Could Peace Beget Rights for Nepal's Dalits?
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As the signing of an historic peace agreement on 21 November brought the decade-long bloody civil war in Nepal to an end, the people took to the streets to celebrate. But in a sober committee room in Londons House of Commons, we sat in shocked silence, our eyes open with disbelief as we watched the TV screen.
Ushas daughter turned her face slightly away from the camera to tell her story. Her eyes filled with tears as she recounted the day her mother saved her from being raped by offering herself in her daughters place. Afterwards, the men no doubt made sure to purify themselves, safe in the knowledge they would not be held to account for their crime, probably in denial that they had even done anything wrong. As a Dalit from the Badi community, Usha is branded untouchable according to the brutal and age-old caste system that is rooted in the Hindu religion. It is a system that rigidly divides Nepalese society and locks Dalit women into generation after generation of poverty and prostitution. Traditionally, Badi women were dancing girls, and have been sexually exploited by the upper classes throughout their history. Today, when they take their first customer, it is referred to as making a debut as a prostitute, almost like coming of age. Usha, 34, has been a prostitute since she was 18. Like the other women in her village she has had no access to education. She sits outside her hut waiting for higher caste men to cross to the Badi area, which is isolated from the rest of the village, to call on her. One, who has been visiting her for 15 years, spoke candidly of how he makes sure never to accept food or drink from her for fear of being contaminated by her caste. After sex, which he describes as taking his pleasure, he purges himself. The film, "The Badi Women of Rajapur", was screened at a seminar held at the House of Commons organised by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and the Dalit Solidarity Network UK (DSN UK) on 28 November. As the film ended, a few people clapped, then abruptly stopped. On everybodys mind was the knowledge that this is a common situation for Dalit women across Nepal. Durga Sob, president of the Feminist Dalit Organisation (FEDO) in Nepal, spoke realistically about the level of marginalisation that Dalit women suffer. Dalit women face multiple discrimination: once on grounds of caste, once on grounds of gender and once on grounds of poverty. She described how the legal system holds no justice for women who suffer rape and sexual abuse on a daily basis: Even if they go to the police, the police will support the perpetrator because he is a higher caste, she said. It is a situation that has continued as acceptable behaviour in Nepal for centuries.
The issues Nepals Dalit communities face have been exacerbated by the terror they experienced during the long war. As a community with few rights, they were caught in the vicious fighting between the royalist government and the Maoists. The Maoists began their violent campaign against the Monarchy for a Peoples Republic in 1996, taking control of Nepals rural areas by recruiting Dalits to their cause. Under the banner of fighting for the poor and the marginalised they took over houses, demanded shelter and food and forcibly enrolled Dalit women and children to their peoples militia. A 2005 report from the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice stated that once recruited to the lowest ranks of the army, Dalit women continued to suffer caste discrimination and sexual abuse at the hands of those who purported to be fighting for equality for all. Durga Sob said, The Maoists used the community for its own agenda and said they were fighting for us. She added, If you are Dalit you are treated as Maoist by the government. Very young and innocent Dalits were killed by the government during the conflict. Dalit women left widowed also suffered particularly as a result, taking on back breaking work in the fields, and where this could not provide for the family, turning to prostitution. For Dalits, child marriage is a common practice; child-brides left widowed or displaced by war at age 14 or 15 have few options for survival. According to FEDO, suicide is common amongst Dalit women. Sob said, Many Dalits have been displaced by the conflict and have no right to return. The causes of the conflict poverty, discrimination and lack of access to education and employment, and the effects of the conflict, have been the same. But Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North and Chair of the seminar said the peace process should be a catalyst for change. Now is a good opportunity to lobby intensively on these issues there is a thirst for democracy in Nepal and a thirst for peace. We must use the possibility of long lasting peace as an opportunity liberate all the people who have suffered violence for so long, he said. On 8 November 2006, the Maoists reached a peace agreement with the seven political parties that make up the Nepal House of Representatives. Signed on 21 November, it promises to address the problems related to women, Dalit, indigenous people, Janajatis, Madheshi, oppressed, neglected, minorities and the backward by ending discrimination based on class, caste, language, sex, culture, religion, and region and to restructure the state on the basis of inclusiveness, democracy and progression by ending present centralised and unitary structure of the state.
Such certificates are almost impossible for Dalit women to obtain. Lena Sundh, United Nations human rights representative in Nepal, said the Bill would automatically discriminate against women, marginalised groups and displaced peoples who have no land rights. Without citizenship, they will also not be eligible to vote in the forthcoming elections. In fact, the Bill could lock Dalit women further into the cycle of discrimination they have lived in for so long. Katrina Naomi, gender officer at Minority Rights Group, said, The states, including Nepal, are clearly not addressing the issues with a deep enough commitment to alleviating the appalling conditions in which Dalits, and particularly Dalit women, are forced to live. Because of this, Dalit women have begun to take matters into their own hands. On the day the peace agreement was signed in Nepal, an international conference on Dalit Womens Rights was held in the Hague. With international support, Dalit women from across South Asia called for, among other things, proportional representation at all strata of politics. From the government of Nepal, they asked that Dalit womens representation (within the 33 per cent reservation that currently exists for women) in government be ensured. They also asked for protection from sexual abuse and the allocation of adequate budgets to educate Dalit girls from primary to vocational level. At the London seminar, they called on the UK government to pressure the Nepalese authorities to include Dalit womens participation in the interim legislature that is currently being drafted for peace in the country. MP Jeremy Corbyn has since drafted an early day motion to discuss these issues in the British House of Commons, while Rodney Bickerstaff, former general secretary of Unison, (the public services union) who attended the seminar, has agreed to lobby MP Ian McCartney, Minister of State for trade, investment and foreign affairs, whose remit also includes human rights. As Gina Borbas, spokesperson for DSNUK said, The extent and level of this discrimination is not understood at all. Once people realise the extent and level and brutality of the violence, they will be forced to act. |
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