The Dalit - Untouchables often Silenced!

-Loknath Sangraula

Call it wrath of God or a man-made creation, the so called Dalits or untouchables are in pathetic condition for ages. Visits to the far-flung nooks and corners of the country lay bare a true picture of hundreds of thousands of people who have been subjected to inhuman or sub-human status in the vast sea of humanity. The kind of apartheid, which we are experiencing even at the dawn of the third millennium, is unlikely to lead us anywhere.

At the crack of dawn on April 8, 2003, the wind that swirled the cries high above the house rooftops carried with it an unmistakable sound: a lone woman crying and wailing and trying to wrest free from the vicious jaws of the so-called upper caste Hindus. Helpless, she was reduced to gulping down the human excreta syrup laced with pepper dust. Abuses were heaped on her and she suffered them until she passed out. Her body was smeared with the excreta. Her crime? She is an untouchable. An invisible line divides this Jugeda village in Dhangadhi and hundreds of others like it criss-crossing the Himalayan kingdom separating the untouchables from the touchables. The only fault Munidevi Damai committed was she let her cattle go into the neighbor’s field without her knowledge some eight months ago.

This is just one of a slew of incidents taking place virtually everyday in the far-flung villages in western Nepal. The Dalits who make up a significant chunk of the population have suffered indignities for ages. A hymn from Rig Veda describes how this human stratification came about. The cosmic giant Purush created the mankind- from his mouth came the Brahman, the Kshatris (warrior) came from his arms, the Vaishyas from his thighs and the Shudras from his feet. Through the centuries, these four main divisions called Varnas have been further sub-divided into hundreds of sub-castes. The untouchables do not fit into any of these categories and are burdened with such denigrating works as removing and eating carcasses against their will, burning bodies, skinning carcasses, removing night soil or human excrement and other most menial works.

In many villages across the country, untouchables continue to live in poverty and subjugation. A Dalit can also be considered too uppity and risks a beating if he tries to arrange a wedding ceremony with traditional band instruments or touches an upper caste man in case he is eating something or seeks to enter a temple or wears a wristwatch. Some roadside tea stalls still refuse to serve them out of ordinary cups. The wretched conditions in which the Dalits were forced to live and their abysmally low social status drew them into the circle of violence. Senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai would frequently say that had the Dalits not extended their support "we would not have achieved this height."

The situation of Dalits does not seem to have improved much in 30 years of Panchayat dispensation or during 12 years of post-democracy era. Dalits had the lowest Human Development Index, according to UN Human Development Report in 1998. If the per capita income of Newars was Rs 11,933, that of occupational castes including Dalits was only Rs 764. The adult literacy ratio for Dalits was 23 percent while the same was 58 percent for Brahmins.

History of the Dalit movement

King Jayasthiti Malla (1360-95 BS) is largely credited with the task of institutionalizing casteism in the country. The 1854 penal code prepared by the prime minister Jung Bahadur Rana further solidified it. Though the 1963 Civil Code banned untouchability, it still remains far from fully implemented. The 1990-Constitution, the Civil Rights Act-1955 and the Defamation Act-1963 are some of the milestones on the road to creating a caste-based discrimination-free society. The 1963 Civil Code treats caste-based discrimination in public places as a crime but imposed a fine of "not more than Rs 3,000 and a jail term of one year at most" for perpetrators. This provision describes how lightly the problem has been taken.

When the Dalit movement actually started still remains a matter of conjecture. However, concerted efforts against the practice of untouchability date back to 1947. The year saw the waging of the movement by Bhagat Sarvajeet Vishwokarma, a Dalit scholar in Sanskrit. He got better of even the renowned Sanskrit scholars of the day in debates. But ultimately his movement paled into insignificance after his death in 1955 in India.

