Most of the owners of big media houses are non dalits thus this apathy for our demands

Ms. Bishwakarma: First, let me clarify your confusion Mr. Upadhyaya. To your question regarding the word Dalit itself, I would like to tell you that the word in itself is in a “respectful form”. The who have been, since time immemorial discriminated by the State, the Society and in due time left in the lurch by the State, some time in the name of religion or in the name of color belong to the dalit community. Those who were termed as untouchables again by the successive regimes are in fact dalits, and the word itself does not carry a derogatory meaning. The word Dalit is in use in India and elsewhere as well. And the fact is only that the so called men belonging to the higher echelon of the society use it as a derogatory one. The word Dalit, in fact has made our community popular world over and it also subtly makes the world aware of the discrimination we have faced since centuries. Thus it is worthless to look for an alternative to the word dalit, rather concentrating on addressing our problems to immediate effect is only the viable option and would be a logical answer to your question as well. The Dalit community should be granted their due rights. This is what we demand primarily.

TGQ2: What are the problems the Dalit Community are facing? Tell us now, the role what the State has played in addressing the problems of your community? Are you hopeful?

Ms. Bishwakarma: Our demand is very simple, Upadhyaya sir. We would like to live our life similar to what people from other communities are allowed to live. The State should make laws and put them into practice in real terms that we can live life as others do. Our demands are only that the State must ensure our basic rights for our economic activities, social behavior, cultural acts, political, health and right to education that have been barred by the past regimes from us only because we belong to this community. The dalits are barred from their rights to own land, water and Jungle, this issue the state must address. Almost ninety percent of Dalits are land less, this is one among the several issues that needs due attention from the State. Mushar, Dom and Chamar- the Dalits community living in Madhesh are yet to be brought into the main stream. The Dalits have been denied so far their due role in the affairs of the State. We demand our communities’ full participation because we are also the sovereign citizens of this country.

More so, even within the dalit community, the Dalit women are living a life as a third class citizen in this male dominated society, this issue is also to be addressed by the State. There is the Badi community within the domain of Dalit community who are still living by the side of a river or in a cave. This is unfortunate!

The State is yet to address issues raised by various marginalized communities during the Maoists’ led rebellion and also during Janaandolan-II that were promised by the political actors. The state has addressed issues relating to various ethnic groups and communities yet it has not enacted laws.

The trend of our political actors has been that as long as they are in the streets, they keep on promising various things however, as they cling to the power setup, they tend to forget their past promises. The leaders in fact continue with their age old and status quoists’ mindset and follow their unscientific mode of working that creates problems, not only that the government itself resorts to repressive measures when people come to the streets demanding their rightful dues and continues to be ignore to their plea.

TGQ3: As you your self belong to the Dalit community and also being a Women activist, have you been supported by your community in your activities? There have been some critics that some social organizations even within this community have been misusing the funds they receive from various donor agencies. What say you?

Ms. Bishwakarma: It is evident that being a dalit woman myself and while working for the upliftment of this community, I have to accept that I have been encouraged a lot by my own community members. On the other hand the political parties in the country have been limiting ourselves to the cadre level and using us as their vote banks. They are also hell bent on exploiting us through the tactic of first dividing us and then ruling over us. This I see as the main hurdle before the implementation of several donor based programs aimed at uplifting the Dalit community. There are some cases as you outlined, yet most of the dalits are benefiting from such programs aimed at empowering us. To tell you more, as the monitoring mechanism is itself weak or are only limited to verbal commitments put in place either by the donor themselves of by the government, some cases have been found that some organizations have been found misusing the funds too.

We also know that dalits who are living in the districts of Jumla, Dolpa, Rukum, Rolpa, Mugu, Dalilekh and in some other parts of the county have been dying as there is lack of food, medicine and clothes in those areas. However, most of the non governmental organizations that have been supported by the donor agencies are located in Kathmandu and they have no time to visit those areas.

TGQ4: Lots of promises were made by the political parties during the Janaandolan-II. Have they kept their promises made then? Or it is just the otherwise?

Ms. Bishwakarma: The people of this country had lots of expectation from the current leadership. Nevertheless, by now all the dreams have shattered and the reality is that it was a sheer blunder on the peoples’ part to expect something that was unattainable through the current leadership.

The decade long conflict was about to have a peaceful ending, yet there is the voice of discontent being raised from the Terai, armed outfits have emerged and thus the Terai is burning. The marginalized citizens of this country who live in the Terai have started demanding their rightful identity, the state turns its deaf ear towards the Madhesi cry thus there is the indiscriminate killing.

To solve the current dispute, there is only way out and that is granting the Madhesis their due rights. The inclusion of Madhesis, Women, Dalits and the Janajatis into the mainstream which, in my humble opinion, can only solve the current dispute. The more repression the state resorts to, there will be more voices of discontent raised...it will get only more and more strong.

The State must understand the fact that only assurances cannot solve the problem; transforming words into realities will solve them. Showing responsibility to the nation and nationality is needed, no fight for power is warranted at this time. The country and the country men are above all benefits, this the leadership must understand.

They must show its responsibility to the dalits, their problems must be addressed legally, then only we can show our belief in the current leadership. Else people will look for the alternative.

TGQ5: How much support you and your community is getting from the Nepalese media sector? Have they supported the community you represent so far? What role you expect the media should play in the future in this regard?

Ms. Biswakarma: In general, I have to tell you very frankly that the media so far appears to have been more prejudiced towards our community, and I firmly believe that it is only due to the sheer apathy of the media our demands have not been addressed so far.

Some big media houses unless they are assured of some financial benefits do not even look into our demands. Hence, it is getting difficult for us to bring our issues to the open. Most of the owners of the big media houses are non dalits and thus this indifference. The media men themselves roofed by the discriminatory mindset cannot bring our issues to the open. On the other, we have ourselves tried to bring out our issues in the public but could not continue with our effort mainly due to lack of funds.

Still we have expectation from our media, and our community hopes that the media here will bring to the public- national and international alike, our issues without being prejudiced.

Posted on : 2007-12-19 06:01:43

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