Incident Reports

Samata Foundation Report;117 Dalit human rights violations in a year

2021-10-24

According to the Samata Foundation, there have been 117 incidents of human rights violations in Nepal in the last year. The Samata Foundation has made public the details of the incidents of human rights violations in 2077 BS. Earlier, various bodies had provided details of human rights violations but no separate statistics of human rights violations have been kept.

The Foundation has made public 'Dalit Human Rights Book 077' by including such facts of human rights violations, incidents of caste-based violence and stories of resistance. According to the foundation, out of 117 incidents of human rights violations against the Dalit community on the basis of ethnicity, 31 cases related to caste discrimination and untouchability were reported. Similarly, 18 Dalits have been killed in 13 murders due to being Dalits.

There have been 3 incidents of death in police custody, 1 case of forced abortion, 1 case of a suspicious death, 1 case of disappearance, 17 cases of rape, 4 cases of attempted rape, 11 cases of discrimination in interracial love and marriage and 24 cases of beating. Similarly, there have been 9 incidents of incitement to suicide and 2 cases of witchcraft.‘Caste discrimination and untouchability persist in Nepal, which has been declared untouchability-free. Although caste-based incidents occur on a daily basis, only a few incidents come to the surface, 'the report said.

According to the report, most of the incidents are due to caste untouchability. These include untouchability in quarantine, swearing, refusal to rent a house, swearing for touching a house, being deprived of ceremonies, beating, rejection of Dalit as the chairperson of the school management committee, use of racially abusive proverbs in television interviews. In the same year, three girls and one boy were killed after being raped for being Dalits, while two were related to inter-caste love and marriage, the report said. Two incidents are related to death after beating. Apart from that, there are incidents of revenge killings.

The highest incidence of Dalit human rights violations is in Province 2. In Province No. 2 alone, 33 percent of the incidents have been reported in Province 1, 20 percent in Gandaki, 4 percent in Karnali, 14 percent in the Far West, 14 percent in Lumbini and 7 percent in Bagmati. The districts with the highest number of such incidents are Morang, Saptari, Kalikot, Jajarkot, Baglung, Kathmandu, Rupandehi and Kailali.

The report concludes that the law should be amended to prevent injustice against the Dalit community. According to his report, the prevailing Ethnic and Other Social Untouchability and Discrimination (Fault and Punishment) Act, 068 should be amended to provide for imprisonment of more than five years, the burden of evidence on the defendant, implementation of zero tolerance principle and guarantee of protection of public and witnesses. Similarly, it has been suggested to form Dalit cells in each district police office and special Dalit benches in the courts. It has been suggested that strict departmental action should be taken against the police office and responsible police personnel who take initiative for reconciliation, there should be a joint monitoring mechanism of national human rights organizations, legal process should be taken forward according to the principle of zero tolerance against untouchability, and National Dalit Commission should be strengthened.

National/Online Media

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