The 1954 success of Pashupati temple entry, the struggle led by Tikaram Parkee to get into the temple of Shaileshwori in Doti, a memorandum submitted by Sahasranath Kapali to the then king Mahendra to ensure their interests in 1962 on behalf of the National Council for Liberation of Dalits and the attempt to get into the temple of Siddhakali in Bhojpur in 1965 are few events that contributed to awakening the Dalits who were in deep slumber. Several other party-affiliated organizations also joined the fray.

The Dalit movement picked up in the wake of the restoration of democracy. Attempts for selling milk in various parts of the country, entry into various temples and taking water from wells in Sindhupalchok are some of the forms of movement that the Dalits took to. "But it’s a great disappointment that the movement has been captured by people who cannot really lead it properly. We need to fight within the Dalit movement itself. I have heard of a number of NGOs formed to ensure rights and interests of we people, but none have approached us so far," says Yagya Prasad Mizar, a cobbler, in Silgadhi, Doti.

Dalits are feeling equally deceived by the national parties, which are top-heavy with high caste politicians. All that keeps the untouchables from having a unified struggle is that they are a divided lot. Asked about this, chairman of the National Dalit Commission Padma Singh Bishwokarma said, "Yes, we have to fight a two-pronged battle- one within ourselves and the next with the concept of Brahmanism."

"The mushrooming of NGOs is clearly indicative of the fact that the pathetic faces of Dalits have sold well in the international market. If they really have focussed their attention on the downtrodden community, why scores of NGOs? Why can’t they work in a coordinative way? We must first clear our communities of the persons who are pursuing short-cuts to get rich by selling the miserable plight we are in," grumbles Dinesh Jaisi at Katanpur, Kailali.

Dalits Vs Dalits

Even among the Dalits, strong caste rivalries exist. There are still scores of Dalit sub-castes in Nepal. Everyone is squirming not to fall to the bottom of Nepal’s massive pile of humanity. The practice of untouchability among the Dalits themselves is supposedly more serious than between the Dalits and non-Dalits. Godawari VDC in Kailali district stands as the best testimony to this claim. Inhabited by some 17,000 people, the VDC is located in the foothills of Kailali on the sprawling stony area which is typical of Dalits Vs Dalits syndrome.

Established in 1966, the VDC is perhaps the only area in the entire country where untouchability is practiced among untouchables at its extreme form. The untouchables make up more than 65 percent of the total population. The castes peopling this place include Kamis (Koli, Tamata, Sunar), Damais (Aauji, Dholi), Sarkis, Badis and Parkees. Nestled in the lap of a hilly range running across the north, the village is in the grip of the worst form of untouchability. Surprisingly, each community of untouchables has its own separate well, let alone the touchables. They don’t go to other’s. The VDC has a total of 33 wells, 14 of them built by the VDC. This can hardly be seen elsewhere. These people had descended from the hills of Achham, Doti, Bajura and Bajhang districts in search of a living and began to settle here once they found works as farmhands in nearby villages.

Bhaan Singh Bishwokarma, the chairman of the defunct VDC, says, "Yes, we practice the extreme form of untouchability. We have been doing our level best to remove such practice, but to no avail. Culturally sensitizing people is perhaps the most difficult thing, because this is something, which has been ingrained in the people’s mind for ages. It takes a lot of doing. About two years back, we even organized a dinner party among the untouchables. Sadly, untouchability among ourselves is fettering our movement."

"Democracy has no meaning at all for this village. In 1993, the Nepal National Dalit Welfare Social Organization had started literacy classes for adults and other credit-saving programs for women. But all this has stopped for a long time. The Regional Dalit Network has taken care of the case of a girl (Nanda Sarki) marrying a Kshatriya boy. That’s it! No other NGOs have taken any troubles to approach us. There is a glaring need of starting educational and income-generating programs. The stony land does not yield bumper crops. Every rainy season is followed by an exodus of youths into Indian cities in search of livelihood, leaving behind the villages virtually emptied. And when they return home, they carry HIV/AIDS. "The disease has claimed more than 100 people in this single VDC so far, though there is no health record to prove it," says a resident.

