Eery few people know
Krishna Kunwar of Baitadi. But to 50 Dalit families in Kanchanpur, she
is the gutsy saviour who has been fighting to help them find a roof over
their heads.
The families have leprosy and the government made
some provision for them to live in a community forest in Kanchanpur.
However, the forest officials sought to evict them, saying they were
felling trees. It was Kunwar who took up their cause, running tirelessly
from one government department to another to rehabilitate the families.
During one such journey, Kunwar was intrigued to see a
group of people watching something intently and occasionally, cheering
lustily. There were women among them and some of them wept. A curious
Kunwar alighted from her bus to see what was going on. That was how she
became acquainted with the tale of Kali, the ‘Dalit Aimai’ who has been
spearheading a new struggle for women’s rights in the far west.
"Kali Aimai", the brainchild of the Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal, is a street play that has
been performed in nearly a dozen far western towns to spread the message
that the times have changed. The government has abolished
untouchability and the haliya system of bonded labour. Also, it is a
punishable offence to accuse any woman of being a witch and ill-treating
her.
"‘While working in the far west, we found rampant
economic, social and cultural discrimination," says Chitralekha Massey,
coordinator of the OHCHR anti-discrimination theatre campaign that is
sponsoring the street play. "‘There is a link between poverty and
discrimination. For the poor, there was a complete sense of resignation:
people accepted their fates as their karma, kismet. The complete
culture of impunity in the legal framework contributed to it."
OHCHR started its campaign with a comic strip to
teach victims and their families how to make a police complaint. It was
followed up with one-minute video clip against the custom in the Terai
and elsewhere of attacking women on the belief they were bokshis –
witches. The clip was beamed by NTV in collaboration with the Prime
Minister’s Office and other ministries.
However, the campaign could not reach rural Nepal,
where there is scant electricity and literacy. "We needed to take the
campaign to the community level," says Massey. "That’s when we thought
of the anti-discrimination theatre campaign."
Actors’ Studio, the theatre company that has carved
out an original identity by staging plays on issues of social relevance –
the oppression of minorities, pollution, crime and terrorism and
HIV/AIDS – was given the task of taking the play to five far western
districts. The story of Kali and Harka, a Dalit couple who refuse to
work as haliyas for the village strongman and are victimised by him has
been written by Khagendra Lamichhane. While Anup Baral plays Harka, Kali
is played by rising actress Dia Maskey, who created a stir with her
debut in the supernatural thriller Kagbeni by Bhushan Dahal.
The play uses the simplest props while the actors
play several characters. Performed at market places, bus stations and
village meeting points, Kali Aimai is a play within a play, beginning
with the plight of a director who is forced to coach the villagers to
perform his play after his actors fail to arrive due to a bandh.
When the landlord tries to punish Harka and Kali for
refusing to slave for him and accuses Kali of being a witch who tried to
kill his wife, her humiliation at the hands of his goons however
triggers angry protests from the villagers who demand that the director
change the script to punish the landlord and his henchmen.
While performing the play in different villages, the
actors used local dialects to make the story seem like the audience’s
own. They would also listen to suggestions by the villagers and
incorporate them in the next performance. They were urged by women to
include tales of the ordeals suffered by women during menstruation,
when, traditionally, they are not allowed to enter the household. The
team was told that even some government schools in the far west did not
allow menstruating teachers to take classes.
Massey says that in order to make the campaign really
effective, there was a need to make it go beyond the one-time
performances. So the play was followed by a workshop where local
artistes were coached to stage the play and also given a financial
contribution for a show.
There was a tremendous response to the workshops,
says Tanuja Basnet, a researcher with OHCHR. While the play was being
staged in Baitadi, Dalit artistes walked for two days to make it to the
venue. In Dhangadi, local actors cycled for four hours through a bandh.
Baral says he was moved by the response. "I don’t
know how much we can influence audiences in Kathmandu who come munching
popcorn to watch our shows. But I was moved when someone in a village
gave us RS 101 as prize. We ought to perform more in villages where we
can touch people’s hearts and inspire a change in society."
The play about discrimination against Dalits has
Dalit members in the cast. Hira Bijuli Nepali, a 20-year-old from Mugu
district says he is in the play as an ‘investment’ for his Dalit
brothers. "I want to take to remote places the message that the times
have changed,"’ he says. "People also need to change."
Massey says after the response in the far west, OHCHR
would like to replicate the project in the other districts for a year.
"We would like to partner with the National Human Rights Commission,
National Dalit Commission and the Women’s Commission," she says.
"Finally, we would like to fire one big bang in Kathmandu with local
artistes from all corners of Nepal performing on one platform."
source: gorkhapatra
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