By Suraj Senchury, December 1, 2020,,,The term ”crime” is interpreted as an action or omission which constitutes an offense and is punishable by law. But what happens to that sort of crime when the criminals still exist in the entire human society? Will they be punished or ignored to set them free? It’s high time we should discuss such issue and set up alerts. We dwell in a peaceful country with no more peaceful attitudes. We commit to the speeches on humanity, national unity, no sexual and caste basis discrimination, the children’s right, women right and so on. Prior to turning over the parliament, each leader pledges to be outspoken about all anti-social issues, prioritizing the development of his/her state and the nation. But what hitches them to give up those commitments is something that I have been seeking to understand. They partake in day dreams among the people and try enthralling them with the help of jokes, hoax and false promises to achieve the power and position. More often, they are found self-focused and our dreams remain as a reverie. We hardly see any leaders addressing the real ongoing pain within the nation. One major pain we encounter today is the practice of caste system and its behavior based on it and streaks on it. Unless such practices are eradicated, the country can never grow, be it small or big. Although codes are available on papers, but caste system still seems effective in terms of wholesome behavior of the people. Such code was formally enforced by Janga Bahadur, in Nepal around 167 years ago after his official visit to Europe. During his term of enlistment, he might have concluded learning about those countries that operated on strong rules and codes. He then might have thought of establishing one of the same kinds and later commissioned one in the name of the Muluki Ain (National Code) in Nepal. This has been the first ever national code which was brought into force that led the nation and people performance. People were divided into caste (Higher and lower castes) and also their Do’s and Don’ts(refers to especially what lower caste people were supposed to do etc).
This law, not simply left those low caste people down, but also chucked them out from all possible opportunities. Dreams of having sound and quality education, lifestyle and social status were beyond their reach. This drill was so severe that those lower caste people were deemed as untouchables. And the outcome of the later stage lies right in front of us.
Today, we still see that these untouchables have been suffering millions of pains in the guild for the past several years. There is discrimination on them on so many social issues, human bodies and forums. For instance, let’s spill the beans about the incident that took two years back, Nirmala Pant, a teenager from western Nepal, was raped to death. Many people pointed against the issue. In fact, Nirmala rape case was taken as a national issue and the case got underway from abysmal to scrutiny level. The regime of Nepal tried to provide all that it could do to give the justice to the victim’s family, although the case was later hushed up. The rumor was to the extent that even the victim’s family was proposed one million rupees to recoup the failure. It was an awesome gesture from the government to furnish support for that family. On the contrary, Maya Sunar, another adult female from the same area was raped and killed. But neither this murder could get stellar media coverage nor did she find any remarkable support. Her dead body could gain no honor, why? Was it like that because she was a Dalit female and didn’t deserve scrutinized investigation or what could be the reason behind this bias gesture? How can both the cases be compared? Can we feel any fetid smell of caste discrimination in these two incidents? These questions usually arise when it comes to comparison. This is how the actual treatment is paid by our society and the people when it comes to caste and female violence.
Let’s take another instance that took place around 4-5 years ago in Dhading. Ajit Mijar, a Dalit boy who was brutally killed was due to inter-caste marriage. To hide the case, the people involved in the murder made the police bury the dead body pronouncing an unclaimed dead body. How sad and pathetic activity it was in the country led by law!
Rukum’s case of 4-5 months ago is another caste discrimination result and was one of the widespread news then.The incident was entirely based on caste basis, it’s been proven. Nobody is able to forget that gruesome attack on those 19 boys led by Nawaraj, a 21 year young Dalit boy who was also one among the 6 to be stoned and beaten to death. The rumor was that even the police were watching the mob pelting stones at those victims. This was a sheer flagrant violation of sound philosophy, but the police seemed no cognizant and the incident went beyond its control. If I personally have to say, the police on duty should be held responsible for that entire incident as they didn’t contain any vital initiative to control that angry mob. Had they called further force and took a hop into the incident, perhaps the result would not have been that serious. People all over the nation now are aggrieved and stumped with the incident. The case had reached the UN desk as well and recorded into an international media coverage but could not be that fruitful as expected. Almost all people condemned that broad daylight killing and called for the independent probe but most of the culprits were later released owing to pandemic effects.
There should not be any space for impunity but the justice didn’t prevail in black and white manner. We exist in a country led by the constitution, the victims should be offered justice without being biased and it is the responsibility of our government to enunciate its initiative. But to our surprise, it didn’t happen as anticipated and no hope that it will. The incident like this can result in a long run impact on the people of today. Most of the people are technically savvy these days and such incident can bereft them easily. Where and how far the impact can break is the current concern as the protests and outrage is being ubiquitous day by day, resulting the protestors injured and lacerated by the random police attack on protesters. The primal scream is seen everywhere and demands for deep permanent systemic change. The government should bring a stringent law to address all the concern of the people and some crucial steps to be taken to eradicate this caste based violence as soon as possible. The nation should ensure that the victims’ families like these receive justice. Moving forward can’t be even imagined unless we take an aggressive action to rip out the insidious caste based inequalities. There is no relief at all, the government has enforced law and order, but where we have that freedom feeling, our own space! -Say the caste basis victims across the state.
If our current social condition is this bad, how pathetic lives our ancestors must have lived dwelling in old times-says another Dalit activist in despair. Impunity should never exist, not at all. The case like that of Rukum demands the justice. The dead bodies of Nawaraj Bishwakarma and his friends were supposed to be consigned to flame with full honors since even the government officials could not hold it but this could not happen. That case was not just a murder, but a sheer caste discrimination. The bystanders say, ” Had Nawaraj been one of the upper caste boys, there had not been any such incident.” Now, how many Nawaraj Bk and Ajit Mijar have to yield their lives to get equal social status has been the major question that demands a concrete answer in today’s context. Nepal has already many challenges in its portfolio. Since the lockdown that began from 24th March, over 1500 plus suicidal cases are already reported and such caste-based violence and the outrages done by such incident can risk the nation in a 360 degree manner followed by people replete with anger, tiffs and protests over the issue. It’s high time that the government should improve poor action matrix, react upon its strategies on handling social discriminations, deploy provincial honchos in the workforce and guarantee peace, safety and security of people from all castes and creed before the nation’s future looms grim by untimely actions and outlines. Rape cases have increased and increment rate is even higher in terms of Dalit women and children. Samjhana Sunar, a 12 years old kid was not only raped but brutally killed. Though the culprit has been jailed, the ensuing threats still prevail. It’s really sad to say that while it is time for all of us to put our combined efforts to combat covid-19, we have been compelled to fight trivial for such crucial social issues i.e. caste discrimination, gender equality, rape etc. Thank you so much.
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Suraj Senchury, Dubai-UAE
