A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
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Balighary
Kanchi Bishwokarma – Pahajok District: Kanchi Bishwokarama and her husband usually recieve food as payment for their work under Balighary. Often the food is spoiled. They are prohibited from touching their upper caste employeers during the transactions. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
Seti Sunar – 83, Pahajok District: Seti Sunar has perfored Balighary in over 200 homes for high caste families during a lifetime of work. He recieved food in payment even though he is a skilled metal worker. He started a family in 1963 and has found it almost impossible to support his wife and children. He has not been able to save money and has very few assets. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
Goma & Ramhun Pariyar – Pahajok District: Husband and wife, Goma (right) and Ramhum (left) are tailors and dressmakers. They own no land and are given their wages in rice. They are not allowed into the homes of their uppercaste employeers. We are "always at the mercy of upper-caste landowners... I would love to earn money, but they don’t give it to me. I have asked for more food in my payments, but I don’t get it," says Ramhun. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
Nar Bahadur Pariyar – 66, Baglung District: Nar Bahadur Pariyar began working under Balighary as a tailor at the age of 13. Until he managed to escape, three years ago, he was paid in crops and clothing. He was unable to save money and send his children to school. He found that other Balighary were prepared to work for less food, and this ensured his payment was also at rock bottom. While eating, he was required to use separate plates from those of his employers and denied access to toliets. Since leaving the village, he has secured a loan and sent his sons to school. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
Krishna Bill Bishwokarma – 76, Pahajok District
Krishna Bill Bishwokarma (left), a toolmaker, has worked under the Baligarhary system for 65 years. He is often given spoiled food as payment. Krishna feels that his work only for the benefits uppercaste landowners and that he receives too little for his long hours of work. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
Violence Against Dalit Women
Witchcraft
Kumari BK – Lalitpur District
Kumari BK told her harrowing story to the press at the National Women's Commission, and has received coverage in newspapers, and on radio and television channels, following an an attack on her and her family by angry villagers.
Her ordeal started, she said, when Bimala Lama, the headmistress of a local primary school, accused her of practicing witchcraft. Ms Lama and a group of villagers locked up Ms Kumari BK and her husband for two days, and tortured the couple until Ms Kumari BK "admitted" she was a witch.
Ms Kumari BK was kicked, punched, hit with stones, and forced to eat excrement while Ms Lama and other villagers told her that "Witches should be killed like this," according to a JMC report. The villagers also threatened to kill her husband if he spoke up in her defense.
Eventually, Ms Kumari BK gave in: "I accepted myself as a witch when they opted to chop my breasts using blades," she said.
Mixed Marriages
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Balighary
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Kanchi Bishwokarma – Pahajok District: Kanchi Bishwokarama and her husband usually recieve food as payment for their work under Balighary. Often the food is spoiled. They are prohibited from touching their upper caste employeers during the transactions. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
.jpg "Photo Credit: Devin Greenleaf") |
Seti Sunar – 83, Pahajok District: Seti Sunar has perfored Balighary in over 200 homes for high caste families during a lifetime of work. He recieved food in payment even though he is a skilled metal worker. He started a family in 1963 and has found it almost impossible to support his wife and children. He has not been able to save money and has very few assets. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
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Goma & Ramhun Pariyar – Pahajok District: Husband and wife, Goma (right) and Ramhum (left) are tailors and dressmakers. They own no land and are given their wages in rice. They are not allowed into the homes of their uppercaste employeers. We are "always at the mercy of upper-caste landowners... I would love to earn money, but they don’t give it to me. I have asked for more food in my payments, but I don’t get it," says Ramhun. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
