society members have pointed out the need to uplift the marginalised
Dalit community to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015.
Although the government has made some progress in the fields of health,
education and poverty reduction, more efforts and initiatives are
necessary.
“Talking about poverty reduction, 25 percent Nepalis are below the
poverty line whereas the Dalits’ percentage is 42,” said Dalit rights
activist Hira Bishwokarma.
Speaking at an interaction on ‘MDGs and Dalits,’ jointly organised by
the Dalit NGO Federation and the Nepal Dalit Human Rights Organisation
on Saturday, Hira said Dalits will have to wait at least 17 more years
to meet poverty reduction goals. Dinesh Chandra Devkota, former
vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission, said that the
government would not meet the MDG targets without policy reforms and
strategic interventions for the upliftment of the Dalit community.
Limited investment from the donor community is widening the gap
between the Dalit and the non-Dalit community, said Devkota. “Donors
allocate only 0.9 percent of their funds to Dalits in Nepal,” he said.
Presenting a paper on MDGs and Dalits, researcher Amar Bishwokarma said
that the government should give first priority to Dalits in reducing
poverty, gender discrimination and child and maternal mortality.
Nepali Congress leader Min Bishwokarma said the incumbent government’s
decision to scrap Madhav Kumar Nepal’s Dalit-friendly programmes like
inter-cast marriage incentives and peoples’ residence programmes had
“pushed Dalits backward”.
source:ekantipur
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