A Conference Proceeding on

The Role of NGOs/INGOs in Developing Madhesh

14-15 November 2011, Kathmandu, Nepal

Organised by:Non-Resident Madheshis Association

(UNEDITED)

A Conference Proceeding onThe Role of NGOs/INGOs in Developing Madhesh

14-15 November 2011, Kathmandu, Nepal

Organised by:Non-Resident Madheshis Association

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GENERAL CHAIR'S MESSAGE

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the conference on the Role of NGOs/INGOs in Developing Madhesh (DEVM 2011), organised by the Non-Resident Madheshis Association in Kathmandu, Nepal. This conference itself is very much the first of its kind, and is being organised at the crucial moment of the history of Nepal.

The primary goal of the conference is to analyse the current condition of Madhesh/Tarai and sketch a roadmap for its integral development in almost all sectors. Therefore, we initially proposed more than two dozens of areas to investigate in the conference, including economy, health, education, social issues, human rights, agriculture, infrastructure, water and sanitation, industry and trade, human resources, employment, migration, constitution, issues of women and children, issues of Dalits, Muslims and indigenous people, cross-border relations, laws and justice, crimes, cultural and political issues, environment, deforestation, natural resources, tourism, media, and aid effectiveness. Several of these areas have been covered in the conference, and we will continue to pursue the remaining areas after the conference too.

In the conference, however, we did not want to indulge ourselves only in the intellectual discourses, possibly distanced from the reality; rather we want to see the outcomes of the conference making a difference on the ground. Therefore, we took various actors on the board, specially, the non-government ones. Though the title of the conference includes ‘NGOs/INGOs’, the word ‘non-government organisation’ is intended in the literal sense, almost to mean active citizens or people. Nevertheless, we believe the outcomes of the conference will be equally useful to the government agencies and actors, and we shall be delighted if we could make any contribution to them.

The conference has seen the light of day through the labour and dedication of many. We are grateful to all experts and our team members who have put a great deal of efforts to materialise the conference. We are very thankful to His Excellency Robert Piper, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nepal for agreeing to deliver the keynote speech at the conference. We are equally thankful to our honourable guests for attending the conference and encouraging us in our efforts. And finally, we thank all participants for attending the conference with great enthusiasm.

We hope that the materials presented in this proceeding as well as various discussions and intellectual discourses at the conference prove valuable and become the guiding light for the integral development of Madhesh/Tarai. This conference is not the end, it is a beginning. So after the conference, equipped with more knowledge, analysis and vision, we request all actors to take up the task of the development of Madhesh/Tarai with great vigour because the true significance of knowledge lies in its practical use.

Thank you very much.

11 November 2011

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C. K. Raut, PhD (Cambridge)Conference Chair &President, Non-Resident Madheshis AssociationEmail: ckraut@cantab.net

CONTENTS

General Chair’s Message iii

1. Ensuring Rapid Rate of Economic Growth of TeraiProf. Hari Bansh Jha 1

2. Strategies towards Turning Madhesh into a Strong Economic StateProf. Dr. Sohan Kumar Karna 12

3. Gender Equity: An Important Stake for Socio-Economic Development in National / International ScenarioProf. Madhavi Singh Shah, Ph.D. 22

4. Identity Crisis of Muslims: A Religious Minority in NepalH. M. Zahid Parwez 33

5. Fiscal Arrangements for the Poorest of the Poor in Federal NepalDr. Uma Shankar Prasad 44

6. Spatial and Horizontal Inequalities in NepalProf. Bishwa Nath Tiwari 55

7. Multilingual Contexts in the Tarai: Issues in Nepalese PerspectiveProf. Yogendra P. Yadava 73

8. Non-green revolution for socioeconomic transformation in TeraiDr. J. K. Raut 94

9. Save the Terai/Madhesh by Conserving Churia Hills: Environmental Services Perspective and Role of I/NGOsMr. Bijay Kumar Singh 100

10. Tarai Forest Management: Policy, Politics and State of Exclusion of Traditional UsersDr. Nagendra P. Yadav 106

11. NGO/INGO Role in Nepal: Focus on Madhes Prof. Sukhdev Shah 118

12. Voice of Madhesi Activists: Challenging the status quo of the dominant civic actors! Mr. Dipendra Jha 123

13. Madhesh and Constitution Making in NepalDinesh Tripathi 134

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14. Cultural Heritage of Terai-Madhesh.Dr. Ram Dayal Rakesh 138

15. Media in MadheshMr. Dharmendra Jha to appear

16. Chaos in the Water Sector: Developments Failure to Provide

Safe Water in the TeraiDr. Linda Smith to appear

17. Forestry in Tarai: Review of Present Condition and Way ForwardDr. Binod Bhatta and Dr. Akhileshwar Lal Karna to appear

18. Scope and Trend of Urbanization in MadheshMr. Kishore Jha to appear

19. Environment, Climate Change and Agriculture in Madhesh Region: Prospects for Nation BuildingDr. Shree Govinda Shah to appear

20. TBDProf. Dr. Ram Kewal Shah to appear

21. TBDDr. Krishna Chaudhari to appear

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DEVM 2011, Organised by: Non-Resident Madheshis Association 1

Ensuring Rapid Rate of Economic Growth of TeraiProf. Hari Bansh Jha1

Background

During the planning period beginning from 1956, investment by the government for the economic growth of the peripheral Terai region remained quite inadequate. Perhaps, this is one of the important factors responsible for the present economic crisis in the country in which extreme poverty and low per capita income (US $ 340) is the order of the day.

In India, on the other hand, more investment was made for the development of peripheral coastal cities like Kolkata, Mumbai and Madras at the initial stage of development. Once those coastal cities were developed, the planners switched over to comparatively less developed places for investment in the mainland of the country.

The Chinese model of development, though different from India, is one regarding the issue of developing the peripheral or coastal areas. China gave major thrust to the development of Special Economic Zones, Coastal Cities and Coastal Economic Zones with a view to attracting foreign investment between 1978 and 1984. As a result, Special Economic Zones were developed in Shenzhen, Shantou, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Fujian. Many of those areas were also developed as free trade zones where development indicators had a tendency to double in each two to three years period. China made economic growth at a rapid rate and is daring to compete the world under the WTO arrangement due to the development opportunities that it created in those peripheral coastal areas.

Poverty in the Terai

Prosperity is limited to a very few people in the Terai. Many people live in miseries and poverty and they are not even in a position to scratch out a living. Because of poverty, each year the people in the region are forced to leave their homeland in search of food and work. Statistics show that 45 per cent of the Terai districts, including Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Parsa, Bardiya and Kailali were in worst position in 1997 in terms of poverty and deprivation. Those nine districts in the Terai were among the 25 districts identified as worst districts at the national level as indicated by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

The Terai districts, thus, identified in the worst category were at par with the remote mountain and hill districts like Achham, Kalikot, Dailekh, Mugu, Bajhang, Humla, Jumla, Jajarkot, Baitadi and Rolpa. Moreover, the conditions of some of the remote districts like Nuwakot, Darchula, Pyuthan, Dolpa and Myagadi (which were in the intermediate category) and Parbat, Lamjung, Sankhuwasabha and Mustang (ranked in the best category) were in a better position than the nine worst districts of the Terai.

However, as shown in the following table some of the Terai districts such as Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Parsa, Bardiya and Kailali which were classified in the worst or least developed districts in 1997 were promoted to the category of intermediate rank. Similarly, some such districts as Rupandehi, Banke and

1 Jha is Professor of Economics and Executive Director of Centre for Economic and Technical Studies in Nepal. His paper is based on the work done in his book on "The Economy of Terai Region of Nepal: Prospects for its Sustainable Development"

DEVM 2011, Organised by: Non-Resident Madheshis Association 2

Dang which until 1997 were in the category of intermediate districts were promoted to the rank of most developed districts in 2003. Yet, there were still some districts in the Terai such as Mahottari, Sarlahi and Rautahat which fell in the category of the least developed districts of the country such as Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, Rasuwa, Rukum and Rolpa, to name a few. Table 1: Terai Districts on Poverty and Deprivation Ranking (2003)Classification of Districts %Least Developed (3)

Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat

15

Intermediate (8)

Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa, Nawalparasi, Kapilvastu and Kailali

40

Best Developed (9)

Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Chitwan, Rupandehi, Dang, Banke, Bardiya and Kanchanpur

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Total Districts 20 100Source: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development: Districts of Nepal: Indicators of Development, Kathmandu: Update 2003. .Failed Development

Many of the problems related to the underdevelopment of the Terai are due to the asymmetrical relations existing between Kathmandu and the Terai. Kathmandu being in the centre and Terai in the periphery, the former enjoys far better facilities than the latter both qualitatively and quantitatively in various infrastructural sectors like education, health, transportation, communication, electrification and several other public works.

Kathmandu is the centre of power and wealth because the ruling class takes the advantage of the location of central state apparatus and the government controls the entire distribution and allocation of national resources. Such type of relations have accentuated and reinforced the inequalities between the centre and the periphery causing exploitation of the Terai on the one hand and the neglect of its concerns in a number of areas on the other.

Moreover, the lack of adequate budgetary allocation on development activities also affected the development prospects in the Terai. This led to the creation of unemployment in the region, which proved to be an igniting factor for the present conflict. In the Terai, a vicious circle operates in which underdevelopment leads to unemployment. Unemployment leads to conflict. And in turn, conflict aggravates the prospect of development.

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

The failure of development opportunities in the Terai region was largely due to the ignorance of the fundamental economic principle of Internal Rate of Return (IRR), what is sometimes also referred to as Economic Rate of Return (ERR). Generally, the higher level of IRR is more desirable to undertake a project. Except in the exceptional cases, it is on the basis of this principle of IRR that investment is made

in a project. But in Nepal, the principle of IRR seems to have been grossly violated as it is evident from the following projects in the Terai.

Road Projects

The IRR in most of the road projects is much higher in the Terai as compared to other regions of Nepal. For example, in the hill the IRR was found to be 7.2 per cent in the Ilam-Fidim road and 3.3 per cent in the Taplejung road. In the Terai, the IRR was as high as 17.2 per cent in the Biratnagar-Rangeli-Dainia road, 23.5 per cent in the Urlabari-Bardanga road and 25.3 per cent in the Damak-Gaurigunj road.2

ADB Road Projects

Table 2 shows that the IRR of the hill-based roads was lower than one-third of the Terai-based road projects. The IRR of the Terai-based road projects on an average was 24 per cent; which was only 7 per cent in the hill. Among the major Terai-based roads, the IRR was maximum (40 per cent) in the case of Birtamod-Bhadrapur road and minimum (12 per cent) in the Chauharwa-Siraha road. On the other hand, the IRR was maximum (17 per cent) in the Maikhola-Ilam road and zero in Dadeldhura-Patan road in the hill.

2 Hari Bansh Jha, "Terai awaits better treatment from government," Kathmandu: The Himalayan Times, 20 August 2003.

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Table 2: IRR in ADB Road ProjectsTerai IRRLamahi-Tulsipur 33Duhabi-Inaruwa 20Urlabari-Bardanga 24Damak-Gaurigunj 25Birtamod-Bhadrapur 40Biratnagar-Rangeli-Dainia 17Chauharwa-Siraha 12Bhardaha-Rajbiraj 15East-West Highway (218-366 km) 22East-West Highway (0-78 km) 23East-West Highway (210-276 km) 27Hetauda-Birgunj Road 30Total Average 24HillsSahajpur-Dadeldhura 8Dadeldhura-Patan 0Maikhola-Ilam 17Ilam-Phidim 8Taplejung Road 3Gokarna-Sankhu 6Total Average 7

Source: 1. Asian Development Bank: Project Completion Report on the Second Road Improvement Project in Nepal, January 1998.

2. Asian Development Bank: Third Road Improvement Project (Project Completion Report), 2002.

WB Road Projects

The following table shows that the World Bank in Nepal constructed all the roads in the hill with the only exception of 14-km long Lumbini-Taulihawa road. Of the World Bank supported, upgraded, newly constructed and rehabilitated road projects of 612.6 km, the share of the Lumbini-Taulihawa road was 2 per cent only. In terms of total expenditure of Rs. 2,924.2 million on the World Bank road projects, the share of the Lumbini-Taulihawa road was Rs. 30 million, which was merely 1 per cent of the total expenditure.

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Table 3: Expenditure in World Bank Supported Road ProjectStatus of Road Length in km Expenditure

(In Million Rupees)Upgrading

Surkhet-Kalikot Dharapani-ChhedegadGorusinghe-Sandhikharka

134.961.559.2

606.6304.9247.5

New Construction

Chamellia-DarchulaSanfebagar-MartadiSanfebagar-MangalsenKalikot-JumlaChedegad-Jajarkot

33.737.214.788.421.0

143.4219.792.5756.7109.9

Rehabilitation Road

Siddharth HighwayLumbini-TaulihawaTansen-Tamghash

851463

20030213

Total 612.6 2924.2

Share of Lumbini-Taulihawa(Terai) Road in Total

2.28% 1.0%

Source: GoN/Ministry of Works & Transport/Department of Roads, Borrower Project Implementation Plan: Road Maintenance and Development Project, Kathmandu, December 1999.

RAP Road Projects

Under the HELVETAS-supported Rural Access Project (RAP), altogether six districts including Doti, Dailekh, Achham, Khotang, Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabha had been covered. RAP was implemented as a joint programme with the Rural Community Infrastructure Works Programme, collaboration between GTZ’s Integrated Food Security Programme and the UN’s World Food Programme. Under this programme, feeder roads had been constructed, apart from launching activities for poverty alleviation. However, no road as such was constructed under this programme in the Terai.

Irrigation Projects

The IRR of New Surface Projects in the Terai varied between 9 and 25 per cent; which, however, was between 8 and 21 per cent in the hill region (Table 4). In the major Rehabilitation Surface Projects, the IRR varied between 11 and 30 per cent in the Terai; whereas it varied between 18 and 23 per cent in the hill. In the Minor Rehabilitation Surface Projects, the IRR varied between 15 and 31 per cent in the Terai against 14 and 19 per cent in the hill.

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Table 4: IRR in Selected Irrigation ProjectsEcological Regions Estimated IRR %Terai

New Surface ProjectsMajor Rehabilitation Surface Projects Minor Rehabilitation Surface Projects

9 to 2511 to 3015 to 31

Hill

New Surface ProjectsMajor Rehabilitation Surface ProjectsMinor Rehabilitation Surface Projects

8 to 2118 to 2314 to 19

Source: WECS: Summary of Irrigation Sub-sector Report National Water Plan June 2003

Electrification Projects

Table 5 presents that the average transmission line cost (Wolf 66 kV s/c and d/c and also Wolf 132 kV s/c and d/c) per km is higher in the hill (84 kUS$) than in the Terai (76 kUS$) by 11 per cent. It means that the total costs including all materials, construction works, design, land acquisition and engineering are less in the Terai, which provides better opportunities for its expansion in this region. Table 5: Transmission Line Costs (kUS$/km excluding of taxes and duties)Conductors Phase Terai Hills Percentage Change1*Wolf 66 Kv s/c 48 53 101*Wolf 66 kV d/c 77 84 91* Bear 66 kV s/c 62 69 111* Bear 66 kV d/c 100 110 101*Wolf 132 Kv s/c 54 59 91*Wolf 132 Kv d/c 86 95 101* Bear 132 kV s/c 70 77 101* Bear 132 Kv d/c 112 123 10Total Average 76 84 11

Source: Master Plan, 1998

Costs of Components in Electrification

Table 6 shows that the total average costs of major components in electrification were lower by 11 per cent in the Terai (US $5,508) as compared to the same in the hill (US $6,105). This was due to the fact that the transportation and installation prices were more expensive in the hill on account of the difficult terrain.

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Table 6: Total Costs of Major Components (in US $)Components Unit Terai Hills Percentage

Change33 kV Line 100 mm2 (Dog) Km 6,940 7,560 911 kV Line 100 mm2 (Dog) " 6,260 6,870 1011 kV Line 50 mm2 (Rabbit) " 4,740 5,320 1211 kV Line 30 mm2 (Weasel) " 4,090 4,670 14Total Average " 5,508 6,105 11

Source: ADB TA 2911-NEP – Final Report

Rural Electrification

It is evident from Table 7 that the average capital cost per customer was US $ 120 in the Terai; which was as high as US $ 245 in the hill i.e. an increase of 104 per cent.

Table 7: Costs of Rural Electrification Component Scheme/District Capital Cost per Customer US $TeraiBariyarpatti/Sirha 108Bhangha/Mahottari 105Biruwa Guthi/Parsa 115Chanai/Kapilvastu 108Dewangunj/Sunsari 157Dhanushadham/Dhanusha 125Gaurishankar/Sarlahi & Mahottari 102Jamuniya/Nawalparasi 148Jaynagar/Rautahat 108Total Average 120HillsAppipal/Gorkha 346Charikot/Dolakha 248Bhagwati/Arghakhanchi 252Bahaman/Sindhuli 196Birbas/Gulmi 263Birkot/Palpa 184Chainpur/Sankhuwasabha 344Chapakot/Kaski 159Diktel/Khotang 213Total Average 245

Source: ADB TA 2911-NEP – Final Report

Linkages with the Border States in India

Interestingly, out of India's 1.17 billion population (2009), nearly 361 million (2001) people live in Nepal's bordering states in India. Figures have it that Nepal's bordering Indian state of Uttarakhand had population of 8.48 million; whereas that of Uttar Pradesh was 190 million, Bihar - 82 million, Bengal - 80 million and Sikkim - 0.54 million. This clearly demonstrates that India in general and the bordering states of India in particular might be a potential market for the Nepalese exportable items. The presence of the huge 361 million customers in the bordering states provides immense prospects for exports from Nepal

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including the Terai region if the goods could be produced to meet the taste, preferences and purchasing power of these people.

Export Processing Zones

FTA with common external tariff with India is possible only if the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are established and strengthened, particularly in the Terai region of Nepal. The Terai region has comparative advantage over other regions of Nepal in developing EPZs mainly due to proximity factor in trade with the bordering states.

EPZs are industrial estates which form enclaves within the national customs territory. Usually, they are situated near the international port or airport with the objectives of increasing foreign exchange earnings, generating employment opportunities, upgrading the skills of local manpower, transmitting new technology to the host countries and developing backward regions of the country. Besides, they are also meant for creating linkages to stimulate the inflows of local raw materials, semi-finished goods or packing materials and to promote the growth of ancillary industries.

In the EPZs, infrastructural facilities like road, water and land are developed in which there is a potentiality of joint venture (JV) investment. Uninterrupted power supply along with telephone/fax service is guaranteed to the JV. In case of any such problem, adequate facilities are made for in-house power generation. Also, incentive is given to the labor class so that they might learn skills needed by the JV units. Labor laws are enacted in such a way that the increase in facilities is directly linked to productivity.

Substantial tax incentives are granted to investment in EPZs. In addition to the duty free imports and other privileges, there is complete tax holiday for five years for the industries established in EPZs. All hard currency earned from exports is totally made tax-free. Certain percentage of the goods manufactured in the EPZs is allowed to be sold in the domestic market. No excise duty is levied on such items. Customs duties on imported components are 50 per cent of the normal rates. Companies, which sell in the domestic market as well as international markets, are allowed to deduct export earnings from their tax liabilities.

The prospects for the growth of EPZs are high in the Terai region also due to the existence of necessary infrastructures in the form of Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Birgunj, Biratnagar and Bhairahawa. ICDs would facilitate the industries in the EPZs to produce and export goods. Of the three ICDs, the one at Birgunj is most important to Nepal's economy for 80 per cent of the country's trade is carried through this route.

India set up a broad-gauge rail link for the 5.3 km. stretch between Sirsiya (Birgunj, Nepal) and Raxaul (India), which substantially reduced time in the transportation of goods, transport costs, pilferage, demurrage and problems at Kolkata port. A number of facilities have been made available to facilitate the import and export of goods through those dry ports. There are no such dry port facilities even in the bordering Indian states of Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. Export is facilitated to business enterprises in India and to third countries through such dry port, where containers called multimodals have multiple modes of transport ranging from surface, sea and air.

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Donors/INGOs Support

Foreign aid and assistance has played a crucial role in economic development of the Terai. Aside from India, the United Sates was the first few countries that started giving aid to the Terai region of Nepal through USAID (originally known as the U.S. Operations Mission or USOM) in 1950s. Rapti Valley Development was USAID’s major project in 1950s, which focused on equitable land distribution, local participation in self-help projects, improved farming methods, malaria eradication, improved health services, road and market development, and formation of cooperative societies for agricultural inputs and marketing. USAID also extended support through technical advisors and funding for a cadastral survey covering 20 Terai districts.

Later on, countries like the USSR, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and the multilateral agencies like the World Bank, the ADB, the UN agencies and the INGOs like Save the Children Japan, Save the Children US, Save the Children Norway, ACTION AID/Nepal, CARE Nepal, DFID and Plan Nepal also made their presence felt in the Terai by launching different kinds of programmes.

Yet, among all kinds of aid and assistance made available to the Terai region by different bilateral/multilateral agencies and the INGOs, the Indian cooperation proved unique. It is unique both in terms of volume of amount and its proper utilization for the execution of different projects. While the activities of other agencies are confined to certain pockets, Indian cooperation widely covers one part of the Terai to the other and there is consistency in the approach.

Though India itself is a developing country like Nepal, its contribution to the development of peripheral Terai, particularly in areas related to the development of infrastructural facilities and human resource development is overwhelmingly important. Indian co-operation to the Terai is solely guided by the motive of making the region self-reliant, prosperous, vibrant and modern in such sectors as roads, airports, railways, communications, education, health, industry, urbanization and cultural promotion. India has been making consistent economic assistance strategies for the development of this region considering the very high IRR in almost all important sectors – be it related to infrastructural development like the roads, railways, irrigation, airways or the development of agriculture, industry, trade and service sectors.

Since 2003, the Terai region like that of hill or mountain regions equally benefitted from the Small Development Projects (SDPs) of the Government of India (GOI) for its focus on social and physical infrastructures in education, health and community development sectors. Projects under SDPs are undertaken at the request of the local government, communities and organizations. Transparency is one of the important features of these projects. Any amount allotted to the project is directly spent by the executing agency - usually the DDC or a local GON body - based on the recommendation of the oversight committee, which is composed of grassroots level local community leaders and members of the beneficiary groups. The committee ensures effective implementation of the project; while GOI's role is confined to disbursement of grant assistance based on physical monitoring of the projects.

Some of the large and intermediate-size projects implemented under the India-Nepal Economic Cooperation Programme at the present time include B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Manmohan Memorial Polytechnic, Biratnagar, Nepal Bharat Maitri Bakhtawari Hari Eye Hospital, Krishnanagar, etc.

INGOs

Until the political change in 1990, there were only 253 NGOs registered with Social Welfare Council (SWC); of which quite a few worked in the Terai. But in less than two decades thousands of NGOs have

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been registered with SWC, leaving aside many more that have been registered with the District Administration Office in various districts.

The number of INGOs working in Nepal has exceeded 200. Many of them prefer to work in the hill and mountain regions. But there are also INGOs that have been working in the Terai. However, not much information is available about the exact number of INGOs working in this region.

As the Table 8 shows, the maximum 32 INGOs have been working in each of Bardiya and Banke districts and the least in Rautahat district (16). In other districts, such as Kailali 30 INGOs have been working followed by those in Morang (30), Chitwan (28) and Kanchanpur (27). On an average, 24 INGOs have been working in each district of the Terai. These are the organizations known for their interest in working in diverse fields such as in agriculture, forestry, environment, health, education, women/gender, children, saving/credit/micro-finance, conflict and peace, poverty, livelihood, human rights, water and sanitation and small enterprises.

Table 8: INGOs Working in the Terai Terai Districts Number of INGOsKanchanpur 27Kailali 30Bardiya 32Banke 32Dang 24Kapilvastu 17Rupandehi 23Nawalparasi 22Chitwan 28Parsa 20Bara 21Rautahat 16Sarlahi 24Mahottari 26Dhanusha 25Siraha 21Saptari 19Sunsari 22Morang 30Jhapa 27

Source: Association of International NGOs in Nepal (2008). Membership Report 2008.

However, the impact of the INGOs working in the Terai appears to be dismal. Despite the presence of so many INGOs in the region, poverty is rampant. Improvement in agricultural, industrial, trade, service, environment and other sectors is not distinct. Sometimes, it appears that many of the INGOs are complicating the development process rather than supporting them. So much so that the contribution of these INGOs in conflict mediation also appears to be questionable.

There are a few factors for which the INGOs in general have not been able to make due delivery for peace and development efforts in the Terai region. Many of the INGOs obviously appear to have made their presence felt in different Terai districts, but their coverage is partial as their activities are confined to just a few pockets or VDCs.

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Most of the INGOs do not have technical manpower with expertise in areas in which they are expected to make delivery. They often come to this region not on the basis of competence, but on other grounds. This is also due to the fact that there is no proper mechanism or coordinating body in Nepal to check the quality or delivery of the expatriates coming through the INGOs in this country. Another noteworthy reason for the lack of delivery on the part of the INGOs is that they are hardly made accountable for the development of any particular issue/sector such as poverty, road, irrigation or communication at the regional or district level in the Terai. So in some limited pockets they introduce one programme and in the other they do other activities.

Also, there are INGOs which are believed to be involved in activities that they hardly advocate. Often, they advocate one thing but do the other. There is a growing feeling among the Terai intellectuals that certain INGOs promote religious conversion in the region, when their mandate is to go for development activities. Even the government and so to say the SWC or other line ministries under which the INGOs mostly operate have no effective machinery to monitor the working of the INGOs. In the existing situation, the development expectations of the people in the Terai region from many of the INGOs have largely been belied and it will remain so till there is no structural change in their (INGO's) modus operandi.

A Way Forward

Despite the development potentialities in the Terai, the common people of the region are poor. Lack of political will and asymmetrical relations between Kathmandu and the Terai are the most important hurdles for alleviating poverty in the region. The planners and policy makers largely forgot the potentiality of the development of peripheral Terai unlike the importance given to such region in India or in China. The failed development scenario is responsible for the present conflict in the region.

However, because of the geographical advantage of being plain land, high density of population and several economic activities, the chances of returns on investment in infrastructural projects in this region are very high. In this context, manufacturing and exports in the Terai targeting the border states of India might be very important. The EPZs to be established in the region would largely create congenial environment for JV investment or FDI in this region. Moreover, time has come for the Nepalese government and other concerned bodies to effectively monitor the modus operandi of the INGOs and donors working in the Terai region. Policy has to be framed so that the donors and INGOs are made responsible for the development of certain specific sectors. The existing system of allowing them to have their presence felt in different districts despite working in a few pockets or VDCs needs to be reviewed. A serious study needs to be made for the policy purpose as to how the resources of the donor agencies and the INGOs need to be streamlined for addressing peace and development issues of the Terai region.

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Strategies towards Turning Madhesh into a Strong Economic State

Prof. Dr. Sohan Kumar Karna, Ambassador for PeaceCentral Department of Economics

Tribhuvan UniversityKirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

AbstractMadhesh divided into two parts- Inner Madhesh and Outer Madhesh consists of 22 districts. Inner Madhesh consists of 3 districts of flat land north of Siwalik or Churia range namely Sindhuli, Makwanpur, and Dang. Outer Madhesh consists of 19 districts namely Jhapa Sunsari, Saptari, Sirha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, rauthat, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, and Kanchanpur. The paper addresses itself to the Outer Madhesh only. The economy of Madhesh is passing through the big economic crisis; not only the agriculture sector suffered a setback, but also non-agriculture sector could not perform due to energy shortage, labor disputes, insecurity and frequent strikes. The major issue facing Madhesh economy is how to escape from poverty trap or low level equilibrium trap, and accelerate economy towards a great leap forward by attaining sustainable high economic growth rate. This paper attempts to survey economic status and address the issue of why the economy of Madhesh is failing and how proper strategy can prevent further slide and suggest remedies for sustained economic development.

Vision/MissionTo turn Madhesh into a strong economic state through active participation of the Madheshis by ensuring a high sustainable improvement in their quality of life within next twenty years

GoalPrepare a basis for socio-economic transformation for prosperous Madhesh

Objectives To develop Madhesh into an independent economy by ensuring a high, sustainable and broad-based economic growth rate and eliminating poverty within next twenty years

Strategic Objectives To provide employment to each economically active population, To reduce poverty distribution of the population from 48.7 to zero percent, and poverty incidence rate

from 23.44 percent to zero within next twenty years, and To substantially increase income with two digits growth rate ensuring a high per capita exceeding

US$ 3,000 per annum.

The economy of Nepal

The economy of Nepal, largely a subsistence as well as high-cost economy with no direct access to sea for expanding international trade, and limited transit facilities, rising interest rate on lending, high tax burden, and costly doing business, is passing through a downswing phase circumscribed by poverty and stagnation. Agriculture, the backbone of economy is the biggest but subsistence sector with built-in dependency syndrome, where still more than 70 percent of the total population derives their livelihood directly from agriculture encapsulated by staggering magnitude of disguised unemployment, mounting

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rural indebtedness and a high incidence of poverty with 74 percent of the households possessing less than one hectare of land (Dahal, 2011). The contribution of manufacturing sector compressed to less than 6 percent of GDP in recent years attributing to prolonged transition, poor industrial relations and lack of friendly investment climate. Population below national poverty line has declined from 30.85 percent in 2003/04 to 25.16 percent in 2010/11 (CBS, 2011). It is also notably that the research team of Oxford University/UNDP on the basis of Multidimensional Poverty Index revealed that population below absolute poverty line is as high as 65 percent in Nepal. No doubt, the burgeoning economy is a classic case of pervasive poverty strangulated by sluggish economic growth rate, poor governance and rampant corruption, where a majority of the people lives in abject poverty struggling for their survival. The poor and ultra-poor have no access to lead a dignified economic life due to high-cost economy. The economic status of Nepalese economy as summarized is as of-

The economic growth rate is inordinately low confined to 3.5 percent with inflation hovering around 10.6 percent (2010/11).

Gross National Income (GNI) of Nepal was extremely diminutive (US$ 13 billion) and so was GNI per capita (US$ 440) as of 2009.

The population receiving below US$ 1.25 a day is 55.1 percent, and less than US$ 2 a day is 77.6 percent. Poverty gap is widening.

The quantum of total outstanding debt is estimated to be 32 percent of GDP leveled at staggering size of Rs. 430.6 billion.

In recent times, NRB sold US$ 2.46 billion to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to fulfill the requirements of Indian currency in Nepal equal to INR 178.1 billion. This is further manifestation of growing dependency with India.

The magnitude of gross international reserves downsized at the level to sustain imports of merchandise goods and services only for about 7.3 months (NRB, July 2011).

The size of external debt marked US$ 3,685 million in 2008, which was 21 percent of GNI.

The size of foreign direct investment (FDI) stagnated at Rs. 58 billion by mid-March 2010 generating employment for 144,513 persons.

The size of FDI net inflows was US$ 38 million in 2009.

Merchandise trade deficit was as high as US$ 2,870 million in 2009.

The share of trade with India was 57.7 percent, while with other countries it was 42.3 percent during FY 2008/09.

Remittance economy is becoming robust that is likely to replace other sectors of the economy in future.

The contribution of remittances to GDP conspicuously increased but its growth rate sharply declined from 51 percent in FY 2008/09 to 10.1 percent during FY 2010/11.

The size of remittance earning household has increased from 31.9 percent in FY 2003/04 to 56 percent in FY 2010/11 (CBS, 2011).

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The size of foreign employment is estimated to cross 3.5 million. It is estimated that more than 1 million Nepali citizens are employed only in India.

Fiscal deficit is found to have increased by 8.6 percent from FY2001/02 to FY 2007/08 and overall budget deficit is expected to mark 4.1 percent of GDP in FY 2007/08.

Gross Domestic savings have declined from 9.83 percent to 9.36 percent from FY2007/08 to FY 2009/10 (CBS, 2010).

Total investment moderately increased from 24.3 percent to 26.1 percent.

Agriculture provides employment to still more than 70 percent of the total population deriving their livelihood directly from agriculture encapsulated by staggering magnitude of disguised unemployment, mounting rural indebtedness and a high incidence of poverty with 74 percent of the households possessing less than one hectare of land.

The contribution of agriculture sector to GDP is 32.4 percent with existence of huge disguised unemployment, acute rural indebtedness, and high incidence of poverty in this sector.

The contribution of manufacturing sector compressed to less than 6 percent of GDP in recent years attributing to prolonged transition, poor industrial relations and lack of investment-friendly environment.

Industry sector provides employment to less than 2 percent of total population. Over the years most of the industries are running below the capacity utilization.

The commercial banks suffered frequently from liquidity crunch relatively for a long span, while NEPSE Index rapidly declined from around 814 in mid-February 2008 to 297.6 in mid-June 2011.

In recent years, IMF has been apprehensive of and strongly recommended to review the need for existing numbers of financial institutions in Nepal.

Prolonged liquidity crisis is a threat to smooth functioning of the economy, which is entirely attributed to lack of financial discipline and effective corporate governance accompanied by poor supervision of NRB.

The ugly and unhealthy competition among the banks to maximize the profit hastily is a major factor responsible to shaking the foundation of financial institutions in Nepal.

Population migrates from north to south and poverty moves inversely from south to north in Nepal.

25.16 percent of the total population is below abject poverty and poverty gap is widening (CBS, 2011).

Nominal average household income increased from NRs. 43,732 in 1995/96 to NRs. 202,374 (an increase by 363 percent) in 2010/11.

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Per capita income increased from NRs. 7,690 to NRs. 41,659 (an increase by 442 percent during the same period.

Nominal average annual household consumption is estimated at NRs. 170,735 in 2010/11.

Nominal average per capita consumption increased from NRs. 6,802 in 1995/96 to NRs. 34,829 in 2010/11.

During the last 15 years, overall unemployment rate has decreased from 4.9 percent in 1995/96 to 2.2 percent in 2010/11.

Although unemployment is relatively low, underemployment or disguised unemployment is as high as 50 percent. The economy must have the capacity to adjust 400,000 labor forces each year.

The indigenous and foreign investors are reluctant to step-up investment due to alarming insecurity arising out of conflict.

The donors also seem to be disillusioned to continue assistance to speed up Nepal’s economic development.

Currently, Nepalese economy is facing a critical phase of low-level equilibrium trap circumscribed by recession and conflict.

Status of Nepalese Economy: An International Comparison, as of 2009S.N.

Country Popln in millions

GNI in US$ billions

GNI per capita US$

GDP growth rate per capita % growth 2008-09

Popln below US$ 1.25 a day in %

External Debt in US$ millions2008

FDI net inflows in US$ millions2009

1 Nepal 29 13.0 440 2.8 55.1 3,685 382 Afghanistan 30 10.6 370 -0.4 … 2,200 1853 B’gladesh 160 95.4 590 4.4 49.6 23,644 6744 Pakistan 170 172.9 1,020 1.5 22.6 49,337 2,3875 India 1,155 1,368.7 1,180 6.2 41.6 230,611 34,5776 Sri Lanka 20 40.4 1,990 2.8 14 15,154 4047 China (-HK) 1,326 4,778.3 3,590 8.5 15.9 378,245 78,1938 Malaysia 27 198.7 7,230 -3.3 <2 66,182 1,6099 Argentina 40 304.7 7,570 -0.1 3.4 128,285 4,00910 Denmark 6 325.8 58,930 -5.5 .. .. 7,71211 Japan 128 4,830.3 37,870 -5.1 .. .. 11,83412 USA 307 14,502.6 47,240 -3.3 .. .. 134,710

Source: World Development Report, 2010 & 2011

Observations

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The situation of Nepalese economy is vulnerable in terms of GNI, GNI per capita, and GDP growth rate, extent of poverty, external debt and FDI as compared to other countries.

Although the size of population of Nepal and Malaysia is nearly equal, Malaysia’s GNI per capita income is more than 18 times higher the per capita of Nepal. The size of Sri Lanka’s GNI is around 4 times greater than Nepal. The macroeconomic indicators of industrialized economies are beyond comparison.

The Economy of Madhesh

The flat southern region of Nepal, the Terai or Tarai (strictly speaking low lying land naturally wet and green as marshy land or a meadow) also known as Madhesh derived from the Sanskrit word Madhyadesh mentioned by Manu (the law maker of the Hindu society) and also in Buddhist literature, Vinaya Pitak meaning the mid-country between the foothills of the Himalayan mountain in the north and the Bindhya mountain in the south (Jha, 1993) and its indigenous inhabitants called Madheshi or Madheshiya starts from the foothills of the Siwalik or Churia range of the Himalayas and stretches out up to the Nepal-Indo border adjoining the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It covers an area between the Mechi River in the east and the Mahakali River in the west of the country. It is a part of the Indo-Gangetic Plain which occupies 17 per cent (8,282 sq miles) of the total land area of Nepal (Yadav, 2003) and represents to 50.15 per cent of the total population of the country with annual growth rate of 1.75 percent and population density of 392 persons/sq.km (CBS,2011). The Madhes has a width of about 26 to 32 km and the average length is approximately 825 km. To the contrary to the frequent image of Nepal as a mountainous country with snow-covered Himalayas and Mongoloid people, the region is a flat, fertile land with people and culture predominantly Hindus with some Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. The major languages in the region are Maithili, Bhojpuri, Abadhi and Janjati. The eastern part of Madhesh was a part of the ancient kingdom Mithila with Janakpur as its capital.

Madhesh is divided into Inner Madhesh and Outer Madhesh. Inner Madhesh consists of 3 districts of flat land north of Siwalik or Churia range namely Sindhuli, Makwanpur, and Dang. Outer Madhesh consists of 19 districts namely Jhapa Sunsari, Saptari, Sirha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, rauthat, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, and Kanchanpur. Kechanakawal, the lowest point of the country with an altitude of 70 m. lies in Jhapa district of the eastern terai (Mega Publication and Research Centre, 2010). Economically, Madhes is the most productive region of Nepal. The share of this region in the GDP is 65 per cent. It generates 76 percent revenue from agriculture, industry, and custom. The soil is generally fertile and there is plentiful rain, which yields good crops. Agriculture is the major economic activity in the region. Major crops are paddy, wheat, pulses, sugarcane, jute, tobacco, maize, fruits and vegetables. Many agro-based industries like jute, sugar, rice, tobacco, dairy including animal husbandry, fruits, vegetables, herbs, hides and skin are established throughout the region. The growth which Madhesh has achieved in the industrial sector is considerable. Significant growth has been achieved in the agro based industrial sector. The increasing output in production and the advent of modern processing techniques has resulted in the establishment of agro based industrial units. There are major manufacturing units for jute, sugar, tobacco, dairy, hides and skin at Morang, Sunsari, Dhanusha, Rautahat, Bara, Parsa, Rupandehi and Kanchanpur districts.

The region has a rich forest wealth with good availability of soft wood and other varieties of timber, national parks, wildlife reserves, and conservation areas. As a result many industries like plywood, packing cases, splints and veneers, furniture, etc are thriving

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Major Challenges to Economic Development

Poverty profileo Poverty incidence is 23.44 percent with distribution of the poor 45.4 percent, and

distribution of the population 48.7 percent. Unemployment

o Size not estimated. Migration

o Migration from the hills to the terai has created tensions between madheshis and migrants raising regional, ethnic, and political issues.

Rampant corruptiono Size not estimated.

Political Instability Socio-cultural tradition

o Dowry system, caste system, joint family system, cultural value system, etc Lack of education and awareness

o Civic and technical education; gap in right-duty based awareness; recognition, respect and responsible citizenry are the prerequisite to development.

Discriminationo Civil service, Army, Gender (reflected in daily life of Women), Dalit, Indigenous people,

Children, Persons with disabilities, and other ethnic minorities Impunity

o Reflected in weak rule of law, transitional justice and asserting and monitoring rights (Civil and Political Rights).

Exclusiveness-feeling of ownership Unfavorable institutional structure

o Defective land tenure system; deficiencies in national consolidation; imperfect market forces; underdeveloped institutions for enterprise, trade and credit; inefficiency and integrity in public administration are responsible for low levels of productivity and low level of living.

Freedomo Realization of freedom is the basis of development.

Equal access to opportunitieso Understanding that equal access to opportunities is the foundation to national unity.

Civil and Political Rights (CPRs) o CPRs are vehicle to attain and authority to monitor Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

(ESCRs).

Foundations of Madhesh Economy

Agriculture

- Agriculture, the backbone of Madhesh economy contributes in many ways in the field of GDP, employment and livelihood, industrial development, international trade, living standard of the masses, poverty alleviation and election agendas.

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- Madhesh constitutes 55 percent of the agric land. Out of 2.6 million hectare total cultivated land 70 percent cultivated land is there in Madhesh called “grain basket” of Nepal.

- Though about 80 percent of the people being engaged in agriculture and 60 percent are employed only 18 per cent of the agricultural land is irrigated with half of it as year round irrigation.

- The region contributes nearly 55 percent of total national agricultural production.- Part of the grain produced in this region is either supplied to the food deficit hills of

Nepal or outside; irrigated land allows three or even four harvests a year.- The status of basic indicators and the structure of production and demand show

agriculture as a dynamic sector in economic growth and by every measure it is the predominant industry in Nepal.

