"According to a 2013 report (PDF) on forced labour in Nepal’s agriculture sector, published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an overwhelming 95 percent of households employed in the haruwa-charuwa system are victims of forced labour. Nepal’s Dalit community, the lowest group in the complex Hindu caste system, is the most exploited in the haruwa-charuwa system. Discriminated in every sphere of their lives, poor Dalits fall prey to debt traps laid by landlords belonging to the privileged castes. The haruwa-charuwa labourers often toil from morning to dusk during the peak agricultural season, but receive minimum compensation for their work."
A unique event organised by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund brought together, activists, experts, trade unions and several international NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, IDSN and OSF. In a session dedicated to addressing caste-based discrimination, the exploitation of Dalit women in work settings, was raised by speakers at the global Women at Work conference in Nepal, stressing the urgent need to address the situation.
The biennial Darnal Award for Social Justice (DASJ) 2022 is all set to be warded to Karnali Arts Centre (KAC), a community-based arts organisation of Nepal and Equality Labs (EL), a US-based Dalit civil rights organisation this year.
Despite being prohibited in many countries, slavery is widespread in South Asia. Forced and bonded labour, resulting in a loss of control over labour conditions and terms of work, is often interlinked with the caste system and related types of customary feudal agricultural relationships.
Joint submission by IDSN, DSN Finland, DSN Norway, ARISA and IMADR.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, Olivier de Schutter, presented to the Human Rights Council his visit report to Nepal, which took place from 29 November to 9 December 2021.
IDSN and the UN OHCHR Minority section brought together an experts’ round table discussion to mark the 30th Anniversary of the UN Minority mandate.
Despite holding posts, experience as decision makers was not encouraging as discrimination continued, they say.
Official newsletter of the Feminist Dalit Organisation
In most of the countries of South Asia, hate speech is increasingly used by majority groups against minorities on the basis of religion, ethnicity or linguistic difference. Some of the groups under attack, in turn, are found to be victimising others at the same time. The common denominator driving hate speech in the region currently are the ubiquitous online platforms, primarily social media.
Survey by the SR on contemporary forms of slavery
IDSN submission to the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery for his study about slavery in the informal sector, to be presented at the 77th session of the UNGA.
Prem Pariyar worked with the student government association representing the 23 colleges in the California State University system as they passed a resolution to ban caste discrimination. He said he was involved in efforts at the University of California, Davis to do the same.
Students worked to get their university to officially recognize caste — a millennia-old concept that assigns people their social statuses at birth — as a source of discrimination on the Northern California campus.
Following his visit to Nepal that started on 29 November, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Olivier De Schutter, released a statement highlighting the persistent interconnections between caste and poverty in Nepal. The Rapporteur also raised issues of caste violence and the need to do more to ensure meaningful political representation of Dalit women in Nepal.
A gift of a camera inspired Belmaya Nepali to rise above poverty and abuse to make documentaries
Journalists, filmmakers, writers – all of them have but one purpose: to tell stories. Sometimes it takes years to find the one medium that is able to embody a story to its fullest, giving power and contours to ideas. Other times, it is the story itself that chooses the best way to be told by its very own protagonists. This is the case of “I Am Belmaya”, directed by Sue Carpenter, a 14-years in the making documentary narrating Belmaya Nepali’s life through her own eyes and life experiences.
Most of the 100 Dalit representatives of the people in the three tiers of government, who have gathered in Kathmandu to share their four years of experience, have said that the discriminatory attitude towards the community still remains deeply rooted in society and this is affecting their performance.