The Dalits of Nepal and a New Constitution - ConstitutionNet

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The Dalits of Nepal and
a New Constitution
Table 6. Dalits’ access to land
Caste Landless (%) Less than 5 Ropani (%) 6 to 10 Ropani (%) 11 to 20 Ropani (%) More than 21 Ropani
HILL DALITS
Kami 11.2 46.5 18.8 17.1 6.5
Damai 28.8 55.1 19.1 3.2 1.3
Sarki 7.6 47.8 24.2 16.7 3.6
Gaine 41.2 45.1 1.4 3.1 -
MADHESI DALITS
Badi 21.0 31.1 13.0 4.3 4.3
Dhobi 33.3 66.7 - - -
Doom 44.2 11.8 - - -
Dusadh 33.3 55.6 - 11.1 -
In a largely agricultural and a poor country, landlessness
means food deficiency; a study done by the Team Consult
found that a majority of Dalit households suffer from
food deficiency. The percentage is highest in the
mountains with 89.66%, followed by 56.73% in the hills
and 53.61% in the Terai. 49
Skill Upgrade and Modernization of
Traditional Occupation
Each Dalit caste is associated with a specific traditional
occupation. Because of lack of training for skill upgrading,
of modernization of traditional occupations, and of
cooperatives of Dalits, and because of the expanding
market for industrial consumer products, Dalits’ traditional
occupations have rapidly lost their markets forcing many
Dalits either to resort to wage labour or to live in misery.
For example, affordable ready-made clothing
merchandise has made tailoring work unproductive;
factory made shoes have made cobblers work
unproductive; factory made agriculture tools and utensils
have made blacksmiths’ work unprofitable.
Wage Labour and Wage Earnings
Due to landlessness, poverty and illiteracy, and declining
significance of their traditional occupations, many Dalits
resort to wage labour; 60.4% of wage labourers are Dalits,
as opposed to 20.6% among the Tagadhari and 13.3%
among the Matwali. 50
Table 7. Percentages of food sufficiency households by caste/ethnic groups and eco-regions
Caste/Ethnicity
Physiographic Regions
Mountain Hill Terai TotalN=5,162
Food sufficient
N=3,745
Tagadhari 10.40 46.8 42.9 100.00N=1,173
Matwali 57.0 52.7 41.7 100.00N=509
Untouchable 10.3 42.4 47.2 100.00N=1,871
Other 0.00 57.0 94.3 100.00N=192
Food not sufficient
N=1,417
Tagadhari 9.97 47.21 42.82 100.00 N=1,163
Matwali 5.91 52.76 41.34 100.00N=508
Untouchable 10.34 43.27 46.39 100.00 N=1,826
Other 0.00 5.88 94.12 100.00 N=3,686
Source: Adapted from Table A6. 8a. Frequency of Responses on Food Sufficiency by Ethnic Groups and Physiographic Region in Team Consult 1999: 4285
Note: out of 5,181 respondents, 5162 respondents answered question on food sufficiency/deficiency, of which 28.59% reported food sufficiency and remaining 71.41%
(i.e. 3,686 households) reported food deficiency.
49
Team Consult The Conditions of the Dalits (Untouchables) in Nepal : Assessment of the Impacts of Various Development Interventions. A report submitted to the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Nepal . (1999)
50
Ibid Table 6.