- The agriculture system in Madhesh is gradually shifting from subsistence to commercial farming. However, there is an urgent need to make the agricultural sector further commercial and competitive.

- With the identification of domestic and international markets, it has become essential to substitute imports and promote exports of agricultural produces.

- Food processing industry should take a lead in the context of post harvest technology, having greater role for assigning appropriate price of agricultural products in international markets and also making it competitive in domestic markets.

- Research and development of processing, packaging, food biotechnology and storage technologies should be carried out and the results should be disseminated from farmers to industries in a commercial fashion.

- The effective implementation of proper distribution of agricultural products has been felt urgent.

Industry- Small, medium, and large industries of this region account for over 72 percent of the total

industrial production. - The region shares 88 percent industrial investment with 99 percent labor strength.

Tourism- Natural and cultural heritage; national parks and wild reserves- Koshi Tappu Wild

Reserve, Parsa Wild Reserve, Chitwan National Park, Bardiya National Park, Suklaphat Wild Reserve; religious pilgrimage-birth place of Goddess Sita and Lord Buddha; abundance ponds- for irrigation and fish farming; economical and hospitable-tourists are regarded as guests and guests are regarded as gods in Madhesh culture

Remittance economy

o Foreign employment has become the backbone of Madhesh economy. - Foreign employment has become the leading foreign exchange earner in Madhesh. - The growing migration of young Madheshi abroad has contributed largely to revenue increase.

o The remittances sent by these Madheshi have contributed substantially to the growth of the GDP.

o The factors that have contributed to whatever growth have witnessed in the government revenue undoubtedly correspond to the growth in migration of the young Madheshi.

o Not only that, the increase in the flow of remittances is needed to maintain the balance of payments (BOP) and to increase the private savings in the form of bank deposits.

o At present, the BOP position remains in surplus. Human resources

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Preconditions to Development

Ensure peace and stability by developing consensus among political forces Provide good governance through improving transparency and accountability Check rampant corruption Mobilize effectively internal resources Reduce population below absolute poverty line to zero within the given time frame Maximize benefits from neighborhood economies Ensure benefits specially from SAFTA and BIMST-EC Mobilize effectively both bilateral and multilateral international cooperation Develop capacity to ensure benefits through WTO by exploring international markets for exports

matching quality and prices.

Strategic Action Plan

Establish a consensus on major economic issues such as dual ownership of land Design a perspective plan for next twenty years from now Conduct a survey to identify “Wealth of Madhesh” including the estimation of the value of

property such as land, forests, manpower, etc.

Sector Strategy

Madhesh economy development needs to identify strong sector-strategy to back up quantum jump in the economic front. The strategies identified are:

- Commercialization of agriculture by developing high value crops such as tea, coffee, cardamom, jute, sugarcane, oilseeds, tobacco, pulses and tropical products as recommended by Agriculture Perspective Plan.

- Attract FDI and transfer technology especially in large-scale industries. - Promotion of cottage and small industries.- Establishing a cell of Human Resources Development for manpower and its utilization and

empowering women, schedule castes, schedule tribes, and backwards.- Providing employment opportunity through developing partnership with private sector. - Prepare a plan for tourism development in compatible with the globalization. - IT, Globalization and Remittance Economy- Provide opportunity to students willing to pursue higher studies and training in the field of IT. - Mobilize foreign exchange from new areas of economy such as remittances through meeting

increasing demand for middle level man power in the international labor markets.- Poverty and Growth- Reduce poverty though mobilizing resources such as capital, manpower, technology, raw

materials, etc.- Achieve higher economic growth rate by maximizing benefits from globalization and regional

cooperation.- Liberalization and Privatization- Liberalize the economy and the process of privatization by reordering of priority.- Strengthen Bilateral, Regional and International Cooperation- Monitor, evaluate and strengthen bilateral, regional and international cooperation in Madhesh. - Initiate economic diplomacy to promote trade, FDI and tourism in Madhesh. - Resource Allocation- Allocate more resources to priority sector such as social, infrastructure and energy development.

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- Others- Establish a high-power committee for women empowerment.- Maximize benefits from economies of neighborhoods. - Initiate mega-projects such as East-West Railway. - Strengthen local bodies.- Integrate Madhesh economy to regional and global economies.

Aspiration and Strong Commitment

The following aspiration and strong commitment of the people to fight for-- Progressive change for better future.- Protection of freedom for dignity and choice.- Inclusive politics for recognition and respect.- Good practices for development of culture of equality and equity.- Human Rights, a fundamental principle to guide the Madhesh in all situations.

Development from Human Rights Perspective

Change and progress towards betterment with affirmative action’s is development in current Madheshi perspective.

Enjoyment of freedom. Sense of security. Equality in opportunity. Access to capacity development. Meaningful participation.

Development and Hope

- Nepal Living Standard Survey, CBS, 2003/04 and 2010/11 identified remarkable progress in some of the indicators. Poverty has alleviated to 23.44 percent. Similarly, literacy, child mortality rate, girls’ education, women’s reproductive health etc. have shown tremendous progress.

- Constituent assembly represents proportionate representation of Women, Janajati and Dalit.- Media has been exposing public issues, uniting people and creating awareness.- Local governments are under more public scrutiny.- Comprehensive peace accord has stipulated guidelines towards peace process and transitional

justice.

New Actors and Intermediaries

- Migrant laborers from Madhesh are not only bringing back remittance but also knowledge, investment and collective ideas.

- The Community Forest Groups, Mothers’ Groups, Consumers’ groups, Cooperatives/Collective growers and extensive presence of CSOs/CBOs.

- Local media, professional organizations, political party units and affiliates, and the intellectuals.- New generation and group of citizens who have been enabled by political changes to claim for

their rights; disadvantaged groups (Women, Dalit, Janajati)- International support, presence and concerns through INGOs, UN and diplomatic units.- A large number of creative aspirants and youths, who are the product of massive growth and

expansion of educational and technical institutions.

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To conclude, despite numerous structural constraints, there are ample opportunities that Madhesh could tremendously gear up the economy by stimulating its major foundations comprising agriculture, tourism, industry, and remittances through foreign employment in cooperation with the private sector. Economic reforms are pre-requisites for successful economic development that require improving investment climate, governance, and social inclusion in Madhesh. In addition, good governance is antidote to corruption and empowering people is strength for economic development at the grassroots. However, the economic parameters of Madhesh economy reveal that economic situation is fragile and vulnerable engulfed by on-going conflict, recession, corruption and inefficiency. Therefore, government and the private sector must work in tandem to make a breakthrough in the economic front by providing special consideration to the following specific areas to help strengthen economic activities and spur growth and also to take care of poverty alleviation. These areas consist of creating an International Finance Services Center, Maximizing Benefits from Neighborhood Economies, and Liberalization and Economic Reforms.

It is notable that investment is not a constraint to growth in Madhesh, but lack of visionary and determined leadership with strong political commitment to fulfill aspirations of the common people is detrimental to economic progress and prosperity in Madhesh. If efforts towards economic development are geared up with honesty and dedication, full of compassion and wisdom, we can exhibit strength and prove credibility for turning Madhesh into a strong economic state for survival and prosperity.

References

Central Bureau of Statistics (2011), Preliminary Results of National Population Census 2011, Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), National Planning Commission Secretariat (NPCS), Government Of Nepal (GON).

Central Bureau of Statistics (2011), Poverty in Nepal 2010/11, CBS, NPCS, GON.

Central Bureau of Statistics (2011), Nepal Living Standards Survey, 2010/11, Highlights, CBS, NPCS, GON.

Central Bureau of Statistics (2010), Nepal in Figures2010, CBS, NPCS, GON.

Central Bureau of Statistics (2004), Nepal in Figures2004, CBS, NPCS, GON.

Dahal, Madan Kumar (2011), “Nepalese Economy: A Critique”, www.nepalnews.com, 17 August 2011.

Mega Publication and Research Centre (2010), District Development Profile of Nepal 2010/11 with VDC Profile, A Socio-Economic Development database of Nepal, Mega Publication and Research Centre, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Ministry of Finance (2011), Economic Survey Fiscal Year 2010/11, Vol.1, Ministry of Finance GON.

National Planning Commission (2010), Three Year Plan (2010/11-2012/13), NPCS, GON.

Nepal Rastra Bank (2011), Economic Report, Nepal Rastra Bank, Kathmandu, Nepal.

The World Bank (2010), World Development Report, 2010, The World Bank, OUP, NY.

The World Bank (2011), World Development Report 2011, The World Bank, OUP, NY.

Yadav, Upendra (2003), Nepali Janandolan Aur MadheshMukti Ka Saval, Madhesi Peoples Right Forum, Nepal.

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Gender Equity: An Important Stake for Socio- Economic Development in National / International Scenario

Prof. Madhavi Singh Shah, Ph.D.3

1. Brief Review:

Current national scenario of Nepal is highly vulnerable. The nation is facing severe challenges in this transitional phase. Series of socio-economic and political gaps are emerging in the scene. In order to bring difference to the possible extent at this problematic situation, several result oriented determinations, commitments and actions in their respective fields from political / social leaders, policy makers, bureaucrats, professionals inclusive to all civilians are urgently needed. It requires common agenda of peace, solidarity, harmony and development among all segments of the society to lead the nation towards peace and prosperity. Obviously to ease the present situation as well as to embark the equitable, unbiased society and nation as a whole deprivation and discrimination needs to be rooted out. As a matter of fact, all sorts of upliftment of a society or nation situate on the quality of its human resources inclusive to gender, ethnicity, caste, geographical region etc.

Gender Equity is grooming up as a most favored agenda to discuss in any forum these days. It is crystal clear that gender equity is the foundation of women's empowerment which leads to peaceful and gender based violence free society. It is obvious that the pre-condition of empowerment of women is the global transformation into all types of gender based violence free zone. Until and unless, all types of gender based violence / discrimination are not rooted out from the society, gender equity leading to their empowerment and enabling them to contribute in all socio-economic developmental sectors, is not attainable at all. It seems some thing, which can be targeted, talked and discussed about…… but not achievable. Infact, the implementation of women's human right and their empowerment overlap each other opening access for balanced, healthy meaningful society not only in national but from the global perspective as well, causative in peace and development process.

Obviously, no one else but each and every one of us, need to make sure that women's rights are preserved and no woman of this region is exploited in any form. Well, it may seem like a dream at this moment to make all the women of this region empowered and preserve their self-esteemed. But dreams are the foundation of reality; those who dare to dream are the one who have guts to turn them to reality. The only thing, needed must, is along with the planners, policy makers, political and social leaders, government, non-government machineries, civil society and every one should pursue and practice to make this dream true , setting the mind and soul together.

2. General Perception:

It is said that remarkable progress has been achieved in expansion of women's right with their presence in various sectors including the paid employment, but the truth is this that, yet the women are facing very disadvantaged position in every society, country and the global context, currently. In fact, still their employment is confined to low skilled, non standard work with less income or inadequate social security benefits, offering very little access to them to live independently and self sufficiently.

3 Dr. Madhavi Singh Shah is a professor of economics at Central Department, Tribhuvan University.

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In a patriarchal society, women are not only having low profile in family and society, but at the work place too, despite of their ample competence and capability. They are very much under-represented in senior and decision making positions. The traditional role model based concept, male bread winner is general practice of social structure, although families have been developed with single mother as sole provider and source of family income. Obviously, much more needs to be done to progress in ' gender equity ' both in policy and action, to meet the line of requirement.

Lack of knowledge on Women's Rights was highlighted as an area of concern in Beijing Platform for Action. In response, ILO has increasingly emphasized on raising awareness in legal education about gender issue. Although, women's rights and gender equality is scoring remarkable attention, over the years both at global and national levels, yet much more needs to be done to meet the line of requirement. In fact, to promote and maintain equality between women and men not only in family or household but at the work as well, which is very important… International Labour Standards and National Legislation have been adopted on a wide range of related issues. It has been realized that unawareness or ignorant towards their rights derived from these standards, which has been increasingly identified as a severe problem to their effective use. Despite, such problems, it has been truly realized, that women have been able to move forward in various sectors.

NGOs have been devoting a greater part of their developmental attention to various concerns and problems of women development in the form of numerous development projects and programs. However, it is now being increasingly felt that a more systematic gender-sensitivity analysis is required to identify a more productive role for full participation and involvement of women in the development process. Gender-equity in the development process needs to be balanced and overlap with the introduction of mechanization in work process and of technologies with a distinct male bias. Some times, various features of liberalization and globalization or export orientation on production processes may emerge as challenges and threats in the way ahead to proportionate share and say of women in socio-economic development sectors lacking desired emphasis on female literacy, education / training in skills aimed to reduce the gender in-equality in development. It should be noted that change processes initiated through grass root level development projects or through introduction of supportive policies and programs, that are often not visible at the macro level in the context of such emerging threats, nor such changes spread evenly across the country.

Looking into the Nepalese scenario, women comprise little above than 50 % of total population with their literacy rate, 43% of total female population. Economically active population is 48.5 %. Among the economically active population 91% are involved in the agriculture sector whereas only 9 % are contributing in other diversified areas. All-though precisely gender disaggregated are not available in GDP, the assumption is women's contribution in GDP is not making less than 50 %. Even then, the participations and achievements of women in comparison to men are still considered very insignificant. It is said in poor and developing country like ours- "Women are poorest among the poor." As we all know, women are delivering their triple roles – productive, reproductive and community as usual which has been not recognized and acknowledged. In fact, their commendable contribution is not confined to only in agricultural sector, but in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as well. As a matter of fact, in developing economy, they are making good success in spite of many problems and challenges.

Female-headed households are households where either no adult males are present, owing to divorce, separation, migration, non-marriage, or widow-hood; or where the men, although present, do not contribute to the household income, because of illness or disability, old age, alcoholism or similar incapacity (but not because of unemployment).

In many countries today, the income generated by women is vital for family survival. Women provide the main source of income in millions of households worldwide – a challenge to the traditional assumption

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that “head of household” is a role to be occupied by a man. This new reality has to be taken into consideration in modifying, in particular, social security provisions (on pensions, unemployment benefits and family allowances) to ensure that the needs of this group are met, for instance by the further extension of personal social security rights to women. The concept of female-headed households should also be included routinely in national labor statistics to allow the numbers and proportions of this type of household to be clearly identified.

3. Working women's rights and gender equality:

Discrimination at work may be compounded by physical or psychological violence which may be gender-based. The clearest illustration of this is sexual harassment; but harassment accompanied by violence or the threat of violence need not be sexual in intent. Recent ILO research has identified female migrant domestic workers as a high-risk group in countries such as Saudi Arabia, for example. There is a close connection between violence at work and insecure work, gender, youth, and certain high-risk occupational sectors.

National and international legislation against workplace violence and gender based violence exists, but preventive action is essential to create and sustain a violence-free working environment where women workers can feel as physically and psychologically as safe as their male colleagues.

Gender-based violence is a very complex issue, rooted in gendered power relations in the economy, the labor market, the employment relationship, organizational culture and cultural factors.Workplace measures to combat gender-based violence may include:• Regulations and disciplinary measures;• Policy interventions against violence;• Disseminating information about positive examples of innovative legislation, guidance and practice;• Workplace designs that may reduce risks;• Collective agreements;• Awareness raising and training for managers, workers and government officials dealing with or exposed to violence at work;• Designing and putting in place procedures to improve the reporting of violent incidents in conditions of safety and confidentiality.

It is very important component that needs to taken into care about women workers is preservation of their rights, respecting various social roles such as reproductive and all. However, there are clear gains to be made by forging links with the movements of women which are striving for integration into participatory democracy - the politicization of the social issues. They work to increase the value placed on the reproductive role. Similarly the approach here would be to strengthen by closer analysis of linkages with those working in the care economy, striving for reproductive and unpaid work to be recognized as economic activities.

The international agenda for development clearly spells out the equitable socio –economic development as a top priority. Various disadvantaged group of population are now demanding for equitable access to resources, livelihood and opportunities for development. United Nation has propagated development and freedom from poverty as a right. The definition of poverty now spells out not only the lack of basic needs or material comforts but also the denial of opportunities for living an acceptable life as well. As women are the largest disadvantaged group all over the world, the agenda of gender equality has moved to the top priority in the list of International development schemes.

The world has recognized the role of women in creating an environment for over all social development, poverty eradication, economic security and social integration. For creation of an inclusive society for all

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in which every individual has an active role to play, gender equality and empowerment of women is an urgent need.

In fact, the declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work is also a very important element in the framework for promoting women workers rights and gender equality.

Since 1990s the concept of human right based approach to development has gained importance and offers a normative framework, which is very relevant to standard settings. The right based approach naturally includes eliminating all forms of discriminations.

All workers, irrespective of sex or other personal attributes, should be protected by a pension system financed by the contributions of active workers and employers. Trade unions or workers’ organizations are established for protecting or improving, through collective action, the economic and social situation of workers of both sexes. The right to form and join trade unions without discrimination is guaranteed by Conventions.

Trade unions, their representatives and members should ensure respect for and promotion of equal remuneration, opportunity and treatment through their relations with management. Like employers’ organizations, trade unions have a prime responsibility to identify and recognize discriminatory practices and to combat it through all their activities, starting within their own organizations.

4. Application of ILO conviction in national level:

Gender mainstreaming in the application of international labor standards is important because it helps to ensure that women and men have equal access to benefits derived from those standards. It accords equal recognition to the needs, experiences and interests of women and men when they are different as well as when they are the same. Many countries have adopted specific legislation prohibiting discrimination and promoting equality in employment, and many national constitutions contain clauses specifying such equality. The more recent emphasis is on governments’ positive duty to prevent discrimination and promote equality. But the law is not consistently applied and inequality persists. Now, emphasis is increasingly placed on enforcement through legal, administrative and promotional measures to fill the continuing gaps between the law and its application, using specific institutions.

More people in the world still work in agriculture than in any other sector of the world economy – 40 per cent in 2005 (ILO, 2006a, p. 25). A majority of the world’s women workers are till concentrated in rural areas, occupied mostly in farming, but increasingly also in rural non-farming activities. In economies in which agriculture is a major economic sector, women work more often in this sector than men (ILO, 2004a, p. 25). Women’s participation rates in these sectors are often higher than in most other sectors, but this is simply a reflection of the way work is organized in these sectors, where there is a high proportion of family-owned small farms and non-farm units. Women represent a higher share than men of agricultural workers and unpaid workers on household farms; when men migrate to the city or across the border, for jobs, for instance, women are left behind to tend the farm. This is the scenario of rural Nepal too, but according to recent information women are also migrating for works across the border heavily these days in the absence of even semi skilled or unskilled employment in the country. Women agricultural workers in countries of mostly South Asia, including Nepal, are in a particularly powerless position, since they cannot fully inherit or exercise, their rights on land and thus cannot participate in benefits for which land ownership is a prerequisite, such as membership of cooperatives, credit unions or agricultural extension programmes thoroughly. While all rural workers endure long hours, low incomes, and exposure to occupational safety and health hazards, women often bear the brunt of these conditions because of their greater concentration in occasional and seasonal work.

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In order to provide some protection against such adverse conditions, international labor standards on the right to freedom of association in agriculture, adopted as early as 1921 and in 1975, covered all rural workers defined as persons engaged in agriculture, handicrafts or related occupations in rural areas. Definitely, these clauses benefited women much, only when they are aware of it.

5. Gender mainstreaming:

The concept of gender mainstreaming was emerged since some years back ….. the first adoption of gender mainstreaming as the main global strategy for promoting gender equality was clearly established in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. It is defined as the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes in any area and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuate. Gender mainstreaming is stick with the ultimate goal of achieving gender equality. Actually, Gender mainstreaming is not a goal in itself, but a means to achieve gender equality. Gender mainstreaming and special interventions to promote equality between women and men are complementary strategies. Special interventions to promote gender equality can target either women alone, both women and men, or men alone. There is no conflict between the two strategies; on the contrary, targeted interventions are seen as essential for mainstreaming.

But in the developing countries, Gender budgeting is one of the most effective tools to mainstream gender in policies and plans, to remedy inequalities and promote women's economic and socio-political rights. The gender concept is based on the fact that differences between women and men, and the roles and positions, which they occupy, are the result of social and cultural construct based on inherited inequality. Showing great potential towards achieving gender equality, economic efficiency and human development, particularly in the context of growth and globalization, it brings budget closer to people, enhancing people's participation with equality. Moreover, it brings into light women's unpaid work as economic work in the form of cross cutting tool.

6. Nepalese Scenario:

With the advancement of Civilization, the needs and aspirations of people are upcoming, they do not look for good income, education and better health only but also expect for their stake in state and society. Moreover, they want to live a life with dignity, respect and equal treatment from the state. Nepal has been undergoing through transition- monarchy to republic, authoritarianism to democracy and human rights, from hegemonic to a participatory system of governance; obviously opening up new dimensions to meet the line of requirements.

But, as a matter of fact, current prime threats to the rule of law are, violence by armed groups in Tarai / border areas, aggressive behavior by various political/non political forces, increased criminality due to the generally insecure environment, frequent strikes and protest and political interference in the security and criminal justice system. It is true that the claim to equality is not only the fundamental right of all human but the responsibility as well, since; it is the starting point of all liberties. In fact, women although, representing the larger group in the country have been deprived not only from the various opportunities, but treated and looked in low profile simply because of their gender.

Women and children have been in a struggle since long, everywhere in the world, for rights, dignity and end of discrimination. The context and intensity of the situation is further worsened in Nepal. Women and children have been severely suppressed and exploited in all spheres. Trafficking, domestic violence

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and sexual harassment are the most common forms of exploitation against women and children in the country. Further, discrimination over and access to basic rights, opportunities and services are the other factors that propel them to live with low moral.

Together with these causes and other socio-economic disparities, Nepal has already gone through a decade long conflict that resulted in historic political changes in the country. In all the process of the change, people's participation - basically from the deprived sections (the women, dalit, ethnic minorities) played a significant role. And, the major factor that contributed to and the reason they fight was for change. The change was attributed to creating a society that respects all forms of socio-cultural dynamics and brings together in a platform ensuring rights and opportunities with no discrimination against sex, caste, creed and religion.

The crux and complexities of the problem calls for a unique approach to guide through a process so as to institutionalize a culture – that promotes sense of human responsibilities to secure rights, dignity and end all forms of violence and discrimination against women, children and other deprived minorities in the society.

Human Rights and Good Governance have been instrumental to advocate and promote the voices of minorities, world wide. As best approaches, it has gained significant recognition widely. However, it remained with a lower tone over other aspect of the movement. Simply it raised concerns for the minorities, but it remained unconcerned to take other group into confidence, which has drawn a line between "haves" or "haves-not" and partly contributed to a conflict between the classes. As a result, the issues of women, children and other minorities have never been in priorities for the other segments. Moreover, gender based discrimination is rampant in Nepali society and it affects all women notwithstanding their economic status, caste, ethnicity or regional affiliation. Patriarchal value based worldview is embedded not only in social and cultural practices, but also in system of governance and legal framework operational in Nepal. So now the time has come, to address the issue from grassroots to top level making the gender responsive governance. Both the Rights and Responsibilities need to be redefined and furnish it into the parallel format to make it human development oriented.

In fact, equal rights, dignity and respect to the socio-cultural differences of minorities are the basic prerequisites to the peaceful and harmonious society. And of course, it is the foundation for the sustainable development of the nation. As long as the issues of the minorities are not addressed and respected in a wide spectrum – there exists the ground for conflict, which would affect entire society and the nation at large.

The fight of women, children and other minorities for rights is not simply a movement but it's an opportunity to deal it with responsible approaches to put an end on all forms of discrimination and violence in women, children and other minorities forever.

Needless to say that without enhancing and mobilizing this valuable human asset, women, no nation can proceed ahead in its way to development. So it clearly indicates that women's active participation not only in developmental sectors but even making politics work with women (MP3W) is urgently required for national upliftment and sustainable peace.

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7. Some Experiences and Endeavors:

In response to lay down a stake in gender- equity empowering women with the knowledge and awareness of their Rights, Rahat a Kathmandu based research oriented social organization launched a series of orientation and training sessions in 2006 / 07 on "Capacity Building of Female Workers employed in Cabin Restaurants" comprising the legal, social, economic, health -hygiene, working environment and all types of related issues. The training manual was developed and designed on the outputs generated from research and field study carried out in Kathmandu and some of the urban centers of Tarai region – Bara, Parsa, Janakpur, Jaleswore , Saptari, Mahotari etc, where cabin restaurants were mushrooming at that point of time. The sessions were heading towards the empowerment of working women with the awareness towards their rights.

Moreover, women worldwide do most of the unpaid sustenance work at home, besides the paid work out side. However, urban women may come up in ….little better position being both educationally and economically privileged, but the rural women are most adversely affected by gender discrimination practice prevailing in the community. Their contribution and productivity have been not only overlooked but over shadowed as well.

As an exception for few women, involved in white collar jobs, the majority of women are working as labors both in agricultural and non agricultural sectors. Mostly in nonagricultural sectors the migrant rural women workers face plenty of difficulties and discrimination at their place of work. They are low paid relative to their male counterparts for the same work.

Here, it seems quite relevant to share some findings of the Ph.D. research work of Madhavi Singh Shah on "Problems and Prospects of female Industrial Workers in Urban Kathmandu" – …… In reference to, many legal provisions specially spelled out for female workers in Labor Act were found massively violated in the factory, they were not facing only discrimination, despite, and they were bound to work in a very disadvantageous position and environment. They were going through the various unwanted pressure and exploitation simply because of their gender.

Mostly when issues on women workers rights and gender equality emerge in the screen, it indicates and focuses on owe and pain of women workers engaged at informal sectors although gender discrimination is every where in any sector, society and country varying on the magnitude only.

All workers in the informal economy in the first instances as workers and women workers within labor markets which are gendered institutions are structurally over represented in poorer segments in worse conditions at lower or no wages. Their interests would best be served by mainstreaming the informal economy into formal economic analysis and by mainstreaming the needs of all workers for social protection into main stream economic and social policy debates.

8. Glimpse of Madhesh:

No doubt, with various socio-economic- cultural and geo-political features Madhesh or this southern belt of the country called Tarain region holds many significant roles in national development. It has ample potentialities in agriculture, commerce trade- surrounding with many social and developmental entrances. But the path to turn these potentialities into opportunities needs to be paved with vigorous endevour to approach the destination. In fact, lots of issues and problems are connected with Madhesh at this juncture of time. In the midst of the various problems the country or particularly this region is facing are, inadequate law and order, armed group, abduction, and other criminal activities, turning the society vulnerable.

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Being deficient in peace practice and progression in current national scenario, we Nepalese are facing lot of troubles and problems not only in our personal or professional's lives, but it has disrupted and adversely affected the socio-economic and political situation of the country. The distraction to the rule of law, aggressive behaviors, increased criminality due to insecure environment are indicating the absence of peace … pushing back the development and national economy as a whole. Despite, Madhesh has got its own socio-cultural issues, which not only separate but set it back in comparison to other parts of the countries. One of them … most remarkable is gender disparity in the family and society. Mostly women are deprived from all types of socio-economic amenities. Moreover, dowry system is sharply in practice, which puts women in high risk. Along with other types of gender based violence, mostly in eastern Tarain, the frequency of victimization of elderly ladies in acquisition of witchcraft is very high. Despite of all these issues and problems women are upcoming and contributing in quite a sizable volume. In this Tarain region, there are various ethnicities tied up with their own culture and customs, including the various indigenous groups also. But most of them, depending on agriculture for their living, despite few other small scale trade as well, according to the local market and availability of raw materials. Despite, the community women are engaged in various small scale productions, which are, actually the self employment packages. We can illustrate the Mithila artistic manual works of Janakpur, its market is extended to abroad…crossing the national boundary. Similarly making handicrafts, pottery and clay arts, are also remarkable products. In addition, fishing, animal husbandry, forestry, horticultures, floricultures and wage earnings are various jobs in the community.

Moreover, in the changed context, the level of education, awareness is grooming up in all sector. As a result, Madheshi society and community are also getting exposed in various dimensions, which needs to be channelized in proper channels facilitating this region's say and share to it by the state and its line agencies.

Micro credit , small farmer development schemes, participatory district development program, Gramin bank program, cooperatives, self-help development schemes are some community and district level economic packages working towards women empowerment, which emerge very insignificant to meet the requirement.

Although, women's participation in politics is very minimal, it has been raised to some extent in changed political scenario, but has been totally failed to bring difference due to inactive, unassertive role. To address all these hindrances, safeguarding the gender equality may come up as very effective scheme. Moreover, social security such as health, education and skill promotion with employment needs to be enhanced for women. Madhesh needs to prioritize in national development scheme depending on its high potentiality both in agricultural and commercial sectors obviously maximizing and encouraging women's participation. Many NGOs are operating in Tarain region focusing on the reproductive health, safeguarding the welfare of migrant workers and literacy package, skill promotion, micro credit and awareness programs, but they are very limited to meet its requirement, which needs to be expand and enhanced obviously.

9. Globalization and its impact:

Globalization is a complete phenomenon, whose key characteristics are the liberalization of international trade, the expansion of foreign direct investment and the emergence of massive cross-border financial flows, aided by the rapid growth of new technology, especially information and communications technology. With the wave of liberalization, migration for work has been raised to larger extent, including both male female labors. In this situation women's role has been enlarged in economy demanding various gender based pre conditions and infrastructures for their social securities. Since, women's contribution is

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remarkable both in national and international scenario, so maximum participation of women can only promote the economy and development.

The impact of globalization and employment restructuring has had important consequences for gender- and equality-related policies worldwide. Investors and multinational companies have enjoyed much greater freedom to move capital from one country to another, thereby creating jobs in countries with lower labor costs and destroying jobs in those with more expensive labor.

Women are often the first to feel both the positive and negative effects because international capital tends to be invested in more labor-intensive production which tends to be female-dominated owing to the lower wages women workers earn in these sectors. In the process of globalization, female participation in paid employment has increased considerably; but this has not led everywhere to women’s benefiting equally from their integration into the labor market which remains highly sex-segregated. In many developing countries, deeply embedded gender inequalities mean that the social cost of globalization weighs disproportionately on women. In agriculture, trade liberalization has destroyed the livelihoods of many women farmers or displaced them from their land, while throwing up big obstacles to their entry into the new economic activities generated by globalization. Many countries have responded to this economic process with legislative and administrative changes, in order to liberalize national labor standards and working conditions and to make them more flexible. The negative effects of globalization are very serious, and there is growing concern internationally that Economic globalization must be accompanied by a set of minimum standards in the social field.

The Small / Medium Enterprises (SME) sector is very diverse in terms of women entrepreneurs’ motivation, socio-economic status, type of business and potential for growth. It covers everything from agricultural micro-enterprises to modern commercial and professional enterprises run on the internet. However, there is evidence that women’s enterprises tend to be smaller both in terms of the number of workers employed and the presence and value of fixed assets. Women entrepreneurs tend to be concentrated in low-investment, less remunerative occupations derived from their traditional skills (such as selling in market stalls and small-scale food production and catering), while male entrepreneurs tend to be concentrated in more dynamic, investment-intensive areas. For both male and female small entrepreneurs, there is little security and high vulnerability to the vagaries of the market.

In recent years, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including micro enterprises, have become important sources of employment and self-employment for women in both developed and developing countries, and there has been a significant rise in the number of women entrepreneurs in a variety of economic activities in both the formal and informal economies. In many developing countries more women than men work in SMEs.

Motherhood and the gendered division of labor that places primary responsibility for maintaining the home and family on women are important determinants of gender-based inequalities between the sexes and of inequalities among women. Conflict between these family responsibilities and the demands of work contributes significantly to women’s disadvantage in the labor market and the sluggish progress towards equal opportunity and treatment for men and women in employment. While women are forced, or choose, to accept poorly-paid, insecure, part-time, home-based or informal work in order to combine their family responsibilities with their paid employment, difficulties in reconciling the demands of work and family contribute to men’s disadvantage in the family and limit their ability to be involved in family matters.

The term “work–life balance” refers not only to caring for dependent relatives, but also to “extracurricular” responsibilities or important life priorities. Work arrangements should be sufficiently flexible to enable workers of both sexes to undertake lifelong learning activities and further professional

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and personal development, not necessarily directly related to the worker’s job. However, for the purposes of the Convention and States’ obligations in this rather vague area, the balance between work and family life is central to the principle and objectives of promoting equal opportunity. Issues related to the improvement of career opportunities, lifelong learning and other personal and professional development activities are considered to be secondary to the objective of promoting the more equal sharing between men and women of responsibilities in the family and household as well as in the workplace.

10. Concluding notes:

Gender-based discrimination is extensive in Nepali society, affecting all women, what ever is their economic status, caste, ethnicity or regional affiliation. A patriarchal world view is embedded not only in social and cultural practices but also in Nepal's systems of Governance and its legal framework, permeating all aspects of the lives of the women and girls. Patriarchy also pervades the social spectrum so that Dalit women face multiple layers of exclusion. As a matter of fact, women lag behind basically because of .disparities in education and skill promotion, limited access of property, low access of employment, labor market, productive resources or assets, poor health, gender based violence resulting into rare entrée into professional and decision making positions. Regarding the various issues, women raised their voices against these oppressions and have made some remarkable achievements such as property right to some extent, right to provide citizenship to their children, allocation of seats in various political, social sectors etc. But, no doubt, still there is a long way to go.

Looking into the case of Madhesh, although, the fertile Tarai lands emerge as powerful source of the revenue, but the welfare of its indigenous inhabitants including Tharu, Maithali, Bhojpuri, Awadi speaking people were shown very little concern by the then government or its agencies, before, which lay down,.. the region behind than other parts of the country.

In addition, the Madheshis, Janjatis and other groups who are not fluent in Nepali, face stiff competition in the examination for entry into the national civil service. This linguistic barrier narrows Madhesh's study options affecting severely to women's all round opportunities and upliftment as well. The reason for discrimination and exclusion differ widely among all the disadvantaged groups, despite their political, social, economic and cultural parallels. For, women, basically because of the patriarchal society, for Dalits it is the hierarchal system and for Janjatis it may be the crisis of identity and all. So, each of the groups, suffering discrimination, can also look to international law for models of transforming the state in accordance with its own needs and priorities. So, for women there is an enormous corpus of legal standards best summed by the convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women-1979 and its supplementary protocol. But to perform and follow the convention can only smooth the road map of the development. It needs to be supplemented by the untiring endevour towards the gender equity and empowerment of women encouraging them for maximum meaningful participation in all developmental sectors for nation building process.

References

1. ABC of Women Workers ' Rights and Gender Equality- 2000- ILO2. Breaking : The Silence : Violence Against Women In Asia- 2002- EDT : Fanny M. Cheung ,

Malavika Karlekar, Aurora De Dios , Jurre Vichit- Vadakan, Lourdes R. Quisumbing- Equal Opportunities Commission , Women in Asian Development & UNESKO National Commission of Philippines.

3. Capacity Building Of Girls And Young Women Employed in Cabin Restaurants of Kathmandu: An Overview of the Project -2005 – Rahat…for better world , Org.

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4. Counting the Invisible Workforce: The Case of Home based Workers – 1999- Chen, M, Sebstad, J. and O' Connell, L, -World Development, Vol. 27.

5. Identity & Society – 2009- Social Inclusion Research Fund / SIRF6. Learning from Experience – 2001, Frances Lund and Smita Srinivas – ILO7. Listening to People : Living in poverty in Nepal- 2004- action aid, Nepal8. Media Coverage on Various Forms of Violence Against Women – 2004 – Rahat… For better

world, Org. 9. Nepal Human Development Report-2009-UNDP10. Policy on Gender and Development -1998 – Asian Development Bank/ ADB11. Problems and Prospects of Female Industrial Worker's in Urban Kathmandu :Ph.D. Thesis – 2001

– Madhavi Singh Shah12. Poverty Migration and HIV/ AIDS in Dadeldhura District, Nepal -2002-Dr. Giorgi Pkhakadze-

National Centre for Aids STD control Ministry of Health & ILO.13. Single Women No Problem – 2006-Asha Kachru- The Women Press, G. T. Carnal Road, Delhi-

11000914. Women's Voice – Situation Analysis on the Problems Faced by Nepalese Women- 2000-

National Network Against Girl Trafficking / NNAGT

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Identity Crisis of Muslims: A Religious Minority in NepalH. M. Zahid Parwez

Researcer, CERID, TU

Abstract: The Muslim community in Nepal is the victim of discrimination since the unification of the country by the state sanctioned Hindu ethos. The Muslim religious culture of hill Muslim is at the verge of integration with Hindu majority culture due to local cultural pressure and forced Sanskritization in order to preserve their community in dominant Hindu social structure. All the Muslims have same religious faith and follow the same religious guidance. The present political leaders trying to divided the Muslims of Nepal in different categories aiming to use them as “Vote Bank” and even in secular Nepal Muslim did not deserve their religious identity in Interim Constitution of the country and excluded in all aspects of human development. The empowerment status of Muslim community to exercise their basic human rights is also need to attract NGO/INGO to launch specific short term and long term strategies in term of Human capital development and enabling them for equal participation in state bodies. This paper focuses on how discriminatory policies and practices are still in operation to deprive Muslims in Nepal and secularism of the country looks completely failure in case of Muslim religious minority due to its numerically small status.

1. Context:

The Muslims of Nepal comprising 4.27% of the total population of the country (CBS 2001) constitute the third largest religious group of Nepal. As a religious minority in a state dominated by the Hindu “othos”, Muslims in Nepal have been perceived variously as “Malechha”, people who profess reversed-religion or irreligious and were once categorized “Impure but touchable” within the caste hierarchy explained in the “Muluki-Ain”, “National Code of Conduct”1854. In general Muslims have largely followed the principle of “preservation” and sided with the ruling elite in power. It’s only to ensure the survival of the community against the majoritarian dominance and violence. Even the Muslim in Nepal who have been deprived of equal rights as Nepali citizen and one of the most disadvantage group lagging far behind in term of economics, politics and even social development vis-à-vis other social groups.

The Muslims of Nepal are a distinct minority group. Because the population of the Muslims is very small in comparison to majority Hindus, a large number of stereo type beliefs are found about Muslims, based on prejudices in the majority Hindus. Although Muslims do not belong to a caste strata system of Hindus, they are generally considered as possessing lower strata of Sudra or untouchable people (Bista 1996). A large number of contradictory practices prevail in the Muslim cultural system against majority Hindu cultures. On the basis of these contradictions between Muslim code of conduct and the Hindus, the majority group considered the Muslim as Sudra and irreligious. The Muslims of Nepal are aware of these feelings and so they are conscious to preserve their cultural identity and in this process they are the object of discrimination to a great extent, even in the field of basic human rights.

The growth of the fundamentalism among the religious groups in Nepal especially the Muslim minority has not been taken as a good sign by other religious groups in the country. The communal riots created in different parts of the country since late 50’s until now did not create any positive result for their own community. Even the Islamic fundamentalism in Nepal came to encounter with newly formed ‘Sivsena’, the Hindu militant groups. This is no way a productive choice in minority identity. So in this condition they are required to reconcile with majority. The Nepali society has provided them with full freedom of religion. The Muslim minority in Nepal are very much influenced in the majority Hindu culture. At the

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same time their attitude towards other culture, extra territorial loyalty, growing fundamentalism law, frequent interaction with the Hindus and their institutions etc influenced identity behavior. This situation forbids them from having reconciliation with the majority group thereby creating an atmosphere of distrust and cultural enmity. The Muslim religious authorities such as the “Ulamas” are now required to transform theoretical principles and dogmatic religion into the people’s religion to make it more popular and facilitate to maintain its proper identity.

A minor religion needs to develop and blend together with the local tests which correspond with the social dynamism to move with the tune of time. But factors like failure, alienation and deprivation in all sections of the society need further analysis because they weaken factors supporting identity. It helps to find out such factors related to the identity problems. So analysis in the context of Nepalese Muslims helps to understand problems of Muslim minorities in the Hindu kingdom. The Muslim fundamentalists are often taken as fundamentalist in terms of religion, behaviors and as a militant religious groups. The majority chauvinism has created negative impacts in minority. Thus the new Hindu chauvinism or Hindu fundamentalism is completely negative to identity phenomenon of the Muslim minority in Nepal. The Muslims living in different geographical regions in Nepal differ to each other to some extent It has direct impact on extension of cultural roots in the society. The adaptations to local condition, faith, attitude etc., are still significant in the life of community members. It is very difficult perhaps impossible, to analyze the entire situation pertaining to identity and nature of crisis in identity without exploring the minds of people and their vision. Therefore, the religious commitments of community members and the ways of maintaining separate identity of Muslims in the Nepali society are significant in the identity of the Muslims minority.

2. Sources of Discrimination:

Nepal has adopted specific policies regarding the mobilization of ethnic and minority groups for the purpose of national integration in Nepal. Actually the model adopted in the past was based on “Empire model” which worked from the rise of the rule of Shah-dynasty upto the Rana rule of 1951. The beginning of this period is marked by peaceful unification of Nepal. The key factor that remained all alone, unification bid was the use of Hinduism as a source of unification. King Prithivi Narayan Shah declared the kingdom as “Asal Hinduthana-the real living place of Hindus” in his Divya Updesh. (Dastider 2007) The another major aspect of the process of identity formation was the form of patriotism expressed via-loyalty to king and prominence of Hindu religion. All the other ethnic groups were neglected including Muslim religious group, the high caste Hindus were at the center of power. The first Muluki-ain, 1854 devoted a major portion in explaining the relation between the various caste and the violation of which became state offence. The Hindu caste hierarchy became a state protected ideology since 1854 also played a very important role in shaping the character of national society where the Pahadi caste through their cultural legacy continued to dominate policies and power structure of Nepal state (Dastider, 2007). This system turned the Muslim as “Malechha” in the caste system of Nepal.

