Leaders have stressed the need for running a social campaign for an end to the discrimination against the Dalit community in the country. Speaking at an event organized by the Sushma Koirala Memorial Foundation on Saturday, the leaders emphasized on the need to build an atmosphere of social goodwill among people of all ethnicities.
On the occasion, social campaigner Durga Sob said a sitting minister supporting a person in custody on the charge of committing discrimination was condemnable, which she said gives a message that the powerful can do what they like.
Advocate Prakash Nepali emphasized on the need to implement the many legislations in place for addressing the problems facing the Dalit community. The state should work to establish social justice.
According to information shared at the programme, the 2011 census shows the population of Dalit in Nepal to be 13.8 per cent. However, 42 per cent of the Dalit are poor. Furthermore, the representation of the Dalit community in Nepal Police is nine per cent and only one per cent in the judicial sector.
The literacy rate is 52.4 per cent, with only 45.5 per cent women literate. Among the Dalit, 44 per cent in tarai and 15 per cent in hills are landless.
Foundation member-secretary Atul Koirala said the concept of social engineering should be adopted to end discrimination and untouchability against the Dalit community.
Prof Rajendra Koirala said the latest incident of caste-based discrimination shows that the political leadership still carries the notion of racial untouchability.
Likewise, Prof Baburam Timsina called for a comprehensive study on the term Dalit whether it is a destiny, a tendency, a ethnicity, religion, social discrimination etc.
Social campaigner Nawaraj Adhikari called for a campaign to end caste-based discrimination in the country.
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