While most of our meeting in Indrapur was taken up by discussion related specifically to the Madheshi community, we did touch on one topic that is generally problematic in the current context of Nepal. That issue was awareness about the coming elections. The election date is presently set for November 22 (elections were originally planned for June.) These elections are not for an actual government yet, but instead for a constituent assembly which will draft a new constitution for Nepal.

The drafting of a constitution is clearly a vastly significant task that will affect politics in Nepal for many years to come. If frustrated groups, like the Madheshis, can mobilize their support and elect representatives from their community to help shape the new constitution they will be able to accomplish much more than the extremist militias that litter Nepal’s political scene today. So what exactly is preventing the Madheshis from doing just that? My time in Indrapur helped lead me to two answers for this question; a lack of awareness and understandings of the elections, as well as disillusionment with all politicians.

Elections awareness is a hot topic among NGOs in Nepal these days and there are a lot of programs being run. There had in fact been an area information session about the elections held in Indrapur’s VDC. Yet when I asked about the elections at the meeting only the political leaders could offer developed views of the elections, and not even the most politically active of them really understood the concept of federalism. Federalism is an important topic for Nepal and is especially significant for the Madheshis. Many Madheshis are calling for an independent state but this is clearly not a political reality and would not be tolerated by Nepal or India. Federalism offers a chance for greater control of their region and its policies while keeping the terai part of greater Nepal. If people understood this it might lead more Madheshi communities to work with the changes going on in Nepal instead of against them.

That people in Indrapur, a village less than five miles from a major city, had little knowledge or understanding about the elections despite having had an awareness program take place nearby raises questions about the approach being taken to spread awareness. Essentially the problem is that awareness campaigns are focusing on urban areas (despite the fact that Nepal’s population is overwhelmingly rural) and when they go out to the rural areas they hold large programs at the VDC or district level. In the terai the average VDC contains something like 30 villages, each district contains between 25 and 50 VDCs. Holding events at these larger levels theoretically should allow more people access to the information, but in effect it excludes many people. Day laborers, farmers, women, these groups are unlikely to be able to stop their work and travel to where the events are being held. So ultimately it is mostly the local leaders and politicians who end up taking part. That only the leaders understand the elections leads to block voting within communities where who they vote for is more of less dictated by the richest and most influential. Block voting in turn tends to lead more to corruption within the voting process as leaders cab be bought or influences.
I think programs need to focus their efforts more on the village and ward (there are nine wards in each VDC) level. For a truly representative result the rural voters need to vote, and do so in an individual and informed way. If they do not then the urban bias will continue in Nepali politics and the concerns of much of the population might not be heard.

It is this urban bias, and specifically Kathmandu bias that has led to disillusionment among many rural voters. In Indrapur it was explained to me that all politicians, even those elected from rural areas, once they have been elected they move to Kathmandu and are rarely ever seen again. Once they have the votes they forget the promises made and issues that might really help local people. In my mind I was thinking: politicians will be politicians no matter where you are in the world. In Nepal though, at this critical juncture this feeling of frustration with politics could have devastating effects. The result of disillusionment is that potential voters are more likely to stay home and work instead of vote, and to achieve a lasting success these elections need to generate a lot of interest and activity among the voters. While you cannot change politicians, I do think awareness programs explaining that if Nepal successfully creates a true democracy then the voters will have the power to make demands of the politicians.

Back in Indrapur I had already used up more than two hours of everyone’s time, so I limited myself to one final question; “Can we take a picture together?”