During the Panchyat system the model of national integration adopted by Nepal was the model as “Nationalistic model” with the Nepali king exercising all de facto over the executive, legislature and Judicial power was concentrated in the king. The constitution of Nepal 1962 declared Nepal as a Hindu state in which sovereignty vested in the kingship. Claims on national homogeneity marked the modernization drive of this period with the monarch and majority of the top officials being of high caste of Pahadi Hindus. The portrayal of distinctive national characteristics can be strictly characterized by Nepali language, Nepali dress, and hill Hinduism. (Dastider 2007) During this period the policies of the government did not consider Muslim as the citizen of Nepal as well the laws and the rule of the nation based on Hinduism and the Pahadi high caste domination.

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The patch work of minority model began with restoration of democracy 1990 giving more emphasis on minority demand; minorities may operate freely in public places. The question of national identity and quest for participation in policy making and distribution of welfare resources arose with increasing social complexity. Muslim not often confined to social peripheries threaten to national unity envisaged and enforced by central measures.

Now the interim constitution declared Nepal as a secular state and determined the progressive restructure of state in order to resolve the existing problem of the country based on caste, class, religion, region and gender etc. In relation to Nepali Muslim there is no specific policy to overcome their problem due to their minority status. It is very clear that Nepal has minority policies but certainly these policies are for general minorities group not for a particular one. Muslim community though it is in a small population in the country, it is not a local religious group but it is well known fact that Muslim consist of a global community constitute second largest religion of the globe. Although there may be some heterogeneity in relation to living style language, dress, local affiliation on the basis of politics of preservation in the process of Sanskritization. But the basic faith religious and cultural identity, norms and values are homogeneous with strict contradiction with majority Hindus. The model to address the problems of minority do not affects properly to the Muslim community because these policies are unable to address the diversified problem of Muslim as a distinct religious minority. In fact the Muslims in Nepal have been observing the lowest minority status, because the existence of the Muslim as a religious minority in the society implies the existence of a corresponding dominant group with higher social status and greater privileges. Muslim as a minority carries with it the exclusion from full participation in the existence of the society. Though Muslims are distinct minority group it believe in pluralistic society in which they want to have peaceful existence side by side with majority and other minority group against the assimilative and militant minority, in spite of the fact they are more aware of their cultural identity.

Here it is desirable to explain the after effect of minority status on Muslim as a religious minority. The majority groups of the country have been prejudices for minority Muslim which have led discrimination in enjoying similar or equal opportunities which are offered to the member of majority group Muslims are discriminated in economic relation in national laws in politics, and sociable relations.

Currently Muslim in Nepal is one of the most disadvantaged minority group. Although approximately 96% of the total population reside in Madhesh 20 districts which are the “bread basket” of the country. Muslim economic status is lowest one. The Composite Inclusion Index prepared by Bennet and Parajuli has Muslim including (Churaute hill Muslim) at 35% i.e. highly excluded group. Actually Muslims of Nepal have been deprived of equal right as Nepali citizen and are far behind in terms of economic and social development. In addition to having lowest economic social and educational status the representation of Muslim in the government and administration has been dismal. As the resident of Madhesh they are also victim of the Pahadi dominated state mechanism that has historically discrimination against Madhesi. Further more one important section of Muslim population of women are also victim of horizontal discrimination in economic, political and social arena.

When the Maoist-led government announced a public service ordinance that provides 45% reservations to marginalized groups in early 2009, factions of Muslims launched agitations at times in concert with other groups, and at times by themselves, indicating yet again the fractured nature of the Muslim voice in the country (The Himalayan Times, 14 January 2009). For instance, in the beginning of March 2009, some Muslims, through the United National Muslim Struggle Committee (UNMSC), announced a series of protest programs together with other Terai indigenous groups like the Tharu demand amendments in the Interim Constitution and the ordinance. In particular, the committee demanded that the government’s decision to categorize Muslims as Madhesis be changed by incorporating with word “Muslim” in Article 13(3) and Article 33 of the Interim Constitution and hence provide constitutional recognition to Nepali Muslims (www.ekantipur.com). In addition, the struggle Committee also demanded the formation of a

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Muslim Commission, proportional representation of Muslims in state bodies, afresh population census of under-represented Muslims, Tharus, and Adivasi Janjati with the active involvement of the communities concerned. Despite similar demands, another group of Muslims, the Nepal Muslim Nagrik Samaj also followed suit by launching its own nationwide protest program, claiming that Muslims would not accept the government’s decision to enlist Muslims as Madhesis since Muslims were spread across the country, including in the hills. In addition, the Nepal Muslim Nagrik Samaj also demanded equal representation of Muslims in state mechanisms in proportion to their population. (www.ekantipur.com) On 16 March, 2009 the government and representatives of the Muslim community signed a six-point agreement agreeing to fulfill all the demands put forth by the UNMSC except for the implementation of Sharia law, on the understanding that it was too complicated an issue to deal with within such a short period of time (www.ekantipur.com).

In spite of the commitment of the Maoist chairman Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal in April, 2008 that Muslim Commission will be constituted after wining the Constitution Assembly Election but the Maoist led government did not take any initiative to constitute Muslim Commission and any step to recognize Muslim as a specific religious minority. This is also that Nepali Interim Constitution does not follow the tenet of inclusive democracy system.

4. Issues of Muslims of Nepal:

A. Identity Crisis of Muslim:

The regional variation in the degree of faith, practices and existing cultural condition always remain decisive in the identity phenomenon. This kind of variation leads to originate varied form of identity crisis. The existence and identify of hill Muslims is connected with the impact of Hinduism and assimilated cultural forms. Though the cultural practices, social behaviors of Muslim are different due to their minority status, geographical impact and the impact of Sanskritization undoubtedly this variation is the result of politics of preservation of community in the majoritarian society. In fact the basic identity is based on religious faith, ritual performance and basic cultural norms and values which are never be different from one another. So, there is a burning issue of identity determined on the basis of religious faith and code of conduct.

B. Economic Status:

The majority of the Muslim living in Madhesh region and overwhelming majority of them are peasant and they are engaged in agriculture/farming. They have more or less arable land. A sample survey of three dense Muslim populated district Banke, Mahottari and Rauthat district showed that Muslim on an average possessed a meager 8.98 katthas land per family while more than 50% of the Muslims were landless indicating the worsening position of Muslim. Of the Muslim families that owned land 67% did not grow food sufficient to feed a family for a whole year. As a result it is not surprising that Muslims are increasingly shifting towards non-agricultural forms of labor. (Parwez, 2004) The economic status of the Muslim is lowest one only above the Madheshi dalit one. The Human Poverty Index of Muslim of Nepal is 0.239 against the national poverty index of 0.325 are the clear indicative of their exclusion. The Human Development Index also indicate that Muslims are among the poorest group in term of human development index of national level 0.509 where as Muslims HDI is only 0.401. In relation to per capita income of national level is NRs.12,534 where as Muslim per capita income is 10,126.

C. Social Status:

In term of everyday experiences despite the government of Nepal having pronounced caste and religion based discrimination as illegal. Muslims continue to experience this form of discrimination. According to

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Gaborieau (1972) Muslims continue to be forbidden to enter the kitchen of Hindus of all caste and enter into inter-religious marriages apart from the refusal of water given by them. In fact, Blustain (1997) observed that Dalit amongst the villagers in Gorkha was the group that was the most antagonistic to the Muslims. Dalits often claimed that Muslims were inferior to them by virtue of their membership of a different religion.

D. Educational Status:

In terms of educational status, Muslims are considered to be the most educationally disadvantaged group (Education Inclusion of Muslims is only 26%) despite the fact that Muslims commonly refer to verses from the Quran and Sunnah such as “Seek knowledge from cradle to grave” and “Every Muslim boy or girl should pursue his or her education as far as possible.” (Siddika 1993:152). The literacy rate of Muslims is 34.72%, which is much below the national average of 53.7% (CBS 2001). To cite further the dismal educational status of Muslims, in the aforementioned survey conducted in Banke, Mahottari and Rautahat, it was reported that only 24.43% of household heads were literate (13.41% Madrasa literate and 10.02% mainstream literate), and of them, an overwhelming majority (62.28%) had been educated up to the primary level (Parwez, 2004).

One of the main reasons for the low literacy levels among Muslims is the fact that before the 1940s, Muslims, like many other “low-caste” groups were not allowed to attend schools in Nepal because of their status as “impure” castes. It was only in the late 1940s that the Ranas allowed Muslim children to attend schools as well as open a Muslim primary school, “Madrasa Islamia”, which is still operational today in Kathmandu (Ansari 1980). Similarly, while Sanskrit education has long been given government recognition, Madrasa education until recently was not given the same status, as a result of which, graduates with Madrasa education did not have a fair chance of employment (Siddique 2001). In addition to these institutional factors, other reasons for the low levels of education amongst Muslim include: high levels of poverty amongst Muslims, language barriers, absence of Muslim teachers in schools, inadequate participation of Muslims in decision-making bodies like School management Committees, absence of special incentives particularly to promote education of Muslim girls, etc.

Because of this systematic exclusion of Muslims, it is not surprising that even till the late-1970s, in a primary school in a village in Gorkha, there was only one Muslim out of 119 students in a government-run even Muslims as a population group constituted the largest single caste group in the village (Blustain 1977). The multi-donor funded Basic and Primary Education Programme (BPEP) implemented nation-wide, among other things, include a special incentive program which was run on a trial basis to promote education of Muslim children in three VDCs of Rupandehi district. However, an assessment of the program showed that the incentive scheme was unable to attract Muslim children to mainstream education and only 13.97% of Muslim children were enrolled in mainstream schools while another 80.07% continued with Madrasa and the remaining 60% did not enroll in any educational institution (Parwez, 2004).

E. Political Exclusion:

Muslim population is scattered all over the country, neither a district nor an election constituency having majority population. So, it is impossible to contest in election on the basis of Muslim identity. They have to seek a political party identity and such persons are bound to follow the direction of their political party and not the Muslim community. In spite of all efforts, not a single Muslim candidate could win an election without support of maximum Muslims voters, which is quite impracticable. During the election wave in our context, voters reflect on the basis of caste and creed. Obviously after the 1990 A.D., the first general election was held in 1992, the number of elected representatives in the National Assembly declined. Just after it can be easily felt that communal tension aggravated after the election running.

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Observing the repercussion, still the consecutive political movement has failed to address the issue. In the event of peace process and Constituent Assembly Elections, the Muslim minority must be given due attention for their representation in the legislature. At present, all deprived community started to raise their voice, 4.27% Muslim population is quite large. If they are not given due consideration, it might pose a threat to the political stability and nation building.

Multiparty democratic system again restored after the people's movement of 1990. It ended the party-less Panchayat system. The situation of Muslims representation in parliamentary election of 1991 was slightly improved. In this election 31 Muslim candidates had contested in the tickets of major political parties, among them 5 were elected, which was 2.4% of total lower house. One Muslims was also elected in the upper house of 60 legislators, which was 1.7% of total house. The situation in the assembly elections of 2051 BS and 2056 BS was not more impressive in terms of Muslim representation in assembly. Where only 4 (1.95%) Muslim candidates represented the 205 member parliament of 2051 BS, it further slumped in 2056 BS in which only 2 (0.97%) Muslim candidates had represented in the parliament of same size.

The popular movement of 2006 laid the stone for the Interim constitution of 2063 BS, which expressed its commitment for electing a constitution assembly for preparing a new constitution for the state. The preamble section of this constitution guaranteed the basic rights of the Nepali people to frame a constitution for themselves and to participate in the free and impartial election of the Constituent Assembly in a fear-free environment. (Interim Constitution, 2063 BS). The constitution of 1990 adopted a plurality electoral system in which the candidate of an electoral constituency, securing majority of the vote was considered elected under first-pass-the-post (FPTP) system. In contrary, the interim constitution adopted a mixed form of election system both FPTP and proportional representative (PR) systems were implemented to select legislators. The winning candidates in PR system were decided by the proportion of votes secured by political parties in entire country (Election Commission, 2065 BS).

In the election of constitution assembly, 6 (2.5%) Muslim candidates won in total 240 constituencies by FPTP system. 10 (2.98%) were elected in 335 places under PR system. The proportion of Muslims in national assembly is the maximum in comparison to other assemblies, which were formed in the past (http://www.election.gov.np).

In summary, it can be derived that although in the past, Muslims were not adequately represented in assembly, the share of Muslims was increased in national assembly after the popular movement of 2006, but their share was not proportional to their population percentage.

The non representation of the Muslim personnel in bureaucracy and governance is a leading indication to be a victim of discrimination and prejudices.

5. Synthesis of the Discussion:

Although in Nepal the state has taken initiatives to formulate policies in favor empowering deprived, disadvantaged and marginalized people who reside at the bottom stratum of the social hierarchy, the plight of these people has hardly improved because of numerous flaws at the implementation level. Obviously, there are defects in the implementation structures due to which the implementation process does not take the right course and the concerned actors close their eyes showing lackadaisical attitude towards initiating corrective steps by deconstructing the implementation structures simply because they do not want to get bogged down in the quagmire of bureaucratic hegemony. As a result, changes seem most unlikely, which is the sine qua non desire of the admirers of status-quo. Thus, we can see a critical cleavage in the state machinery defying the gravity of social transformation.

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We see today a fast growing movement advanced with the operation of NGos and INGOs for the support of the people residing in the lowest rung of the social structure mostly in the least developing countries. It seems that their total devotion is to enable people to emerge from their destitute situation and live a human life. The reality however, appears fairly differing. The reason, as it seems, is that the development agenda rather than being uncovered form the context selected for the program implementations are invariably prescribed on the basis of NGOs and INGOs own development orientation. Consequently, they follow the same traditional track which means adhering to the operation of lackluster prescriptions basically encompassing literacy and other crude living skills. Operation of such traditionally trailed activities seems fairly failing behind in the emancipation of the people on the bread line. Helping them to be able to unleash their critical perspectives of the reality where they live and to envision what might be enabling initiatives for being emerged as equally dignified human beings is the major focus which seems ignored by these organizations. Absence of such main element in the development agenda of NGOs and INGOs has perpetuated the status-quo in the social structure barring the hope for mush desired social transformation. The loss resulted from this situation is the erosion of social capital which emerges from mutual respect, recognized to human dignity, mutual co-existence and the feeling of “live and let other live”. The continuity of dominant-dominated social structure has infused desperation among the oppressed people. Their own initiative to mount revolt does not take larger shape because some of those among themselves who are relatively more conscious and advanced in thinking and making critical views and who from potential power to take the lead role in the organization of movement are easily manipulated by the dominant power in collaboration with the state power by providing them with certain positions in the state’s power structure. Upon ascending to the power position they tend to identity themselves with the dominant class and ignore their own brethren and the concern for their emergence as equally dignified people. In this way they break their own relational structure in their community reducing thereby the probability of forming strong institutional structures to against the discriminations and injustices.

We see in Nepal these days an uprising instigated by rebels who have labeled themselves as “Maoists”. The truth of this uprising as they claim is to transform the social structure embedded with feudalistic characteristics to such structure where elements of inequality imposed by the dominants groups are eliminated, injustices and discrimination are wrestled out, monopolization of national resources and power are reversed, human rights, democratic values and dignity of the destitute people are restored, and equal opportunity for all people irrespective of caste, creed, class, race , religion, geography and ethnicity is ensured. Unarguably, these all are immensely valid concerns. If changes could be propelled in these fronts the transformation of the Nepalese social structure circumscribed within the traditional values prescribed by the dominant class into a modern society would be imminent. But the irony is that whose have mounted armed struggle with the objective of relieving destitute people have resorted to inflicting callous pains on them through extortion and looting, murder and mutilation, and through arson and kidnapping. Their adhering to such notoriously inhuman means has terrorized the people to the extent that one can witness mass exodus from the villages. The atrocity of the security forces is equally appalling on the other hand. It seems that the rebels have their belief anchored in the saying that “means justify ends”. But they do not seem to have questioned themselves whether such barbaric means will bring them their desired ends. To this end, would it not be prudent on their part to reflect on the fact that adoption of harsh means has given further opportunity to the dominant class having greater influence on the state power to further solidify their position by resorting to strengthening the bullet power, has disheartened the people whose hopes to emerge as dignified human beings have been crushed and consequently has thwarted the process of transforming the society before reaching the maturity stage.

On the basis of above factual explanation we can conclude that although the government seems to have taken forward looking stance in the policy decisions in favor of ethnic minorities, linguist minorities, indigenous people, deprived groups and females they seem more rhetoric than a reality because the policy implementation structures carry on the legacy of feudal characteristics with less or no motivation to see

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changes in the status-quo. The ill intent of the bureaucrats who are responsible for the operation of the state structure can be felt from their behavior, in implicit from though, of safeguarding their hegemony over the administrative functions. This being the main reason the much sought-after decentralized management system in Nepal, the intent of which is to capacitate people basically from the lower strata eventually to do away with the class segregation in the decision making process, has skidded off from its due course.

The next point is that in the current national context there is a wave of establishing numerous NGO most of which are supported by INGOs of often INGOs involve themselves to conduct “development” activities by establishing their own offices. Actually, when they begin to launch programs, most often labeled as community empowerment initiatives, they stress that they would work based on what he destitute peoples urgent needs are. But, eventually, they change the track and follow the one which suits most to serve their own agenda. Thus, they end up implementing only traditional and perspective programs and do not bother to uncover the critical factors that have constrained the poor to lie low in the society. The end result again is the continuation of the status-quo. An editorial in a daily new paper states “although a number of NGOs in Nepal have engaged in laudable socio-economic activities since their entry into the country in the 1980s, it is unfortunate that they have not been able to empower the weaker communities (Madhesi, Muslims etc) as a whole” (The Himalayan Times, August 12, 2005) This statement deserves a critical note that how the NGOs can be considered doing laudable socio-economic activities while they have failed to empower poor people. In fact, in terms of empowering the Muslim community which is at the bottom of margin in human development index are untouched up till now. Neither GO and NGO have any specific policy for the development of Muslim in terms of human capital which is considered an yard stick for development. An evaluation of different empowerment activities conducted by GO/INGOs conducted in the country are more or less have better effect to change the attitude, behavior and empowerment which are concentrated in the mountain region. Perhaps this is may be a cause of prejudices of people engaged in policy making who can direct the Go/INGOs to be involved in program designed by them. The majority population of the Muslim is of Madhesi origin and living in Madhesh and Madhesh is historically victim of discrimination and thus the Muslim horizontally as well as vertically victim of discrimination on the basis of region and religion.

For some years Nepal has been reeling under a situation of “rebellion”, the government says it is terrorism. It is a “rebellion” for the rebels whereas the state denounces it is terrorism. If an objective analysis is to be made one would label it as ruthless and anti-humanistic stir. But when we reflect on the causes as forwarded by the rebels that include fighting against tyranny and justices and emancipating the society from oppression one would not hesitate to appreciate their taking to the arms. Unfortunately, they have used the arms in such unscrupulous way that one could equate them with barbarians. Adoption of such heinous means abhorred by human civilization helped the dominant class-led state to justify their claim for increasing the bullet power. As a result armed fighting between two forces has escalated which has caused a dire impact on the people and their hope of getting relieved from all sorts of suffocations has hopelessly eroded.

The wicked reality which has infected Nepal so severely would hardly take a reverse course unless a broad-based holistic process for empowering people is activated. Empowerment of people facing hardships in wretched context has been a global concern. In Nepal also all advocates and actors aligned for the cause of human development have made strong plea for empowering people. Interpretations of empowerment are found varying in accordance with diverse perspectives of development. Development planners who have tied up themselves with the traditional perspective of development invariably tend to focus on two major fronts-incomes and basic needs-as anti-poverty strategy eventually resulting into empowerment. But the reality shows that affirmation on these two fronts has produced no significant results. Nepal human Development Report states “the conventional anti-poverty approaches followed by many developing countries, which focus almost exclusively on income and basic needs have generally

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failed to reduce powerlessness and the negative attributes associated with it” (UNDP, 2004). This statement confirms analysis that the traditional focus on human development emphasizing human empowerment as the critical need essentially endorses individual entitlements, capabilities, rights, and freedoms. Other equally important attributes of empowerment include equity, productivity and sustainability. Further elaboration of empowerment as explained in the National Human Development Report (UNDP, 2004) which emphasize all essential principles of empowerment such as giving a high priority for arousing the spirit of the poor by making policies with positive discrimination in their favor, ensuring equity and justice in providing opportunities, recognizing and promoting their indigenous institutional structures built on indigenous knowledge, and framing inclusive state structures having purposeful spirit to be responsive to poor people’s critical concerns.

Restoration of democracy 1990 raised people hope and aspiration that the democratic governance would introduce a culture of compassion of which would accommodate the weaker mass a center stage. On the contrary, leaders who came to power as people voted them on the belief that they would fulfill their assurances grabbed the center stage for themselves; people at large were pushed towards the periphery. They overstepped the rationality of democratic governance and abused people’s mandate to cast them into feudal character. The mockery of democracy, thus, necessarily betrayed people’s empowerment (Lamichhane, 2003). Actually, their monopolistic use of state power by way of making decisions to serve their individual interest and look after the partisan politics reversed the due course of empowerment into disempowerment. One of the obvious reasons of today’s insurgency is the reflection of mischievous governance of inconsideration political forces. Ironically, the movement which was mounted to do away with injustices and oppressions inflicted on the poor mass has turned its weapons to cause appalling miseries again to the destitute people. In this way, the word ‘empowerment’ has been used as apparatus by the vested interest groups to address their agenda.

Of course, the civil society and media have raised their voice against the inappropriate deeds of the state and the anti-state forces but to no avail. This is indicative of the fact that democracy was not really restored in the nation. There had been only shift power from one dominant institution (monarchial) to political parties that breached the trust of the people expressed by their votes.

According to Human Development Report (2004) there are several other barriers of empowerment in Nepal. The report states “Nepalese culture is rooted in discriminations, based on religion, which have perpetuated both practices of untouchability and the exploitation of women”, “The present economic program risks marginalizing people who cannot compete in the market place or survive its vagaries”, “Policy that does not promote efficiency with an equitable structure of incentives leads to further marginalization of the poor”, “The out break of armed conflict has further squeezed financial services in the rural areas…”, “Despite the attention garnered by the decentralization process, the devolution of power and authority to the local bodies has yet to occur”, “Deep-rooted social cleavages and discrimination in term of caste, ethnicity, gender, region, culture and religion provided fertile ground for escalating conflict”, “Political crisis deepened with the obstruction of elections at a both the national and local levels”.

The above statements reveal that Nepal, at present, is plagued by numerous epidemics resisting empowerment. It is futile to sick to the same implementation structures to do away with the barriers of empowerment as cited above because they have not shown any encouraging results. Times and again, some changes were made within the implementation structural step of the state and of course in the operation modality of NGOs and INGOs with the hope that they would demonstrate effectiveness in their functioning but the end result being the same frustration one. Therefore the most important need was to identify a breakthrough in the repetitively non-functioning structures meant for empowerment by introducing innovative strategy.

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6. Way Forward:

Based on the analysis presented in this paper, Muslim as a religious minority in a country dominated by Hindu ethos, have long limited their concerns to ensuring the survival of the community against majoritarian dominance and violence. On the flip side, the Nepali state has remained not only oblivious to the plight of Muslims but even deprived them of equal rights as Nepali citizens. The recent years, especially since the declaration of Nepal as a secular state and the six-point agreement signed between the government and the Muslims, have indicated that the Nepali state is not only acquiescing to the demands of the Muslims but also accepting perhaps for the first time its Muslim population as citizens with equal rights rather than “Malechha”.

Overall Socio-Economic development

Muslims remain to be one of the most disadvantaged groups in Nepal. While this is reflection of Nepali state’s apathy towards its Muslim population, it is also a result of the dearth of information, particularly disaggregated data on minority population groups like the Muslims, not to mention the different groups within the broader Muslim population. Lack of data based information and in depth analysis of socio-economic determinants of Muslim community is yet to be done. For the socio-economic development of the Muslim community in an umbrella planning never be suitable because of the values and code of the conducts of the Muslim varies from other minority groups of the country. Muslim is the largest social group of the Madhesh region constitute approximately one third population of the Madhesh is not a matter of public discourse even in the inclusive democratic system. In fact Muslim socio-economic development needs long term, medium term and short term strategies and before implementing any development programme motivational and empowerment plan must be implemented side by side. Due to the victimization of long time discriminatory behavior they are loosing their sense belongingness to the country.

Identity Crisis

There is a variation in term of race, culture and practices in the Muslim community. Hill Muslim behavior and way of life is different to some extent with the Madhesi Muslim as well as with the Tibetan Muslims. The impact of dominant culture more or less affects Muslim to adopt their culture. But basically all the Muslims identity based on religious faith and Qur’an and Hadith, these are the two main religious guidance. However, there may be differences in term of behavior and cultural practices all the Muslims from every sects and school of thought are one in accepting their identity on the basis of religious guidance. So, all the Muslim of Nepal must identified as a religious minority group of the country and they must be provided all the facilities awarded by United Nation Charter as a religious minority.

Human Capital Development

Multicultural nature of Nepal society demands for multicultural education system with can less the disparities among the various social groups of Nepal. The present education system which based on common curriculum and Nepal as a common medium of instruction is widening in gap between various social groups of Nepal. Therefore here is a need of multiethnic and multicultural education policy based on pluralistic model to include all the educationally disadvantaged group of the country to achieve the goal of equitable participation in Nation building activities.

The ultimate role of education is in dealing with the challenges posed by multiethnic and multicultural diversity. Here in national context the educational planners need to incorporate the

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educational, social and cultural needs of students from diverse social and cultural background while at the same time social and economic needs of a larger society.

Muslim Representation

During the recent years the Muslim community along with other marginalized community lunch education and submitted a memorandum demanding some important provision including implementing proportional representation in the government legislation, bureaucracy, diplomatic mission and other important aspect of the state. The government side approved their demands and promised to implement accordingly. But up till now no action has been taken to do so.

Muslim community is the numerically very small in population as well as most disadvantage group of the country. It is looked essential to promote this important but little known community to provide especial privilege in term of positive discrimination to increase their equal participation in nation building and to sustain inclusive democracy. The Muslims community personnel who are capable must be included in policy level because the prejudices which has been inherited from generation to generation with the Muslim community compelling to discriminate Muslims.

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Fiscal Arrangements for the Poorest of the Poor in Federal NepalUma Shankar Prasad, PhD

Centre for Economic Development & Administration (CEDA)Tribhuvan University, Nepal

umashankarceda@gmail.com

1. IntroductionPoverty is a complex multidimensional problem. It is a holistic approach of human deprivation and a reflection of lack of dynamism in society. Except hunger and malnutrition, several other aspects have been advocated in conceptualizing poverty, such as deprivation in terms of clothing, shelter, basic social services including primary health care, sanitation, education etc., political powerlessness and socio-cultural marginalization among others.

The importance of poverty reduction and improvement of the living standards of the people has been emphasized in almost all the plans in Nepal directly or indirectly. However, poverty reduction as an explicit goal of planning in Nepal was made only in the mid-1980s. The Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-90) was the first attempt to integrate long term poverty reduction into the planning process. The Three-year Interim Plan (2007/08 – 2009/10) was implemented with the main objective to realize changes in the life of Nepalese people by reducing poverty and existing unemployment and establishing sustainable peace in the country. The vision of this plan is to build a prosperous, modern and just Nepal with special attention towards inclusive development by involving women, Dalits, indigenous groups, Madhesi community, the poor, inhabitants of Karnali area and people of remote areas in the country's economic, social and regional development process.

The main objective of the Three Year Plan (2010/11 – 2012/13) is to enable people to feel change in their livelihood and quality of life by supporting poverty alleviation and establishment of sustainable peace through employment centric, inclusive and equitable economic growth (Three Year Plan Approach Paper, NPC, 2010) by considering the future federal states.

Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural country. After a long peoples’ struggle, the historic peoples’ movement 2006 and the Madhesh movement 2007, the article 138 (1) of interim constitution 2007 as modified in the first amendment has declared Nepal to be an inclusive and Federal Democratic Republic state to bring an end to discrimination based on class, caste, language, gender, culture, religion and region by eliminating the centralized and unitary form of the state to lay a foundation for economic and social transformation to build a prosperous, modern and just new Nepal. It says:

Accepting the aspirations of indigenous ethnic groups and the people of the backward and other regions, and the people of Madhesh, for autonomous provinces, Nepal shall be a Federal Democratic Republic. The provinces shall be autonomous with full rights. The constituent assembly shall determine the number, boundary, names and structures of the autonomous provinces and the distribution of powers and resources, while maintaining the sovereignty, unity and integrity of Nepal.

Madheshi Dalits are the poorest of the poor among ethnic groups in Nepal. They have fallen into the vicious circle of poverty largely due to illiteracy, low income and employment, socio-economic and political discrimination, little land etc. In this context, this article analyzes the current fiscal situations as

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well as proposed fiscal arrangements for federal Nepal in relation to poverty alleviation of Madheshi Dalits.

2. The poorest of the poor in Nepalese society

With a per capita income of US$ 490 (US$ 1,200 in PPP term) in 2010 (WDR, 2012), Nepal is a poor country with highly stratified society. Poverty is estimated to be at 25 per cent in 2009. The recent Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI)-UN Human Development Report has put it at 65 per cent based on a new methodology developed by the Oxford University. The World Bank has viewed that everyone, except few professionals, businessman and some large farmers in Nepal are poor (World Bank, 1999).

There are wide variations in poverty level based on rural-urban divide, geography, gender, ethnic groups and occupational castes. The Terai/Madheshi Dalits4 are the poorest of the poor among ethnic groups in Nepal. They have been socially, economically and politically marginalized from the very beginning to present in Nepal's history. They have been at the lowest end of the Hindu social caste hierarchy based on birth. Over the long period of the past, the social system ascribed occupation to this group was characterized by very low productivity. Consequently, this group remained at the lowest end of economic hierarchy as well. Their participation in all the bodies of governance: main political parties, cabinet, parliament, legislature, judiciary, civil service has been negligible.

1.1. Table 1: Human development by caste and ethnicity, 2006

Caste/ethnicityPopulatio

n (%)

Life expectancy at birth

Adult literacy (%)

Mean years

of schooli

ng

Per capita income (PPP

income in US$)

Human

development index

Ratio to

national HDI

Rank of HDI

All Nepal 100.0 63.7 52.4 3.2 1597 0.509 100.0Hill Brahman 13.7 68.1 69.9 5.4 2395 0.612 120.1 3Hill Chhetri 17.2 60.6 58.4 3.7 1736 0.514 100.8 5Tarai/Madhesi-Brahman/Chhetri

1.9 63.9 83.8 6.4 2333 0.625 122.7 1

Tarai/Madhesi-Other Caste 12.9 61.9 41.8 2.3 1119 0.450 88.3 8Hill Dalits 7.1 60.9 45.5 2.1 1099 0.449 88.2 9Tarai/Madhesi-Dalits 4.7 61.3 27.3 1.2 743 0.383 75.1 11Newar 5.5 68.0 68.0 4.7 3097 0.616 120.9 2Hill/Mountain-Janjati 21.7 63.6 53.8 3.0 1490 0.507 99.5 6Tarai/Madhesi-Janjati 9.8 61.5 48.1 2.8 1224 0.470 92.3 7Muslim 4.3 61.0 30.3 1.6 890 0.401 78.7 10Others 1.0 66.3 58.0 3.7 2227 0.559 109.7 4

1.2. Source: Nepal Human Development Report 2009, UNDP

Although Nepal Human Development Report 2009 reveals that the HDI value increased by 8 per cent from 0.471 in 2001 to 0.509 for the whole country in 2006, it varies more widely by caste and ethnicity. The Madhesi Dalits who constitute about 5 per cent of Nepal’s total population has the lowest HDI value (Table 1).

4 Chamar/Harijan, Musahar, Dushadh/Paswan, Tatma, Khatwe, Dhobi, Baantar, Chidimar, Dom, Halkhor

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Figure 1: Human development by caste and ethnicity, 2006

About 80 per cent of the Madheshi Dalits live below the poverty line. The literacy rate of Musahar was just 7.28 compared to national average of 53.73 in 2001 census (CBS, 2003). The vulnerability of Dalits is not simply due to their poverty, economical status, or lack of education, but is a result of the severe exploitation and suppression by the upper classes.

The condition of female Dalits is even worse. Female infanticide is more prevalent among the uneducated Dalit families. Gender discrimination starts at the very early stage in the life of a Dalit girl. Early marriage, polygamy, permanent widowhood etc. are deep-rooted. Therefore, Dalit women face triple burden of caste, class and gender in Nepalese society.

3. Current fiscal situation and proposed fiscal arrangements for federal Nepal

The concept paper and preliminary draft report of the CA Committee on the State Restructuring and Power Sharing has proposed 14 provinces (Limbuwan, Tamuwan, Tamsaling, Sunkoshi, Sherpa, Newa, Narayani, Mithila Bhojpura Koch Madhesh, Magrat, Lumbini Awadh Tharuwan, Kirat, Karnali, Jadan, and Khaptad) for federal Nepal. The proposed Mithila Bhojpura Koch Madhesh province will cover around 20 per cent and Lumbini Awadh Tharuwan province will comprise around 16 per cent of the total population in Federal Nepal as per 2001 census population (Roka, 2011).

The name given to Mithila Bhojpura Koch Madhesh and Lumbini Awadh Tharuwan province seems to be motivated by the theory of 'divide and rule' principle. The name of Mithila Bhojpura Koch Madhesh province itself seems to be representative of 4 provinces. Similarly Lumbini Awadh Tharuwan province seems to be representative of 3 provinces. However, this article analyzes the current fiscal situation on the basis of existing unitary system of the governance because the disaggregated data on fiscal variables for the proposed federal structure is not available.

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Existing public expenditure scenario and expenditure assignment for federal Nepal

For nearly 240 years of a unitary system of governance, the regional, social, economic and political inequalities remained more or less unchanged. The culture of sharing wealth among ecological as well as development regions has been pathetic to reduce regional disparities. The sense of national solidarity has not been influential. The emphasis on self-reliance has been prevailing in development process and allocation of resources.

Regional inequality inherent in Nepal is one of the major causes for the need of federalism. The economic literature suggests that public expenditure should be directed more towards the less developed regions. The issue of regional differences in public expenditure has been critical in Nepal. Per capita government expenditure across regions remains highly unequal which is undesirable for egalitarian and just Nepal.

Table 2: Share of public expenditures by ecological and development regionsRegion % share of

population in 2011*

% share of public expenditures Growth rate of public expenditures

2001/02 2006/07 2009/10 2001/02-2006/07

2006/07-2009/10

Ecological region Mountain Hill Terai

7.143.849.1

5.675.019.4

5.477.117.5

6.271.722.1

61.072.351.9

122.980.9

144.7Development region

Eastern Central Western Mid-

western Far-

western

22.735.219.513.09.6

11.266.39.87.65.0

9.867.49.78.05.0

11.861.511.09.75.9

47.070.665.277.466.8

132.377.4

121.0135.6131.0

Nepal 100.0 100 100.0 100.0 67.7 94.4* Population Projection for Nepal 2002-2021, Central Bureau of Statistics and UNFPA Nepal, 2003Source: Consolidated Financial Statements, Various Issues, Financial Comptroller General Office, GoN

Table 2 refers that the share of public expenditures for the hill and the Central Development Region is higher than that of population. In federal Nepal, these disparities in public expenditures will need to be addressed. Since the majority of the poorest of the poor live in Terai region, the more expenditure will have to be allocated to this region for poverty alleviation programmes.

47

Figure 2: Share of public expenditures by ecological regions

Figure 2 illustrates that that there is wide variation in the public expenditures in Nepal. The government expenditure is higher in hill compared to other ecological belts.

Table 3: Per capita public expenditure and HDI by various areas

Region Per capita public expenditure

Growth rate Human development index (HDI)

2001/02 2006/07 2009/10 2001/02-2006/07

2006/07-2009/10

2000 2006 % Change

Ecological Region

Mountain Hill Terai

2,6635,8281,375

3,9048,8911,786

7,98514,8834,078

46.652.629.9

104.567.4128.3

0.3780.5100.474

0.4360.5430.494

15.36.54.2

Development Region

Eastern Central Western Mid-

western Far-

western

1,6736,5761,7142,0101,819

2,2059,6112,5263,1172,667

4,70615,8825,1366,8105,612

31.846.247.455.146.6

113.465.2103.3118.5110.4

0.4840.4930.4790.4020.385

0.5260.5310.5160.4520.461

8.77.77.712.419.7

Nepal 3,441 5,050 9085 46.8 79.9 0.466 0.509 9.2Source: Consolidated Financial Statements, Various Issues, Financial Comptroller General Office, GoN

The data presented in Table 3 reveals that the percentage growth in per capita government expenditure has not been consistent with percentage change in human development index across the ecological as well

48

as development regions. The growth rate of per capita government expenditure as well as improvement in HDI has been lowest in Terai and far below than national average.

Figure 3: Per capita public expenditure by ecological regions, 2009/10

Figure 3 demonstrates that the per capita expenditure in Terai has been far below than the national average. For example, per capita capital expenditure was only Rs. 241 and Rs. 242 in Rautahat and Mahottari districts respectively in comparison to national average of Rs. 2,135 in 2006/07 (Prasad, 2009). It is well known that the expenditure need of mountain is higher than other ecological regions due to difficult geographical condition and high incidence of poverty. But this need is never addressed.

Allocation, redistribution and stabilization are three functions of the government. Musgrave argued that the latter two are the primary responsibility of the central government. Therefore, the central government usually plays a major role in providing pure public good like national defence. Clearly, some functions like stabilization policy, monetary policy, income redistribution policy, foreign affairs, international trade, strategic investments and investment policy must be performed at the national level by the federal government.

Federal government can also play a key planning and financing role in major infrastructure but implementation may be by sub-national governments. However, the central government should focus its role on nationally significant infrastructure like railways and airlines. Federal government can play a major role in shaping health and education programmes.

It is believed that sub-national governments have a comparative advantage in implementing expenditure programmes. The expenditure responsibilities of providing quasi-public good like internal security, maintaining law and order, providing social services like education, health care, family welfare, housing and social security and development of economic services like agriculture, infrastructure, irrigation, power, public works, forestry, fisheries etc. should be assigned to the sub-national governments. The CA Committee on Natural Resources, Economic Rights and Revenue Allocation has clearly demarked the expenditure responsibilities between three layers of government (central, state and local) in

49

federal Nepal. These expenditure responsibilities will have to be clearly stated in the new constitution to obtain optimal institutional framework for the benefits of economies of scale.

Existing public revenue scenario and revenue assignment for federal Nepal

Being a unitary system of government, the central government collects the major part of direct taxes and the collected taxes are distributed in a prescribed manner in Nepal. For convenience of administration, the country is divided into 5 development regions, 14 zones and 75 districts. Some direct taxes are assigned to collect by local bodies which constitute a small proportion of total direct taxes.

Table 4: Share of government revenue by development regions, 2009/10 (Per

Cent) S. N. Development region Share of government

revenue1. Eastern Development Region 8.62. Central Development Region 79.33. Western Development Region 9.04. Mid-western Development Region 2.15. Far-western Development Region 1.0

Nepal 100.0Source: Consolidated Financial Statements FY 2005/06, Financial Comptroller General Office, GoN

Table 4 reveals that there is high disparity in tax collection. The Central Development Region collects around 80 per cent of total revenue which includes the contribution of custom duties. Even if custom is taken out, the share of the Central Development Region will be high. The concentration of tax collection will have to be neutralized in federal Nepal.

It is argued that the broad and mobile tax bases may be assigned to the central government for stabilization and redistribution reasons. The sub-national governments may raise revenues through user charges, benefit taxes, and taxes on relatively less mobile taxes (Musgrave, 1985; Rao, 1997). However, sub-national governments in Canada, Scandinavian countries, and the United States are allowed to levy personal income tax concurrently at both the central and sub-national levels. Some countries adopt the principle of separation in assigning tax powers by constitution. The taxes assigned to the central government are not assigned to the states and vice versa.

It is evident that most important direct taxes are levied concurrently on both the central and sub-national levels in federations. However, the design varies widely. In Canada, both federal and provincial governments can levy all direct taxes. In India, the central government has power to levy taxes only on non-agricultural income and wealth. The power to tax agricultural income and wealth is assigned to the states. In Switzerland, the greater taxing powers are with the Cantons i.e. the revenue of the Cantons is nearly 80 per cent of the total tax revenue of the country.

In most federal system of government, taxes on international trade (custom duties) are levied at the central level. Taxes on the consumption of goods and services are levied at both the central and sub-national levels. In Canada, the federal government levies value added tax and provinces levy retail sales taxes. Brazil levies VAT at both the central and state levels. In India, the central government levies excise duties on manufactured products while the states levy taxes on the sale and purchase of goods. The

50

manufacturing stage VAT is levied by the central government and destination-based VAT up to the retail stage is levied by the states.

