Incident Reports

Caste based discrimination still prevalent in Nepal

2021-11-24

Nepal

Bhim Bahadur Bishokarma of Bharatpur metropolitan-4 died from the beatings of non-Dalits while advocating that Dalits should be allowed to worship at the local Durga temple. The incident that happened on October 14 is under the judicial process.

Jyoti Paswan, resident of Surunga municipality-7 in Saptari committed suicide on August 7 due to an inter-caste love marriage. The victimized family has filed a case of suicide against the accused.Bal Bahadur Bishwokarma of Kankai municipality in Jhapa died on April 9 due to beatings from local non-Dalits.

The dead body of Ajit Mijar who did inter-caste marriage is kept in TU Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj for the last five years. The dead body of Ajit Mijar who went missing after 3 days of getting married was recovered from Furkekhola in Dhading on 2016/07/15.  

These representative incidents of violence happened due to caste-based discrimination, says the Dalit rights activist Ganesh Bishwokarma. A total of 18 people were killed in the year 2019/20 due to caste-based discrimination whereas 117 incidents of discrimination against Dalit communities were recorded. 

Of those 117 incidents, 26% of the incidents are related to caste-based discrimination and untouchability, whereas 20% are related to physically assaulting the Dalits.  According to a study done by Samata Foundation, 12 out of 31 incidents related to caste-based discrimination have ended without taking any legal measures. 14 incidents were solved through the mutual agreement without seeking legal measures and for 5 incidents only the case was processed through the legal instrument of Untouchability and Discrimination (Crime and Punishment) Act 2068. 

This situation where most of the cases end with mutual agreement and very few take a legal path is an irony of the judicial process itself, says Prakash Nepali, and advocate and  researcher at Samata Foundation. 


National/Online Media

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