Could Peace Beget Rights for Nepals Dalits?
As the signing of an historic peace agreement on 21 November brought the decade-long bloody civil war in Nepal to an end, the people took to the streets to celebrate. But in a sober committee room in London’s House of Commons, we sat in shocked silence, our eyes open with disbelief as we watched the TV screen. Usha’s daughter turned her face slightly away from the camera to tell her story. Her eyes filled with tears as she recounted the day her mother saved her from being raped by offering herself in her daughter’s place. Afterwards, the men no doubt made sure to purify themselves, safe in the knowledge they would not be held to account for their crime, probably in denial that they had even done anything wrong. As a Dalit from the Badi community, Usha is branded ‘untouchable’ according to the brutal and age-old caste system that is rooted in the Hindu religion. It is a system that rigidly divides Nepalese society and locks Dalit women into generation after generation of poverty and pro