The CA Committee on Natural Resources, Economic Rights and Revenue Allocation has clearly assigned the revenue sharing mechanism between three layers of government in federal Nepal. The major sources of revenue custom duty, value added tax (VAT), corporate income tax, and personal income tax which comprise around 80 per cent of total tax revenue are assigned to be collected by the central government. Excise duty has been proposed to be collected concurrently by the central and sub-national government. This shows that around 90 per cent of total tax revenue will be under the central government.

The sub-national governments have been assigned to collect transport tax, land revenue, property tax and business tax. The service charges, royalty from natural resources and penalties are proposed to be collected concurrently among all three levels of government. The entertainment tax, land and building registration charges are assigned to be collected concurrently by sub-national and local governments.

The two main sources of government tax revenue, i. e., custom duties (export and import duties) by nature have to be collected by the federal government. In Nepal, custom duties contributed 23.5 per cent of total tax revenue in 2006/07 which will have to be collected by the central government. Therefore, VAT and income taxes will have to be collected concurrently on both the central and sub-national levels. Other taxes (excise duties, sales tax, entertainment tax, hotel tax etc.) will have to be collected by the sub-national governments which will support the expenditure responsibilities of the sub-national governments adequately.

Existing expenditure and revenue structure of local government

Local governments in Nepal have a weak revenue base relative to their expenditure responsibilities.

Table 5: Local level expenditure by development region, 2005/06 (% of total expenditure)

Development region VDC DDC Total

Eastern development Region 4.5 5.1 9.6

Central development region 1.4 2.1 3.5

Western development region 4.1 5.0 9.1

Mid-western development region 3.7 5.9 9.6

Far-western development region 5.0 7.4 12.4

Total 2.3 3.2 5.5

Source: Fiscal situation analysis of local levels, Local Level Fiscal Commission, GoN

Table 5 shows that the expenditure of local level at VDCs and DDCs is very small in comparison to total government expenditure. The expenditures of local level is only around 5 per cent of total government expenditure ranging from 3.5 per cent in central development region to 12.4 per cent in far-western development region. The table also reveals that the expenditure made by VDCs is far below than DDCs.

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The analysis of decentralization efforts in Nepal shows that the overall level of fiscal situation at local level has been inadequate to support the development objectives of the rural people.

Table 6: Local level revenue by development region, 2005/06 (% of total revenue)

Development region VDC DDC Total

Eastern development Region 0.3 1.0 1.3

Central development region 0.5 0.3 0.8

Western development region 0.8 0.5 1.3

Mid-western development region 3.2 2.7 5.9

Far-western development region 7.8 4.2 12.0

Total 0.6 0.5 1.1

Source: Fiscal situation analysis of local levels, Local Level Fiscal Commission, GoN

Table 6 explains that the revenue generated by the local levels is not sufficient to meet their expenditure responsibilities. The local level revenue is only about 1 per cent of total government revenue ranging from 0.8 per cent in central development region to 12 per cent in far-western development region.

4. Fiscal arrangement for the poorest of the poor in federal Nepal

Although traditionally, redistribution is considered to be a central responsibility, experience has shown that sub-national governments are expected to, and in fact do play an important role in designing and implanting poverty alleviation strategy. Governments that are closer to the people be able to provide services more effectively and efficiently than a centralized authority (Rao, 2002).

Poverty alleviation is essentially a function that should be executed concurrently by all three levels of governments-national, state and local. In most of the federations, the central government sets national policy while local governments design and implement poverty alleviation programmes (Boadway and Shah, 2009).

The effective implementation of poverty alleviation policies depends upon the responsiveness and capacity of local government. However, local governments in most federations have a weak revenue base relative to their expenditure responsibilities. Therefore, the local governments highly depend on transfers. In Switzerland the communes raise about one third of total taxes raised in the country. In many federations like Brazil, India, South Africa municipalities, i.e., the third tier of the government has various rights and responsibilities defined by the constitution. Currently, the government of Nepal has given various rights and responsibilities to the local levels which will have to continue in federal form of government to minimize the dependency on fiscal transfer.

Nepal’s tax structure has been highly dominated by indirect taxation over last three decades. The major part of the revenue of the government has been collected by the poor people. Therefore, the model of tax collection will have to be oriented towards pro-poor in federal Nepal. Agricultural development has significant short term potential for poverty reduction in the rural economy where the majority of Nepal's poor live. However, government expenditure on agriculture sector has not been encouraging over the past

52

few years leading to lack of progress in poverty reduction. The government expenditure towards social sector like health and education has to be increased. There has been significant price increase for basic needs like foodstuffs, cloth, health care and education which has direct negative impact on the poor. Overall, the government will have to launch a special package for the Madheshi Dalits to alleviate their poverty. Since the NGOs/INGOs and donor community work for marginal, oppressed and vulnerable people and are committed to poverty alleviation of these groups in Nepal, they will have to allocate more fund for the Madheshi Dalits.

5. Conclusions

Madheshi Dalits who constitute 5 per cent of Nepal's total population are the poorest of the poor among ethnic groups in Nepal. They have fallen into the vicious circle of poverty largely due to illiteracy, low income and employment, socio-economic and political discrimination, little land etc. Their participation in all the bodies of governance: main political parties, cabinet, parliament, legislature, judiciary, civil service has been negligible. The literacy rate of Musahar was just 7.28 compared to national average of 53.73 in 2001 census (CBS, 2003).

To address the poverty problem of Madheshi Dalits, the fiscal arrangements in federal Nepal will need to be corrected through more equitable distribution of public expenditures. The expenditure responsibilities demarked by the CA Committee on Natural Resources, Economic Rights and Revenue Allocation will have to be clearly stated in the new constitution to obtain optimal institutional framework for the benefits of economies of scale.

The revenue sharing mechanism proposed by the CA Committee on Natural Resources, Economic Rights and Revenue Allocation will also need to be corrected. The two main sources of government tax revenue, i. e., custom duties (export and import duties) by nature have to be collected by the federal government. In Nepal, custom duties contributed 23.5 per cent of total tax revenue in 2006/07 which will have to be collected by the central government. Therefore, VAT and income taxes will have to be collected concurrently on both the central and sub-national levels. Other taxes (excise duties, sales tax, entertainment tax, hotel tax etc.) will have to be collected by the sub-national governments which will support the expenditure responsibilities of the sub-national governments adequately. The government of Nepal has given various rights and responsibilities to the local levels which will have to continue in federal form of government to minimize the dependency on fiscal transfer Currently per capita capital expenditure in all Terai districts has been far below than the national average. Therefore, more expenditure will have to be allocated to this region for poverty alleviation programmes in federal Nepal. The government will have to launch a special package for the Madheshi Dalits to alleviate their poverty. The government expenditure towards agriculture development, social sector and subsidy to the poor section of the society will have to be increased. Since the NGOs/INGOs and donor community work for marginal, oppressed and vulnerable people and are committed to poverty alleviation of these groups in Nepal, they will have to allocate more fund for the Madheshi Dalits.

References

Boadway, Robin and Anwar Shah (2009). Fiscal Federalism: Principles and Practices of Multiorder Governance, New York: Cambridge University Press

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CBS (2003). Population Monograph of Nepal: Volume I and II, Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal

FCGO (Various Issues). Consolidated Financial Statements, Kathmandu: Financial Comptroller General Office, Government of Nepal

GoN (2008). The concept paper and preliminary draft report of the CA Committee on the State Restructuring Power Sharing 2066 (2009), Kathmandu: Government of Nepal (www.can.gov.np)

GoN (2008). The Concept Paper of the CA Committee on Natural Resources, Economic Rights and Revenue Allocation 2066 (2009), Kathmandu: Government of Nepal (www.can.gov.np)

GoN (2008). The Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063 (2007), Kathmandu: Government of NepalLipton, Michael and Martin Ravallion (1995). ‘Poverty and Policy’ in Behrman, Jere and T. N. Srinivasan

(eds.), Handbook of Development Economics, ElsevierMusgrave, R. A. (1985). ‘A Brief History of Fiscal Doctrine’ in R. A. Musgrave (ed.) Handbook of

Public Economics, New York: ElsevierMusgrave, R. A. and P. B. Musgrave (1989). Public Finance in Theory and Practice, Columbus:

McGraw-Hill International EditionNPC (2007). The Three-year Interim Plan (2007/08 – 2009/10), Kathmandu: National Planning

Commission, Government of NepalNPC (2010). Three-year Plan Approach Paper (2010/11 – 2012/13), Kathmandu: National Planning

Commission, Government of NepalPrasad, U. S. (2008). ‘Impact of New Economic Policies on the Fiscal Sector and Its Implications on

Poverty Reduction in Nepal’, New Delhi: Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, Centre for Economic Studies & Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Prasad, U.S. (2006). ‘Impact of New Economic Policy on Poverty in Nepal’ Bhartiya Samajik Chintan, A Quarterly Journal of the Indian Academy of Social Sciences, Vol. V, no. 1, April - June

Prasad, U.S. (2009). 'Political Economy of Fiscal Federalism in Nepal', Telegraphnepal.com, 31 December, (http://www.telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=6425)

Prasad, U.S. (2010). “Economic Interdependence: Implications for Nepal” in Shrawan Sharma, Sean Rourke and Upendra Poudel (eds.), Nepal: State of the State, Kathmandu: Centre for Economic & Social Development and Action Aid Nepal, pp. 133-148

Prasad, U.S. (2010). 'Federalism in Nepal: Fiscal Transfer & Institutional Arrangements’, Telegraphnepal.com, (http://www.telegraphnepal.com/index1.php?mode=5)

Rao, M. G. (1997). ‘Indian Fiscal Federalism: Major Issues’ in S. Mundle (ed.) Public Finance: Policy issues for India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Rao, M. Govinda (ed.) (2002). Development, Poverty, and Fiscal Policy: Decentralization of Institutions, New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Roka, Kalyan (2011). 'Population Distribution in Proposed 12 Provinces', Kathmandu: Gorkhapatra, 26 September

Sen, Amartya (2000). Development as Freedom, New York: Alfred A. KnopfUNDP (2009). Nepal Human Development Report 2009, Kathmandu: United Nations Development

ProgrammeWorld Bank (1999). 'Nepal: Poverty at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century', Kathmandu: the World

BankWorld Bank (2012). World Development Report, Washington DC: the World Bank

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Spatial and Horizontal Inequalities in NepalBishwa Nath Tiwari, PhD5

1. Introduction

The nature and consequences of conflict have been changing since the end of cold war. Today the world experiences increasing conflict between groups and regions of a country than between countries. The nature of casualties has also changed with increasing proportion of civilian deaths now than before (UNDP 2005). In recent years, geography of poverty and inequality has also been changing from low income (LICs) to middle income countries (MICs). While this is mainly due to recent move of large countries such as China and India to MICs, one cannot deny the fact that poor are everywhere, and excluded groups are found in several countries.

One reason for growing civil war is increasing exclusion and inequalities between regions and social groups of a country. When people of a region or groups feel excluded from mainstream development, their grievances bind them together to rise against state. This gets materialized when leaders motivate them for conflicts. In view of this, the current development strategy has to focus on reducing poverty and inequality between regions and social groups of a country so that they do not fight against state, and thus countries can sustain their hard own development gains.

Nepal is engaged in transformation – a transformation of both its state and society. The transformation can succeed when current post-conflict situation logically ends with successful implementation of comprehensive peace accord (CPA) signed between government and then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – now called as Unified CPN (Maoist) – on 21 November 2006 to end decade-long Maoist conflict. Proper implementation of CPA requires addressing inequality and exclusion that provided ground to breed and sustain violent conflict in the past.

Exclusion and inequality have various ramifications in Nepal; however, they revolve around following three: spatial, caste/ethnic and gender exclusion.6 While spatial and gender exclusions have received some attention since long, study on exclusion of cultural groups is a recent phenomenon.

This paper makes a modest attempt to dig deeper into exclusion and inequalities across different region and social groups in Nepal, and then suggests for policy measures dealing with those inequalities. In doing so, the paper is organized as follows. After this introduction, section two introduces the country and Nepalese society. Sections three and four show the unequal development outcomes between different regions and caste and ethnic groups. This follows with a section on the reason for inequalities between different caste and ethnic groups. Section six outlines briefly the recent government efforts to address exclusion and inequality. Finally, the last section provides few policy recommendations.

2. The Diverse Nepali Geography and Society

Nepal has an area of 147,181 km2, with varied geography and diverse society. The country has three distinct ecological regions running from east to west: the Mountain on the North bordering china, the Hills in between, and the Terai with flat land bordering India on the South. This diversity gives rise to multifarious economic and social mosaic.

5 Dr. Tiwari is currently working at UNDP-Asia Pacific Regional Centre, Bangkok. The analyses presented here are the views of the author and do not reflect the views of the United Nations Development Programme.6 Seven types of exclusion and inequality have been documented by UNDP/Nepal (2009) and Tiwari (2010).

55

Administratively, the country is divided in five development regions, 75 districts, 100 municipalities and about 4,000 village development committees. The country is however, now engaged in state restructuring through federalism as envisaged in Interim Constitution 2063 (2007AD).

Population census 2001 enumerated 23.51 million people, with about 51 percent females.7 103 caste and ethnic groups live in Nepal speaking 92 languages (for detail see UNDP/Nepal 2009). However, Hindu is a dominant religion and Nepali is a major language spoken by a little less than half of the population (Table 1). The country has been declared as a secular state together with other several transitions including declaration of republic (for detail see UNDP/Nepal 2009).

3. Spatial Inequality

Poverty incidence widely varies by urban-rural divide, ecological zones and development regions of Nepal. Overall, it varies widely from as low as 3 percent in Urban Kathmandu to as high as 45 percent in Mid-Western Development Region; by urban-rural area from 10 percent in urban to 35 percent in rural areas; and by development region from 27 percent in Western Development Region to 45 percent in Mid-Western Development Region.8

Although poverty at national level has decreased by 26 percent or by 11 percentage points between 1995/96 and 2003/04, the rate of decrease is unequal by geographical areas leading to an increase in Gini Coefficient, a measure of inequality, from 0.34 to 0.41. The rate of decrease is higher in urban areas and in the mountain region compared to other geographical areas (Table 2). National Planning Commission has recently estimated a further reduction in poverty to 25 percent but with an increase in Gini inequality to 0.46.Murshed and Gates (2005) calculated the gap of human development index between districts in Nepal and the capital, Kathmandu, which has the highest human development score and the least poverty incidence. They found that the extent of relative deprivation of remote rural districts relative to Kathmandu is very high, and concluded that the lack of development in remote rural districts of the country fuelled Maoist insurgency. Apart from remote rural districts of Hills and Mountain, some of the predominantly Madhesi inhabited districts are also among the least developed in terms of human development indicators (UNDP/Nepal 2004).

Table 3 presents human development (HD) gaps between areas and regions against national average for three points of time 1996, 2001 and 2006. In order to facilitate comparison among regions, the HDI values are indexed with national value fixed at 100. While HDI values for rural area do not change over the period, there is an initially decrease in the urban HDI value.

7 However, because of the conflict, population census 2001 could not be conducted in all the settlements and therefore information was enumerated only for 22,736,934 people. Now it is estimated that the population of Nepal reached to about 30 millions. 8 Spatial analysis of development outcomes has been performed in Nepal since long past. In such an analysis the outcomes are presented by five development regions, three ecological regions and/or a cross-section of the two, at most 15 sub-regions. Generally, some input and output level indicators are presented at district level. But given the large number of districts, it becomes difficult to provide robust estimates of outcomes such as poverty and human development at district level based on the data collected from national level sample household surveys. Table 2 therefore presents poverty outcomes only at some larger geographical areas.

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Table 1: Percentage Distribution of Population by Some Characteristics, Nepal, 2001 Population Groups Number %Religion 22,736,934 100.0

Hindu 18,330,121 80.6Buddhists 2,442,520 10.7Islam 954,023 4.2Kirant 818,106 3.6Other 192,164 0.8

Languages 22,736,934 100.0Nepali 11,053,255 48.6Maithili 2,797,582 12.3Bhojpuri 1,712,536 7.5Tharu 1,331,546 5.9Tamang 1,179,145 5.2Newar 825,458 3.6Magar 770,116 3.4Other 3,067,296 13.5

Caste and Ethnic Groups 22,736,934 100.0Hill/Terai Brahmin and Chhetri 7,450,564 32.8

Hill Brahmin /Chhetri 7,023,219 30.9Terai Brahmin /Chhetri 427,345 1.9

Terai Middle Castes 2,938,827 12.9Dalits 2,675,182 11.8

Hill Dalits 1,615,577 7.1Terai Dalits 1,059,605 4.7

Janajatis 8,460,702 37.2Mountain Janajatis 177,713 0.8Hill Janajatis 6,056,841 26.6Inner Terai Janajatis 250,460 1.1Terai Janajatis 1,975,688 8.7

Religious Minorities (Muslims) 980,018 4.3Others 231,641 1.0Note: At times Newar is not included in the Janajati because of their better economic status. If Newar (which consist of 5.5%) is excluded then the proportion of janajati is less than 32 percent of total population.Source: CBS 2003, Vol I; and UNDP/RIPP and NTG 2006 as cited in UNDP/Nepal 2009.

Table 2: Poverty Incidence by Geographical Areas, Nepal, 1995/96 and 2003/04

Geographic Region Poverty Head Count rate (%

1.1. Sector1995/

962003/04 %

ChangeUrban 21.6 9.6 -56Rural 43.3 34.6 -20NLSS RegionsKathmandu 4.3 3.3 -23Other Urban 31.6 13.0 -59Rural Western Hill 55.0 37.4 -32

Rural Eastern Hill 36.1 42.9 19Rural Western Terai 46.1 38.1 -17

Rural Eastern Terai 37.2 24.9 -33

Development RegionEastern 38.9 29.3 -25Central 32.5 27.1 -17Western 38.6 27.1 -30Mid-Western 59.9 44.8 -25Far-Western 63.9 41.0 -36Ecological BeltMountain 57.0 32.6 -43Hill 40.7 34.5 -15Terai 40.3 27.6 -32Nepal 41.8 30.8 -26

Source: CBS 2005.

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Table 3: Human Development Index, 1996 – 2006 by Areas and Regions

Region HDI 1996

HDI Difference Over the National

Level, 1996 HDI 2001

HDI Difference

Over National

Level, 2001 HDI 2006

HDI Difference

Over National

Level, 2006

Nepal 0.466 100 0.471 100 0.509 100AREAS

Rural 0.446 96 0.452 96 0.482 95Urban 0.616 132 0.581 123 0.630 124

ECOLOGICAL REGIONS Mountain 0.378 81 0.386 82 0.436 86Hills 0.510 109 0.512 109 0.543 107Terai 0.474 102 0.478 101 0.494 97

DEVELOPMENT REGIONSEastern region 0.484 104 0.493 105 0.526 103Central region 0.493 106 0.490 104 0.531 104Western region 0.479 103 0.491 104 0.516 101Mid-western region 0.402 86 0.402 85 0.452 89Far western region 0.385 83 0.404 86 0.461 91

Source: Author’s calculation based on HDI data from UNDP/Nepal 2004 and 2009.

By ecological region, the HDI improves over time in all the three ecological regions. However, in comparison to the national average, the human development situation of Terai deteriorates, whereas that of the Mountain improves. But, the HDI in Mountain still falls short off by 14 percentage points compared to the national average. The HDI also improves slightly in the Mid- and Far-Western development Region which are the less developed regions of Nepal, and the progress in Mid-Western is slow compared to the Far-Western Development Region. These two development regions are still lagging behind the other regions of the country.

4. Horizontal Inequality

Horizontal inequalities refer to inequalities between culturally defined groups with shared identities, formed around religion, ethnic ties or racial or caste-based affiliations.9 The analysis of HIs in Nepal with a focus on caste and ethnicity is a recent phenomenon (Lawoti 2002, 2007; Neupane 2005; and DFID and World Bank 2005; Tiwari 2010). Because of the larger number of caste and ethnic groups in Nepal, they are merged into some categories of manageable size for analysis in the previous studies as well as in this

9 The concept of HIs has been developed by Frances Stewart and her colleagues (Ostby 2004; Stewart 2005a, 2005b; Langer et al. 2007; Stewart et al. 2007). Horizontal inequality is distinguished from vertical inequality, which refers to inequality, mostly between individuals, within an otherwise homogenous population. Horizontal inequalities are multidimensional and encompass economic, social, cultural status and political dimensions. While they can refer to inequalities between any types of social or cultural groups, this paper limits to inequality between different caste and ethnic groups.

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paper. One of the main reasons for doing so is that information from a small sample of households is hardly enough for estimating the values of indicators of all caste and ethnic groups. Following the DFID and World Bank (2006) classification, this paper uses 7 broad and 11 sub-groups for the analysis in three dimensions, political, social and economic. The following sections first take up economic dimension followed by social and political ones.

Inequality in Economic Outcomes

Poverty and InequalityBy caste and ethnic groups, the poverty incidence varies highly between 1995/96 and 2003/04. Only 19 percent Newar were poor as against 58 percent Dalits in 1995/96. The situation of Janajati was in between, ranging from 49 percent in Hills to 53 percent in Terai Janajati. Only three caste groups had a poverty rate which was one third or less, whereas the rest others had a poverty rate above the national average of (42%) in 1995/96. The situation of these caste and ethnic groups did not change in 2003/04 even after a period of 8 years: Dalits were at the bottom with highest proportion (45.5%) and Newar with the least proportion of poverty (4%) as shown in Figure 1.

Moreover, the decrease in poverty incidence was uneven: a rapid decrease in advantaged castes, like Brahmin, Chhetri and Newar, whereas slow among some Janajati, Dalits and Muslims. Among the Janajatis, the rate of decrease widely varied with a higher decrease among Terai Janajati compared to Hill Janajati. Apart from incidence, the depth and severity of poverty was also higher among Dalits and certain Janajatis (CBS 2005 and Annex 1). In spite of decrease in poverty incidence across all caste and ethnic groups, there was high gap in poverty rate between them. Dalits, Muslims and some indigenous peoples were the most deprived groups in 1995/96, and so were again in 2003/04.

Inequality in Income and Consumption

Like poverty rate, level of consumption is also very wide across different caste and ethnic groups. Between 1995/96 and 2003/04, the consumption level increased for all groups but the increase has been much larger for Newars and Brahmin/Chhetris than Dalits. This implies that the consumption gap among different caste and ethnicity has widened over years.10

10 Multivariate analysis of consumption pattern among different caste and ethnic groups indicates that the socially excluded groups have to pay a ‘caste/ethnic penalty’. Even when effect of factors such as household size, proportion of children in household, the household head’s occupation and level of education, land ownership, receipt of

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DEVM 2011, Organised by: Non-Resident Madheshis Association 60

Similarly, a significant inequality in per capita income holds across groups. It ranges from Rs. 8,830 among hill Dalits to Rs. 23,900 among Terai Brahmin and Chhetri (B/C). Even within the same caste and ethnic group, wide variation in income exists among households, and between rural and urban areas. The per capita income of a rural B/C individual is just Rs. 15,674, which is even less than half of that of an urban B/C individual. The discrepancy is further higher in case of Newar population. In Dalits, the discrepancy is less, and this is lowest among Muslim households where per capita income of urban and rural Muslims is Rs. 11,563 and Rs. 10,126, respectively (Annex 2).

Inequality in Social Outcomes: Literacy and Educational Attainment

Those who are poor also lack capability. The literacy rate was found lower among Dalits and religious minorities/Muslims. Moreover, a huge gender gap prevails between males and females. Among the 15-49 years age group, female literacy was 55 per cent as against 81 per cent male literacy rate in 2006. Moreover, wide variation prevails across the caste and ethnic groups. Only 17 per cent of Madhesi Dalit female whereas as high as 75 per cent of Newar females were literate in 2006. Among the male population groups, the literacy rate was lowest among Madhesi dalit (49%), whereas it was highest among the Brahmins (93%).

The educational attainment with secondary or higher level of schooling is further low, ranging from 5 per cent in Madhesi Dalit females to 46 per cent among the Newar female of 15-49 years. The attainment is higher in case of male counterparts. Around a quarter of Dalit and Muslim male whereas three quarters of Brahmin males attended secondary and higher level of education in 2006. Thus, Dalits and Muslims are at the lowest ladder of education, with a significant variation between Hill and Madhesi Dalits (Table 4).

remittances, residence, ecological location, etc. are controlled, the average per capita consumption of groups which have suffered from social exclusion remains much lower than those of Newars and Brahmin/Chhetris (DFID and World Bank 2006).

DEVM 2011, Organised by: Non-Resident Madheshis Association 61

Table 4: Differentials in Educational Attainment by Gender and Caste/Ethnicity (15-49 years)

Caste/EthnicityLiteracy Rate (%) Secondary School or Higher

Level EducationFemale Male Female Male

Brahmin/Chhetri 68.6 92.8 44.4 75.4Madhesi Other Castes 24.2 72.0 12.1 44.5

All Dalit 34.8 59.9 11.8 23.2

Hill Dalit 46.3 69.0 16.0 26.4

Madhesi Dalit 17.2 48.5 5.2 19.2

Newar 74.6 93.5 46.1 70.0

All Janajatis 56.9 79.6 26.4 45.8

Hill Janajati 60.0 82.4 29.5 48.1

Terai Janajati 51.5 75.5 20.9 42.7

Muslim 26.5 61.8 12.0 25.5

Total 54.5 81.0 29.3 53.5

Source: Bennett and Dahal 2008.

Unequal Human Development

Using data from the 2006 Nepal Demographic and Heath Survey, UNDP/Nepal (2009) provides the estimates of human development index (HDI) – a measure of human development -- for 11 caste and ethnic groups (Figure 2). The HDI lies between 0 and 1, and higher value is associated with a higher level of human development.

A comparison of HDI by caste and ethnic groups shows that it varies widely across the groups. It ranges from a low index value of 0.383 for Terai/Madhesi Dalits to a high value of 0.625 for Madhesi Brahmin and Chhetri.

The people of three caste and ethnic groups – Terai/Madhesi Brahman/Chhetri, Newar and Hill Brahman – have higher HDI values (0.6 and above) – than those of the Dalits, both from the Hills and the Terai. Muslims have an index value of less than 0.425 - lower than that for Dalits as a whole, but higher than the values for Terai Dalits. These results are very similar to those of the inclusion index constructed by Bennett and Parajuli (2008).11

11 Of the 11 caste and ethnic groups, Madhesi Dalit was found to be the most excluded group, followed by Hill Dalits, Muslims and then Terai and Hill Janajatis, respectively. Inclusion index values ranged from 19% among Madhesi Dalits to as high as 94% among the Newars, reflecting high discrimination between caste and ethnic groups.

Figure 2: Human Development Index by Major Caste and Ethnic Groups, Nepal 2006

Of the three regions, Terai has higher unequal human development as it consists of both groups of population, with highest as well as lowest level of human development. In terms of human development, this also indicates that the caste and ethnicity or horizontal inequality is higher than the spatial inequality as presented in Figure 1. Hence, measuring human development of caste and ethnic groups in a particular region can help the government for planning and implementing targeted programmes for the groups such as Dalits for their development.

Of the three components of the HDI, education is the most significant factor. This accounts for the wide gap between the Brahman/Chhetri and the other castes. The lower HDI for Dalits, especially Terai Dalits and Muslims, is largely due to their low educational attainment levels compared to other components of HDI (UNDP/Nepal 2009). Their low human development or capability hinders their representation and participation in state and society– which, in turn, perpetuates their low level of human development. Unless broken by the state, this cycle can continue in the days to come.

Unequal Participation in State Organs

The sharing of power or influence is unequal across individuals and cultural groups. The power of an individual is governed not only by his/her personal capabilities but also where one is born, which caste

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and ethic groups she/he belongs to, whether s/he is a female or male. Men of hill /Chhetri group and Newars dominated all three state organs: legislature, executive and judiciary.

Neupane ( 2005) and Lawoti (2007) have found unequal representation of different caste and ethnic groups in state and non-state organs including executive, judicial and legislative branches of government, constitutional bodies, public service, political party leadership, local government heads and the heads of industrial, commercial, academic, professional, cultural, science and technology, and civil society organisations (Annex 3).

It is important to note that in the history of Nepal after 1951, all but one of the prime ministers (a Newar) came from the Brahman and Chhetri group (Lawoti 2007). Most of the opposition party leaders in parliament have also happened to be Brahman, Chhetri and Newar.

Moreover, the private sector is dominated first by Newars followed by Brahman and Chhetri. These two groups held about 90 percent of the top positions in prominent Nepali NGOs and human rights groups in 1999. They have an 80 percent hold in the media industry as editors, publishers and columnists. These data show that BCN males have enjoyed most of the power in both state and civil society (cited in Tiwari 2010).

The composition of past parliaments in Nepal highlights the exclusion of certain groups. Brahmins and Chhetris have maintained around 60 percent presence since 1959. Newars have hovered just below 10 percent (Figure 3). During 1990 – 2005, after the advent of multi-party democracy in 1990, only one Dalit was elected to the House of Representatives. While Janajatis did make up a substantial percentage of members of parliament (23%), their representation was considerably less than their proportion in population (38%). Women have always had very low political voice and representation (DFID and World Bank 2005). Their representation in Parliament has been an average of six percent over two decades.

However, the representation of excluded groups improved in the recent CA election held in April 2008. Out of 601 seats women have 197 seats (33%). After the 2006 April movement representation and participation of poor and excluded is improving.

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Unequal Participation in Bureaucracy

No improvement was noticed in the recruitment of gazetted officers (professionals) from amongst the Dalits, other ethnic groups, Terai castes, and Muslims even after 1990. The predominance of Brahmin/Chhetri group actually increased from 70 to nearly 90 percent between 1985 and 2002––and both Muslims and Dalit were almost invisible in the government posts.

In other branches of government, a similar exclusion exists. Among higher-level officers in the police, 79 percent came from the Brahmin/Chhetris, 13 percent from Janajati (only 1% from the Terai Janajati), 11 percent from Newar and 0.5 percent from Dalit (Deva 2002). One of the reasons why Dalit, Janajatis and women were under-represented in these institutions was that their representation in political parties was nominal, owing to cultural discrimination, among others.

5. Some Reasons for Exclusion And Inequality

It has been established in the preceding section that Nepal characterizes high spatial and social exclusion and inequality with diverse physical, cultural and social mosaic. This section analyses causes behind the differences in social and economic outcomes. Then it briefly documents government’s recent efforts and provides some recommendations for the makeover of exclusion.

The causes of unequal development outcomes can be divided into two groups: root and immediate causes. The root causes include urban-biased development, narrow definition of nation-state, cultural discrimination in the form of caste and ethnicity-based and language-based discriminations. They give rise to differences in other outcomes including educational attainment and income gains, which in turn, accentuate exclusion – thus form immediate causes.

Caste-based Discrimination

Caste, ethnicity, language and religion are major defining categories and sources of individual identity. These constitute as cultural identities around which groups mobilize. At the root of exclusion lies the caste-based discrimination that originated during the 17th century when the rulers of Nepal used the concept of caste hierarchy as an organizing principle for consolidating diverse peoples into a nation-state under their authority. Such an assimilation principle without choice had been further consolidated under the Rana regime 1846–1951. Under such nation-building framework, diverse social groups were living with their varied languages, customary laws and religious, social and cultural traditions within the Nepali state. They were classified as distinct castes within the broad framework of traditional Hindu system of four varnas based on the concepts of ritual purity and pollution. Muluki Ain, the National Code of 1854, provided legal basis of such a caste-based hierarchy and made provisions for different incentive structures and obligations to each caste and sub-caste within the system. This served a basis for discrimination among the castes.

Language-based DiscriminationUse of Nepali as the only national language since long past has been identified as another constraint, despite its several advantages on its own. This was a barrier for non-Nepali speakers such as Janajati and Madhesi to access educational and public employment opportunities and hence created exclusion more rapidly in the former days when a larger proportion of those people were illiterate. 12 Women of these communities have fewer opportunities to learn Nepali than their men and hence experience a further constraint.

12 Examination in Nepali language is necessary for entering public services including army and police service.

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Narrow Confines of Nepali Identity

Nepali Nationalism lacked the respect for pluralism. Lack of respect for pluralism by the state questioned the citizenship of people from Terai origin. For obtaining citizenship certificates, the Citizenship Act of 1960s required knowledge of Nepali language, thus prohibiting several people to obtain formal citizenship certificate. The implications of lack of citizenship were many but a most crucial one was of land ownership. Without citizenship, land registration deed was impossible and hence many Madhesis remained landless. This was also one of the reasons why the proportion of landless people was higher in Terai, ranging as high as 40 per cent in some Terai district.

Political Exclusion or Unfair Political Participation

In the absence of fair representation, several past policies have not been pro-poor and pro-excluded. The cultural discrimination and political exclusion give rise to several immediate causes of inequality that perpetuate the exclusion. Chief among them include the following: (i) differential access to opportunities and assets; (ii) wide gap in the attainment of education and health services; (iii) differences in employment opportunities; and (iv) differential access to assets including land ownership

These differentials further reinforce the exclusion and inequality. Thus, the exclusion and inequality have multiple dimensions and requires several interventions.

6. Govenrment’s Recent Efforts for Adrsssing Inequalities

Increased Budget Allocation for Rural Development

With the ushering of democracy in 1990, the first democratic government made a provision of 70 per cent budget allocation to the development of rural areas. This practice has generally been continued since then. But there was decreased allocation to the agricultural sector because of the removal of inputs subsidies, and change in the concept of extension services. However, since the three year interim plan (2007–2009) the government started increasing the allocation to the sector.

Ending Cultural Discriminations

After restoration of democracy in 1990, the constitution of Nepal 2046 (1990) has been progressive on several fronts including the cultural ones, however, it has reinforced the message that Nepal is a Hindu Kingdom. But, the interim constitution 2063 (2007) is highly progressive and has several provisions to end such discriminations, including:

(i) Nepal as a secular rather than Hindu state. With this provision the government made religion as a subject of person rather than state.

(ii) Nepali has been accepted as official language and all other languages as national languages.

(iii) Broadcast of news and other programmes in other languages apart from Nepali; and provision of text book up to primary level in some other languages.

(iv) Provision for holidays in major festivals of excluded caste and ethnic groups.

(v) No discrimination in the provision of public services on the basis of gender, caste and ethnicity, religion, among others.

Reducing Socio-Economic Inequality

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The issue of social inclusion was explicitly recognized for first time in the Tenth Plan/Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2002/03–2006/07). Social inclusion was one of the four pillars of poverty reduction strategy. However, the government allocated only 6 percent of total budget to this inclusion pillar under the Tenth Plan. The plan was also not successful to develop and implement a realistic strategy and concrete mechanism to mainstream inclusion. Moreover, the targeted programmes were narrowly based, and lacked quantitative targets. In fact, they fraught with the following weaknesses: (i) lack of effective targeting; (ii) lack of regular monitoring and evaluation and feed back for improvement of programmes and projects, and (iii) lack of adequate resources and limited coverage (Tiwari 2004).

The Three Year Interim Plan (TYIP) was cognizant of the relationship between inequality and conflict. Accordingly, its main objective was to bring about perceptible improvements in the lives of general public by reducing existing unemployment, poverty and inequalities and thereby contributing to long lasting peace in the country. The general strategies of TYIP for socially inclusive development were:

mainstreaming of all excluded groups in the entire process and outcome of development, increased access of excluded groups to resources and services, proportional representation of excluded groups in state’s decision making process and structures, implementation of targeted programmes for excluded groups, adoption of the policy of positive discrimination in economic, education and health sectors for the

protection of the poorest and weakest among the excluded groups, protection and promotion of all religious and cultural heritages as well as languages of the

nations.Furthermore, TYIP analyzed the challenges faced by specific excluded groups and included specific strategies and programmes to address exclusion of groups such as women, Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis, Muslims and the people with disability. It also included specific quantitative targets, which could be tracked to assess progress.After 2006 April Janandolan, the government made several progressive measures, a summary of some provisions is given in Box 1.

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Box 1: Inclusive Provisions after the CPA, Nepal, November 2006

Citizenship Act, 26 November 2006: removed some aspects of gender-based discrimination, e.g., permitting both father and mother to transmit citizenship to their children; further enabled Madhesi/Terai people to obtain citizenship, among other progressive steps.Ratification of Protocols of CRC, January 2007: concerned the protection of children in armed conflict and prohibited the sale of children and child prostitution.Interim constitution 2007, 15 January 2007: pronounced Nepal a secular state; recognized the right of traditionally marginalized groups; provided the right to non-discrimination and the right not to be subjected to untouchability as fundamental rights. Amendment Bill of Interim Constitution, 9 March 2007: amending Article 33 (D), the Bill has stated that Madhesis, Dalits, ethnic Janajatis, women, labourers, peasants, the disabled, backward classes and regions will be provided with a proportional representation in the state. Similarly, amending Article 138, the Bill said that the present centralized and unitary model of the state will be restructured so as to make it inclusive and democratic, with a federal system in place.Election to Members of the Constituent Assembly Act: adopted a mixed electoral system with both the FPTP and PR systems. Right to Information Act, 18 July 2007: guaranteed access to official documents to any citizen, excluding only those papers related to the ‘investigation, inquiry and prosecution’ of crimes and those which jeopardize the “harmonious relationship between various castes or communities”.Agreement with Bonded labourers (Kamaiya), 25 July 2007: Government signed an agreement that sets out a timetable for the allocation of land and other support measures to ex-Kamaiyas. Civil Service Bill, 3 August 2007: amended the civil service act 1993. Among others it provided seat reservation to excluded people and backward regions, and trade union rights. The reservation/ quotas in the civil service are as follows: women (33%), Janajati (27%) Madhesi (22%), Dalits (9%), persons with disabilities (5%), and backward regions (4%). Working Journalists Bill 2007, 6 August 2007: among other this has made provision provident fund, minimum salary, treatment compensation, capacity building, and limiting media houses to keep only 15% journalists on contract.Ratification of ILO Convention 105, August 2007: which banned forced labourRatification of ILO Convention 169, 22 August 2007: this will ensure the rights of Janajati with regard to culture, land, natural resources, education, traditional justice, recruitment and employment conditions, vocational training, social security and health, as well as the development of a mechanism for consultation and participation in governance. Provision of Quotas of Posts in the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force, October 2007: reserved quotas for women and marginalized groups.Memorandum of Understanding between Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction and the Badi Community, 16 October 2007: provision of the right to take citizenship with the surname of their choice, an end to the forced use of derogatory surnames; and free schooling for children of the Badi community.

12th amendment to the Nepal Police Regulations, 8 November 2007: amended that regulation to provide for recruiting 32% indigenous nationalities, 28 % Madhesis, 15% Dalits, 20% women and 5% from the “backward regions”.90-point government’s programs and policies, 10 September 2008: the main priorities included constitution making, the peace process, socio-economic transformation, role of private, public and cooperative sectors in economic progress and special plans for the Karnali region.Ordinance on Social Inclusion, 2009: makes the public service inclusive. The proposed ordinance reserves 45% of posts to women, Adivasi/Janajati, Madhesi, Dalit, the disabled and residents of “backward regions”, while filling vacant posts through free competition.

Source: OHCHR 2007; http://www.nepalresearch.com/crisis_solution/papers/fes_2007_ nepal_december.pdf; and http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/50218toc.html

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7. Policy Recommendations for Addressing InequalitiesHuman Development differs not only among the regions but also within a region. In fact, inequality in human development outcomes is higher in Terai, as it has the caste groups with both the highest and lowest level of human development. Moreover, despite some economic prosperity the region has been marred with rampant female illiteracy, which obstructs the path of rapid human development in the region. Even as late as in 2006, only one out of 20 Madhesi Dalit females have secondary and higher level of education. In view of this the region’s human development has been progressing at a lower pace than the other regions. One of the reasons for this anomaly could be due to inadequate focus of I/NGOs and other development partners in Terai in the past because of the impression that Terai is economically more prosperous than hills and mountain regions. However, poor are everywhere. The higher inequality in both economic and human development dimensions across the caste and ethnic groups signifies additional needs for human development of excluded caste and ethnic groups such as Madhesi Dalits and Muslims. Towards this direction, the role of NGOs and I/NGOs is critical in generating awareness and changing the attitude of people. However, only the support of non-government organization is not adequate unless it is accompanied by the government.

Although Nepalese plans and policies began to recognize the problem of social exclusion from late 1990s, the discriminations and inequalities prevail. This is mainly because of lack of political commitment. The decade-long conflict, followed with some agitations by different groups, especially in Terai, has highlighted the issue of social exclusion but actual redress yet remains. Implementation of current policies and programmes with commitment would help make a good start in addressing social exclusion. The current composition of the Constituent Assembly has proper representation of women and other excluded groups, including those of Terai. This fact along with appreciation of the problem of exclusion in the general public gives much hope that the government will take concerted efforts to address problem of social exclusion.

