Silent alarm - RUP KUMAR BK

JUN 13 -

Silent voices usually go unheard. Cries of discrimination, screams of segregation and physical attack go unnoticed. Yelling in such situations only invites further discrimination and segregation. A large section of Nepali society—the Dalits—have been harbouring such pain for centuries, expressing only murmurs in their backyards, wiping away tears in solitude and cursing their destiny with no retaliation whatsoever against the perpetrators. Most of the cases of violence against marginalised people—Dalits, Kamlaris, ethnic minorities, women, Haruwa, Charuwa, bonded labourers and child workers—are either kept secret or only a few catch the attention of the media and the authorities. Second, only a few of the victims get justice. Most of them get delayed justice or none at all.

Political cadres and occupational organisations closely associated with the major political parties have a tight grasp over media houses, journalists, diplomatic missions and international human rights agencies. They usually use those channels to amplify their voices to make reckless demands, regardless of the importance of the issues for the rest of the people. Except for a few, most of their issues are related to the political establishment, de-establishment or fringe benefits. Some political cadres call Nepal bandas, or major blockades demanding the release of their criminal cadres.
They blow their trumpets loudly by using amplifying instruments such as the media, NGOs and civil society. Here, I usually get stuck on these questions: Does a loud voice signify its great importance to society? Does the most talked-about issue mean a pertinent agenda for the nation? Most of them are like recurrent posts on Facebook
that say, “Please like it within three seconds. Please write 2 in the comment box and see the result. Please share the page and you’ll get a benefit within five minutes.” Such posts collect hoards of likes, comments and shares that make them popular overnight. Are those posts really likeable, shareable or worth commenting on? Do they really bring you benefits? I’ve seen some genuine posts with ideas, conscience, wisdom and advocacy—unnoticed and ignored.
The advocacy movement of marginalised groups including Dalits has suffered a similar fate. Most of the time, their voices are either unnoticed or unheard. Even if they do get heard, the government forms a committee, investigates the cases and makes some recommendations. The reports then pile up in offices like rugs for years waiting to be implemented. While in real life, these people keep on suffering as they are molested, discriminated, tortured, raped, exiled and even killed. If they come to cry in the open after an incidence of human rights violation , only a few local FM stations and newspapers cover their stories. However, after a few days, their voices slowly diminish, the cases grow cold, the culprits who had fled return to the village and those poor peoples have to once again live in fear of discrimination, torture and humiliation. The cycle continues and their voices are rarely heard.
The saga of discrimination against the Dalits began after Nepal was declared a Hindu state and the 1854 Muluki Ain was implemented, which put Dalits at the bottom of the
social hierarchy, leaving them to suffer discrimination, untouchability, deprivation and poverty. Several generations of Dalits suffered the fate of second class citizens. On June 4, 2006, a ray of hope appeared for Dalits when Nepal was declared an untouchability-free country. Later, the Caste Based Discrimination and Untouchability (Offence and Punishment) Act 2011 was introduced, which made any act of discrimination punishable by law. However, a lack of strict implementation has left Dalits vulnerable to discrimination and brutal attacks. Even after the Act was enforced, a number of Dalits have been jailed for inter-caste marriage or prevented from drawing water from public wells. Recently, a Dalit from Dailekh district was exiled. More recently, on June 7, an entire Dalit village in Rautahat district was attacked and badly beaten by the so-called upper caste people when the villagers refused to withdraw a petition to allow them to worship at a local temple.
After the Rautahat case received national attention, the Dalits demanded immediate action while local political leaders have tried to pressure the Rautahat district chief to pardon the attackers. Those poor Dalit families of Rautahat don’t belong to any political party, civil society, occupational organisation or trade union; otherwise, those local political leaders wouldn’t have put pressure on the district administration to dismiss the case. If those victims were not Dalits and had been cadres of political parties, they would have launched blockades, Nepal bandas or vandalised public or private property. The Dalit movement, uninvolved in vandalism, blockades and bandas, organised peaceful protest programmes with a few NGOs in some places of the country, including Kathmandu. After the peaceful demonstration, the government agreed to compensate the victims of the Dalit community in Rautahat, formed
an investigation committee and pledged to punish those involved in the incident.
If the government delays justice again and does not punish the perpetrators, those silent voices—which have been suppressed for long—may one day burst out violently and distort the current social order of Nepal and create a new order. These silent voices, if they continuously go unheard, may arouse hatred, revenge and possible ethnic wars like between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, Tamils and Singhalese in Sri Lanka, Hindus and Muslims in Jammu-Kashmir and Shias and Sunnis in the Arab world. The voice for democracy against Rana rule before 1951 was also silent at first. Similarly, the voice for multiparty democracy before 1990 and the voice of the Maoists before the decade-long People’s War in Nepal were also silent. These genuine voices were once ignored by the state and later ended in a complete paradigm shift of power. If the country listens to the silent voices of the marginalised communities—Dalits, Kamlaris and ethnic minorities—it will prevent another possible ethnic conflict for which we are not prepared.
source:-ekantipur