The Dalits of Nepal and a New Constitution - ConstitutionNet

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The Dalits of Nepal and
a New Constitution
the government, identified 22 Dalit castes. 23 After
nationwide consultation, the National Dalit Commission
(NDC) defined Dalit community and caste based
untouchability in its Bill for an Act in 2003. According to
this, ‘Dalit community’ refers to communities (identified
in Annex 1 of the Bill), who have been left behind in
social, economic, educational, political and religious
spheres and deprived of human dignity and social justice
due to caste based discrimination and untouchability.
“‘Caste-based Untouchability’ refers to those communities,
who have been discriminated against as water polluting,
or touching whom requires purification, untouchables
or …any community that was identified as untouchable
before the promulgation of the New Civil Code, 1963.”
Based on these definitions, NDC also tentatively identified
22 Dalit castes, including five from the Hills and 17 from
the Terai (not identical to the Samiti list). A few Dalit
castes such as Viswakarma, Pariyar and Sarki of the Hills
and Chamar of the Terai have multiple names and some
Dalit castes such as Musahar and Bantar of the Terai have
single names. For example, Viswakarma has now become
a common caste name that refers to those Dalits who
identify themselves as Kami or Lohar or Sunar or Wod or
Chunara or Parki or Tamata. Many family names of Dalits
are identical with that of Bahun-Chhetris and some are
identical with Vaisya and some indigenous peoples.
A full list of castes, with their sub-castes, names and
traditional occupations, is in Appendix 1 of this
publication.
A complication is the Newari dalits: leaders of organizations
of Kusule, Kuche, Chyame and Pode have identified
themselves as Newars and therefore the National Dalit
Commission has dropped them from its list. 24
Diversity within the Dalits
Dalits comprise a diversified social group in terms of
intensity of practices of caste based discrimination,
including untouchability, and forms of discrimination,
including regional, linguistic, religious, cultural, gender
and class based discrimination.
• Hill Dalits and the Madhesi Dalits have rather
different experiences.
• In some regions, districts or villages, non-Dalits do
not practice caste based untouchability against Dalits.
For example, untouchability is non-existent in
communities of the mountain region, and
communities mostly untouched by the national legal
codes and/or the process of Hinduization and
Sanskritization.
• In communities affected by caste based
discrimination, some non-Dalit communities such
as Sattar/Santhal, Jhangad/Dhangad are treated as
“untouchables” in the Terai region.
Dalit Population and Distribution
According to the census of 2001, the total population
of Nepal was 22,736,934 (now estimated to be
26,427,399 25 , 51.1% of them female. The census
had no data on six Dalit castes, namely, Kakahiya,
Kalar, Khatik, Kori, Pasi, and Sarvanga/Sarbaraiya. The
census data are not entirely accurate because many
Dalits hide their identity due to fear of backlash from
“high caste” people, confusion of caste identity due
to identical family names, lack of awareness among
Dalits about their caste identity, and lack of
representation of Dalits in technical committees,
trainers, supervisors and enumerators in the Central
Bureau of Statistics. Some local surveys carried out
by Dalits’ organizations, including Dalit NGO
Federation and NNDSWO, in some selected villages
revealed Dalit populations higher than in the census.
The figure usually given for the census is 13% or
13.8%, or at the most 14.99%, lower than the
estimation of the Dalit leaders and scholars, i.e. 20%
to 25% of the total population. 26
24
Rajendra Pradhan and Ava Shrestha comment that “some Newar Dalit castes refuse to be called Dalit”, see Ethnic and Caste Diversity: Implications for Development (Working
Paper No. 4) (Asian Development Bank, 2005) http://www.adb.org/Documents/Papers/NRM/wp4.pdf, at p. 3, citing Harka Gurung, Social Demography of Nepal: Census
2001 (Kathmandu: Himal Books, 2003). See also” In recent years many so-called Dalit groups from the Newar community have protested their inclusion in the list. The
problem is do they really represent the sentiment of the concerned groups as a whole? In addition, there is a sort of ethical dilemma involved: Has anyone the right to
call someone Dalit if he or she does not like it?” Danida, “Nepal Final Component Description Dalit Support” (2003) p. 54 http://www.danidadevforum.um.dk/NR/
rdonlyres/E4A558CC-2726-4E58-8717-41B4C0251F6B/0/Component_Dalitsupport.pdf.
25
Census Bureau see Nepal in Figures 2007 http://www.cbs.gov.np/Nepal%20in%20figure/Nepal%20in%20Figures%202007.pdf.
26
Some communities may be included in one publication as janajati and in others as Dalit (e.g. Dhagar).