In the long run, with a view to restoring lasting peace, the paper offers some policy suggestions for reducing inequalities, as follows: (i) provision of decent employment opportunity to excluded regions and caste/ethnic groups, especially their youths; (ii) investment in rural areas and agriculture where poor and excluded groups live and work; (iii) increased access of excluded groups to resources including land and finance, and improved access to basic services; (iv) effective implementation of policies and provisions for ending cultural discrimination; and more importantly (v) ensuring fair representation and effective participation of poor and excluded in different organs of government so that they can govern their destiny themselves. The fair representation and effective participation requires state transformation, however, it can sustain when followed with a transformation of society where in all citizens respect the rights of others before claiming for theirs.

Nepal is at the stage of both state building and nation building which are to be well articulated in the new constitution being drafted by CA members. While the state transformation can ensure fair representation, it is not necessary that it could build harmonious relationship between different caste and ethnic groups. Therefore with the state transformation is an urgent demand for social transformation. That requires nations building – building a broad national identity and nationalism can accommodate all 103 and more caste and ethnic groups. This requires an effective functioning of the state, a prerequisite of which is the development of the concept of “citizenships” where in an individual of country works as a “citizen” being responsive to the rights of others before seeking for his and hers. Thus, the state transformation moves together with the societal transformation.

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ANNEX

ANNEX 1: Poverty Measurement by Caste and Ethnicity, Nepal 1995-96 and 2003-04Poverty Headcount Rate Distribution of the Poor Distribution of Population1995-96 2003-04 Change

in %1995-96 2003-04 Change

in %1995-96 2003-04 Change

in %Brahmin/Chhetri 34.1 18.4 -46 26.7 15.7 -41 32.7 26.3 -20Terai Middle Caste

28.7 21.3 -26 2.9 1.9 -33 4.2 2.8 -34

Dalits 57.8 45.5 -21 10.6 10.9 3 7.7 7.4 -4Newar 19.3 14.0 -28 2.5 3.4 35 5.5 7.5 38Hill Janajati 48.7 44.0 -10 19.7 27.8 41 16.9 19.5 16Terai Janajati) 53.4 35.4 -34 10.4 9.2 -12 8.2 8.1 -1Muslims 43.7 41.3 -6 5.7 8.7 53 5.4 6.5 19Other 46.1 31.3 -32 21.4 22.3 4 19.4 21.9 13Total 41.8 30.8 -26 100 100 - 100 100 -

Note: The trends in poverty rates across caste-ethnic groups should be treated with caution.Source: CBS 2005.

ANNEX 2: Average per capita (urban/rural) income (Rs.) by caste/ethnicity 

Caste and Ethnic GroupsAvg. per capita

income (Rs.)Avg.

household size

Avg. per capita urban

(Rs.)

Avg. per capita rural (Rs.)

Total Brahmin and Chhetri 18,400 33,731 15,674Hill Brahmin and Chhetri 16,200 5.78 34,678 13,628Terai Brahmin and Chhetri 23,900 5.54 32,408 21,465 Terai Middle Castes 11,300 7.22 12,736 11,212 Total Dalits 10,000 19,381 9,026Hill Dalits 8,830 5.64 18,602 8,018Terai Dalits 13,200 5.98 20,460 11,927 Newar 26,100 6.43 36,600 14,660 Total Janajatis 13,300 25,750 12,216Hill Janajatis 13,500 5.97 26,448 11,987Terai Janajatis 12,700 9.68 14,106 12,719 Muslim 10,200 8.29 11,563 10,126 Nepal 15,000 28,957 12,534Source: CBS 2004 

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Annex 3: Representation of Caste and Ethnicity in Different Sectors of Society, Nepal, 1999 and 2005Sector B/C/T/S Nationalities Madhesi Dalit Newar Others Total

1999 2005 1999 2005 1999 2005 1999 2005 1999 2005 1999 2005 1999 2005Public Sector 235 82 42 7 56 9 4 2 36 14

- - 37

3 114

Political Sector

97 93 25 20 26 11 - 1 18 14 -

- 166

139

Private Sector 7 21   3 15 30 -   20 42 -

- 42

96

Civil Society 69 94 3 9 8 18 - 1 16 19 -

- 96

141

Total 408 290

70 39 105 68 4 4

90 89

-

- 677 490

Percentage (a)

60.3 59.2 10.3 7.9 15.5 13.9 0.6 0.8 13.3 18.2     100.0 100.0

Caste in Total Population - %(b)

31.6 30.9 22.1 23.1 30.9 31.5 8.8 7.9 5.6 5.5 1.1 1.2 100.0 100.0

Ratio (a/b) 1.9 1.9 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.4 0.1 0.1 2.4 3.3        Note: The public sector includes supreme court, constitutional bodies, cabinet, Secretaries, lower and upper houses, whereas political sector includes leaders of political parties. Similarly, private sector refers to leadership of FNCCI and Chamber of Commerce. Civil society includes the chiefs of different professional groups and media house. BCTS refers to Brahmin, Chhetri, Thakuri and Sanyasi castes.Source: Neupane, 2005; Lawoti 2002 and 2007

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Multilingual Contexts in the Tarai: Issues in Nepalese Perspective13

Yogendra P. Yadava, PhDLinguistics, Tribhuvan University

ypyadava@gmail.com

AbstractNepal is characterized by rich linguistic diversity. The Tarai, inhabited by half of Nepal's total population (viz. 50.15%, CBS 2011), is not immune from this characteristics. This paper is an attempt to analyze the overall state-of the-art situation of the languages spoken in the Terai. More specifically, it deals with their identification, genetic affiliation, distribution, literate traditions, ethnicity, associated second languages, language use in various domains such as administration, education and media, endangerment as well as other sociolinguistic issues. This analysis may suggest ways to enable the equitable share of the Tarai people in national development through the inclusion of their languages.

1. General remarks

Languages, being living and dynamic, naturally have to undergo constant change. Consequently, it is difficult to enumerate the precise number of the world's living languages. However, Ethnologue (2009) has made an approximation of 6,909 languages spoken all over the globe. With the growing awareness of knowledge of these languages, the number of languages in use has been increasing on the one hand while, on the other, a considerable number of languages are going out of use (Krauss 1992).

South Asia, like the world's several countries, is 'a rich and fascinating linguistic area' with several hundred languages from four major language families, viz. the Indo-European (ca. 74%), the Dravidian (ca. 24%), the Austroasiatic (ca. 1.2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (ca. 0.6%) families, with some unclassified language isolates (such as Kusunda) in the Himalayan region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Languages_of_South_Asia).

Nepal comprises a relatively small area of 147,181 square kilometres with a length of 885 kilometres from east to west and a mean breadth of 193 kilometres from north to south. However, its topography is rich and varied. Inhabiting the different climatic and ecological zones with a high level of biodiversity per unit area, it is matched by a similar rate of linguistic and cultural variation. Nepal is populated by 103 officially recognized caste and ethnic groups who are largely Hindus, Buddhists, Animists, some Muslims, and in some cases a combination of two or more of these (Pradhan and Shreshtha 2005) and speak around 92 languages officially-recognized by the state (Yadava 2003; Yadava and Turin 2007). The distribution of these languages has been shown in the map given below.

13 This article is based on my earlier papers presented at different conferences held in Nepal and elsewhere.

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The preservation of linguistic diversity is crucial to humanity. Crystal (2000: 34) argues that “if the development of multiple cultures is so important then the role of languages becomes critical, for cultures are chiefly transmitted through spoken and written languages.” In the powerfully written Vanishing Voices, Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine make an explicit link between language survival and environment issues: the extinction of languages is part of the larger picture of near-total collapse of the worldwide ecosystem (as cited in Yadava and Turin (2007)). Besides, various languages serve as symbols of ethnic identity and each speech community wants to preserve and promote its language. Robinson (as cited in The Mother-Tongue Dilemma, UNESCO 2003) likewise notes that “for a multilingual approach to work, governments must see linguistic diversity as a boon and not a problem to be dealt with.” As languages serve as fundamental means of communication and interpersonal relationship, linguistic diversity needs to be looked upon as a societal resource to be planned for its full utilization. It transpires from these provisos that the multilingual setting confers on Nepal a distinctive position on the linguistic map of the world and renders it as one of the most fascinating areas of linguistic research and social resources.

2. Languages of the Tarai

2.0 Background

In the subsections that follow, we will mainly make an attempt to tease out the major aspects of the language situation in the Tarai. These aspects include:

i. identification,ii. genetic affiliation,iii. distribution,

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iv. nomenclature,v. written traditions,vi. multilingualism,vii. language resources,viii. domains of language use, and a few other sociolinguistic features.

2.1 Identification

Of the 92 and some unidentified languages, 19 (i.e. more than one fourth of Nepal’s total languages) are spoken in the Tarai (CBS, 2002). They are enumerated as follows with their number of speakers:

Table 1: Tarai languages S.No. Mother Tongue Number %

Total 22736934 100.00

1 Maithili 2797582 12.30 2 Bhojpuri 1712536 7.53

3 Tharu (Dagaura/Rana) 1331546 5.86

4 Avadhi 560744 2.47 5 Bajjika 237947 1.05 6 Urdu 174840 0.77 7 Rajbanshi 129829 0.57 8 Hindi 105765 0.47 9 Santhali 40260 0.18

10 Uranw/Jhangar/ Dhangar 28615 0.13

11 Bangla 23602 0.10

12 Marwari (Rajsthani) 22637 0.10

13 Dhimal 17308 0.08 14 Angika 15892 0.07 15 Meche 3301 0.01 16 Khariya 1575 0.01 17 Shadri (Kisan) 489 0.00 18 Koche 54 0.00 19 Magahi 30 0.00

Source: CBS (2001)

Of these Tarai languages, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu, Avadhi, Bangla, Dhimal, Hindi, Uranw/Jhangar/Dhangar, Marwari, Rajbanshi, Santhali, and Urdu have been consistently reported in the various censuses since 1952/54. Some of the languages such as Meche have been reported irregularly. Five of the Tarai languages (viz. Angika, Bajjika, Khariya, Shadri (Kisan), and Koche) have been reported only in the census 2001 for the first time. Angika and Bajjika, which were earlier considered the dialects of Maithili and Bhojpuri, respectively, have been returned as distinct languages in the 2001 census. The enumeration of the Tarai languages shows variation in different censuses. Similarly, Tharu has been enumerated in various censuses but it also needs to be analyzed to ascertain whether it is a single language with several regional dialects or comprises more than one language. While the Census 2001 and other estimates have established fairly credible numbers of the Tarai languages, more precise and accurate

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figures still need to be ascertained through further careful investigation14. Similarly, Census 2001 does not distinguish Dagaura Tharu from Rana Tharu, a distinct language15. In addition, with growing democratic awareness people have been asserting for recognizing a few minority languages such as Tajpuriya , Kushwadiya, etc. We can obtain a precise identification of the Tarai languages only through their scientific survey16.

2.2. Genetic affiliation

All of us, from scholars to politicians, are sometimes confused by conflicting claims about the number of languages spoken in the Tarai. Various enumerations have been proposed but they, of course, are limited instruments and, by their very nature (especially alphabetical lists), belie the fact that some level of relationship often exists between its various members. A definitive standard needs to be established by which all of us can know objectively how and to what extent languages in the Tarai are related to another17.

The Tarai languages enumerated in the 2001 census have been said to belong to the four language families, viz. Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, and Dravidian. Most of the languages spoken in the Tarai belong to the Indo-Aryan group of Indo-European family of languages. They are presented in Diagram 1.

14 See Yadava and Turin (2007) for a similar observation on the languages spoken in Nepal as a whole.15 With the growing democratization and awareness among Nepalese people in recent times several communities have been asserting for their ethnic and linguistic identity. In Tarai, for example, minority communities such as Tajpuriya, Pattharkatta, and Sonama have come up their demand for recognizing their ethnic and linguistic identity. Similarly, some community zealots have wrongly claimed to speak languages like Musasa and the like. 16 For information a survey of Nepal's languages has already been started at Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University with support from Government of Nepal. 17 For details see LinSuN (2008).

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Diagram 1: Indo-European languages

Indo-Iranian Celltic Italic Slavic Armenian Albanian Greek Germanic Baltic

Iranian Indo-Aryan

Northwestern Dardic Dardic-Maldives Sinhalese Southern East-Central Northern

Avadhi

Eastern Central

Maithili

BajjikaA

ngikaBhojpuriBanglaRajbanshiH

indiU

rduM

arwari

Tharu

However, quite a few of these Indo-Aryan languages need to be further studied for ascertaining their genetic subgroupings within the family. These languages include Dagaura Tharu, Rana Tharu, Shadri, and so on.

There are two languages genetically affiliated to the Austric branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family. The Austic languages include Santhali of the northern Munda group and Khariya of the southern Munda group. It is to be noted that Satar has been reported in all the censuses but Santhal has been wrongly reported as a separate language except in the 1952/54 census. The 2001 census lumps both Satar and Santhal together into a single language, called Santhali. It is suggested that Munda (with 67 speakers) should also be included within Santhali, in that it is just a variant name of the same language.

The genetic affiliation of the Austric languages spoken in Nepal is shown in the following diagram:

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Diagram 2: Austo-Asiatic languages

Austo-Asiatic languages

Munda Mon-Khmer

North South

KherwariOther North Kharia

Santhali Munda

Dravidian language family includes the two languages spoken in Nepal. One of them is called Jhangar in the region east of Kosi river but Dhangar in the region west of Kosi river. It constitutes the northernmost part of Dravidian family of languages. It is said to be a regional variant of Kurux spoken in Jharkhand State of India though it shows divergence in its vocabulary and grammar (Gordon, 176; Yadava, 2002).

The genetic affiliation of Dhangar/Jhangar is presented in the following diagram:

Diagram 3: Dravidian languages

Dravidian languages

Central Northern South-Central Southern

Dhangar/Jhangar

Another minor group of the Tarai languages is the Tibeto-Burman group of Sino-Tibetan language family though this language family constitutes a major group of languages in Nepalese context as a whole; it consists of the largest number of languages in Nepal, viz. about 57 languages. Dhimal and Meche are the only Tarai languages which belong to the Tibeto-Burman group of Sino-Tibetan language family. It is genetically affiliated to the Tibetic, Himalayish group of the Tibeto-Buman languages.

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Compared to the languages spoken in Hills and Mountain, the languages used in the Tarai are richer in their genetic relations as they belong to four categories such as Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian while the former have just two categories - Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan minus an unclassified language isolate –Kusunda. It is, however, necessary to undertake their comparative analysis from the viewpoint of areal typology with a view to investigating their convergence and divergence as a result of their adjacency18.

2.3. Distribution

As in the other parts of Nepal the Indo-Aryan languages are spoken by the majority of the Tarai's total population and thus constitute the largest group of Nepal’s languages in terms of their speakers. The Indo-Aryan languages are distributed from the western to the eastern Terai. Another group of languages spoken in the Tarai are the Tibeto-Burman languages. They are mainly spoken in Jhapa and Morang districts of eastern Nepal. The two Austric languages, viz. Santhali (including Munda) and Khariya, have been returned in various censuses with some variations. They are mainly distributed in the southern parts of Jhapa and Morang districts. In Dravidian family, Dhangar/Jhangar are mainly spoken in Sunsari district but also marginally used in Siraha and some other Tarai districts.The distribution of the Tarai languages has been shown in the map given below.

18 See Masica (1990).

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Most of the Tarai languages are cross-border and trans-regional languages as they are spoken in Nepal and India and also in the Tarai and the Hills.

2.4 Nomenclature

The Tarai languages are found to be named in various ways. The names for several languages have been derived from the country or place names and bestowed by the-then ruling classes as their official names. Such regional designations have gradually gained currency among their users and others. One of such languages is, like Nepali, Maithili, which had been established as the state language of the Kingdom of Mithila. Its main alternative names include Tirhutiyaa, Dehaati, etc. Other languages of Nepal whose nomenclature is based on place names are Bhojpuri (< Bhojpur), Awadhi (<Awadh), Hindi (<Hindustaan), Santhali (<Santhal), Bangala (<Bangaal), Marwadi (Mawaad), Angika (<Ang), Meche (<Mechi), Punjabi (Punjab), Oriya (<Orissa), Sindhi (<Sindh), Marwari (< Marwar), Hariyanvi (<Hariyana,), Magahi (<Magadh), Assamese (<Assam), etc.

Secondly, there are a few examples in Nepal of a language name derived from a community or tribe name. Such languages include Tharu, Rajbanshi, Dhimal, Khariya, Shadri, Dhangar/Jhangar/Uranw, Munda, etc.

Thirdly, Urdu and Sanskrit are the two languages which are very much restricted to religions. Urdu, originated as Dakshni (the ‘southern’ language) used by the Muslim conquerors in northern Deccan and

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later called Urdu, the language of the court, called the Horde, in the main stronghold of Northern Hindustan, was finally adopted as the language of the Muslim community in India as well as Nepal ( Cf. Breton, 1997:74) . Sanskrit, enumerated only with 823 native speakers, is hardly used as a medium of mass communication but it has been actively used by Hindus in performing their religious rituals and also by scholars in scholastic studies and deliberations.

Finally, Nepali Sign Language, which has been reported in the 2001 census for the first time, has been named after the medium or ‘signs’ used by the deaf in their communication. It may, however, be noted that this sign language is obviously different from the one spoken in the Tarai which, therefore, needs to be identified separately.

There are quite a few languages with more than one name, e.g. Tirhutiya and Dehati for Maithili6. Etymologically, the derivation of an Indo-Aryan language name may involve a productive adjectival Nepali suffix –i attached to a nominal stem (indicating place), e.g. Mithila + -i = Maithili, Bhojpur + -i + = Bhojpuri, Awadh + -i = Awadhi, etc. The Tibeto-Burman languages, however, do not involve such suffixation, e.g. Dhimal (but not Dhimali) .7

In this study details were collected from native speakers about glotonym(name of the language on which data were provided), autoglotonyms ( name(s) given to the language by the native speakers), hetroglotonyms (name(s) given by the non –native speakers) and attitudes on the hetroglotonyms. Table 4.1 presents these details.

Table 2: Glotonyms, autoglotonyms and hetroglotonyms of the Tarai languagesS.N Language

sGlotonym Autoglotonym Hetroglotonym Attitude of the

speaker on Hetroglotonym

1. Assamese Assamese Akhamiya Asami Negative2. Avadhi Awadhi Awadhi Dehati/Hindi Dialect Neutral/not agree

with Hindi dialect3. Bajjika Bajjika Bajjika Kahe Kuhe Bhasa/

Madhesi BhasaNegative

4. Bangla Bengoli Bangla Bengoli,Bangla,Bangali Positive5. Bhojpuri Bhojpuri Dehati Madhise Bhasa Negative6. Dhimal Dhimal Dhimal Katha Dhimal Bhasa Positive7. Hindi Hindi Hindi Hindi Positive8. Khariya Khadiya Khadiya Khadiya Positive9. Kisan/

ShadriSadari Sadari Kishan Negative

10.Magahi Magahi Magahi Magadhi Positive11.Maithili Maithili Tirhutiya/

ThentiDehati & Madhesi Bhasa

Negative

12.Marwadi Marwadi Marwadi Marwadi Positive13.Meche Meche BoDorau Meche Positive14.Punjabi Panjabi Panjabi Panjabi Positive15.Rajbanshi Rajbanshi Rajbanshi Rajbanshi Positive16.Santhali

(Satar)Santhali Santhali Bhasa Santhali Bhasa Positive

17.Tharu Tharu Tharu Tharu Positive6 See Grimes (2000) for the various names used for a language.7 The only exception was Newari, which has ceased to be used now.

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T Rana/ Rana Tharu

18.Uranw/Kudux

Urawo: Kudukh Jhangar/Dhagad Negative

19.Urdu Urdu Urdu Madhese Bhasa Negative

The table shows that 16 Tarai languages are almost addressed by the same names for the golotonyms, autoglotonyms and heteroglotonymes. The remaining 5 Tarai languages are spelled differently from their glotonyms by their language speakers. With respect to heteroglotonyms we have found three different tendencies. The Tarai languages spoken along the southern boarder of Nepal (Maithili, Bhojpuri, Avadhi, Bajjika, and Magahi) are referred to as Taraii/Dehati Bhasha by other language speakers. However, language communities have negative attitudes towards these tendencies. A few language communities are neutral and most of the language communities are positive towards hetroglotonyms.

The Tarai languages spoken in small concentrated areas seem to be uniformly spoken while those used in wide dispersed locations tend to exhibit their regional, social and stylistic variations at phonological, lexical and grammatical levels. It is, however, necessary to undertake their scientific study.

2.5 Written traditions

Most of the languages have rich oral heritage of traditional folk stories and songs handed down from parents to children over a long period of time, e.g. Salhes in Maithili. However, they are disappearing with the growth of literacy and language shift. It is, therefore, time to document them before they are lost to posterity.

Most of the Tarai languages, which are cross-border languages spoken in both Nepal and India, have well-developed literate traditions. They include Maithili, Bhojpuri, Avadhi, Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Urdu, Punjabi, Santhali, and Marwadi in particular. All of them have long tradition of written literature. These languages have employed various writing systems or scripts. Most of the Indo-Aryan languages such as Maithili (originally written in Mithilakshar or Kaithi script), Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Hindi and Rajbanshi are written in the modern Devanagari script with small adjustments and additional letters. The modern Devanagari script has evolved from an ancient writing system, called Brahmi dating back to about 500 BC. Though Bangala is written in a modern Bengali script, which developed from the Kutila variety of the northern type of the Brahmi script. The proto-Bengali script degenerated into Maithili Tirhuta script or Mithilakshar and Kaithi with small adjustments and additional characters. Another script Perso-Arabic is used in writing Urdu language while Punjabi language is written in Gurumukhi.

As in India, Santhali in Nepal is written in the Santali alphabet, which is also known as Ol Cemet', Ol Ciki or simply Ol, which was created in the 1920s by Pandit Raghunath Murmu as part of his efforts to promote Santali culture. Until the invention of this alphabet, Santali was either not written at all, or was written with the Bengali or Oriya alphabets. Christian missionaries prefer to write Santali with the Latin alphabet. In Nepal some people also write Santhali in Devanagari.

The writing systems used in various languages of Nepal may be schematized as follows:

Table 3: Scripts

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Scripts Languages

83

Devanagari Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Avadhi, Rajbanshi

Mithilakshar/Tirhuta

Maithili

Kaithi Bhojpuri, Maithili Gurumukhi PunjabiPerso-Arabic UrduLatin SanthaliOl Ciki /simply Ol SanthaliBengali Bangla

Of late other languages have taken to literate traditions. Initiatives have been taken by various language communities and linguists to develop writing systems appropriate to the sound systems of their languages and practically acceptable to them. They are Tharu, Rajbanshi, and Santhali. Recently, these languages have started developing some written literature in the form of newspaper, magazine, textbooks for adult literacy and primary education, and folk literature.

2.6 Multilingualism

The linguistic diversity existing in the country has given rise to the three situations in the country, viz. monolingualism, bilingualism, and multilingualism. Of these language situations, only monolingualism or the use of just mother tongues has been regularly reported since the first modern census in 1952/54.19

Most speakers of Nepal’s languages have been found to be in close contact. As a result, these languages tend to converge through mutual borrowing and influences and gradually share a number of lexical and grammatical features. For example, we find Tibeto-Burman languages “Indo-Aryanized” and Indo-Aryan languages “Tibeto-Burmanized”. There is a need for an intensive study of convergence as well as divergence to ascertain the precise nature of Nepal as a linguistic area.

The Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the Tarai (e.g. Rajbanshi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Avadhi, and Tharu) constitute a curious case, in that they are linked uninterruptedly from the viewpoint of intelligibility. That is to say, it is rather difficult to say where one language ends and another begins. However, the degree of intelligibility goes on decreasing with the increase in distance between the adjacent languages. In such a case, people adopt Hindi as a link language. Thus, these languages form a continuum.

2.7 Language resources

As mentioned above, most of the native languages spoken in the Tarai are written in Devanagri script. Thanks to the awareness of preserving and promoting the native languages, some linguistic organizations are making concerted efforts to discover scripts related to their own tradition and culture for writing their languages.

This section focuses on the issues of the availability of the publications pertaining to the different languages on the basis of the information elicited from these linguistic organizations. Most of the languages do not have publications in various domains of the language resources. The information the participants pertaining to these linguistic organizations reported using in various domains of 'Language Resources' is presented in the Table: 1.

19 second language in CBS?

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Table 4: Language ResourcesS.N. Languages Language Resources

Newsp-aper

Ma-gazine

Journal

LearningMaterials

LiteracyMaterials

Literature

Poems

Plays

Fictions (short stories, novels)

Folk Songs (CD/Cassette)

TeleFilm

Film

1. Angika x x x x x x x x x x x x2 Avadhi √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √3 Bajjika x x x x x x x x x x x x4 Bangla x x x x x x x x x x x x5 Bhojpuri √ √ x √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √6 Dhimal x √ x √ x x √ x x √ √ x7 Hindi √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √8 Khariya x x x x x x x x x x x x9 Kisan/

Shadrix x x x x x √ √ √ √ √ √

10 Magahi x x x √ x √ √ x x x x x11 Maithili √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √12 Marwari √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √13 Meche x x x x x x √ √ x √ x x14 Punjabi x x x x x x x x x x x x15 Rajbanshi √ √ x √ √ √ √ √ √ √ x √16 Santhali/

Satarx x x x x x x x x x x x

17 Tharu x x x √ √ x x x x √ x √18 Uranw x x x x x x x x x x x x19 Urdu √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ x

Only a very few languages have all kinds of publications. On the other hand, some languages still do not have any kind of publications. They remain only in oral form and there is an urgent need to document these languages and care be taken by the government side too.

The elicited information displays that all kinds of publications are available in some languages such as Avadhi, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Maithili, Marwari, Tharu and Urdu. On the other hand, some languages such as Bajjika, Bangla, Khariya, Punjabi, Santhali (Satar), and Uranw have no publications. In addition, the rest of the languages pertaining to the Tarai community presented in the table chart above have some publications available and the members of the language organizations are making efforts to produce the materials in their own mother tongue.

2.8 Domains of language use

This section deals with the domains in which various languages spoken in Tarai have been used. These domains include administration, education, media, interlanguage communication and others.For this purpose, information was collected from existing relevant literature and the concerning language communities through personal interviews and questionnaire.

2.8.1 Language use in administration

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Despite being mutlticultural and multingual, Nepal enshrined 'ethnic', instead of 'civic', nationalism in its task of nation-building (Oakes 2001). It has been reflected in various regimes in the county. Following the Gorkha conquest, what was Gorkhali or Khas, the language of ruling elites, also spoken by hill people as lingua franca or mother tongue, assumed the new nomenclature 'Nepali' with an intent to transform it into the national and official language. Rana regime further perpetuated this ‘one nation-one language’ policy. This was a deliberate plan to eliminate all but one language, viz. Nepali. This is evident from the fact that Newar and Hindi language movements were suppressed.

The case of Nepali was further reinforced during the Panchayat regime. In 1961 the National System of Education was introduced to further promote the use of only Nepali in administration, education and media in compliance with the Panchayat slogan 'one language, one dress, one country' ( eutaa bhasha, eutaa bhesh, eutaa desh). In addition, Nepali Company Act was passed in 1964 directing all companies to keep their records in English or Nepali.

With the restoration of democracy there has been growing awareness among non-Nepali speaking people about their culture and languages since they consider them as the symbols through which they strive to assert their identity and recognition. The constitution of Nepal (1991) framed after the restoration of democracy recognized languages other than Nepali and made the following provisions about the non-Nepali languages:

(1) The Nepali language in the Devanagari script is the language of the nation of Nepal. The Nepali language shall be the official language.(Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, Part 1, Article 6.1)

(2) All the languages spoken as the mother tongue in the various parts of Nepal are the national languages of Nepal. (Constitution of Nepal, Part 1, Article 6.2)

In addition, the constitution also made a provision for the use of mother tongues in primary education (Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, Part 1, Article18.2). It also guaranteed Nepalese as a fundamental right to preserve their culture, scripts and their languages (Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, Part 1, Article 26.2).

The recommendation for the use of minority languages in local administration was later enacted into a law, the Local Self-Governance Act of 1999 which deputed to local bodies the right to preserve and promote local languages. Nevertheless, on June 1, 1999, the Supreme Court announced its final verdict and issued a certiorari declaring that the decisions of these local bodies to use regional languages were unconstitutional and illegal. The court’s verdict raised serious questions about the sincerity of the government’s commitment to the use of minority languages in administration and led to further frustration among minority language communities. Public demonstrations and mass meetings were called, and the Nepal Federation of Nationalities (NEFEN) organised a national conference on linguistic rights on March 1617, 2000 with support from the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA).

Quite recently, The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007), an outcome of the Andolan II, makes the following provisions for languages:

(1) All the languages spoken as the mother tongue in Nepal are the national languages of Nepal.(2) The Nepali Language in Devnagari script shall be the official

language. (3) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (2), it shall not be deemed to have hindered to use

the mother language in local bodies and offices. State shall translate the languages so used to an official.

(The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007), Part 1, Article 5)

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Despite all these liberal provisions, Nepali alone has been used as official language for all practical purposes.

However, Quite recently, Committee for Determining the Basis for Cultural and Social Solidarity at the Constituent Assembly has recommended for using Nepali as an official language for the time being and exploring other alternative languages in central, provincial and local government offices after the implementation of the new constitution through the formation of the Language Commission.

2.8.2 Use of language in education

The following recommendations formed Nepal's language policy in education:

The medium of instruction should be the national language in primary, middle, and higher educational institutions, because any language which cannot be made lingua franca and which does not serve legal proceedings in court should not find a place … The use of national language can bring about equality among all classes of people, can be an anchor-sheet for Nepalese nationality, and can be the main instrument for promoting literature.

No other language should be thought, even optionally in primary school because few children will need them, they would hinder the use of Nepali, parents would insist on their children taking them whether capable or not, time is needed for other more important and fundamental learning – there are not enough well-qualified teachers, and those who wish and need additional languages, can begin them in the 6th grade. (NEPC 1956:95)

The motive behind prescribing the use of Nepali alone is clear from the following extract:

If the younger generation is taught to use Nepali as the basic language then other languages will gradually disappear, the greater the national strength and unity will result…Local dialects and tongues other than Nepali should be vanished [banished]from the playground as early as possible in the life of the child. ((NEPC 1956; as cited in Gurung 2002 and Maddox 2003)

The use of Nepali in education was further reinforced by K.I. Singh government in1957 by prescribing Nepali as medium of instruction.

In addition, the constitution also made a provision for the use of mother tongues in primary education (Constitution of Nepal, Part 1, Article18.2). It also guaranteed Nepalese as a fundamental right to preserve their culture, scripts and their languages (Constitution of Nepal, Part 1, Article 26.2).

The greatest weakness of these provisions was the lack of any explicit plan and policy to implement them. To tease out these constitutional provisions about language, a recommendation commission for formulating policy for national languages was formed by the government in 1993. The main objectives of the commission were twofold: promotion of national languages and their use in local administration, primary education and media. There have been some advances in the use of minority languages in primary education and media. The CDC has so far developed textbooks in 19 national languages to be taught as subject and produced children's mother tongue-based materials for 12 languages. This initiative is no doubt a welcome step; for the first time some non-Nepali languages have been introduced in education. However, there are two serious drawbacks with this initiative. First, these textbooks, which are essentially the translation of the existing Nepali textbooks, are not tailored to the cultural requirements of the language communities in question. For example, it is Chaith which is the most important festival for Maithili speaking community but in compliance with the Nepali textbook the translated textbook contains

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a teaching unit on Dasain. This may lead to cultural imposition on non-Nepali speaking communities. Secondly, such a translated textbook with non-native content may not be easily accessible and motivating for its learners. What is essential is to develop curricula and textbooks suited to the cultures and physical milieu of the concerning language communities.

Another implementation of the commission report has been the introduction of 19 different languages in Radio Nepal though they have been made available very limited time for broadcasting.

Government of Nepal(GON), which participated in different international fora like Jomtin Convention and Dakar Forum, is committed to making quality primary education accessible to all children including children from indigenous and minority language groups. In pursuance of this commitment, one more goal for Nepal has been included besides other six universal goals of EFA for ensuring the right of indigenous people and linguistic minorities to basic and primary education through mother tongue.

To achieve the EFA/Nepal (2004-9) goals a policy of transitional multilingual education policy has been endorsed. According to this policy, a child will acquire basic educational skills through the medium of his/her mother tongue and gradually switch to a lingua franca/an official language so that s/he can “feel at home in the language in which the affairs of government are carried on” and finally learn a foreign language (e.g. English) for broader communications and access to science and technology (Fishman 1968: 698).

Quite recently, The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007), an outcome of the Andolan II, makes the following provisions for languages:

Regarding the education and cultural right, the constitution enshrines the following provisions: (1) Each community shall have the right to get basic education in their mother tongue as provided for in

the law.(2) Each community residing in Nepal shall have the right topreserve and promote its language, script,

culture, cultural civility and heritage. ( The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007), Part 3, Article 17)

None of the communities reported their languages to be used as medium of instruction in schools where their children are studying. At most of the places, Nepali was reported medium of instruction and at a few places the slot was taken by English. In case of Urdu speakers, the language is the medium only at Madrasa and other religious schools.

Except Rajbanshi and Uranw/Jhangad languages, all language informants urged need for native languages as medium of instruction for primary education.

Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Tharu languages were reported to be used as medium of study and/or as a subject of study in elementary education whereas Hindi and Maithili were reported to be used in higher education.

2.8.3 Use of language in media

Of all the Tarai languages, Avadhi, Bhojpuri, Dhimal, Hindi, Maithili, Rajbanshi, Tharu, and Urdu have access to publication of newspapers and/or magazines related to news, literature, culture and language activities. Punjabi has been reported to have access to the Internet.

2.9 Language and ethnicity

113016

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Nepal is a multiethnic nation, comprising various ethnic and religious communities. Its ethnic and religious diversity is coupled with its linguistic plurality. They are found to interact with one another, resulting in the threefold ethnic/religious-linguistic structure. First, there are a number of ethno-linguistic communities in Nepal each of which has a common mother tongue. The mother tongues associated with various ethnic groups include Tharu, Rajbanshi, Kumal, Majhi, Danuwar, Dhimal, Darai, Raji, Dhangad/Jhangad and so on. Such a situation having one–to–to relation between languages and ethnic groups is characterized by “one tribe one language” formula. Besides, Urdu is the mother tongue of a community belonging to a particular religion, viz. Islam. Secondly, there are, on the other hand, ethnic communities each of which speaks several mother tongues. This “one tribe with several languages” also exists in Tarai region. In this region, various castes and tribes such as Brahmin, Rajput, Yadav, Teli, Kurmi, Chamar, Khatawe, etc. speak Maithili in the Maithili-speaking area, Bhojpuri in the Bhojpuri-speaking area and Awadhi in the Abadhi-speaking area. Thus, there exists no one–to–correspondence between ethnic communities and their mother tongues in Tarai. Thirdly, we find the “several tribes with a common language” formula. Different ethnic groups are found to speak a single mother tongue. This formula has been exemplified by Hindi, which is spoken as a mother tongue by various ethnic groups. Being a lingua franca, it has also been adopted as a mother tongue by people from different ethnic groups as well. Hence, it is called an “interethnic language.” In case of one-to-one relation between the tribes and their languages, a comparison of the population of different tribes and their languages can show the extent of language retention by each tribe. According to Gurung (2002: 7-8), there has been considerable increase in the speakers of the languages spoken by various ethnic groups except those of Dhimal. Rajbanshi is the only language whose population exceeds the population of its ethnic group.

All these aspects of language-ethnicity relation reflect the dynamism of language shift in Tarai context. They suggest a common tendency to shift toward regional and ethnic languages.

2.9 Languages are not 'isolated units'

At prima facie each language, culture and religion is like an isolated unit, as illustrated in Figure 1

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However, languages are not isolated units. In fact, they can be inter-related to one another in a number of different ways, including through a common linguistic history, or culture, or perhaps through economic ties or social ties such as inter-marriage (Watters 2008), as illustrated in Figure 2.

2.11 Language endangerment

In linguistically diverse countries, minority languages continue to be lost. According to an estimate (Krauss 1992: 7), 90% of human languages will face extinction by the end of the 21st century. In other words, only 600 of the 6,000 or so languages presently spoken will be safe (Crystal 2000: 18). As a multilingual state, Nepal is not immune from this global trend of language endangerment.

Language endangerment specialists have borrowed their conceptual framework, and its associated jargon, from the fields of botany and zoology, and portray languages as lying on a continuum from stable to moribund. In Nepal, a worryingly large number of the country’s ethnic mother tongues are severely endangered, and will likely be reduced from communicative vernaculars to symbolic identity markers within a generation. At the same time, and perhaps even because of the threat, ethnic and linguistic activists within these communities have embarked on the process of documenting and promoting their mother tongues through cultural awareness campaigns and literacy programmes.

According to Table 1, 8 languages are spoken by more than 1 lakh population. They are Maithili, Bhojpuri, Dagaura Tharu, Avadhi, Bajjika, Urdu, Rajbanshi, and Hindi. 6 languages are spoken by 40 to 15 thousand speakers. Santhali, Uranw, Bangla, Marwari, Dhimal, and Angika belon to this lesser spoken category. Meche and Khariya are spoken by 3 to 1.5 thousand people. Finally, there are 3 languages (Shadri, Koche and Magahi) with less than 1 thousand speakers.

We may arrive at the following approximations about the endangerment of the Tarai languages:

(i) Safe languages (8)

The safe indigenous languages of the Tarai are: Maithili, Bhojpuri, Dagaura Tharu, Avadhi, Bajjika, Urdu, Rajbanshi, and Hindi.

The features that all these safe languages share are inter-generational language transmission, a large number of speakers, a high rate of language retention (104.1% -almost 50%), an increasing response to

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new domains such as seminars/meetings and fonts and printed and electronic media, e.g. newspaper, radio, TV, and film, development of materials for language education and literacy, use of mother tongue as medium of instruction in transitional bilingual education program under the aegis of EFA (2004-2009), and above all, community members’ positive attitude towards their own languages.

(ii) Almost safe languages (6)

Santhali, Uranw, Bangla, Marwari, Dhimal, and Angika

Like the ‘safe’ languages, the ‘almost safe’ languages have inter-generational language transmission, a fairly large community of speakers, a high rate of language retention and community members’ positive attitude towards their own languages. However, they lack a response to new domains of language use and media and have not developed materials for language education and literacy.

(iii) Potentially endangered languages (4)

Meche, Khariya, Shadri, and Koche

These languages are characterised by a lack of intergenerational language transmission, a small community of speakers, and a lack of language use in education and media even though their speakers have a positive attitude towards their mother tongue.

While the above categorization has been proposed on the basis of micro-level variables which are unique to individual languages and their communities, there are some broader factors which impinge on language endangerment. Such factors constitute macro-level variables. These variables are “broad indicators of the potential threat that exists to minority languages in a given region of the world” (Grenoble and Whaley 1998: 27).

Barring native languages from use in existing as well as new domains of administration, government and technology has the result of giving native languages low utility and prestige. This is further accentuated by the fact that Nepali is the lingua franca and the language for interethnic communication. As a result, indigenous peoples tend to acquire Nepali at the expense of their native languages. Gender also seems to play a role in this process as males of ethnic groups have a higher rate of proficiency in Nepali and lower rate of retention in their native languages than females, as observed in the case of Kusunda speakers.

Despite the positive attitude of members of the speech community towards their native languages the scarcity of resources continues to be an obstacle in promoting indigenous languages since most of the ethnic groups concerned are constrained by their poor economic condition.

Historical factors have made Nepali labour highly mobile. In the early days, the outflow of Nepali youth started with their recruitment in the regiments of the British Gorkhas. The flow of migration from mountains and hills to the Terai was noteworthy during the third quarter of the last century. At the same time, increased urbanization has produced cities which act as magnets for attracting rural people while developments in transport and communications have made it easier for the rural people to these centres. In this changed context, learning the dominant language (Nepali in this case) helps the process of assimilation in a multi-ethnic capital city. A consequence of this cultural assimilation has been gradual loss of indigenous languages.

The documentation of indigenous languages is considered to be an essential component in ensuring their vitality and promotion. Such documentation includes a precise inventory of linguistic forms used, a modern reference grammar, a basic dictionary, audio-visual recording of texts and their analysis, and may

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include elements of applied linguistics (or educational and revitalization purposes. There are still relatively few grammatical studies of Nepal’s indigenous languages. National agencies such as Central Department of Linguistics at TU, the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN), and the Royal Nepal Academy (RNA), and international agencies such as the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University (SAI), the Himalayan Languages Project at Leiden University, and some European and American universities, have made significant contributions in documenting these languages. However, very few works on their applied aspects exist. There is still an urgent need for investigating the use of language in basic education and for the revitalization of endangered languages.

3. Issues

This paper has presented the current profile of the languages spoken in the Tarai. The following are its major issues which need to taken into consideration in the contexts of formulating an inclusive language policy to be enshrined in the forthcoming constitution:

1. In the lack of adequate studies about several Tarai languages it is difficult to understand precise genetic relationships among them.

2. All the Tarai language names do not represent their speakers' attitude. 3. There exists no satisfactory account of information about regional, social and stylistic

varieties of the Tarai languages in Nepal. It is, therefore, difficult to determine their dialectal variations

4. In most of the language there are no writing systems and they are confined to their oral traditions. It is necessary to develop appropriate writing systems for the unwritten Tarai languages.

