Democratic politics in Nepal

Abstract

While recent political transformation has brought several inclusion policies and changes in Nepal, Dalit are still politically excluded. In order to trace out the political inequality of Dalit and to generalize the findings, both primary and secondary qualitative data have been interpreted and analyzed. The key informant interview method was employed to explore the experiences of Dalit on the current political inequality, identity debates, and representation. It was found that deeply rooted caste hierarchy and discrimination practices are underlying detrimental factors for the depleted socio-economic, educational, and political status of Dalit in Nepal. The conception of Dalit as a common identity, although contested among Dalit, is only a short-term strategy to unite them against all forms of injustice including caste based discrimination, and to achieve equality. It can be concluded that special political representation measures, such as proportional representation (PR), are one of the major institutional reforms for achieving social justice for Dalit in Nepal.

Forest Governance in Nepal concerning Sustainable Community Forest Management and Red Panda Conservation

“…The "Others" group in the online survey included youths (self-identifying based on age), a representative from media; online retail; tourism operators; self-identifying as the private sector, and forest-based industry. Women, Dalits, indigenous groups (IP), Madhesi, and the people who live in remote areas and do not have access to the internet fall within the category of marginalized people in the case of Nepal to our list of respondent [26,27,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. So, less than 10% of the online respondents were found to be marginalized.…”

Women environmental human rights defenders in Nepal and the Philippines: unpacking the (mal)development–disaster risk relationship through lived experiences

“…Although the caste system was officially abolished in 1963, intersecting discrimination still occurs based on this hierarchy. Dalit people are particularly vulnerable to landlessness, forced labour and low salaries, while the barriers they face in accessing education limit their opportunities to seek better livelihoods than the ones traditionally assigned to them, such as waste pickers or physical labourers (Bishwakarma, 2017;Karki & Bohara, 2014;Subedi, 2010). Affirmative action measures and social change have contributed to weakening the determinisms imposed by the caste system, but those belonging to lower castes, and women especially, continue to face systemic discrimination and barriers to participating in decision-making (Panta & Resurrección, 2014;Pyakurel, 2011;Subedi, 2010).…”

Changing Livelihood, and Culture in Pattharkatta (Kushbadiya) Community of Nepal

“…They have been experiencing untouchability and multi-dimensional marginalization in their livelihood and culture (Giri, 2018).When livelihood strategies of theMusaharschanged, their ritual and everyday practices of caste based untochabilty also changed (Giri, 2018).Among them, TaraiDalits have entered a vicious circle of poverty when they entangled unequal reciprocity with politically powerful communities. Because of various discriminations, they are deprived of opportunities and tend to be excluded from financial, political, and social enterprises, which are articulated to their poor socio-economic, educational, and political status (Bishwakarma, 2017). Many researchers explored that Dalits (specifically TaraiDalits) are the most vulnerable community in terms of livelihood and perpetuation of traditional culture (Bishwakarma, 2018;Chaurasiya et al, 2019;Pariyar& Lovett, 2016).Mary Cameron (2010) analyzes not onlythe genesis of the Dalit identity, but also the livelihood strategies of hill Dalit of Far Western Nepal.…”