Nepali-American Society for Oppressed (NASO) Community is holding its 2008 Convention in Washington DC on August 9. A Talk Program to discuss international efforts for Dalit rights in Nepal is planned.

Luji, a national of Congo in Africa who has never visited Nepal speaks Nepali fluently. He has been working in the camp of Nepalese in the UN Peace Keeping Force for past four years.

Veteran advocate of a republic for Nepal Rama Raja Singh is most likely to bag the Commander-in-Chief position. Maan Bahadur Bishwakarma as a candidate from Dalit community may have a chance for the second-in-command.

Kamal Nepali suddenly became a superhero after he successfully rescued a little girl trapped in the Seti river crevasse for over 20 hours. Everybody is excited about the outcome, but interestingly nobody has asked the obvious moral and legal questions about the process. A simple question we can ask ourselves is, would we contemplate sending our kids as small as Kamal for a potentially fatal rescue mission such as this one?

Tilak Pariyar and Rima Nepali talks over BBC Nepali Service’s Sajha Sawal Programme.

Kamal Nepali, 12, who rescued two-and-half year old Aradhana Pradhan from a 60-feet deep gorge in Pokhara on Wednesday at risk to his own life has been given a number of rewards and words of appreciations.

Nepali-American Society for Oppressed (NASO) Community is holding its First Convention in Washington DC, United States on Saturday, August 9, 2008.

A week after Nepal was declared a republic, Druba Kumar Sunar says, “The Maoist party has done a lot to end discrimination against Dalits and other suppressed groups in the village,” recalling days when his family was looked down upon, how he was not allowed to sit with high caste people at a tea shop and how he had to wash his tumbler after drinking tea at local tea shops.

Sunar’s wife Laxmi chooses her words carefully saying, “It is not enough that the king is gone, the political parties have to prove to the people that they are better than him”.

Today, the deposed king Gyanendra left the Narayanhiti Palace at the end of 15-day deadline set by the Constituent Assembly while declaring Nepal as the Federal Democratic Republic, ending formally a history of 240-year ling autocratic monarchy rule in the country. This leaves behind a histroy that Nepal’s monarchy, largely responsible for maintaining caste discrimination throughout the country, ended without apologizing to its victims of caste discrimination. On the otherside of the globe today is also the day, when the Government of Canada expressed a long overdue state apology to the country’s aboriginal peoples for the past victimization of their children in the state-run residential schools. - Bhakti Nepal reports.

Constituent Assembly member Binod Pahadi speaks up at an interaction program

Jayapuri Gharti, Radha Gyawali and Arju Deuba discuss on caste discrimination against Dalits over the BBC Nepali Service’s Sajha Sawal (Common Issues).

The nepaldalitinfo salutes the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
Nepal has become a Federal Democratic Republic from today after the Constituent Assembly overwhelmingly voted for abolition of the country’s 240-year-old monarchy.

अब त गणतन्त्र आई सक्यो !
- तेज सुनार

गणतन्त्र
- तेज सुनार
(Two poems by Tej Sunar on the context of Republic set up coming to Nepal)

…..हामी दलित समुदाय र आन्दोलनका हिमायतीहरुले आन्दोलनबाट बिश्राम लिने बेला भएको छैन । हाम्रो मुक्ति हुन अझै धैरै संर्घषहरु गर्न बाँकी नै छन् । यतिबेला झन् दबाब र खबरदारीको आन्दोलन आवश्यक छ । देशको मुल कानुन संविधानमा दलितका सवालहरु जबरजस्त लेखाउनु पर्छ । यो महत्वपूण अवधिमा हाम्रो भुमिका कमजोर भयो भने हामी फेरिपनि पछि पर्र्छौ । त्यसैले पनि एकिकृत दलित आन्दोलन जारी राख्न जरुरी छ ।
- राम नेपाली

Foundations for the future Strategies of the Constitution Making Process from Dalit Rights Perspective

- Tek Tamrakar
Human Rights Advocate

The author outlines some of the foundations for the future strategies of the constitution making process from dalit rights perspective

• Drawing attention of the concerned authorities: With regard to incorporating the Dalits rights in the new constitution, fostering […]

“Political changes do not last long unless cemented with social and economic changes. What is needed is a genuine political will to do away with the practice of caste discrimination. All that Dalits are demanding is their self-respect and dignity. They want their looted civic and human rights back. The new rulers should begin from the basics instead of aiming for the hypothetical miracles. ”
- Uday Pariyar

HOW TO DO JUSTICE TO DALITS IN NEW CONSTITUTION
A working paper presented in an international conference on “Towards a New Constitution in Nepal”

“While coming upto this stage of making new constitution for Nepal through constituent assembly the representation of Dalits have increased a mark level high of 8.71% with the representation of 50 parliamentarians. However, it still falls short by more than 4% as promised by the interim constitution of proportionate representation.”

- Hira Vishwakarma

In Nepal, if anyone wants to end caste discrimination and untouchability then he or she needs to work towards achieving the goal of making intercaste marriages as a widely acceptable norm. Only the laws made by state will not change the society.
- Suresh Singh