5. There has been no standardization of the Tarai languages except Hindi.6. Language communities have expressed dissatisfaction with census figures about the

speakers of their mother tongue.7. Linguistic diversity is a societal resource. Hence, it is a fact to be reckoned with in the

Tarai in particular and in Nepal in general.8. Multilinguistism or bilingualism is prevalent in most parts of the country. It has resulted

in language convergence and language loss owing to language shift.9. As for the domains of language use, the following observations have been made in this

study:a. Nepali alone has been used in administration and other language communities have

remained excluded.b. There are 19 mother tongues used in primary education as a subject. It is necessary to

introduce other languages both as subject and medium.c. There has been recent thrust on introducing quite a few languages in media.d. Nepali has been mostly used a language of wider communication in the hills and the

mountains but it is Hindi in the Terai. 10. Most of the language communities have expressed interest in preserving and promoting

their mother tongues.11. Most speakers have positive attitude towards their mother tongues.12. Most of these languages are more or less threatened with extinction and need to be

revitalized and promoted.13. Languages are not isolated units. In fact, they can be inter-related to one another in a

number of different ways, including through a common linguistic history, or culture, or perhaps through economic ties or social ties such as inter-marriage

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14. An intensive study of the Tarai languages needs to be undertaken for obtaining a clear linguistic scenario in the Tarai as it is inevitable for demarcating provinces on linguistic basis and language use in domains such as administration and education.

References

Brass, Paul R.1979.”Elite groups, symbol manipulation and ethnic identity among the Muslims of South Asia”. Paper presented at CSEN Seminar.

CBS.2001. Population Census, Kathmandu:NPC.

CBS.2011.Preliminary report on population, Kathmandu: NPC

Crystal, David. 2000. Language Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Government of Nepal.1990.Constitution of the kingdom of Nepal. V.S. 2047 (= 1990 AD). English translation of Nepali document available online at http://www.nepalhmg.gov.np/constitution.html

Government of Nepal.1999. Local Self-Governance Act of 1999, Nepal Gazette, Kathmandu.

Government of Nepal.2007. The Interim Constitution of Nepal, Kathmandu: GoN

Grenoble, L.A. and L.I.Whaley.,eds.1998.endangerd languages, current issues and future prospects, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gurung, Harka. 2002. Janagananaa-2001 anusaar jaatiya tathyaank: prarambhik

lekhaajokhaa. Kathmandu: Dhramodaya Sabha.

Krauss, Michael.1992.The world's languages in crisis.Language 68 4-10.

Lewis, Paul.2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc.

Masica Colin P.1990. Indo-Aryan languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nettle, Daniel and Suzanne Romaine. 2000. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the

Breton, R. (1997). Atlas of the Languages and Ethnic Communities of South Asia, New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Oakes, Leigh.2001. Language and national identity: comparing France and Sweden,

Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Robinson.2003. The Mother-Tongue Dilemma, Paris:UNESCO

Shrestha, Tirtha Bahadur and N.P.G. Vishal. 1993. ‘Biodiversity profile and conservation strategy in

Nepal’, pp. 1-11 in M.K. Dahal and D.R. Dahal, (eds), Environment and sustainable

development: issues in Nepalese perspective. Kathmandu: Nepal Foundation for Advanced

Studies.

UNESCO. 2003b. The Mother-tongue dilemma. In Education Today, the Newsletter of UNESCO’s

Education Sector.World’s Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Watters, Stephen.2008. Toward a sociolinguistic typology of the languages of Nepal, a paper presented at CNAS, Tribhuvan University

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Wurm, Stephen A.1991.Language death and disappearance: causes and circumstances. In Robins and Uhlenbeck (eds.) Endangered languages, Oxford and New York: Berg, 1-18.

Yadava, Yogendra P.2003. “Language”, Population monograph,vol.1, Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, pp.137-171

Yadava, Yogendra P. and Mark Turin.2007. “Indigenous Languages of Nepal: a Critical Analysis of

Linguistic situation and Contemporary Issues. In Yadava and Bajracharya eds. Indigenous

Languages of Nepal: Situation, Policy Planning and Coordination, Kathmandu: NFDIN

Yadava, Yogendra P.2007. “EFA Mid-Decade Evaluation Report”

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Non-green revolution for socioeconomic transformation in TeraiDr. Jay Kant Raut

Central Department of BiotechnologyTribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

raut_jk2000@yahoo.com

Introduction

There are huge quantity of agricultural and forestry lignocellulosic waste materials available in all developing countries like Nepal. It has been observed that more than 70% of agricultural and forest products have not been put to total productivity and have been wasted in processing. When carelessly disposed in the surrounding environment by dumping or burning, these wastes lead to environmental pollution and consequently health hazards. Instead, these cheap agro-industrial bioproducts or wastes can be converted into high value products through mushroom cultivation which can be considered as “White Agriculture” or “Non-green Revolution”. Poverty, Shortage of food, diminishing quality of health and increasing environmental deterioration are key underlying problems affecting the future well-being of humankind and the planet. The magnitude of these problems is set to increase as the world’s population continues to grow (about 80 million people per year). The three facets of Mushroom Biology combined offer partial but meaningful solutions to these problems through the generation of relatively cheap source of high quality food protein (Mushroom Science), the provision of health-enhancing dietary supplements/mushroom nutriceuticals (Mushroom Biotechnology) and the bioconversion/bioremediation of environmental adulterants and maintenance of balanced ecosystems (Mushroom Mycorestoration) (Chang & Miles, 2004).

Exploiting non-traditional food resources can make a substantial breakthrough to meet the serious food deficit. Mushroom, yeast and algal foods are frequently mentioned as alternative sources of food. Of these mushrooms are the most preferred. In the recent years, production and consumption of mushroom are gaining popularity around the world. Gradually, its global production has reached 33.4 million tons in 2007 while it was 26 million tons in 2000 (Celik & Peker, 2009). The market for mushrooms continues to grow due to interest in their culinary, nutritional, and health benefits. The world market in 2006 was valued at over US$ 60 billion while it was US$ 40 billion in 2001 (Chang, 2009). Other cause for their popularity is that they need very little land and capital expenditure is minimal for production. They also show potential for use in waste management.

Mushroom farming in Nepal

In Nepal, mushroom farming started in 1974 on commercial scale from Kathmandu valley (Singh, 2007). The production was 30 kg in that year which has reached to 834 metric tons in 2010. Mushroom farming technology was extended among the farmers by the effort of Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC). The main objectives of this program were 1) To introduce a high value crop-mushrooms to the farmers. 2) To generate additional income and uplift the living status of the farmers

At that time Government had the policy to upgrade the farmers living status through improved agricultural practices. It was envisaged that the high value crop especially mushrooms could make an additional income to the farmers. With these objectives the program was scheduled to train the poor farmers from the very beginning. Mushroom experts disseminated the technology working at the farmers’ level by visiting their house door to door regularly to make them successful in mushroom farming. In this way, interest on mushroom was developed among the farmers and made them aware on the high value mushroom crop. Thereafter, the technology was extended and expanded to Pokhara valley and some other

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parts of the country with the effort of governmental organization, NGOs and INGOs. The number of mushroom growers continued to increase year after year in the country. Later, the division of plant pathology (NARC) could not fulfill the demand of growers. Since then, Center for Agricultural Technology (CAT), have been making significant contribution producing spawn (mushroom seeds), conducting trainings and providing required consultant services for growers. In addition, many other private spawn producers and agencies are supplementing the Governments effort for the development of mushroom production.

Button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), Shitake (Lentinus edodes), Oyster (Pleurotus sajor-Caju), Oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus), Straw mushroom (Volvarielia volvaceae), Black mushroom (Auricularia polytrica) are the most popular mushrooms in Nepal which have been farming on commercial scale

Consumption, export and Import of Mushrooms

Mushroom consumption has been found increasing in the recent years. The per capita consumption/day reached 0.02 g in 2005 from 0.01 g in 2000. This increase can be taken as a highly encouraging sign coming from the potential mushroom consumers in Nepal. Mainly to meet the demands of hotel and restaurants, which cater to the need of visiting tourists Nepal has been importing edible mushroom (mostly canned button mushroom) for many years. In 2005, its import was 0.06 thousand metric tons and export was 0.03 thousand metric tons. However, the mushroom Cordyceps sinensis and Morchella have been exported under the heading of herbs (Singh, 2007).

Changes in Socioeconomic condition of Mushroom growers in Kathmandu valley

Chapagaun of Lalitpur and Balambu of Kathmandu are considered the hotbeds of mushroom farming where many farmers are switching over to it. They say they are earning good money from mushroom farming which is a low cost affair. Bhuwan Maharjan of Balambu (where 80% of population grows mushroom) is into mushroom farming for more than 10 years and maintaining his family of five members. He started mushroom farming after various organizations equipped him with necessary training. Besides Maharjan there are other farmers here making a good living through this profession after undergoing training. Chapagaun takes pride in mushroom farming. Goma Lamsal, who started mushroom farming more than 15 years ago, has been taking care of seven members of her family with no trouble. So much so, that she is educating her three children. In chapagaun alone, around 200 peoples, mostly women, have taken up mushroom farming. Women here have a reason for starting mushroom farming. Most of them want to run the household themselves against the traditional notion of husbands becoming the breadwinners (Anonymous, 2009). These are the cases of socioeconomic changes of mushroom growers in Balambu and Chapagaun villages.

Extension of mushroom cultivation technology to Terai perspective

Mushroom farming has become popular as an important economic activity among the Nepalese growers. However, the activity is mostly centered in Kathmandu valley and 90% of total national production is grown in Kathmandu valley alone. The farming activities in outside of Kathmandu valley are scarce. Later, the farming technology was extended to some Terai districts. Some ethnic groups here (Chepang, Tharu, Danuwar, Raute etc.) found to be depend on collection and consumption of wild mushrooms for food and medicine (Pandey & Budhathoki, 2007).

A mushroom farm (Himalayan Mushroom Society) had been established in Chitwan district that produced oyster mushrooms and made a good profit. After two years in 1995 it was shifted to Panauti (Hill region). In Collaboration with ILO program, cultivation technology for Pleurotus and Volvariella was introduced

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in Nawalparasi district for winter and summer respectively during 1999–2000. A number of farmers from Bara district were also trained and let them cultivate the Volvoriella in the summer season. The program was most successful to produce Straw mushrooms (Manandhar, 2005). Similarly, in 2004 training on the cultivation technology of Pleurotus was conducted for circus returnees who were rescued from India in Makwanpur district. The main objectives of this project were to create employment in local level and make the returnees financially independent to reintegrate in the society (Murray, 2005). Due to number of misbelieves and low level of understanding, mushroom has relatively low priority among the peoples in Terai. However, these days mushroom is attracting attention of peoples a lot with the change in the food habits and the recognition of its nutritional and medicinal values. Low initial investment and lucrative returns have motivated many farmers to take to mushroom farming in several other districts as well. One can get a minimum 40% profit out of mushroom cultivation. Various media have also traced several successful stories of mushroom growers of Terai region in recent years.

Bir Bahadur Samhamphe, a resident of Itahari (sunsari district) returned back from abroad after seven years with a lot of stress and loan instead of enough money. Thereafter, he forgot the foreign employment forever and started mushroom farming in own homeland. He is very happy with this venture making attractive monthly earning of more than US$ 374.53 (=Rs. 30, 000 as 1 US$ = 80.1 NPR) and regretting for going abroad. Similarly, Balram Rai, a resident of Hasposa VDC of Sunsari district did many businessesses (e.g. photographing, pig farming, cloth business and manpower business) but could not get success in any one. Later, he came into mushroom farming and made a minimum earnings of US$ 312.11/month (=Rs. 25, 000/month as 1 US$ = 80.1 NPR). He is very satisfied with his profession now. (Yubamanch, 2010)

These are the few cases of Terai which indicate that this hi-tech eco-friendly horticulture venture has a promising scope to make a significant contribution in addressing the problem of poverty, malnutrition and unemployment in the region.

Potential Market Size and Environmental Suitability

Malnutrition in terms of protein deficiency is one of the major factors responsible for high mortality and morbidity. Due to rapid population growth in Terai, the problem of protein hunger will become more and more acute. Animal protein (meat) is beyond the reach of low-income group, which forms a large proportion of its population in one hand and in the other hand another large proportion of its population is vegetarian due to religious cause and some others. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has recommended mushrooms as a food item contributing significantly to the protein nutrition of the developing countries like Nepal, which depend heavily on the cereal diets. In China, mushroom has been started to use as substitute of meat. Modern mushroom farming technology produces more protein per unit area of land than any other kind of agriculture and technology at present available (Aneja, 2004). The foregoing facts indicate its potential vast local market. Furthermore, Terai has comparatively well facility of transportation. As mushrooms are very perishable crop so that product of villages can be transported to cities shortly. Kathmandu can also be a potential market for Terai’s product as current local production meets only 23% of total demand in Kathmandu valley. In addition, Terai can very easily export its product to India which is a huge market.

Terai has great potential for mushroom farming venture as it has a wet and warm climate and have an abundant supply of agricultural wastes and there is commonly a plentiful supply of manual labor. Rice, wheat, and sugarcane are widely cultivated here. Moreover, wide varieties of raw substrate material such as wheat straw, paddy straw, bagasse, water hyacinth etc. are available and these materials are relatively cheap when compared with other places (Table 1). The costs of building materials and other inputs related to construction costs are much lower in Terai than in many other places. This keeps the investment cost per unit weight of mushroom produced more advantageous. The supply and demand gap in the world

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trade of mushrooms and the shrinkage of production in countries like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea due to high labor costs would result in better international market prices for Terai mushroom producers.

Table 1. Various types of raw substrate available in Terai and associated mushroom speciesSubstrate Mushroom speciesRice Straw Straw(Volvariella), Oyster (Pleurotus), Button (Agaricus)

Wheat straw Oyster (Pleurotus), Button (Agaricus), Stropharia, Straw (Volvariella)

Sawdust Shiitake (Lentinus), Oyster (Pleurotus), Ear (Auricularia),Reishi (Ganoderma), Maitake (Grifola frondosa),Lion’s Head or Pom Pom (Hericium)

Sawdust-straw Oyster (Pleurotus), StrophariaCotton waste Oyster (Pleurotus), Straw (Volvariella)from textile industryLogs Nameko (Pholiota), Shiitake (Lentinus)

White jelly (Tremella)Crushed bagasse and Oyster (Pleurotus)molasses wastes fromsugar industryWater hyacinth/Water lily Oyster (Pleurotus), Straw (Volvariella)Banana leaves Straw (Volvariella)Bean straw Oyster (Pleurotus)Sawdust-rice bran Nameko (Pholiota), Ear (Auricularia), Shiitake (Lentinus)

Shaggy Mane (Coprinus), Winter (Flammulina), 

Women labor, Job generation and Youth migration

Mostly women of Terai are confined to indoor activities. Mushroom farming will become a very suitable and important cottage industry activity in the integrated rural development program, which lead to the economic betterment of not only small farmers but also of landless laborers and other weak sections of community. This will enable the women to get recognition in the society and will certainly get the confidence to stand somewhere to make a position of their own Mushroom growing is labor-intensive, can create jobs both in semi-urban and rural areas. In fact, mushroom farming technologies can use family labor thus providing all members of the family with employment. They can utilize their spare time and be self-employed. Mushroom growing can also be recommended as a project in a cooperative where division of labor is practiced. One group may be engaged in spawn production, another group will do the substrate preparation, and still another group can take charge of growing condition management and so on. Importantly, the activity can strongly discourage the youth migration for foreign employment in the society.

With these possibilities mushroom farming can serve as a tool for socioeconomic transformation in Terai and through which we can pilot a nongreen revolution in the region. To boost the mushroom farming and its massive production the following recommendations are made here.

Recommendations

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1. Peoples should be made aware on recent development of mushroom and its farming through local media and other possible means (e.g. mushroom fair, mushroom excursion, mushroom dinner).

2. Mushroom farming is both a science and an art. The science, in its broad form, will come through research, training, workshops/courses. The art will come through practical involvement and experience, and will have to be modified in accordance with the prevailing conditions on site. Thus, regional mushroom resource centers should be established that produce technical manpower to operate and manage the mushroom farming venture which can be done by periodically organizing seminars, workshops and trainers training on mushroom so as to extend the technology properly and perfectly to the villagers or growers through trainers.

3. Currently, timely avaibility of quality spawn (mushroom seeds), and necessary technical assistance during the farming are two major problems of the growers in Terai region. Spawn production facility are only available in Kathmandu and Pokhara valley. Therefore, they have to buy spawn from Kathmandu or Pokhara or India which is tough and expensive for them. The both problems of farmers can be solved through mushroom resource centers by facilitating them with necessary equipments for spawn production. In this way, the centers can make the mushroom seed available at doorsteps of each grower.

4. Till now, mostly the mushroom farming were done only in farmers level i.e. cottage industry level. Thus, now it should be encouraged for big agro-industry level which can be a major source of revenue for local government.

5. Well organized distribution network should be established that facilitates the marketing of products. Mushroom processing plants should be installed with the resource centers.

6. A separate unit for quality control and certification should be established that will standardize the product for national and international marketing widely.

References

Aneja KR (2004). Experiment in Microbiology Plant Pathology & Biotechnology, 4th edition, Published by New Age International (P) Ltd, New Delhi, India. pp.496

Anonymous (2009). Mushroom farming popular in Valley. The Rising Nepal (national daily, 2009/07/08). Retrieved [Online] URL:  http://www.gorkhapatra.org

Celik Y and Peker K (2009). Benefit/Cost analysis of mushroom production for diversification of income in developing countries. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science 15(3):228–237

Chang ST (2009). Mushroom Industry-potentials and challenges. Asian mycological congress and 11th international marine and fresh water mycology symposium ,Taiwan. Nov. 15–19; 2009

Chang ST and Miles PG (2004). Mushrooms: Cultivation, Nutritional Value, Medicinal Effect, and Environmental Impact (Second Edition).CRC Press. Boca Raton

Manandhar KL (2005). A short history of introduction of Mushroom cultivation in Nepal. Retrieved [Online] URL:  http://www.mushworld.com

Murray C (2005). Pilot mushroom cultivation project in Nepal. Mushrooms growers’ handbook 2. Mushworld. pp. 223–233

Pandey N and Budhathoki U (2007). Status of ethnomycology in Nepal. In: Mycological Research and Mushroom production in Nepal (eds.) Singh SC, Adhikari MK, and Tiwari RD. The Mycological and Phytopathological Society, Nepal (MAPSON). p. 54

Rai S (2010). Bidesh Kin Jane (= why do we go abroad?). Yubamanch (Monthly, in Nepali, 2066 B.S.; Magh)

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Singh SC (2007). Status of mushroom cultivation in Nepal with reference to world production and consumption trends. In: Mycological Research and Mushroom production in Nepal (eds.) Singh SC, Adhikari MK, and Tiwari RD. The Mycological and Phytopathological Society, Nepal (MAPSON), pp. 1–19.

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Save the Terai/Madhesh by Conserving Churia Hills: Environmental Services Perspective and Role of I/NGOs

Bijay Kumar Singh20

singhbk@ntc.net.np

Introduction

In Nepal, Churia hills is 13% of total land area. The National Conservation Strategy (1988) and other policies have recognized the Churia hill as fragile and environmentally sensitive region and it should be treated accordingly not to disturb its ecosystems. Similarly, the LRMP (1986) has categorized the Churia hills as 'protection forest'. But the Churia hill forest resources and watershed condition are rapidly degrading due to over-exploitation for timber, firewood, non-timber forest products (e.g. bamboo), over-grazing and frequent forest fire which has been verified by many other studies. These natural resources are facing problem of 'tragedy of commons' (Hardin, 1968). The Churia hill is the source of siltation in Terai due to its rapid degradation. As a result, valuable agricultural lands of the Terai which is considered 'grainary for Nepal' have been rapidly converted into unproductive river-beds. The study was conducted to assess how over-exploitation (landuse) of the Churia hills resources negatively affect the downstream people from the perspective of the environmental services linking the Churia Hills and the Terai. The paper also raises issue on how far I/NGO and civil societies are aware of such serious environmental issue.

Concept of Environmental Services

The Costa Rican Forest Law, (Law 7575) as cited in Mayrand & Paquin, 2004, provides a definition of environmental services as follows: "Those services provided by forests and forestry plantations that have an impact on environmental protection and improvements. They are the following: mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (fixing, reduction, sequestration, warehousing and absorption); protection of water for urban, rural or hydroelectric use; biodiversity protection to conserve it and for sustainable, scientific and pharmaceutical use; genetic research and improvement; protection of ecosystems, life forms and natural scenic beauty for tourism and scientific ends".

Sven Wunder (2005) states that payment for environmental services (PES) schemes exist mainly for four services: (i) carbon sink functions: (e.g. an electricity company paying farmers in the tropics for planting and maintaining additional trees, (ii) hydrological functions: downstream water users paying upstream farmers for adopting land uses that limit deforestation, soil erosion, flooding risks etc. , (iii) biodiversity: conservation donors paying local people for setting aside or naturally restoring areas to create a biological corridor, and (iv) landscape aesthetics/ecotourism: tourism operation paying a local community not to hunt in a forest being used for tourists wildlife viewing.

Here, the study has been focused only on watershed functions out of four environmental services.

20 Mr. Singh is an independent researcher.

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Objective

The objective of the paper is to share a burning environmental issue which is directly affecting Terai/Madhesh people but it is hardly remained a priority issue of those who are claiming themselves struggling for the welfare of Terai/Madhesh.

Materials and Method

The study was carried out in upstream and downstream of Jaladh khola of Dhanusha district, Nepal. There are three sub-watersheds of the Jaladh rivers namely: Jagadhar, Chamainiya and Jaladh khola itself. Jagadhar khola flows in eastern part and Jaladh khola in western part whereas Chamainiya in middle part of the watershed area. Total length of river is 55 km from its origin to Indian border. Jaladh, originated from the Churia hills, is a seasonal river. The study was conducted from 2006-2008 in Jaladh river of Dhanusha district. Total 627 households were surveyed to assess river-affects in 10 VDCs. Of the total 1635 river-affected households, 627 households (38.35%) were interviewed. Sample design was done based on simple random sampling method. In order to determine sample size, it was considered 5% level of significance and desired error 3.2% in estimation of population proportion.

Forest inventory was done to know the status or density of the forest (seedlings, sapling, pole, and trees per hectare) in Jaladh sub-watersheds area. Geographical Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) were widely applied to know the present width of the river and also in forest inventory to find out the pre-determined locations in the forest. It helped to compare overtime width and area of river with past records (data). This data was a convincing fact to demonstrate how much productive agricultural land area has been converted into unproductive river beds due to river-cutting in upstream and deposition of silts in downstream.

Results and Discussions

In the watershed area of Jaladh in the Churia hills, there are about 19 trees per hectare, 351 poles, 2539 saplings and 4346 regenerations (Table 1). The forest condition is very poor due to over-exploitation of trees and poles for fuelwood and timber. The regenerations and saplings are negatively affected by frequent forest fire every year and heavy grazing. Based on criteria of Community Forest Inventory Guidelines 2004, number of seedlings ranges between 2000-5000 which is categorized 'fairly good' and number of sapling is more than 2000 that is categorized 'good' (CFDP, 2004). However, number of trees and numbers of poles per hectare are very low.

Table 1: Forest condition in the Churia hills of Jaladh watershed areaSN Forest condition Trees per

hectareGaps

1 Number of trees (more than 30 cm diameter) 18.87 5.37% of poles

2 Number of poles (10-30 cm diameter) 351.15 13.82% of saplings

3 Number of saplings (more than 1 meter tall and diameter less than 10 cm)

2539.30 58.51% of regeneration

4 Regeneration (less than 1 m. seedling of tree species) 4346.00Source: Forest Inventory by SIRF, 2008

Both observations and forest inventory data show that the Churia hills resources including forests are rapidly degrading both in quality and quantity due to heavy grazing, over-exploitation of forest products

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for firewood and timber and frequent fire. People of Madhubasa village are gradually increasing their private land by encroaching the forest. These over-exploitation of forest products are aggravating Jaladh watershed condition due to over-exploitation of resources.

Heavy grazing in the watershed has direct negative impact on forest resources and watershed deterioration which directly and indirectly contribute to the soil erosion and landslides. In totality, about 1400 animals (goats, cows and buffaloes) are grazed in the Jaladh sub-watersheds on daily basis and contribute to the degradation of the watershed.

The study has found that three villages have been completed displaced by river-bank cutting. They were: (i) Magar tole of Pushpalpur VDC, (ii) Chheri Pokhar village of Digamberpur Ward No. 4 and (iii) the Kathrait village down to Jaladh bridge the road going to Dhanushadham-Janakpur. As per information supplied by local people, about 150 households were displaced due to riverbank-cutting. Three wells and a bridge can be presently observed at the middle of the Jaladh river which gives the evidence of river effects on socioeconomic condition. Of the 627 households interviewed, 107 households (17%) have completely lost their lands and become landless regardless of their size. A total of 440 hectare private lands, 138 hectare public land and 101 hectare trustees lands have been converted into river-beds. This has negative impacts on economy of poor households, their livelihoods and food security.

1.1. Table 2 provides the summary of private land loss both by river-cutting and also by siltation. The 627 households that were sampled have lost a total 13213 of Kattha private lands (440 hectares). Of the private land, average land loss per household is 21 Kattha (0.70 hectare). Maximum a household has lost 220 kattha land (7.33 hectares). Land is the prime property in the Terai for their major source of livelihoods. Land ownership is a social status of wealthy family in the Terai. Analysis of data shows that upstream and downstream households have lost more private lands (on an average) compared to midstream households.

Table 2: Stream-wise loss of private lands by river-cutting and siltationStream-wise VDCs group

Total land loss in Hectare

Mean land loss in Hectare

Total HH

Max land loss in Hectare

Upstream VDCs 100 0.86 116 7.33Midstream VDCs 105 0.49 212 2.67Downstream VDCs 236 0.79 299 5.33 Total 441 0.71 627

Source: Social Survey, Social Inclusion Research Fund (SIRF), 2008

The community level discussions were held to assess the loss of common property in each VDC. In addition to loss of the private land and other properties. It includes damage in irrigation canal -18, school - 4, common land 4147 Kattha (138.23 hectare), trustee (guthi land) - 3036 Kattha (101.2 hectare), pond - 15, road - 17 (partly), well - 19, bridge - 7, culvert - 6, club house - 1 and handpipe - 10.

Table 3 shows the land loss by two seasonal rivers Jaladh river of Dhanusha district ad Chandi river of Rautahat district. Both rivers are originated from Churia hills. The study shows that land loss by Jaladh river is 25.2 hectare per year and Chandi river 27.0 hectare per year. These studies simply indicates a trend of land loss by seasonal rivers originated from Churia hills. In Nepal, there are more than 100 such medium size seasonal rivers originated from Churia hills in 22 Terai and Inner-Terai districts.

Table 3: Land loss in the Jaladh river of Dhanusha and Chandi River of Rautahat District

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Study Area Year Year Difference in Hectare

Land loss by River Per Year

1996 2005 10 yearArea of Jaladh River in 10 VDCs, Dhanusha

878.1 ha 1130 ha 252 ha 25.2 ha/yr

2000 2007 7 yearArea of Chandi River from foot hill to Bagmati river, Rautahat

807 ha 996 ha 189 27.0 ha/yr

In question why Jaladh river, at present, negatively affects more land than 5-6 decade ago, the local community people have given some valid reasons. In past, three Khola of Jaladh rivers namely: Chamainiya, Jagadhar and Jaladh itself used to flow separately. Chamainiya Khola used to meet about 2 km down (south) from the point where they meet at present. Similarly, Jagadhar khola used to meet about 15 km down (south) in Jaladh khola just above the Hardinath irrigation dam but at present it meets at Churia foot hill. Meeting of Jagadhar and Chamainiya khola at foot hill increase the flood water volume and make tremendous negative impacts such as river bank cutting, over flooding etc.

In past, downstream people used to collect the forest products from the Jaladh watershed to fulfill their basic needs, now they harvest it both for fulfillment of their needs as well as for commercial purposes and do not hesitate to fell trees, poles and saplings without considering negative impacts. In gorges of the Churia hills were covered with bamboo stocks and forest cover including ground cover was very dense, which not only used to break the speed of flood but also used to absorb huge amount of water in the Churia hills. Thus, only small amount of water used to flow in khola. It has least flood and river-cutting effect in the Bhabar and the Terai. The River beds of Jaladh and Jagadhar khola was covered with dense forest of Sissoo and khair which used to serve as filter allowing only clean water in Jaladh river, thus, only clean water used to flow in the river. At present there is no riverian forest at all in upstream watershed that can serve as filter for clean water.

The Bhabar, which has only sub-surface water, has an important role for the Terai. River water cannot be seen in the Bhabar zone. In Jaladh river, width of the Bhabar zone is about 9 km from the Churia foothill. About 6-7 decade before, the Bhabar zone was covered with forest and it used to serve sinking water at sub-surface level and only small amount of surface water were allowed to flow, and it has nominal negative effect on the Terai zone. At present, there are only small patch of community forest in the western bank of the Bhabar zone in Jaladh river.

A small amount of rain water directly flow to creeks and stream loaded with heavy quantity of sands, gravel and stones and become big flood when it comes to river. Even in small rain, it makes a lot of damages in the Bhabar and the Terai zone. Thus, there is a direct linkage between upstream and downstream. The study has also verified the watershed degradation and siltation problem from upstream to downstream undertaken by Shyam Upadhyaya (2005) in Kulekhani watershed, Singh, et al (2009) in Sathighar, Kavre district and Prakash Karn (2007) in three watersheds including Jaladh river in Dhanusha.

Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory (2001) says the stakeholders are “group and individuals who benefit from or are harmed by, and whose rights are violated or respected by corporate actions”. Any group or individual who can affect, or is affected by are considered stakeholder. It is evident that downstream communities are victims of Jaladh river but not considered as stakeholder and they always excluded in the conservation and management of the upstream Churia hills resources. There is a lack of awareness on river-affected downstream people, community and government and/or non-government organizations & CBOs that they are also key stakeholders of the Jaladh river.

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Conclusion

The study found that upstream landuse change including deforestation, forest degradation, agriculture, ranching and/or over-grazing are major problems in watershed degradation that leads to major environmental problem in terms of high silt loading in flashfloods and siltation in downstream. Siltation in the Terai should be looked into the perspective of environmental service mainly of watershed services of the Churia hills which is the major source of siltation. But unfortunately it not yet recognized as an environmental service of Siwaliks neither by the government agencies nor by local communities. The main reasons are lack of awareness, knowledge, skills and also due to acute poverty in the Churia hills and upstream and downstream communities. Similarly, annual flooding, sedimentation or siltation, and/or river-bank cutting in the Bhabar and/or the Terai is not yet considered as negative environmental product and its harmful impact due to over-exploitation of natural resources and degradation of watershed or sub-watersheds in the Churia hills.

Impacts in Terai/Madhesh by Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Churia hills

The study found the following key impacts in Terai/Madhesh by deforestation and forest degradation in Churia hills:

Many studies have found that massive siltation from Churia hills has raised the river beds. Width of river banks are massively widened in last 5-6 decades which has destroyed large area

of Bhabar and Terai agricultural lands converting them into unproductive river beds. Very little amount river affected land has been rehabilitated. Conversation of agriculture lands into river beds has negatively affected in agriculture

production. Many households have been converted from farmers (landholders) to landless households which

forced them to change their occupation as laborer. Terai/Madhesh people experience that tubewells and Wells are found dry in summer season

which did not happen in past. Siltation and river-bank cutting has not only affected the upstream but also downstream

households and community due to deforestation and forest degradation in Churia hills. Thus, it is concern of both people of upstream of Churia hills and downstream people in Terai/Madhesh.

Ecological/Environmental Interlinkage between Churia Hills and Terai/Madhesh

Recognize Churia hills as environmentally sensitive zone and the main source of silt and siltation in Terai/Madhesh.

Recognize the siltation as a negative environmental product of Churia hills that directly affects Bhabar and Terai/Madhesh people.

Conserve Churia hills not for the production for the timber, firewood and other tangible products but for watershed services (environmental services: to reduce siltation) to save Terai/Madhesh from desertification.

Key Issues Related to Environmental Services There is no government policy and programs on environmental services linking Churia and

Terai/Madhesh. There is no government standard mechanism on how to measure and determine environmental

services. Neither government staff nor negatively affected households and community are aware about

the environmental services.

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Environmental services are not established in government agencies due to lack of professional knowledge and skills as a new science and scope of study.

It is not an established concept that silation is a negative environmental product. This is a quite a new issue for I/NGOs. Thus, they are also not aware of it on how to deal with.

Way Forward and Role of I/NGOs in Terai/Madhesh It should be nationally accepted that Churia Hills and Terai/Madhesh are interdependent and

interrelated ecological zone. Thus, government policy, strategy and programs should be prepared accordingly.

It is nationally accepted that Churia hill is a fragile sensitive zone, thus, its landuse should be done according to its sensitivity. Otherwise, it will create irreparable disasters in Terai/Madhesh.

Churia hills should be conserved based on upstream-downstream approach involving both upstream and downstream people affected by rivers.

There should be institutional mechanism, policy, programs to include upstream and downstream people in the conservation of Churia hills.

Policy on environmental services should be created by the government and I/NGO. The role of I/NGOs is instrumental to make aware on environmental services and also

pressurize the government agencies to recognize in the policy and programs.

References

CPFD. 2004. Revised Guideline for Inventory of Community Forests. Community and Private Forest Division, Department of Forest, Kathmandu, Nepal (Nepali version). P.47

Freeman, R. E. 2001. A Stakeholder Theory of Modern Corporation. In Snoeyenbos, Almender and Humber (eds), Business Ethics (3rd ed.) pp. 101-114. New York, Prometheus Books

Hardin, G. 1968. The Tragedy of Commons. Science 162: 1243-1248.Karn, P. 2007. A Study Report on Economic Valuation of Churia Region. Study jointly undertaken by

IUCN/CARE Nepal/WWF Nepal, Kathmandu, 1-3p.LRMP. 1986. Land Resource Mapping Project Report, Kathmandu, Nepal.Mayrand, K. and Paquin, M. 2004. Payments for Environmental Services: A Survey and Assessment of

Current Schemes. Prepared for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America. Unisféra International Center, Montreal, 3p.

NCS. 1988. National Conservation Strategy, National Planning Commission, Kathmandu, Nepal.Singh, B. K. 2008. "Upstream-Downstream Linkage of Chandi River of Rautahat District, Nepal". Paper

presented in a Workshop Upstream-Downstream Linkage by District Soil Conservation Office, Chandra Nigahpur, Rautahat, Nepal on 9 December 2008.

Singh, B. K., Adhikari, B. & Singh, H. 2009. "Seeing the Community and Leasehold Forestry from the perspectives of Environmental Services and its Contribution in Food Security in Nepal: A Case of Sathighar, Kavre". Paper presented in International Community Forestry Workshop held in Pokhara Nepal from 15-18 Sept 2009.

Upadhyaya, S. 2005. Payments for Environmental Services: Sharing Hydropower Benefits with Upland Communities. Winrock International, Kathmandu, Nepal. RUPES Working Kulekhani Paper 1.

Wunder, S. 2005. Payments for Environmental Services: Some Nuts and Bolts. CIFOR Occasional Paper No. 42, Bogor, Indonesia, 2-3p.

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Tarai Forest Management: Policy, Politics and State of Exclusion of Traditional users

Dr. Nagendra P Yadav

Abstract

Traditional terai or madheshi communities have strategically and politically been excluded from forest management systems in many ways. Tarai forests were utilized to generate revenue for the state through converting forest into agriculture land. During panchayat period, forests were used for settlement of various groups of people (service men, landless, immigrants, hill migrants) and public sector units. Previously forest-lands were provided for various infrastructure developments. Illegal migration and forest encroachment in tarai is in increasing trend. There are several issues related to migrants legally or illegally settled nearby forests and captured forest with political support. They claim as a legal user and Department of Forest (DoF) also handed over forest to them as community forest without identifying the real users. Now the effect has been seen that the traditional forest users have been deliberately marginalized or excluded due to unclear policy and ill-interpretation of provisions by the past interventions. Although the new approach of implementing Collaborative Forest Management is being sought to involve distant users in the system, it is not getting momentum due to various factors like politics, communal conflicts, contradictory policy provision and practices, etc. This has resulted into the facts that only 3% of Tarai forests have been handed over as community forest (CF) and 8% households are involved as user (Pokharel 2009), the remaining traditional forest users are excluded though they are forest dependent. Among CF users of tarai only 3.13 % households are from madheshi community and almost all remaining households are excluded from forest user.

This paper explains about policy intervention and process of exclusion of traditional forest users in tarai. Traditional people settled in the southern part of Tarai are main user of tarai forest and now they are excluded not only for use of forest products, it is great loss to them as social, environment and economic benefits. The paper also shares the experiences and results of action research on sustainable forest management that will encourage Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MFSC) to manage forest resources under different management modality and trap these economic potentials for serving the nation and the people.

Keywords: Forest encroachment, Traditional user, Exclusion, Forest Management, FUGs, Economic Development, Employment

1. Introduction

Nepal is a land-locked country in the central Himalayas, sharing borders with both China and India. Famously, altitude in Nepal ranges from a mere 70 meters above sea level in the southern lowlands (known as the Tarai) to the 8848 meters peak of Mount Everest in the north. The total population of Nepal is now 28 million; while 49% population is living in the tarai, over 80% of the total population still live in rural areas and they are dependent on forest.

Nepal has estimated its forest area to be of about 5.83 million hectares or 39.6% of the total geographical area (a high forest cover-29% of the total land area is under forest and an additional 10.6% shrub land 21). The forests play a crucial role in the ecological and economic prosperity of the nation.

21 Source DoF; total 5.83 million ha forest including 29.0 % Forest and 10.6% shrub land

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The main mandate of DoF is to manage the country's forest resources for the conservation of the natural environment and to supply the forest products to the people. The entire national forest area is managed or under control of different management regimes such as Government managed, Community, Collaborative, Leasehold, Religious and Protected Forests. The large part of the national forest about 67% of total forests is still under government control but legally it is called as government managed forest22.

Table 1: Distribution of Community based Forest Management regimesGeographical region

Community forest Collaborative forest Leasehold forest

Group Ha. Group Ha. Group Ha.Hills & mountain 13231 1074347 6682 62405

Tarai 1341 169549 8 18681

Community forestry programme mainly concentrated in hills. Similarly poor focused leasehold programme also launched in hills for the improvements of livelihoods. The major issue in Tarai forest is that a large population, who were traditional users of the forest, are deprived of using the same forest resources, as most of the forests are used by hill immigrants and new settlers (Takimoto, 2000; IDA, 2003). Handing over forests to nearby communities would mean to reward these settlers and encroachers, mostly the fake landless people, and there is a danger of it setting precedence for other areas (JTRC, 2000). On the other hand, these immigrants and new settlers nearby the forests are claiming rights to use forests and captured forest as much as they can and exclude traditional users though it has created conflicts among distant users and people who settled later in Tarai near the forest.

Table 2: Status and distribution of land by type in Tarai

 Geographical region Forest

Degraded Forest

Grass land

Barren land

Water body

Other /Agri

Hills 695203 76974 11876 19887 2970 94095% 20.76 2.30 0.35 0.59 0.09 2.81Plain 547138 70772 56412 83166 21168 1664501% 16.34 2.11 1.68 2.48 0.63 49.72

Forests in Terai, Bhabar and Churia foot hills have sustained heavy pressure since the eradication of malaria in 1960’s, in response to increasing migration, escalating poverty and land hunger due to political reason. The forest area decreased at an annual rate of 1.7%23, whereas forest and shrub together decreased at an annual rate of 0.5% during the period of 1978/79 to 1994. In Terai, it estimates conversion of both forests and shrubs to other land use at an annual rate of 1.3% in 1990/91. But in hills, it shows largely the conversion of significant amount of forests in to shrubs24 between 1979 and 1998.

Historically Nepal's forests are under protection oriented and unplanned harvesting practices. Present forest management is associated with several underlying technical and social issues including: haphazard underutilization of forest that causes little or no regeneration; even aged, and loss of desirable species. Forest degradation and deforestation by any means is incentive for encroacher and migrants. In the name

22 Government managed forest: means a National Forest to be managed by the Government. No function shall be operated in the Government Managed Forest, other than prescribed in the Work Plan and forestry development operations.23 The Future of Nepal's Forests outlook for 2020,Mministry of Forest and Soil Conservation singhdarbar Kathmandu 200724 NFI 1999 analysis of 51 hill districts shows that the forest cover has declined from 34.2% in 1978/79 to 23.7% in 1992/1993 (by an annual rate of 2.3%) .

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of so-called management, control and command mentality of DoF, tarai forests are degrading day by day. Poor practice of silvicultural operations, due to conservative provisions in forest policy, guidelines and limited practical knowledge of forest management tend to forest degradation in tarai.

Exclusion is a process by which certain sections of communities or group of people lack access to resources and opportunities to develop their assets, capabilities, and social dignity. Exclusion is ruling out people from their choices and opportunities to claim their rights. State of exclusion is often a cause of poverty, conflict, and insecurity for the people.

