Limited access to education, employment opportunities and discrimination embedded in social structure has severely restricted growth and development of this community in Nepal. For Dalit women, the situation is even worse. Poverty, lack of sanitation, the issue of landlessness, early child marriage, lack of education, and lack of alternative economic opportunities all pose insurmountable barriers for the gender to successfully provide for itself and create a viable future for its children.
Dalit women suffer from triple discrimination as oppressed by the so-called high caste people (which equally affects both male and female Dalits), oppressed by the design of the Hindu patriarchal system and oppressed by Dalit males. 90% of Dalit women in Nepal live below the poverty line and 80% of Dalit women are illiterate. These women are also vulnerable to serious health issues, sex trafficking, domestic violence, and suffer from social, political, and economic powerlessness.
Although the overall status of women n Nepal is low, Dalit women are a target to severe oppression. Women compromise half of the population of the Dalit community in Nepal which makes them a vulnerable target. They undergo pain, agony, sorrow, misconduct, maltreatment and suffering. In comparison to other high caste women, the Dalit women have been forced to live in most vulnerable conditions. They constitute the major workforce doing hard manual labour and engage in agricultural operations. Reasons for this maltreatment are several. For one, the whole Dalit community has to struggle for survival. Thus they need helping hand from their women. Through this perspective, Dalit women deserve better position than those of higher castes. But they are often less paid and are subjected to low social respect. Moreover, these women are often considered tools of sex. The behaviour which follows thus adds to their woes.
However, things seem to be taking a new turn for this community in Nepal. A temple in Kathmandu now has a Dalit woman as priest. The 43-year-old is the priest at the Chhakkubakku Bhagwati temple in the capital. The mother of four comes from the Sarki clan who was originally cobbler and once forced to live on the carcasses of dead cows when Nepal was a Hindu kingdom with a ban on cow slaughter.
In constituent assembly elections held on April 10, 2008, a number of Dalit candidates-including women were elected, thereby igniting hope that this increased political participation will help end discrimination. Out of 197 women, there are 22 Dalit women in the Constituent Assembly today. They represent the grassroots level, district and national level. It is being hoped by the community and the human rights watch agencies at large that participation of the Dalit women in Constituent Assembly will bring meaningful and remarkable contribution for establishing equal, just and caste, class and gender discrimination free society in Nepal.
However, social scientists believe it will not be soon before the society actually starts a stride towards the centuries old caste system running as philosophy of Hinduism in the Nepalese society. The issue needs to be tackled with a proper social strategy instead of relying on one-step solution to the issue of Dalit and Dalit women rights.
The government on its part will have take a stand and enforce the anti-caste discrimination laws in the country. Moreover, it will also have to give a proportional representation to Dalit women in society through different state organs so that it becomes more friendly and inclusive to the Dalit community. It is time now for Nepal to move beyond caste-based discrimination and move towards creating an inclusive society with a government that both serves and protects all people, regardless of caste, class and gender.
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