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Nar Bahadur Pariyar – 66, Baglung District: Nar Bahadur Pariyar began working under Balighary as a tailor at the age of 13. Until he managed to escape, three years ago, he was paid in crops and clothing. He was unable to save money and send his children to school. He found that other Balighary were prepared to work for less food, and this ensured his payment was also at rock bottom. While eating, he was required to use separate plates from those of his employers and denied access to toliets. Since leaving the village, he has secured a loan and sent his sons to school. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
Krishna Bill Bishwokarma – 76, Pahajok District Krishna Bill Bishwokarma (left), a toolmaker, has worked under the Baligarhary system for 65 years. He is often given spoiled food as payment. Krishna feels that his work only for the benefits uppercaste landowners and that he receives too little for his long hours of work. (Profile by Devin Greenleaf, 2009)
Violence Against Dalit Women
| Santi – 35, Baglung District Santi, a resident of Baglung, has grown accustomed to social isolation. Other villagers refuse to touch objects that she has touched, and order their children not to play with her children. Only two other Dalit families live in the same area, and Santi's family often feels cut off from social life. Local officials are supposed to enforced the law against caste discrimination. But occasionally, they add to Santi's problems. On one occasion in 2009, a commotion broke out and Santi went outside to investigate. Police officers followed Santi back to her home, broke down the door, and beat her and members of her family. When she was interviewed by a JMC team, she said that the insults had been almost as cruel as the punches and lashes. Their injuries were so bad that the family needed medical attention. Santi has struggled to cover the cost of the hospital bills. (Profile by Jessica Tirado, 2009) |
Witchcraft
Kumari BK – Lalitpur District Kumari BK told her harrowing story to the press at the National Women's Commission, and has received coverage in newspapers, and on radio and television channels, following an an attack on her and her family by angry villagers.
Her ordeal started, she said, when Bimala Lama, the headmistress of a local primary school, accused her of practicing witchcraft. Ms Lama and a group of villagers locked up Ms Kumari BK and her husband for two days, and tortured the couple until Ms Kumari BK "admitted" she was a witch.
Ms Kumari BK was kicked, punched, hit with stones, and forced to eat excrement while Ms Lama and other villagers told her that "Witches should be killed like this," according to a JMC report. The villagers also threatened to kill her husband if he spoke up in her defense.
Eventually, Ms Kumari BK gave in: "I accepted myself as a witch when they opted to chop my breasts using blades," she said.
Mixed Marriages
| Chitrabhadur Barar – 39, Baglung District Chitrabhadur Barar (left) and his wife Parbati Barar (below), both Dalits, struggled to build their lives in the far west of Nepal. They acquired land and proudly built a home. But their lives changed forever after their son, Naryan, married a higher-caste girl Shrijana (below). After the wedding, Chitrabhadur's new in-laws began demanding large amounts of money, allegedly for “support” purposes. When Chitrabhadur was unable to pay, other villagers began to threaten him. Chitrabhadur was forced to surrender his land certificate and driven from the village with his wife, son and daughter in law. The family has tried to return several times, but faced a violent response every time. Narayan then left to seek work in Qatar. He left behind parents in mourning for their home, their land and their son - and his new wife. (Profile by Jessica Tirado, 2009) |
| Parbati Barar– 39, Baglung District Parbati Barar, 39, was violently attacked after her son, Narayan, married into an upper caste family. Some of the villagers event attempted to rape her. She fled from the village to the town of Baglung with her husband Chitrabhadur (above) and their daughter-in-law Shrijana (below). Her son Narayan has been in Qatar for the past year. (Profile by Jessica Tirado, 2009) |
| Shrijana KC – Baglung District Shrijana KC took a leap of faith when she married Naryan Barar, a Dalit, instead of the upper caste husband selected for her by her family. Non-Dalits who marry into a Dalit family are considered "polluted," and acquire the identity of a Dalit. Her family told her that by marrying Narayan she would contaminate them as well and would be banished from the home. They followed through on their threat and began to mobilize the entire village - higher and lower caste - against Narayan's family immediately after the wedding ceremony. The JMC interviewed Shrijana in early August, one year to the day after she and her husband were separated. Expelled from her caste and family, Shrijana will never be able to return to her home village. She is currently living with Naryan’s family in Baglung. (Profile by Jessica Tirado, 2009) |
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