2. Forest Land clearing for resettlement of migrants and other development

Historically, forests in Nepal have continuously been looked upon as resources to be mobilized in the pursuit of political agendas. From the time of unification in the late 18 th century, forests have been extensively used as a resource that can either be allocated by patrons or used as a direct source of revenue, to keep a succession of rulers in power (Gautam, 1992). During the Rana rule (1846-1951), almost one-third of forests, especially of the Tarai, were distributed to their families and others. The rulers also exported valuable timber and other forest resources, especially from Tarai region to the neighboring states of India (Mahat et al, 1986).

Table 3: Forest area change (cleared) and family resettled in the TeraiSN Period Forest, ha Number of

families1 1956 16 187 5 0002 First plan period (1957-62) 26 564 5 2133 Second plan period (1962-65) 20 234 6 000 target4 Third plan period (1965-70) 13 900 6 000 target5 Fourth plan period (1970-75) 25 000 8 000 target6 Fifth plan period (1975-80) 62 900 35 400 target7 Sixth plan period (1980-85) 17 985 16 350 target

Source: Bajracharya, MK. 1986. Forestry in Nepal, (An introduction). Kathmandu

The migration process was so fast that the forest did not have the time to regenerate and re-establish on a natural cycle. Thus, 182,770 hectares of Terai forests had been officially cleared for 409,800 emigrants between 1956 and 1985. There is an additional several thousands hectares of forest illegally encroached upon and cultivated by migrants.

In Nepal during the period 1963-1983, about 570,000 hectares of natural forest was felled and illegally encroached upon and cultivated by migrants (MFS 1989). Forests were cleared for cultivation and new settlements, during the past forty years, heavy deforestation occurred. It is estimated that about 24 percent of the total area of 593,000 ha has been cleared (Bajracharya 1986). The King visited Achham in 1965 and exhorted the hill people to migrate to the Tarai where virgin land was abundantly available (Soussan 1995). In that situation, how the DoF could protect forest? Consequently, it resulted into massive destruction of forest and migrants got opportunity to capture forest lands. The no. of People born in hills and mountains that migrated into Terai are 400000, 686000, 915000 and 1085000 in 1971,1981,19991 and 2001 respectively (Sharma, P.), In1970 annual population growth in some tarai districts was about 9% because of migration and accelerated deforestation.

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Figure 1: forest encroachment

The attraction for migrants from the hills of converting tarai forest land to agricultural use and settlement rapidly increased, and the relocation of hill communities to the tarai (paharisation, as term by jha 1993, quoted in Bhattarai et al, 2002) became a policy priority.

To systematize the migration of hills population in Tarai, government established Nepal Resettlement Company (NRC) in 1964, which is now considered as one of the main reasons for resettlement of hills migrants in Tarai. The basic aim of the Company was to distribute land to disadvantaged groups, landless, flood and landslide victims, refugees and Nepali immigrants returning from other countries, mainly Asam, Meghalaya and Burma. However, in reality, only the supporters of the Panchayat system obtained the land through this Company. NRC distributed 77,700 ha of forestland in Tarai, and an additional 237,600 ha of forestland were encroached upon illegally, during a ten years span 1964-1974. The traditional landless of Tarai did not received land and they are still settled in road side and public land. Resettlement activities were done to increase support for Panchayat (Pokhrel, 1995). This internal migration, mostly from hills, has been very substantial. Of the total population of Nepal, 22 percent were internal migrants CBS 2000)

In 2004, about 97050 households had illegally encroached on 70256 ha of national forest across the tarai region, which represents 3.45 percent of the total forest land in the tarai and inner tarai (Adhikari 2002). In last 18 months from 2007, there were 120,000 ha forest deforested by the so called landless and forest mafia group, mostly in the Tarai districts of Nepal (Pandit 2009). Similarly a team of parliament members reported that in the FY 2009/10 alone, Terai experienced a massive deforestation of approximately 83,000 ha, in 25 districts claimed as the worst case with illegal harvesting of 10 million timber and corruption of 160 million in absence of forest law enforcement due to political instability25.The increasing trend of deforestation in past few years in the Tarai accelerated rate of deforestation.

3. Legal provision of CF and practice of exclusion of traditional forest users

The Master Plan for the Forestry Sector (MPFS 1989) recognized that people should manage all accessible forestland in the hills to the extent that they are willing and capable to manage them.The Master Plan for the Forestry Sector is not clear as to how forest product needs of Tarai (traditional) residents (distance users) are to be fulfilled. This statement encouraged community forestry in the hills but was silent in the case of Tarai which made situation of exclusion.

Determination of the Community Forest: (1) The District Forest Officer shall have to take intoaccount the distance between the Forest and the village and the wishes as well as the management capacity of the local users who have to manage the Forest, while handing over any part of a National Forest to a Users' Group as a Community Forest (Forest Regulation 1995).

25 Refer to Sapkkota Janakraj , Nepal weekly September 2010, http://www.ekantipur.com Sept. 17, 2010 that quotes the report of the sub-committee of Natural Resource and Means Committee of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal.

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Forestry Sector Policy (2000) adopted a different approach for the management of Tarai, inner Tarai and Siwalik forests (MFSC, 2000). According to the Forest Sector Policy 2000, large blocks of forests would be managed as Government Managed Forests; barren isolated shrub land will be handed over to local communities as CF, Churia region will be conserved to recharge the ground water in the Tarai; and CFM will be implemented in association with DFCC to ensure forest product supply to the population of whole districts including distance users.

A large population of the hill migrants has recently settled in the southern fringes of forests, and many of these migrants have encroached on forests legally or illegally. Many have also demanded that the remaining forest be handed over to them as CF (Bhatta et al 2007) handing over forests to near by communities rewarded recent settlers and encroachers, many of whom claimed land by faking landless (JTRC 2000). Most of the people living in the northern tarai are migrants who either cleared the forests themselves or bought land from others who had cleared them, and the government has legalized their occupancy in most part of the country (Bhatta, 2002). While the NGOs and civil society want the handover of Terai forests for community management, the State wants to retain them under its own control (Baral, 2002). The position of international multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors in Terai forests has also been divided and not much interested to support for active forest management considering importance of different management modalities.

The provision and intention of Forest policy and forest regulation did not support to extend community forestry in the Tarai. So that DoF staff hesitated to facilitate community forestry process in Tarai due to complication of distance barriers and user identification with a mind set of local user. These two provisions of forest regulation made exclusion of traditional forest user in tarai. Only 3% of Tarai forests have been handed over as CF and 8% households are involved as user (Pokharel 2009), the remaining traditional forest users are excluded though they are forest dependent. Among CF users of tarai only 3.13 % households are from madhesi community and almost all remaining households are excluded from forest user.

The natural resource committee is proposed in new constitution that in case of "natural resource and economic rights distribution indigenous/ ethnic group including local community shall have first right" In this case also traditional or distance users will again exclude from traditional use right of forest and other natural resources. Natural resources have great potential to generate income that could contribute for community development and poverty reduction. In tarai this opportunity is not favorable for traditional residents or distance users due to lack of policy provision and practices of passive forest management.

4. Existing practice of forest management and its impacts

The main mandate of DoF is to manage the country's forest resources for the conservation of the natural environment and to supply the forest products to the people. In this context the specific functions of the department are forest management planning, conservation of natural resources and economic development of the country through revenue generation and improve the livelihood of the community through implementation of effective forestry plan. The Department is required to prepare a Forest Management Work Plan for one or more districts according to the topography and natural boundaries (Forest Act 1993). But in reality the government has not prepared a single work plan for the management of a government forest. However annual harvesting is continuing in tarai. In fact DoF fail to achieve the mandate regarding forest management and sustained supply of forest products in the country because since very beginning DoF staff are mainly involving in unplanned activities such as forest patrolling, policing and collection of dead and fallen wood. In this situation the environment of illegal logging and forest crime is increased in the country.

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Table 4: Composition of Karri CF before harvesting

Species Seedling Sapling Smallballablli

Big ballaballi Pole Tree

Shorearobusta 1169 211 74 26 78 11 Legestromia 1600 147 26 47 32 10

Terminalia 316 189 21 16 22 5

Piyar 147 232 0 5 0 1

Mellotus 168 526 234 26 0 0

Adina 0 0 0 11 5 4

Others 4300 861 137 79 30 13

Total 7700 2166 492 210 167 44

% of Sal 15 9 15 12 47 24

Source: operational plan of forest user group (FUG)

The Timber Corporation of Nepal (TCN) is a semi-autonomous body under the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation established during the 1960s with the objective of collecting and selling forest products in the 33 Districts of the country. But the TCN concentrated their business in big cities and Kathmandu. Tarai forests are under pressure with a monopoly on the harvesting and marketing of timber by Timber Corporation of Nepal (TCN) and other agencies. Politician often used the TCN for their own benefits, and may forest ministers recruited their relatives or political supporters into the corporation without following proper recruitment procedures or requiring relevant qualifications (Bhatta 2007). Gyawali and Koponen (2004) write:

Tarai forests have been lucrative source of benefits to the powers that be whether the Ranas, the Panch or the post 1990 Congress or Communist parties, further more, timber smuggling networks have been historically well organized as a transboundary enterprise in the tarai, and in recent years these have been able to take advantage of lax, newly formed community user groups.

Most of the forests area in the Terai is under the state's control with a monopoly on the unplanned harvesting and marketing of timber, due to lack of good governance timber trade through TCN is not profitable even investment for forest development is paid by TCN.

Since the DoF's policing and patrolling efforts were ineffective, there was furtive extraction of forest products on a massive scale by both rural people and well-organized forest mafias, often in nexus with forest staff and local political elites. DoF staff, despite being trained in forestry, were implementing neither sustainable, nor poor people forest management policy, but rather were acting as the main instrument of forest clearance for in migration, often under political patronage, while at the same time enforcing ruthlessly coercive anti- people policing in the forests that they had not destroyed (Bhatta 2007)

Regarding the status of forest management in Nepal it is questioned that whether Nepal's forest is managed, unmanaged or mismanaged? If it is managed, then where is, and how many hectors and under which management system? Nepal's forest is very much potential for scientific management but it is not rightly practiced either in community managed or in government managed forests.

5. Impact of forest protection on forest composition change and degradation

The government also focuses on forest protection rather than management. Both forest user and forestry staff are conservative on forest management though everyone talks about sustainable forest management. Silvicultural treatments at different stages of forest growth are needed to enhance forest condition. However, in government managed forests demonstration of applying appropriate silvicultural treatments have not been

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in practice, mainly dead, dying, diseased and fallen trees collecting annually from accessible area. That is not significantly contributed for the improvement of forest condition. In community managed forestry so called operational plan is not appropriate for practicing of silvicultural operations and that led to passive management.

As a result of the improper practice of operations and over protection sequences, generation gap and forest composition is changing with undesirable species such as Mellotus species which are grown under shade. Due to lack of management practices, other invasive species like Mikania micrantha, Eupatorium and kalilahara are increasing and regeneration of main species are decreasing. This is the case of CF where number of sal in middle canopy is quite low and that is question of future sustainability. The situation of government managed forest is even worse than this due to lack of management. In most of the sal forest, regeneration of sal is minimum or nil due to increasing number of shade bearer species in middle canopy as seen in the forest across tarai districts that is because of human interference and ecological reason. This will lead to changes in forest composition and loss of desirable species and that will be great loss for the country.

6. Benefit from community based forest management and flow of development budget

The National Forestry Plan (HMG, 1976) aimed to regulate the provision of legal forest products supply from government forests. Forest Products Development Board was formed to supply of forest products but system was not established in the Tarai region. Consequently, the majority of rural population had to meet their forest product needs by entering the forest and buy from smugglers illegally.

From community forests users are getting required forest products such as timber, fuel wood, fodders and NTFPs at cheap price. Besides that FUG is also receiving different services and economic benefits.

Table 5 : Benefits from community and collaborative forest management to local userArea Community Forest

Collaborative ForestConcept and access

Forest is managed by local forest user group to fulfill their basic needs. Short term and need based plan

Forest is managed by collaborators where forest users are one collaborator and limited access of forest products.

Process Participatory decision making where FUG and forest user committee are main body for decision making. DFO staff plays facilitating role.

Forestry related decision is made by subcommittee where DFO staff role is key factor. Forest users are involved in forest protection

Use right Based on forest Act 1993 and forest regulation 1995. Full authority on forest resources use and sell. Income generated from forest is 100% deposited in FUG fund

Based on CFM directives approved by MoFSC still not included in forest act. District forest co ordination committee is main body that provides policy guidelines. Income generated from forest distributed 75% to DoF, 10 % DDC and only 15% to user group

Many forests patches were categorized as government managed forests under OFMP, a proposed forest management policy and strategy for Tarai and Churia regions that has not been implemented as prescribed. In addition, there has generally been reluctance at government level for fully support CFM or CF with distance users in Tarai as compared to hills.

The nature of user participation in community based forestry activities is more or less same but level of benefit sharing is different. From the above table it is clear that forests are being managed in tarai under

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CF and CFM by community but provisions of benefit receiving are different. CF users are benefiting more than CFM users. Whereas CFM concept is wider where distance users are included as forest user. This discriminated policy is imposed by ministry of forest and soil conservation on which debate is going on.

7. Impacts of exclusion from forest use and state of development People of southern tarai have to use dung as fuel for cooking due to lack of fuel wood that

significantly reduce the quantity and quality of compost, which affects on agricultural production by creating extra financial burden.

Scarcity of timber and agriculture implements force to purchase options i.e. concreate pillar and iron plough etc

Lack of other domestic requirements such as leaf for plate, rope and NTFPs Lack of local level institution and networks to increase participation in development Lack of access on forest based assets and limits economic and employment opportunity Lack of opportunity for contribution in community development activities Lack of opportunity to develop common fund and dependent on only national budget for

development

Box 1: Status of benefits of forest in FUG and non FUG area in tarai

Community forestry area Excluded community areaReceived desirable forest products at cheap rate, source of income and opportunity to generate common fund for munity development such as road construction, health post, school and college construction, teacher's salary, village electrification, solar system, Irrigation canal/dam, drinking water facility, community hall, income generation for poor, emergency fund, loan for business, employment, leverage and resource pull from other organization.Community forest user group carried out development activities related to 16 ministries with using their own fund external support from government, NGOs and donors

Development budget from DDC/VDCGovernment line agencies development supportLack of local level institutionMinimum personal donation for community development.Less people participation due to lack of awareness and empowermentBurden of timber and fuel wood for domestic use

There are very less access of southern tarai people on communal resources where they can generate fund for community development. Participation of households in forest user group is not only for receiving forest products, but also for other benefits such as enhancing knowledge and skill, receiving leverage for community development and recognize as a member of resource based local institution. Where there is not resource based institution or households excluded from such luxury of benefits have limited opportunity for acceleration of development at local level. That’s why people living near by forest motivated to capture forest as much as possible though there is legal provision that ability to manage forest area. At VDC level, there is similar amount of budget allocated throughout the country for local development. At national level per capita Development Budget Expenditure average in himal and hills district is Rs 1489.0 and tarai Rs 674.0 (CBS 2003), where as 76% revenue is generated from tarai. How, development of tarai would be possible where almost all people excluded from access of communal resources and also quite low (about 15%) national annual budget is allocated?

8. Exclusion of traditional forest users from FUG

In terms of forestry, exclusion is related to use right of forest and benefit sharing process by which entire community or different section of community lack access to FUG membership. They are unable to participate in decision-making and access to collect forest products and other benefits from forestry

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institution. The excluded communities do not have right and not recognized as local resource management institutions. There are different types of exclusion where individuals and households exclude from:Membership exclusion from group - due to geography, political boundaries, legal provision and households may not be FUG members. Compared to the hills, fewer landowners have larger holdings of land and a high proportion of the population is landless and works for daily wages. Gradually, new settlements and farms replaced the forest. The indigenous Terai residents are now unable to travel to the remaining forest and/or are excluded from FUG membership. Several factors may exclude people from membership due to high membership fees, political boundaries and use right, ability to physical support, lack of access to information, and flawed processes during FUG formation.

Participation and decision-making – Excluded households/group does not participate in decision making forum and often lack voice and influence for their right.

Access to forest and other natural resources – traditional users do not have equitable access to forest resources, if not included in group, though their dependency exist on forest resources.Access to other benefits – may not benefit from the livelihood improvement activities of user groups, such as small-scale infrastructure, revolving fund loans, or capacity building initiatives.

Northern Terai: High forest value and weak FUG governance

In the northern Terai, the forests are highly productive and close to roads, so potential income from timber sales is very high. In some Terai districts, only 2% of the forest has been handed over as Community or Leasehold Forest. The combination of high forest value and weak governance is suggested to create opportunities for the local elites to siphon off substantial shares of the benefits from the forests (Iverson, V., et al 2005). In the few Terai FUGs, elite community members may control the executive committee and have linkages for selling timber. The income generated from forest and other sources, what comes to the FUG fund is often used for community development, construction of office buildings, temples, schools, and other infrastructure in the community and income generation of poor households.

Southern Terai: Traditional forest user excluded from forest user group

The southern belt of the Terai has almost no remaining forest and the main common natural resource is unused public land near villages, riverbanks, and roads. When the CFUGs were being formed, traditional users were either not informed or were excluded on the grounds that they lived far from the forest and could not contribute managing and protecting it. Thus, almost all distant users were excluded and prevented from legitimately collecting livelihoods- related forest products. Many nearby users (within the vicinity of 3km) were also excluded. This has badly affected the livelihood base of the poor and marginalized people in the tarai (Bhatta et al 2007). Almost all traditional users who are living in distance are not aware of CF process and forest use right. The provision of distant between forest and community, and the word local user used in forest regulation 1995 became constraint for inclusion of distant/traditional users. It was part of politics that intentionally made such provision in forest policy to exclude traditional users. In the middle Terai belt, some FUGs have been established, but the forests are usually plantations of poor quality. Still many people are migrating to the Terai from hill districts resettled in forest or near forest and claim as user of forest and pressure to handover as community forest.

9. Opportunity of inclusion and economic development

Nepal’s forestry sector has a long tradition of contributing to the central treasury. However, practice of SFM in not institutionalized, and consequences seen forest-based economic growth slowed down. Legally forest products are harvested to fulfil the annual demand of the country from all types of forest. Annual

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Figure 2: Harvesting in CF

Figure 3: Regeneration after operation

trend of forest products harvesting and revenue generated from different forest management regimes are presented below.

Table 7: Trend of income from forestry sector

SN Forest products Unit 2000⁄01 2003⁄04 2005⁄06 2008⁄09

1 Hills Revenue Rs Revenue Rs Revenue Rs Quantity Revenue Rs

Timber / Fuel wood cft 7530073 19188928 7157185 80482.97 11990677

  % 1.72 6.11 2.20 5.92 3.19

2 Tarai & Inner Tarai        

Timber / Fuel wood cft 429856403 294930849 318906385 1278617 363923666

  % 98.28 93.89 97.80 94.08 96.81

3 NTFPs kg 39471545 64289403 38070134 32129322 60687737

4 medicinal plant kg 27905703 13551200 16642015 1165345 38920019

5 Community forest15% 50122882 40274330 1452654   65691093

6 Private forest/tree13% 0 0 1611845   50878865

   Total Rs   554886606 432234710 383840218   592092057

The highest amount of revenue collected as usual (without systematic harvesting) way in FY 2008/09. If we compare with annual income and expenditure of DoF then it is about 50% of total annual expenditure. The forestry sector is one of the potential and sustainable sources of economic development and employment that could contribute for poverty alleviation wider community development. The annual contribution to the GDP by timber production in the Terai could value up to NRs 13 arab (13000m), around 15 % of the national budget (Frank H.J. et al 2004). As tarai forest has production forest and if national reachable forest managed sustainably could generate revenue about NRs 50 arab (50000m) annually (Banjade,M R et al 2009). The current annual revenue collection form forest is quite bellow than its potentials; it is due to lack of management. The entire tarai lacks specific forest management plan.

In this concern, action research on forest management applied in some FUGs that shown positive result in improving forest condition. This is the case of Baunakoti community forest of Rupandehi District. The forest is 154. 0 ha., dominantly Teak (Tectona grandis) and other species of 41 years old.

Shelter wood silvicultural system applied where 72 % trees felled and obtained 10300 cft. timber and 25 Chatta (stack) fuel wood from 5.0 ha. FUG generated Rs 3679832.00 from timber and fuel wood which was sold within CFUG at the rate of Rs 367.00 per cft to 1975 household

included poor. Local employment created equivalent to Rs 501645.00 from harvesting and transportation. After a year plenty of natural regeneration appeared and established a good source of planting materials. FUG is very positive, learned lesson of management and committed to replicate the result

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of this silvicultural operation in rest of the forest area to sustain supply of forest products with an opportunity of economic development & employment generation.

10. Conclusion

In earlier periods, the rulers of Nepal used forests as a potential source of revenue but shown little interest in forest management. The process of gradual extension of agriculture land by clearing the forests was too rapid after eradication of malaria. Terai forestry has been a very complex, hotly debated and controversial issue in Nepal. The passiveness of stakeholders in the Tarai forestry has created favourable environment for different illegal practices that leads to forest destruction. DoF efforts to control the illegal migration and forest encroachment have met very little success so far because of poor commitment and support from politician, policy maker and inconsistency in forest policy and most past governments like to create settlement near tarai forest. If present trend of migration continue in the tarai then environmental and political scenario will be in threat.

International attention seems to have focused on hills of Nepal as sites of forest degradation which not only reduce agricultural productivity in the hills, but were responsible for large scale flooding in the Tarai. Previous projects in Nepal gained disproportionately greater emphasis on the hills- where the population share of Nepal was to continually decline. In 1984 World Bank funded Tarai Community Forestry Development project (TCFDP) started and focused mainly on the institutional bureaucratic forestry programs and plantation. TCFDP also neglected over all management of tarai forest including natural forest consequently technical forest management is not institutionalized yet.

The Forest Ministry and Department Forest still suffer from the historical legacy of involvement in the politicisation of the Terai forests and their misuse for financial and political benefits. Long ago scientific forest management was initiated but could not institutionalize in the country. Community forestry started with a concept of local user and protection oriented mentality which created situation of exclusion of traditional user and limited production and supply of forest products.

Recent CFM (Collaborative Forest Management) policy (2000) is an alternative approach for Tarai forest management along with sector approach including community forestry and inclusion of all traditional forest users. This policy on Chure, Tarai and inner Tarai has been enforced without amending the forest laws, thus it has raised many legal issues. The practice of CFM includes wide range of forest user up India border which encouraged people to participate in forest management. CFM has already practiced in tarai where distance users are participated in managing forest resources. Regarding benefit sharing from CFM to forest user is far lower right than community forest. There is discrimination on sharing of income from forest products sell between forest user and government. However both community forest and collaborative forest management are community based forest management modality. In both cases benefit and proportion income sharing should be similar.

For the sustainable management of tarai forest each district of tarai require district level forestry sector strategic plan which includes different management modality appropriate to district and service delivery mechanism in entire district so that DoF will receive good will from entire population. Trai forest is very productive and with valuable species. MFSC has a unique chance to manage forest resources under different management modality with participation of traditional user of southern tarai and minimize the state of exclusion and trap these economic potentials of forest for serving the nation and the people.

References

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Adhikai,J , Dev, OP and Dhungana, HP (2005); State and forest: a historical analysis of policies affecting forest management in Nepal Tarai

Bajracharya, MK (1986) Forestry in Nepal (An Introduction) Kathmandu

Bhatta,B et al (2007) participatory forest management in the neplese tarai: Policy Practice and Impact; forest people and power, The Political Ecology of Reform in Souoth Asia ,

Bhattarai, K., Conway, D. and Shrestha, N.R. (2002) The vacillating evolution of forestry policy in Nepal: historically manipulated, internally mismanaged International Development Planning Review 24 (3) p315-338

CBS (2003) Statistical Year Book of Nepal 2003 Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics

DFRS (1999) Forest Resources of Nepal (1987-1998) Kathmandu: Department of Forest Research and Survey

Gurung, Ganesh Man. 1999. 'Migration, politics and deforestation in lowland Nepal'. In Harold O. Skar (ed) Nepal: Tharu and Tarai neighbors. Kathmandu: EMR (Bibliotheca Himalaya, Series III, Vol 16). pp.

Iverson, V., Chhetry, B., Francis, P., Gurung, M., Kafle, G., Pain, A. & Seeley, J. (2005) High value forests, hidden economies and elite capture: Evidence from forest user groups in Nepal’s Terai. Ecological Economics

Jha, H.B. 1993. The Tarai community and national integration in Nepal. Lalitpur: CETS.

Landon, Perceival (1928). 'Nepal': New Delhi: Cosmos Publications (Vol II).

MPFSP (1988) Master plan for the forestry sector Nepal Main Report Kathmandu: Master Plan for the Forestry Sector Project

Regmi, MC (1972) A study in Nepali economic history 1768-1846 second reprint 1999 Delhi: Adroit Publishers

Saussan, J., Shrestha, B.K, and Uprety, L.P (1995): The social dynamism of deforestation; A case stydy of Nepal

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NGO/INGO Role in Nepal—Focus on Madhes

Dr. Sukhdev Shah26

sshah1983@hotmail.com

In one recent op-ed piece in Republica, Simone Galimberti, a development sector worker in Nepal, says he carefully listened to the diatribe about NGO/INGO work in Nepal from a foreign operative in Kathmandu, who was volunteering his services for helping out the disadvantaged children of the country.

The operative questioned the efficiency of “professional” development organizations and their international staff, complaining about NGOs’ false promises to change the world while delivering so little. Mr. Galimberti then says that he listened to him patiently and calmly without giving any impression of his own uneasiness, thinking how nongovernmental organizations, local and international, have a pretty tainted image not only in Nepal but also overseas where the bulk of their money comes from.

In another write-up on NGO/INGOs operations in Nepal, iris Kobek and Nara Pratap Thapa (2004), summarize the overall public image of NGOs: “Critics point that they exist in name only. Some also believe that NGOs are merely small business opportunities, where staff members have access to substantial foreign funds and use these funds to further their own careers or fill their own pockets. Unfortunately, these impressions have tainted the good work that many NGOs in Nepal do….Rather than write them off as unproductive or hopeless, perhaps these organizations need assistance or expertise in specific areas.”

I have no doubts whatsoever of poor record of nongovernmental organizations operating in Nepal who, according to most recent count, number over 30,000, meaning that there is more than one NGO for each one thousand population. For giving a perspective on the pervasiveness of NGOs, we can envisage each village in the country being served by one NGO, which exceeds the number of primary and middle schools serving the same population!

Prior to the commencing of democracy in 1990 there were reportedly no more than 200-300 of NGOs in the entire country, most of them operating as outside arms of respective government ministries in the field of education, health, environment, and nutrition, fully funded and operated by government service staff. With over 30,000 or more NGOs existing in the country today, we can see its phenomenon growth in just over 20 years, by some 100 times.

Government’s administrative regulations require NGOs to be registered at the central level with an organization called Social Welfare Council (SWC) or, locally, with the office of district chief—the CDO. Of more than 30,000 NGOs registered as of December 2004-- according to Iris Kubek and Nara Pratap Thapa—both associated with the German aid agency in Nepal-- 16,425 were registered with SWC and about 15,000 with appropriate local authorities.

They also provide other details about NGOs: the vast majority of SWC-registered NGOs (9,343) were located in Central Nepal, most of them in Kathmandu, followed by 2,048 in Western Nepal, and 1,836 in Eastern Nepal. The focus of most of these organizations, they add, is community development, services for youths and women, and environmental protection.

26 Dr. Shah, an economist, is former staff member of the International Monetary Fund.

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Most of the NGOs are attached to International NGOs which, in turn, get funding from foreign aid organizations and governments. A small number of NGOs receive subventions from government ministries and agencies but their numbers are small and they receive comparatively little in terms of total funding, compared to those attached to or sponsored by INGOs.

The most mysterious aspect of NGO/INGO operations in Nepal, similar to in many other countries, is about how much they spend and where they actually receive their funding from. A comprehensive cataloging of NGOs/INGOs is prepared by SWC but this doesn’t include information on financial details. However, looking at the size of their offices and number of staff they employ—some ten top percent of them account for about 90 percent of total NGO/INGO spending--their annual combined budget may run into hundreds of million dollars a year. By comparison, Government’s annual development budget is just over 100 billion rupees, or just above a billion US dollars.

NGO/INGO Achievements

As the data would show, NGO/INGOs are concentrated in the hill and mountain regions of the country, more than half in the Central region that comprises the Kathmandu Valley. If we divide the country between mountain and Madhes regions, that would show no more than 5 percent of NGOs headquartered in Madhes, a region that contains over half of the country’s population.

NGOs presence in the regions they are represent has contributed to improvements in education, health, nutrition, and in people’s awareness about environmental issues. They have worked to supplement government works in these sectors and also have brought in new programs not on government list. But their most notable contribution has been to enhance the effectiveness of foreign aid programs at local levels and increase the awareness of community groups to bring the coveted development projects to their area with modifications to meet specific infrastructural needs directly beneficial to area residents.

However, besides such generalized benefits, NGOs/INGOs can claim very little in terms of sustainable development focused on the use of local resources and enhancing resource productivity. This failure is reflected in an unchanged level of production technology, very little specialization in economic activities, and nonexistent trading opportunities outside the region. The main failure of NGO/INGO works in the regions they have been active has been that they have acted like charitable institutions for making public services available to the population that were either absent or provided by government in inadequate amounts or were of poor quality. Progress in education, health, nutrition, community programs owes much to the presence of NGOs in the areas they serve.

Most NGOs operate with a small staff—of less than 10 people—and small budget—of one crore rupees or just over hundred thousand dollars--but some are also quite large, employing or contracting out hundreds of people, boasting multi-million dollar budgets. Data on their total combined spending are difficult to come by and most of NGOs/INGOs do not publish their audited accounts, although they are required to do so by law. Therefore, the amount they spend would basically be a guess work but a reasonable estimate would be that all of them together spend one hundred million dollars annually, close to 10 percent of Government’s development budget.

For an insight into NGOs’ effectiveness, however, it is not how large or small amounts they spend but how efficiently they do so. There is a number of ways we can measure this effectiveness but most important indicator of efficiency would be the share of administrative versus non-administrative expense, the latter representing the proportion actually spent for beneficiaries. For most efficient of the NGOs and charitable trusts, this ratio usually is 85 to 15, meaning that 85 percent of organization’s budget goes to beneficiaries and remaining 15 percent is staffing and overhead expenses. Overall, including the NGOs of average efficiency, division is believed to be 75:25, the smaller ratio comprising administrative expenses.

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In the absence of hard evidence, we can make no more than an educated guess about the spending patterns of an average NGO in Nepal. A reasonable figure would be one third and two thirds, with the higher proportion comprising administrative expenses. For the majority of very small NGOs, administrative expenses take almost 90 percent of total budget, in which case one can say that these institutions are run as self-serving organizations. For all intent and purposes, these NGOs work for themselves and, as a survival tactics, they share whatever funding they receive with their promoters at higher levels in authority, similar to the “commission culture” that exists elsewhere—in business, government, and, lately, for accessing foreign aid agencies.

NGOs in Madhes

The relative absence of NGOs/INGOs in Madhes region has been due to a lack of Government effort to attract NGOs to the region, which it has done so for other regions. This, in turn, may reflect a lack of lobbying effort by regional leaders who could have used their electoral clout to claim “a fair share” of national NGO presence in Madhes.

However, a more powerful distraction for NGOs to locate in Madhes region appears to be their self-choice. Overtime, some evidence has emerged about NGOs to be unwilling to locate in Madhes as a matter of preference, reflecting their pre-established notion of the country comprising just hills and mountains. When they are told that Madhes plains are also Nepalese territory, they make the excuse that they would then prefer to locate in Bangladesh! A follow-up measure would then be for Government to submit an attractive package of incentives for NGOs to establish in Madhes which, however, has not even been talked about, much less considered as a development priority.

Given the low-level of presence--even non-existence--of NGOs/INGOs in Madhes region, this provides an open field for experimenting with a novel approach to development strategy that is consistent with NGOs prime objective of assisting development at the grassroots. Additionally, NGOs were possibly conceived filling the space between government proper and the private sector, taking up specialized development works in areas they have got a comparative advantage. Looking at the development needs of Madhes, and also in much of the country, there is a clear distinction between areas of work that can more efficiently be handled, on the one hand, by Government and the private sector and, on the other hand, by NGOs/INGOs. Looking around Madhesh, what I see is a total absence of any effort to build social and economic capital at the grassroots level which, though immensely beneficial for local communities, are too small for Government to get involved in and unattractive for private sector in terms of profit opportunities.

These small projects comprise, for example, traditional village ponds and reservoirs; drinking water wells; community halls; places of worship; residential quarters and walkways; public hygiene and waste disposal facilities; inter-village roads, pathways, and bridges; and organized markets for local produce. Such small amenities and facilities--costing no more than ten million rupees for a population of, say, ten thousands in initial investments and may be two million rupees annually for upkeep and maintenance—will help transform rural living in no less than a revolutionary way, by connecting communities with each other, and opening up opportunities for accessing larger opportunities that exist at national and international levels.

Rural public facilities in some rudimentary ways have existed for hundreds of years, and their sharing by village communities had helped form bonds that essentially made central government irrelevant and illusive, until the very recent times. These facilities were created and maintained, in large part, by rich local families as a matter of generosity, religious obligations, and for keeping the family’s good name in

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areas they had influence. These facilities provided essential wherewithal for poor families to help improve their daily living, in a situation when they had no means of their own to create them, and the government was largely oblivious of their existence.

Unfortunately, such charitable acts for the benefit of village communities have now become largely extinct, not because rich families have turned indifferent to local needs but because most have disappeared with the fading of landed gentry and the migration of well-to-do to towns and cities. At the same time, government infrastructure has been slow to develop and remains inadequate and ineffective meeting local needs. NGO/INGO Challenges

In a landmark initiative in early 1995, the Government launched a build-our-village-ourselves (BOVO) program, under which it provided direct cash grants to the country’s 4,000 VDCs (Village Development Committees) for making investments in improving rural infrastructure: community centers, health and education facilities; transport and marketing system. Depending on the size of the population, each VDC now can get allocations of several million of rupees in development funding from government budget, to be spent on local development programs.

Despite its many attractions, BOVO programs have entailed significant waste of scarce resources, and have benefited a much narrower group of population than was intended. Much of the inefficiency of BOVO spending has, reportedly, ensued from inadequate support provided to the village units in project preparation and implementation, and a lack of supervision and audit of the work performed. Although in a few well-implemented BOVO units value-added for the local economy has exceeded many times the initial investments, this has been much less effective in most areas.

As a point of departure, NGOs/INGOs can team up with Government for ensuring an effective utilization of grant resources made available through annual budget allocations. In a two-pronged approach for making BOVO funding more effective, NGOs can offer its own funding matching government grant, and then help re-design the program to focus on developing key rural facilities mentioned above. More than the size of the funding, key elements of the program need to focus on pilferage of the fund by its traditional handlers who comprise a more powerful and ominous group than of drug dealers. They must be removed and barred from any kind of decision-making authority and utilization of development funds.

Annual budget funding for village development initiative should be a public knowledge but, for many technical reasons, it is difficult to pinpoint the precise amount. Based on rough estimates, if some 2,000 VDCs in the Madhes region are each allocated 2 million rupees annually, the total budget funding will be about 4 billion rupees per year, which is roughly 4 percent of the annual development budget currently of 100 billion rupees.

Initially, NGOs/INGOs need to strike a bargain with Government for a control over the utilization of village grant money, with the objective of grant money going almost entirely for funding the actual projects. Administrative expenses for micro-level projects can amount to as much as 50 percent of the total project cost. NGOs/INGOs can opt to raise additional funding to meet these expenses by accessing domestic institutions and external aid agencies.

My view is that much of this funding—about 25 million dollars annually—can be obtained from foreign governments and philanthropic organizations which would be eager to offer generous support for worthy projects benefiting a rural population. With programs of this magnitude, assurance of safeguards against leakages and waste, and through careful project selection, village communities can be transformed within a short-time period of as little as five years.

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The basic premise of development initiative on the line outlined above—carried out jointly by Government and NGOs/INGOs—is that it focuses on improving the productivity of local resources—human capital, social capital, entrepreneurial skills and know-how—that provides a more solid foundation for durable improvements in living conditions in rural areas than does the traditional NGO-type assistance programs which are highly skewed towards hand-outs. NGOs in Madhes, or anywhere else, must shed their image of Santa with a gift bag and, instead, work to teach beneficiaries how to fish.

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Voice of Madhesi Activists: Challenging the status quo of the dominant civic actors!

Dipendra Jha27

Abstract

The paper outlines the civil society background followed by an emerging illustration of human rights movement in Madhes. It questions the exclusivist Kathmandu centric human rights approach that has unnoticed the structural factors of ethnicity, caste, gender, class, and its impact on the daily life of individuals in Madhes. The main objective of the paper is to interrogate how the exclusivist ideas of NGOs has been imposed ‘in the form of societal norms’ using means of power and funding that has diluted rather than fortified NGOs movement in Nepal(Tamang 2005). The ethnic-caste nexus, client-patron tradition and extreme political polarizations of NGOs have problematized the concept. Moreover, the paper is also intended at exploring an approach that might challenge the legitimacy of the status quo position of the so called big NGOs controlled by the few percent of higher caste hill elites. Human rights activists in Tarai while undertaking a justice initiative have to face intentional biasness from these power-holder groups in Kathmandu. The seven to eight percent mainstreaming civic actors have a simple theory of ki ta hamra ki naramra (either ours or useless). Thus, this paper will argue that deconstructing semi-colonial status by dealing with hegemonic homogeneous identity of Nepali nationalism, minimizing the harm of economic-political marginalization, and limiting manipulation of dominant social forces appear as biggest obstacle for Madhesi NGOs to be flourished freely.

1. Conflict Background

Nepal has a strong legacy of a feudalistic polity and a system of governance that has marginalized a large portion of the population on the basis of socially constructed notions of caste, class, gender, ethnicity and geography. The area was long ruled by a feudal monarchy for more than 200 years with some years of dictatorship by hereditary Rana Prime-minister. The first people’s movement in 1990, successfully overthrew the absolutist partyless Panchayat system, and introduced a multiparty parliamentary system of governance (Adhikari 2003). The political change, however, failed to transform discriminatory socio-economic structures as per the anticipation of the people in Madhes. Devendra Raj Panday argues that ‘the political struggles in the past did not produce the expected social and economic outcomes, partly because the political struggle remained far from a larger movement for social change’ (2006:1). The twelve years of representative democracy were abused and misused by the minority of high-ranking hilly male Brahmins who remained dominant in all sectors of the state whilst socio-economic conditions of the majority of ethnic groups, geographically excluded and the lower castes became more vulnerable (Lieten 2002: 434). Decentralization and democratic culture have not taken root; elections have been merely manipulated to control the state systems by the same dominant political groups (Rupesinghe and Mumtaz 1996: xi).Massive corruption, lack of transparency, the Madhes-hill gap and inefficient implementation of Kathmandu-centric economic policy benefited a thin-layer of middle-class Khas elites that created frustration among Madhesi, Janjatis, Dalits, women and others. The hill political elites inherited the hegemonic nature of the state created by the autocratic Rana and Royal regimes as a long legacy of domination on the lower classes using various means of soft power (Lieten 2002: 433). More importantly, ‘the horse trading and jockeying for power in the elected parliaments have reinforced the conviction that radical change can only be achieved through an armed uprising’(Lieten 2002: 435).

27 Dipendra Jha is a human rights lawyer, having M.A (Human Rights from Mahidol University Thailand), M.A (Peace and conflict studies, Bradford University UK) and LLB from TU-Nepal.

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Incarcerating the people’s frustration towards the emerging political hegemony, Nepal Communist Party (Maoists) declared a ‘people’s war’ on February 13, 1996, that lasted for more than ten years (Bell 2008). Thania Paffenholz clarifies that the majority of the marginalized communities were persuaded by the Maoist slogans for a social transformation and emancipation from the cycles of exploitation; in their language, it was called ‘a radical change in a feudalistic system of governance and social structures’ (2007: 1). Jonathan Goodhand has a similar claim, ‘The Maoist insurgency was rooted in long-standing grievances, the result of political and socio-economic exclusion and heightened by the inability of democratically elected governments to deliver on their promises’ (2006:17). Within a short period of time, the Maoists’ armed movement spread throughout Madhes having originated in four remote districts in the Mid-Western region (Mishra 2004: 627). They tapped, particularly, the Madhesi landless, youth, Dalit, and excluded castes in Tarai to fight against landlords who controlled politics and resources in Tarai. However, there are some who still believe that ‘the underlying causes of the insurgency’s origins, rapid growth and continuing successes’ were beyond socio-economic marginalization (Mishra 2004: 627).Learning form the Maoists' insurgency, many armed groups with JTMM in the lead as a model started armed movement in Tarai since 2004. A proximate cause of the armed conflict in Tarai may be an interest in acquiring financial benefit through criminal activities; however, the foundation that created violence to be legitimized was primarily influenced by identity crisis and exclusion from the state structures.