Adhir Sharma, program coordinator of Helvetas, who is closely watching the Dalit movement, is of the view that an elite class within the Dalit community itself is in the making and it hardly bothers to take care of those who are at the lowest rung of the ladder of untouchables who raise pigs or do filthy works like removing carcasses or make shoes or play traditional band instruments. "Disunity among the Dalits is a serious snag," he further says.

Farcical politics

His Majesty’s Government established the Committee for the Upliftment of Depressed Communities in 1997 under the chairmanship of the then minister for local development Gajendra Naryan Singh with the purpose of upgrading the lives of downtrodden communities. The Board has 20 members. A member of the National Planning Commission and secretaries at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the Ministry of Local Development are ex-officio members. The executive director is a political appointee.

Though the committee is in existence for six years or so, its achievement is no worthy of mentioning. The government had allocated Rs 30,000,000 in 1997, while the figure for 1999-2000 amounted to Rs 12,500,000. Its budget for the last fiscal year was around Rs 12.5 million, which included expenditure heads like rural sanitation and drinking water, Dalit child education, income-generating activities, etc. Political fallout has its serious repercussions on the committee. Executive director of the committee Bishnu Prasad Mandal says, "Bad politics has taken its toll on the committee. Politics is a real snag that fetters our movement. In the last six years or so, a round dozen executive directors have been changed."

The tussles between the Dalit organizations are not less severe either. Like any other organizations, the Dalit organizations are badly governed by other political parties. The organizations with allegiance to communist philosophy have been split into several factions. And paradoxically, the Dalit leaders affiliated to the Nepali Congress vertically split into two well before the formal announcement of the fraction between Koirala and Deuba.

It led a jumbo team of over 45 leaders and workers from the Dalit community to the World Conference against Racism in Durban. The money spent for this "junket" amounted to Rs 1.4 million or nearly 11 percent of the total budget with little money left for realizing its proposed programs.

Director Mandal accepts that their programs like scholarship and income-generating have not been as effective as should have been. "We have now reduced our expenditures and slashed the number of seminars. We are thinking of new ways to effectively reach out to the genuine Dalits. But politics should not come in the way." Sharma of Helvetas also echoes the same voice, "High sounding formal programs will little help to resolve the problem."

"Misuse" of funds

Many donors seem to have developed a fascination with the word Dalit. Whenever they see a Dalit tag, they start pouring dollars. And this is where the Dalit politics begins. They have a blinkered perspective and dig in their heels when it comes to seeing things on the sides. The so-called Dalit movement has sucked in millions of dollars without corresponding improvement in their lot. But they remain as poor and neglected as ever before. Because of their low socio-economic status, there is also a danger of them being drawn to the Maoist war. Especially after the advent of democracy in 1990, a section of the Dalit community realized that they could make money out of the pathetic faces of the genuine Dalits living in in the country’s hinterland. The real questions staring right in our face today are: Has the situation of the genuine Dalits changed in the last decade, with so much foreign money spent on them? Will any Dalit leader with hands on their hearts say that their campaign has brought any substantive change in the far-flung villages of the country? The answer is emphatic "no".

If the Dalits in the capital are busy hunting for pleasure trips abroad, those in the remote areas continue to live a sub-human life. A Dalit student in Doti is not allowed to sit in for exams with upper caste kids and is subjected to face harsh treatment at the hands of police in custody, while another Dalit in Dhangadhi gets a thrashing simply because he happens to touch a high caste man who is eating Gudka. Surprisingly, the number of cases of Dalits being discriminated has not decreased. Though more than 100 Dalit NGOs have been formed, tthey are yet to make a significant impact.

Kalusingh Aauji of Baghthatta village in Doti, who nearly lost his eyesight due to malnutrition, tells this scribe of not getting any kind of help from anyone. With no water, sanitation and means of livelihood, the Dalits who constitute a majority in this village continue to live in abject poverty. With tears welled up in his eyes, Aauji said, "It seems we are destined to suffer. Neither from NGO nor from the government have we received any help." The Dalits in Tikapur have the same story to tell. Engineer at Tikapur Development Committee Jhapindra Singh Bishwokarma and teacher Udaysingh Sunar also echo the same concern. They have, of course, heard of many NGOs formed or being formed, but not noticed any visible changes in the lives of their fellows.

