.

Mr. Tamrakar said that social upliftment is not enough to address the socially attached and socially integrated caste-discrimination issue. We should have plan to out the deeply rooted psychology from mind of so called high caste groups. It is possible through qualitative representation in the major wings of governance. There is a social mind that takes Dalits lightly.

Politics plays a role in strategy-building against the caste system. Otherwise, we call it a social problem and its impact is linked to social behavior and individual psychology. We can call it a religious disgrace. Dalits and non-Dalits follow Hinduism in the main.

Religious philosophies trying to promote slavery of ourselves should be abandoned. Untouchability is unsociability. Dr. Ambedkar had said, “You have no lands because others have usurped them; you have no posts because others have monopolized them. Do not believe in fate; believe in your strength. Caste is a state of mind. It is a disease of mind.”