Recently, the Banke district administration office carried out a raid on the office of the Social Awareness for Education (SAFE) in Nepalgunj on a tip-off that its director and accountant were indulged in corruption by doctoring the account. Asked about this, Banke CDO Dilli Raj Joshi admitted that the raid was carried out and minutes, registers, account books and "fake" stamps were seized. "It is now premature to say with certainty. Things are under investigation," he says. Established in 1992 with a view to ameliorating the condition of the Badi community, the SAFE has received millions of rupees so far. Its total annual budget is now nearly Rs 8 million provided by the Save the Children Norway, Save the Children US, Swiss Red Cross and Unicef. Plan International and Helvetas also support it.

Devendra Prasad Jaisi of the Community Support Group based in Tikapur Kailali said that being dissatisfied with the functioning of the SAFE, they established the CSG for the welfare of the Badi community with funds from ActionAid and the General Welfare Pratishthan. But officials of the SAFE strongly deny the charge. "There are some vested interests working behind the raid. There might be some mistakes in course of carrying out work. But none of us have stooped so low to embezzle the fund as to hang our heads in shame. Let the action take its course and everything will be clear," says Tilak Nepali.

According to a study, more than Rs 160 m is allocated every year to uplift downtrodden communities. The sums are received through such INGOs as ActionAid Nepal, Save the Children Norway, Save the Children US, the Asia Foundation, the Lutheran World Federation, Unicef, Care Nepal, GTZ, Dannida (bilateral), Ms Nepal, USC Canada (GOTO letter from USC Nepal in response to this charge.) and Oxfam. The budget is spent on such programs as social awareness, non-formal education, scholarship, empowerment, advocacy, health service, occupational capacity building, legal aid and bonded labor. These organizations started funding Dalits only after 1992. In less than 10 years, a total of Rs 521,385,250 has been received, out of which Rs 12.7 million has been spent only on interactions, seminars and tours.

We have dozens of Dalit organizations and a dozen times more the Dalit leaders. These leaders are mostly capital-based and are active in churning out seminars and workshops. They hardly vary in their papers and demands. The more the wretched condition they portray of Dalits, the more they are likely to fleece the donors for hefty sums. "Hundreds of seminars and workshops have been held in the name of Dalits, but their impact is negligible. So there must be a shift on focus," says Jeet Gurung of Dannida. He, however, feels reluctant to accuse the NGOs of misappropriating the funds purposely. "Dalit NGOs lack knowledge and skilled manpower in keeping their accounts in a proper way and this may result in looking like fund misappropriation which actually may not be the case," he says.

Though the things remain far from satisfactory, the Dalit movement has certainly enhanced their morale. They have become more assertive than ever before. Jaisi of CSG says, "The Badi women who would otherwise lurk behind covering their face in shame and hesitation now come forward and make demands for their welfare. This is definitely a change."

However, if the present state of affairs is any mirror, that the Dalit community will be better in the near future still remains a distant dream. If we really want to remove the stigma of untouchability and problems thereof, plans and programs worked out in posh hotels, and foreign trips will little help. Driven with political motives, the government may find it easier to form a commission or something, but such efforts will go like water off a duck’s back. Generating a genuine social worker is both taxing and time-taking. If we really want to see their lot improved, we must be shamed into scrapping this age-old malady. There lies the
solution.

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Facts about Dalits:

• Dalits make up 20 percent of the total population

• 80 percent of the Dalit population lives below the poverty line.

• Per capita income- US $ 39.6

• Literacy rate 10%

• Female literacy rate 3.2%

• Share of Dalits in cultivable land: 1%

• 70% of Dalits are malnourished

• Life expectancy: 42 year

Source: National Dalit Preparatory Committee Nepal for WCAR