The so called democratic government, making legitimate demands invisible, used suppressive methods to deal with the Madhes Andolan of Jan-Feb 2007 that took place in various parts of Tarai whilst ignoring violence that was coming from the system and structures. On 30 August 2007, the government and the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) signed a 22-point agreement which included, among others, providing compensation to those killed during the Terai movement, guarantee of inclusion of Madhesis and other marginalised groups in the Constituent Assembly, granting autonomy to the states in the federal system (The South Asian, 2007).

Since the implementation of the special security plan, the security situation in Tarai is improved as roughly 50% of the armed group members were killed in so called 'encounter' by the police, 25% surrendered to live as a civilian life, around 15% are in Jail and only 10% continue their armed activities.

2. The hill-Tarai Gap

There is a pre-convinced notion among Kathmandu based civil society and rights activists that the social actors having madhesi identity are closer to the armed groups, promoter of separatism and a RAW agent. This attitude is strongly rooted among the mainstreaming actors in Kathmandu that has been gradually portraying tarai human rights activists image as ‘unpatriotic’ and 'friends of armed groups'. When there is an advocacy of killings in Kavre, it is perceived as a national agenda but if it is about killings in Mahottari, these killings come under the category of Madhesi agenda. In spite of their academic background and a long working experience, the Madhesi activists have to prove their loyalty everytime by condemning armed groups more loudly. Otherwise, the door of resource could be blocked at anytime by the mainstreaming actors who serve as a client to the donors. The donors only see those pictures and problems; the mainstreaming actors want to show them.

The hill-tarai gap is not just limited to prioritize the advocacy issue, but more importantly in their exclusivist institutional and internal structures that are either based on family ties, ideological bond or ethnic identity. This is as a powerful weapon to limit resources and opportunities within few hill elites that has been expanding gap rather than narrowing it. Similar, a new fashion of romanticizing inclusion also emerges in the civic arena, especially in the post- Madhes movement period. To fashion the inclusiveness, the Kathmandu based civil society organizations often include ‘a show piece Madhesi ’ symbolic member in which the decision making power remains in the hands of the same dominant class.

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It is simply a deal between the ruling classes and the few madhesi elites, which erases the socio-economic problems face by the poorest and the most vulnerable among Madhesi communities. Thus, the bridging of gap depends upon to what extent the dominant civil society organizations would be ready to share power with the social organizations lead by Madhesi. It is a depowered process of hierarchical relationships and attitude empowering the classless and the identity-less excluded and marginalized groups (Rupesinghe 1995: viii). Giving a proportional staking to the powerless can be a cause to delegitimize the status quo enjoyed by the hill centric civil elites; however, in long-terms it will build a social cohesion for more peaceful societies (Kothari 2000: 151).

3. The Client-Patron Relationship

This relative weakness of human rights movement is due in part to Nepal’s centralized, dominating, and hill centric patronage-based political system combined with a history and pattern of donor funding that tends to both support and use NGOs as platforms for acquiring more power (Shah 2008). The methods employed by donors to support NGOs, actually have been damaging their long established public credibility limiting their corrective approaches to influencing state policies (Dahal 2001:24). Firstly, the western donors have manufactured a strong channel of patrons among high-profiled civil elites, mostly Bahuns having hill origin. Generally, the funds are channeled either through their patrons or on their recommendation. Secondly, the dominating hill high caste elites have the same patron of clientelism functioning at the district and community levels. These two ways of patron-client relationships are the dominant feature of donor’s funding to civil society that has mafiaed resources within ‘a thin layer of hill centric wealthy beneficiaries’ marginalizing a large portion of people working at the bottom. Howell makes a similar argument to reflect the situation as ‘donor engagement with civil society in third world countries is marked as urban bias and have had little impact on rural civic groups’(2001). In fact, this trend of funding contributes in dynamics of conflict rather than resolving it, especially at grassroots level. Goodhand claims that the ways in which external funding is channelized to build peace are actually ‘feeding growing grievances’. The intention of donors to channel funding through self-serving elites is, somehow, guided by the notion of underpinning liberal agendas, as the centrists’ civil actors connect donors’ interests with the powerful political leaders.

The para-jumping approach of NGOs activities by outsiders in collaboration with the Kathmandu based hill elites has, so far, failed in Madhes. One explanation for this failure is outsiders’ lack of knowledge about local values, culture, languages, social capital and practices which often discourage community participation and have counter-productive consequences. Increasing the grip, and in Gramsci’s word- hegemony, of the Kathmandu-centric organizations, donors’ funding creates a space for civic elites to maintain their dominations over the locals population and organizations through a combination of consent and coercion (1971: 57-58). The high-profiled civil society organizations that operate from Kathmandu with foreign sources usually take advantage of the local organizations’ contacts and exposure, however, rarely act to strengthen them (Shah 2008). For the visibility and funding, local organizations have to accept the guidelines and influence of central elites who merely use them for international and national exchange (Bhatta 2006). Dahal has made a wonderful comment on the current civic practices as ‘genuine civil society is yet to evolve in Nepal- a civil society that is for, by and of public concerns (2001:24).

4. Human Rights situation and threat to Defenders

Human rights situation is deteriorating continuously in Southern plain area (Tarai) of Nepal. One among them is widespread extra judicial killings: THRD Alliance (Tarai Human Rights Defenders' Alliance) published a report that shows more than 134 fake encounters have taken place in Tarai in the years between 2008 and 2010. Various armed and criminal groups also killed around 127 civilians in the same period. Over 256 killings took place. No state actors or armed group members have been persecuted yet though ratio of killings is increasing day by day. The cooked up evidence to brandish the ‘cross fire

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action’ was taken as a thesis for sweeping away armed groups. Most of the fake encounters involving Nepal Police were supported by Indian police. Indian police handed over a dozens of people to the Nepalese Police. After that without taking any legal measures, Nepal Police thought, better and easier to shoot them up as immediately as possible. It has not been a human rights agenda. Neither the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) nor any Kathmandu based human rights NGO has raised concern over such deteriorating situation. They might have thought that killing the ‘criminals’ will easily erase the criminality in that part of the country. After the lunch of the THRD Alliance report, the Joint Democratic Madhesi Morcha has picked up the issue referencing to the report. They have forwarded it as a demand to the government 'to form a taskforce to investigate killings in Tarai'. Now, this issue of extra-judicial killing in Tarai has become a political agenda.

The government rejected the OHCHR report on extra judicial killings during the Universal Periodic Review that took place in Geneva in January2011. The trend has been growing to be much serious causing other forms of human rights violations. Government does not seem to be ready for investigating the incidence. There is a very low level of political will to invite any international missions, such as UN special procedures on extra judicial killings, to independently investigate into the issue. Thus, an urgent policy advocacy and public pressure from the ground is essential to push for establishing a credible investigation task force to investigate all extra-judicial killings in Tarai.

The second major human rights issue is the misuse of the Small Arms Act, 1962. All the prison centers (Jails) in Tarai, such as those located at Birgunj, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Sirha, and Kapilbastu are filled with youths from 15 to 25 years under the Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1962. This Act is widely misused by the Nepal Police to cover-up cases of torture and making money from youths in Tarai. The Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1962 under which a Chief District Officer (CDO) has the power to sentence people up to six years’ imprisonment increases the risk of denial of justice and exposes the vulnerable citizens to arbitrary arrest and detention. A total 790 youths have been charged under this Act within two years. The highest number of cases filed under this Act is in Dhanusha (60), Siraha (55) and Saptari (39). More than 90% prisoners in the Jails of Tarai are youths and they are living with criminals which eventually puts threat for them to be transformed as 'professional criminals' after five years. The CDOs in Tarai are using this Act to collect money and promote extra judicial activities. Realizing the seriousness of the issue, the UCPN-M – Madhesi Front (United Democratic Madhesi Front-UDMF) agreed to check 'misuse of the law by the semi-judicial agencies and agreed to revise the Arms related laws' 28in the 4 point agreement.

The third issue is security of human rights defenders. Human rights defenders working in Tarai are facing security threat from the security agencies and the armed groups as well. When they speak against extra judicial killings and misuse of the Small Arms Act, they have been perceived as armed group supporters. At the same time they come to face threats from political parties, which have connections with the armed groups. Some of the human rights defenders' phones have been recorded by the Nepal Police. There is a fear that they might be charged in a criminal offense. Therefore, this situation is worse than that of the state of emergency period in the past. It seems that the police have some kind of racial perception and assumption. So, there is no favorable environment for them to monitor the situation. If the situation continues, they will collectively declare that they can not work anymore as a human rights defender in Tarai.

The other human rights concern is the rehabilitation and social integration of the former armed group members of Tarai. The number of such persons is approximately five hundred. They have been facing threats from both the state agencies and armed groups. The government needs to collect data on this. Preliminary civil society reports indicate that there are around 23 armed group members surrendered this

28 '4.6 New programmes would be undertaken to improve the security of the Tarai Madhes. The misuse of the law by the semi-judicial agencies will be curbed by revising the Arms related laws' 4 points agreement between the UCPN-M – Madhesi Front.

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year in Rautahat district only. There should be some kind of social and economic rehabilitation progrmamme to mainstreaming these youths so that they can be transformed and be able to live a civilian life. Otherwise, there is a danger of such youths to be 'criminals' at the end, which will then pose threat to the overall security situation in the whole Tarai districts.

On the other hand, addressing these issues in Tarai is also directly linked to the overall peace process of Nepal. If seen from a micro perspective, it is very hard to establish peaceful state of affairs in Tarai unless these core concerns are adequately resolved and the youths vulnerable to armed activities are properly addressed by the government.

While looking at the reasons, racial discrimination, threats from the security agencies and political parties, armed groups, psychological fear and physical threats are major issues that the human rights defenders face in Tara. The mainstreaming social actors in Kathmandu use all methods of persuasion, pressure, coercion, power and manipulation to weaken the Madhesi activists, who raise their voice for equality and justice in Tarai. Thus, legal and human rights activism is unattractive and risky in Tarai until the power imbalances have been removed through positive social change. The first attribute for change is to de-power the dominant civil society actors to ensure that the civic activism is totally free of physical and psychological reflections of coercion. However, it seems rhetoric in the present hegemonic system where civil society is a part of hidden politics.

3 Disconnection with Social Realities

The difference between civil society and political society remains one of the highly debated issues not only in Madhes but in Nepal as a whole (Shah 2008: Vii). The problem with HRNGOs and civil society is scattered initiatives, economic interests, political manipulation, and lack of coordination within and among civil society proving to be obstacles to the creation of a human rights movement that could create pressure to address the immediate and the long-term needs of the Madhesi communities. More importantly, their supply-driven activities, without considering the societal demand-driven basic needs of the societies, keep them aloof from wider communities.

A dramatic resurgence of the concept of civil society was identified both in political theory and practice since the 1990’s pro-democracy movement, when the large sections of populations, particularly the urban trade unions, workers, and the middle class teachers, students and professionals joined the people’s movement against authoritarian regime (Dhakal 2007: 63). They were at the forefront of the struggle for the restoration of democracy despite all the efforts of the regime to silence or co-opt them (Shaha 2008: viii). The success of the People’s movement causing the collapse of the royal authoritarianism had given opportunity to the Northern donors to mobilize aid for ‘strengthening democracy’ (Golub 2000:142). Tandon and Mohanty argue that the autonomous association of civil society was identified ‘as a rich source of energy’, which had the potential not only towards promoting the idea of free market but also towards guarding authoritarianism (2003:13). Donors approach largely resulted in increasing the quantity of NGOs who suddenly started claiming the label of civil society whilst unnoticed the quality and a real agent of change was left behind (Golub 2000:142).The higher and the proper-middle classes educated elites were identified as a potential actors who could best fit into this framework to further ‘funder’s agenda of neo-liberalism’ (Tandon and Mohanty 2003:13). This new group who claimed themselves as civil society acting as a technical instrument to donor’s democracy rhetoric replaced the former radical civil society who were committed undertaking emancipatory approach through a social movement (Golub 2000:142). The popular societal practices, led by the lower-middles classes and the lower classes, are largely being overshadowed and, to some extent, have been hijacked by the hierarchically organized activisms by the privilege higher-middle classes who facilitates international influence for ‘their own particularistic economic-political ends’ (Abrahamsen 2000:56). Seira Tamang questions this trend saying

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that ‘there is no sense of culpability of how foreign aid has led to and has ramifications on how the present conflict in Nepal has emerged’ (2005).

In the post-conflict scenario, a long established reputation of civil society as a public watchdog has gradually been declining to a political co-option and ethnic divisions. A neat ethnic divisions of civil society such as Pahade (hilly origin) vs. Madhesi (Plane origin); in Pahade: Bahaun (higher caste) vs. indigenous people and Dalit (the lower caste); in Madhesi: Tharu (one of the traditional group living in Tarai) vs. other Madhesi, Muslim vs. Madhesi, have been raising tensions within and among civic arenas that are feeding into the dynamics of the post conflict-complexity rather than building peace. The post-conflict production of civil society networks such as Madhesi civil society network, Tharu civil society, Muslim civil society network are the few examples of civil society having ethnic lines except already organized Dalit civil society networks which are having a caste agenda (Bhurtel 2009). Similarly, the triangular political polarization of civil society into radical-left, moderate-left and right wings has not only weakened the civic movement but also raises a question about the concept itself (Jha 2009). The civil society fraction of radical-left appears as pro-Maoists; moderate as a close ally to the UML, and rightists as the Nepali Congress (NC) supporters. Generally, some clients within civil society co-operate the government whilst others remain in an opposition. The co-operation and the opposition are always influenced by the political alliance of civil society with the government. Politics within civil society is very competitive similar to the high politics among the political parties; particularly it reaches a climax in a post dictatorial period (Thomson 2004: 5). The competition is often underpinned and designed by political parties offering a nomination to a high level government sponsored post. The practices of party manipulation and cooption have gained public legitimacy as civil society usually draws power from political society rather than from their social bases (Saravanamuttu 1998: 114). This trend has devalued both the concept and the actual movement. Hachhethu calls this political division of civil society as ‘civil in name but political in purpose’ (2002: 8). Hachhethu further claims that the post-conflict polarization is only a continuity of a historical legacy (2002: 8). ‘The formation of five open forums, Democratic National Unity Forum, National People’s Forum, Civic Rights Forum, People’s Right Protection Forum and Human Rights Protection Forum, in 1985 by the Communist Party of Nepal (ML, later renamed as UML) was an example of overlapping between civil society and political society’ (Hachhethu 2002:7). The civil society discourse lacking a neat boundary between civil and political society resulted in a practice of carrying the flag of a political party in the one hand whilst a civic banner in another (Bhatta 2007).

Civil society has directly been equated with highly bureaucratic NGOs and its highly-paid professional staff as a civil society member. Seira Tamang has questioned this practice in Nepal as ‘civil society is legally and analytically equated with NGO which is a de facto definitional amendment of civil society but also manifestation of inability of academics and analysts to differentiate between these two terms’ (2003: 15-17). The conceptual confusion of what constitutes of civil society and what is not? Who are the constituent members (Burnell and Calvert: 2004)? What purpose does it has, and how can those ends be achieved without external financial support in the poorest countries like Nepal? How and to what extent does it different from NGOs? These unresolved and debated issues have problematized the civil society concept resulting in a further reduction to NGO that has created a communication gap between the insiders and the outsiders (Rooy 1998:16). This is clear evidence of how the conceptual dichotomy has a direct impact on empirical location and the actual problems faced by civil society in Nepal.

Empirically, a lack of internal democratic structure has further created a sense of doubt among the common people to question the credibility of the civil society organizations. Carothers and Ottaway argue that the civil society organizations in the developing world often lack the internal democratic procedures though they claim themselves as a democracy promoter (2000:11). Hachhethu reveals the fact that a weak mechanism of financial transparency and a lack of accountability towards the social constituencies have

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badly damaged civil society’s reliability (2002:4). The people have started questioning the source of funding before accepting the program they designed. Moreover, treating people and community as ‘a hopeless object’ has detached them from the grounded socio-economic reality in which they are rooted in (Abrahamsen 2000:56). The diverse actors working in this sector with their self-interested agenda of economic benefits and acquiring political power, perceive themselves as a highly prestigious because of their strong public voices, however, the reality is quite different. People outside the civic arena often perceive civil society activities as alien efforts that do not take into account social reality, and its members as dollar brand, hotel habituate and working for high salaries and luxurious living standards (Dhakal 2007:61).

At the macro-level, there are many who believe that ‘those with greater access to socio-economic resources find it easier to organize effectively’ (White 2004: 12). For those who are economically weak and socially deprived cannot contest on an equal basis which once again reinforcing unequal social relations (White 2004: 12).  It fuels for generating wider perceptions that the concept of civil society in Nepal is merely based on the elite theory of democracy that favors the wealthy and the higher classes avoiding the classical model of participatory democracy in which the masses from below collectively make decisions(Kasfir 2004: 119). In this context, the question is not limited to build a civil society movement against the authoritarianism of the state, but more importantly to initiate a counter hegemonic resistance by the relatively deprived social forces that can break the hegemonic nature and hierarchical relations existing within civic arena (White 2004: 12).

4. Conclusion

The international community’s attempt to impose a blueprint project without understanding the political and the historical context of Tarai resulted in the quantitative growth of NGOs that have flooded throughout the areas since the Madhes Movement. However, they remain ineffective in solving structural problems strongly rooted as central to the causes of conflict. In an impoverished Madhesi community where many are plagued by the problems of basic human needs, it is difficult to mobilize civil society organizations with an advocacy role of rule of law, human rights and democracy that simply ignore the issue of social injustice and discrimination from the state level.

The top-down fund distribution is problematic. Kathmandu based civil society elite acting as gatekeepers exclude Madhesi social actors from decision-making over the big issues affecting their future. The outsider tends to forget the diversity and gaping disparity in power and influence that exist between local civil societies, resulting in the flotation of aid programs at the surface aimed at rebuilding post-conflict societies at the bottom. Thus, the status of the Madhesi social activist has to be transformed from 'users', and 'takers' to 'makers' and 'shapers'.

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Madhesh and Constitution Making in NepalDinesh Tripathi

Advocate, Supreme Court Nepal

Nepal is in the Constitution making process. The Constitution making process is considered as a nation building process. It is the historic and defining moment in the history of the nation. It could be the process of huge social and political transformation and transition and new identity of nation can be created. In order to be genuinely a nation building process, it needs to be broad based, inclusive and participatory. The Nepalese Constitution writing is the part of the peace process. The longstanding exclusion, marginalization and discrimination are also the root cause of conflict. The new Nepalese Constitution must be able to address the root cause of Conflict and produce the structural and institutional arrangement to produce a lasting or sustainable peace. The peace is not only an absence of armed conflict, but also a state of socio economic justice, empowerment and inclusive and participatory governance structure. Nepal went through a decade long armed conflict.

The Constitution not only the codify the state structures and institutions but it also codify the will and aspirations of the people. The sense of ownership and belongingness is the extremely important for the sustainability of any Constitution. The Constitution must be able to provide a credible road map for national unity. The Constitution making process needs to be genuinely participatory. The participation must be meaningful and genuine. The cosmetic participation is not going to serve the purpose. The meaningful participation creates a sense of ownership. It must be noted that genuine public participation requires social inclusion, personal security and freedom of speech and assembly. A strong civil society, civic education and good channels of communication between all levels of society facilitate this process. Only considerable commitment of time and resources will make genuine public participation possible. The Constitution of new constitutionalism is a conversation conducted by all concerned; open to new entrants and issues, seeking a workable formula that will be sustainable rather than assuredly stable. Indeed, it is in such an environment of conversational constitutionalism that the issue of a right to participate in making a Constitution arose.

A democratic Constitution is no longer simply one that establishes democratic governance it is also a Constitution that is made in a democratic process. There is thus a moral claim to participation according to the norms of democracy. A claim of necessity for participation is based on the belief that without the general sense of “ownership” that comes from sharing authorship, today’s public will not understand, respect, support and live within the constraints of constitutional government. In other words, participatory Constitution making has become a criterion of a legitimate process and therefore the norms of democratic procedure, transparency and accountability that are applied to daily political decision making are now also demanded for constitutional deliberation.

Nepal is the country of diversity. The nation is small in size and population but vast in terms of diversity- vast diversity in terms of culture and language. The diversity of the nation was not taken as a source of strength and beauty but it became the source of discrimination and marginalization in Nepal. The Constitution of Nepal needs to take into account the diversity of the nation. The diversity friendly Constitution is the needs of the hour. Nepal has to redesign its policy and governance to accommodate diversity. The policy of monoculture is not going to work anymore in multicultural society. The new Constitution needs to acknowledge the diversity of the nation and needs to create a structural and institutional mechanism or arrangement under which cultural pluralism could grow. The suppression of

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diversity would create a societal conflict that would be resulted into a political conflict. The policy of mono cultural in a multicultural society would be the recipe for the disaster.

Madhesh was heavily marginalized in the polity and governance of the nation. It was politically under represented. The language and culture of the Madhesh was not duly acknowledged. There was a politics of discrimination and exclusion. The Madhesh feel a step motherly treatment from state. The functioning of state is not fair and democratic. There is huge psyclogical division between Madhesh and hill. This pshyclogical division between Madhesh is not good for the health of national unity. Madhesh is a food basket of Nepal and covered the 17% territory but home of more than 40% population. It is a major source of revenue and centre of economic activities. The Madhesh is the economic engine of Nepal. The progress of the nation lies in the progress of Madhesh. Addressing the democratic and legitimate aspiration of Madhesh is extremely important for the long term stability of democratic process, sustainable peace and progress in Nepal.

Madhesh was never considered as the political force or factor in Nepalese politics. But after the Madhesh movement, it emerged as an important political force. The Madhesh movement has changed the very political landscape of the nation. Now Madhesh is major political stakeholder in a National politics and can influence the national agenda of Nepalese politics. It is quite natural that, Madhesh want a larger political share in Kathmandu, want to join a political mainstream, fair poltical representation, inclusion in each and every state institutions. Madhesh also want reorganization of its language and culture or respect of its identity and end of discrimination. Above all right to dignity and respect. The discrimination is not acceptable for Madhesh any more under any circumstances. The end of discrimination is the basic requirement of democratic society. The right against discrimination is key human rights. The discrimination on the basis of caste, culture and language are not acceptable in modern and democratic society. The formal and procedural democracy is not enough to address the problem of multicultural and multilingual society. The exclusionary polity of the past has already done enough damages. The inclusive and broad based democracy can address the problem of multicultural society. The formal and procedural democracy might create a winners and losers that might serve the interest of the elite. Only election does not solve the problem. There needs to be inclusive electoral process. The election might create only the elected dictators.

The new Nepalese Constitution needs to be Madhesh friendly or diversity friendly Constitution. The Madhesh must be able to clearly articulate its agenda into the new Constitution. The mandate of Madhesh movement needs to be consolidated and institutionalized under new Constitutional arrangement. Madhesh must be able to identify its vision and agenda for new Constitution.

In order to make the new Constitution Madhesh friendly, the new Constitution must be able create certain institutional arrangements and incorporate certain Constitutional principles into the Constitution. The Madhesh politicians, civil society and Madheshi Diaspora can play an important role to articulate the Madhesh issues into new Constitution. The Constitution making process provides a historic and unprecedented opportunity to the Madhesh to secure justice and fair play.

Below, I discussed some institutional arrangements and Constitutional principles that need to be incorporated into the new Constitution, in order to make the Constitution Madhesh friendly.

Federalism

The federalism creates a multi level government by Constitution itself and brings the government closer to the people. It creates additional forum/space for people's participation in the governance process. There is a massive devolution of state power under the federalism by the scheme of Constitution. So, it would be the Constitutional arrangement to ensure a self rule to the Madhesh. The federalism is all about the self

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rule and shared rule. Through, the federal Constitutional arrangement the Madhesh would have greater control over its resource and able to manage its internal affairs. Under the federal polity the Constitution ensures the greater level of autonomy for the federal units. The multi level government created under federal polity provides a larger scope for people's participation in the governance process. The participation is the key for self rule. The participation of Madhesh into the governance process was not welcome in the past. But through the federal polity the Madhesh can cure the ills of the past. The federalism would provide the additional layer of government in which Madhesi population could participate and enjoy the self rule and at the same time they can enhance their political clout in Kathmandu in terms of shared rule. The self rule is extremely important for the all round development of the Madhesh. The federalism is the gift of the Madhesh Movement to the nation. It is one of the landmark achievement and critically important for the enhance the political say of the Madhesh into the national politics. The federalism is beyond the decentralization. The federal polity creates a genuine self rule under the Constitution. Unlike the decentralization the power of self rule could not be taken away by centre unilaterally. Under the federal arrangement no level of government is supreme. Only the Constitution is Supreme. All the layers of government are under the Constitution. In order to ensure the self rule and shared rule of Madhesh, the new Constitution should create the basis of genuine ferederalism, not only a cosmetic federalism. The cosmetic federalism would not solve the issue of self rule and power to manage internal affairs of Madhesh.

Inclusive Democracy

The elite driven democracy is failed and unworkable model. It is root cause of multi dimensional crisis. It creates the situation of de facto exclusion of masses from the political or decision making process of the nation. It empowered the elite and disembowels the masses. It does not provide the political space to the masses to participate into the governance process of the nation. It failed to address the aspiration of the masses. It is totally unfit model for multi cultural society and root cause of conflict in a various multi cultural society. It creates winners and losers. The political set up, which creates winners and losers, is not a workable model in a diverse society. The political structure, which does not benefit the masses, is not the sustainable model. The meaningful inclusion of the masses in the polity and governance is the basis for democratic stability and social progress. The democracy is all about the participation. The Madhesh was heavily excluded from the polity and governance in the past. There was no credible political space for Madhesh for meaningful political participation in the past. The creation of an inclusive democracy under the new constitution should be the major Constitutional agenda for Madhesh. The new Constitution shall provide the institutions and structure of inclusive democracy. The monopolization of state power was the basic ills of the past. There was a concentration and centralization of state power in Nepal. The character of state was heavily exclusionary. The vast majority of the population was excluded from the polity. The diversity of the nation was not reflected into the state institution. For the successful and sustainable democracy the diversity of the nation needs to be reflected into the state institutions.

Recognition of cultural and lingual rights

The up coming Constitution of Nepal must protect the cultural and lingual rights of Madheshi community. The protection and reorganization of lingual rights is the positive obligation of state under international human rights regime. The discrimination on the basis of language and culture is the serious violation of international human rights law. Rights to language are critically important for effective participation in governance. It is also a part of freedom of speech, expression and right to information. Without freedom of speech, expression and right to information, the effective participation in the governance is not possible. The right to vote and participation in the governance process is meaningless without freedom of speech, expression and information. The right to language is also recognized as part of access to justice and fair trial under the international human rights law. The Canadian Supreme Court had rightly pointed out that right to language is part of the freedom of speech and expression. The

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UNESCO says that every culture has its dignity. The recognition of the culture enhanced the dignity and worth of the human person. Likewise, without the recognition of language rights the people can not participate in the governance process effectively. The meaningful participation in the governance process is part of the democratic rights of the people.

Human rights

The new Constitution needs to be human rights friendly. Only under the broader human rights framework of the Constitution, the rights of the Madhesh population could be effectively protected. The basic purpose of modern Constitution is the limiting the power of the state and maximization of the rights of the people. The human rights are considered the heart and soul of the modern Constitution. There is a growing jurisprudence of human rights. The very notion and content of human rights is expanding. The new Constitution of Nepal needs to capture the emerging jurisprudence of human rights. The well protected human rights enhanced the very legitimacy of the Constitution. Nepal is the party of the major human rights instruments. We are living in the very interesting time in the human history. One hand human rights is the subject of International laws and Constitution, but on the other hand there is emergence of international human rights regime after the Second World War. Now human rights are the legitimate concern of international community. The major international human rights instruments which Nepal has duly ratified is- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenants on economic, social and cultural rights, Convention on Elimation of all Kind of discrimination against Woman, Convention on elimination all kind of Racial Discrimination, Child Rights Convention etc. The new Constitution should not only incorporate civil and political rights but economic social and cultural rights as well. Under the international human rights regime, the both sets of rights are equally important and no set of rights get precedence over other set of rights.

Constitutionalism and rule of law

The entire structure and philosophy of the Constitution is important for Madhesh. The rights of Madhesh could be under the over all democratic framework only. Only under the basic structure of democracy federalism and self rule is possible, because massive devolution of state power is possible under the democratic regime. In order to protect the self rule under the federalism, set of Constitutional safeguards are requires. The federalism could not function without adopting the notion of Constitutionalism and rule of law under the entire structure of the Constitution. The mere written Constitution is not a guarantee of Constitutionalism. The new Constitution needs to capture the basic element and philosophy of Constitutionalism. The Constitution which is not based on the notion of Constitutionalism is not acceptable in a 21th. Century. The philosophy of the Constitutionalism needs to be woven into the entire structure of Constition. The basic component of the Constitutionalism is the rule of law, limited government, independence of judiciary, separation of power, recognition of basic human rights, pluralism, protection of minority rights, civic control of the military, equality before the law, equal protection of the law, non discrimination, right to remedy etc.

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Cultural Heritage of Terai-MadheshDr. Ram Dayal Rakesh

''All cultures and societies are related in the particular forms and means of tangible and intangible expressions, which constitute their heritage. The diversity of cultures and heritage in our world is an irreplaceable source of spiritual and intellectual richness for all humankind." From NARA Document on Authenticity 1994

Terai Madhesh is steeped in cultural heritage. There are numerous natural, cultural, archaeological, historical, religious heritages, which are incomparable, unbeaten, and exemplary. There are several artifacts, cultures, various rites and rituals, religions living styles and standards which are well known to the whole world. These invaluable cultural properties of Terai- Madesh are not possible to be scientific and systematic studies have been done about them up till now. No survey of these cultural heritages has been conducted neither nationally nor internationally. This is a matter of great regret.

According to UNESCO there are two types of culture. One is tangible and other is intangible. Tarai-Madesh is rich in both cultures but the aim of this paper is to highlight only tangible cultural properties. According to archaeologist Taranand Mishra there are two types of cultural heritage

i. Ancient Archaeological sites

ii. Archaeological cultural objects.

Landscape Archaeology in Terai-Madesh: The Archaeologist both- native and foreign have not taken pains to explore and excavate in the landscape Archaeology of Terai-Madesh. Nothing has been done in this virgin field. There are many parks and orchards in Terai-Madesh. To name few famous gardens of Janakpur, Lumbini and Simraungarh and Raja Fubari of Salhesh and Tilaurakot. We have a very little knowledge about the rich tradition of green garden in Terai-Madesh archaeology. In this context I would like to quote here.

"Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, was a vana or a small forest or a batika or a garden . Archaeological excavation conducted at Lumbini and its periphery since 1897 have not discovered any traces of this ancient forest or the garden. Buddhist literatures have described Lumbini garden as an earthy paradise. The archaeologists, both-native and foreign have been taking interest only in finding structural remains and artifacts; only the material culture. They have neither thought nor tried to find out the remains of the ancient Lumbini garden. Nepali archaeologists lack knowledge about the landscape archaeology.

Similarly at Tilaurakot and other archaeological sites of Lumbini and Kapilvastu., the archaeologists have never tried studying the landscape."

Saphlya Amatya : Archaeological and cultural Heritages of Kathmandu valley. P.9

Likewise gardens situated in Janakpur and Raja garden of Siraha have been neglected by both native and foreign archaeologist . There is a mention of two mythological trees in Janakpur's garden in the Buddha jatakas about which the king of Thailand Adulyadesj has mentioned in his book The Story of MahaJanak. He sent his scholar daughter to find out the two trees but she could not find out it. There is a direct need to explore and excavate the garden archaeology of Tarai Madesh. We have heard a lot about Tirhutiya Galchhi located in the heart of proper Janakpur but no archaeologist has tried to explore and excavate about it. There is another important garden named Manimandap which is still surrounded by Green garden but it is shrouded in oblivion. The great poet of epic Ramayana Tulasidas has mentioned about

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garden of Janakpur by seeing its beauty sage Vishwamitra along with Rama and Lakshman were fascinated immensely and Sita used to pluck flowers to worship her favourite goddess Girja. I would like to quote:

"As they went they saw the beautiful royal garden , where reigned eternal spring enchanted by its loveliness. It was planted with charming trees of various kinds and over hang with beautiful creepers of varied hue".

(R.C Prasad: Sri Ram charit manas:P.155)

There are many historical, cultural and archaeological spots related to king Salhesh which are situated in Siraha Dist. Among them there is a famous garden of Salhesh. This is also called Raja Phoolbari which is located some four kms west of Lahan main market. A famous fair is held annually on the auspicious occasion of New year Bikram sambat(B.S). This fair is held for one day only. Hundreds of thousands devotees come to worship their favourite god Salhesh. This famous historical garden has encroached by the local people but neither the local administrative nor the Lahan municipality gives proper attention to it. It is spread in nine bighas of land which is still in existence. There are many botanical and medicinal plants and trees in the garden . A flower in the form of garland is blossomed for only one day on the branches of one tree in middle of the garden. The other day it is faded away. No archaeologist no historian, no cultural expert has found out its secrets up till now. One Nepali scholar Suniva Shrestha has written:

" Some four kilometers west of Lahan, Siraha lies Mother Nature's marvel a garden that bears the legend of king Salhesh, chronicled to have ruled this region during the lattermid 13th century. In this ancient densely forested garden spread over an area of some six hectares, there grows a unique Haram tree that bears flowers only once a year that too on the Nepalese New year Day of Baisakh. The buds start appearing on the last day of the previous year and as the hours pass by, the buds blossom into flowers and by New year dawn takes full shape of a garland. As the day advances the flowers wither and fall. They will not again bloom un till next year's Day.(TRN.Feb.11.2011)

There is also a temple of Salhesh which means the king of mountain. There is an idol of Salhesh sitting on elephant, In its left and right side there are two attractive idol of auna and Kusuma. But there is a strong mythology in the minds of local people which says that the tree named Harem is the main attraction of that garden. This is the unparallel and incomparable beauty of that garden. No body has seen that flower except one particular day. The local people consider it as a supernatural power. There is also another mythology according to which Salhesh's beloved named Kusama Malini (gardener's wife's ) appeared to embrace her lover for only one particular day which is the full moon day of Baisakh. This can be developed as a beautiful spot for tourist attraction not only for Nepal and India but for whole world. Neither native nor foreign archaeologist has been able to venture to explore and excavate this historical garden up till now. Neither the government nor the Tourism Board nor the local administration such as Lahan Municipality has been interested to make it tourist destination. The nation is celebrating Tourism Year 2011 this year but there is no programme and plan to develop it as tourist spot.

Kichakbadh is another historical and cultural spot which has been lost in oblivion since so many years but recently the archaeological dept has tried to excavate this historical place . A team of experts has found archaeologically important remains at Kichakbadh a historical site in Jhapa dist. during recent excavation. It discovered the remains of a brick wall of building and drainage system, the ruins of building brick walled drainage and a wide room in historical and archaeologically important site. Vishnupaduka and Satasidham are also very important cultural spots but the Dept. of archaeology has not paid proper attention towards it . Pindeshwor has been famous from the period of the Pal dynasty. Devotees worship Pindeshwor Mahadev on the especial occasion of Shivaratri. There are many idols which are being stolen but nobody pays proper attention.

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Barah Chhetra is very important religious spot which has been protected by the Oinar dynasty.

Barah Chhetra is situated at the height of 3000 ft and eight miles away from Chatra project. It covers an area of about 5 to 6 kilometers . It is one of the four most important pilgrims place of the Hindu of the world. The literal meaning of Barah Chhetra is the area of wild- boar God. The two storey temple houses the image of Barah, the bear incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The existence of this image is of 12 th century, according to some historians. A grand holy fair is held at Barah Chhetra every year in the month of October. One month long fair is held from the full moon day in the second half of January to the next full moon day in the first half Feb. This is the general belief of the most of the Hindus that the forefathers who receive Pinda (balls of milk pudding with sesame sprinkled over) will be liberated from the birth and death cycles. Offerings of Pinda satisfy the hunger of the forefathers and help them to achieve heavenly abode.

Legends:-According to the Brahma Purana a Hindu scripture the dead parents and relatives will receive the same spiritual advantage, if the relatives offer Pindas at Barah Chhetra. Besides this advantage, childless couples offer Pindas at Barah Chhetra. Childless couples get potency if they have holy dip in the Koshi River. It is situated in the Sunsari dist. which is very famous for the pilgrims of Nepal and India. The confluence of Saptakoshi( Arun, Varun, Sunkoshi, Tama koshi, Dudh Koshi, Tamor and Bhote Koshi and Koka is one of the four Dhams of Hindu. Here are ten incarnations of Bhagwan they are Matsya, Kurma, Barah, Narisingh, Vamanr Parsuhiram, Krishna, Budha and Kalki Barah is one of the three. Here is 22 feet long temple of Barah which has been constructed in Shikhar style. Ther are eight temples near by it. This is very important cultural and historical spot because there is an idol of Barah from the period of Gupta. There are also five gods Laxmi, Indra, Nageshwor Guru, Barah, Surya barah, Koka barah and Badri Mukteshor. It is also said that king Himalaya himself planted plum tree. So that dead persons can get fruits to eat. This is called Bairban, the forest of Plum trees. There is also a lake. There a big and black idol of Durga is also very famous. There are many temples which are made in the period of Gupta. The idol of Narasingh is situated in Inaruwa which was made in the Gupta period.

In the head quarter of Morang Dist. Biratnagar, which is itself a famous historical place there is a big temple of goddess Durga which is Worth visiting and worshipping. Near by Bhediyari is itself an archaeological place. The Dept. of Archaeology has partially excavated in fact now it has been forgotten totally. There are many remains of several temples which are lost in oblivion.

There are two famous temples of goddesses Rajdevi and Chhinmasta situated in the Saptari dist. They are widely revered and worshipped by hundreds of thousands of devotees every year especially on the auspicious occasion of Durga Pooja. A renowned cultural expert David Kinsely has written about Chhinmasta in the following lines " Chhinmasta is probably the most dramatic stunning representation in the Hindu Pantheon of the truth that life, sex and death are part of an interdependent unified system". Chhinmasta is also called Sakhda Bhagwati(goddess) with faith and respect. The king Shakti Singh whose another name was Bakra Singh, established this goddess. It is situated ten Kms south of Rajbiraj, the headquarters of Saptari. It is said that Muslim ruler Gayasudin chhopped of this goddess's head. There is a long tradition of sacrifice of animals on this auspicious occasion of Durga Pooja but it is a matter of great secret that no fly is seen sitting on the sacrificed blood.

The temple of Chhinmasta is located 10 kms south of the headquarter of Saptari dist. Rajbiraj. Some scholars are of opinion that this temple was constructed in the twelfth century. Its historic evidence is this that karnat kings fled away due to the attack of Mughal emperors and entered the Nepalese territory. They entered the Kathmandu valley carrying their favourite goddess Tulaj Bhavani and they also ruled some other parts of Nepal Terai. They also ruled Simraon Garh which is considered the capital of the Karnat dynasty. It is written in the book entitled Bihar Through the 'Ages':

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"According to the Nepalese chronicles it is said that Hari Simhadeva reigned in Nepal for some years, Hari Simhadeva the king of Simraun conquered Nepal and founded the Ayodhya dynasty." (R.R. Diwakar: P 390)

Likewise they also ruled in the eastern part of Saptari Dist. Hari Simhadeva wife Lakhima Devi took shelter in a village named Raja Banauli of Saptari Dist. due to the attack of the Mughal emperors. Vijay kant Mishra writes in his cultural heritage of Mithila

" His queen Lakshmi fled with the royal family to take shelter in vliiage Raja Bananli in Saptari pargna".

Kirat king Shukra Singh ruled in the Saptari District. He made his son Hari Simha Dev King of this dist. in his old age. He constructed this temple. According to hearsay the name of this temple has been kept after his name. He ruled from 1275 to 1307. This temple was constructed during his reign. They cut the head of this goddess so it is called Chhinmasta.

In the beginning according to the local people this temple was like a cave. They got the head of this goddess while cleaning this area according to some people. The priests of this temple repaires it in 1990 B.S. because it was damaged due to the disastrous earthquake after collecting donations.

The late king Birendra Bir B. Shah Dev also donated 5 lakhs of rupees for its repair in 2044 B.S. The late minister of Bihar(India) Lalit Narayan Mishra also donated a huge amount of money for its repair works. He was true devotee of this Goddess. Once he was travelling by air and his plane was about to crash, he remembered this goddess and had a miraculous escape. Pilgrims get mental peace and spiritual solace after having the darshan of this goddess.

Devotees from far and near from India and Nepal throng this place for pilgrimage on the auspicious occasion of Dasain. They pay homage and offer vermilion, glass bangles, flowers, fruits and sweets to please the goddess. He goats are also sacrificed in large number because all goddess are supposes to be blood-thirsty. Flies do not sit on the blood of sacrificed goats and birds. This is unique tradition of the goddess. Even there is no spot on the clothes seen after sacrificing the animals. This is nothing else except miracle of the goddess. This benevolent goddess fulfills all the desires and wishes of the devotees.

She is considered a source of energy and at the same time of inspiration for the devotees. Her power is miraculous, mystic and mysterious. She is also worshipped according to the Tantrik tradition because shakta cult people believe in Tantrisim. This way Goddess chhinamasta is worshipped and she is believed to be pleased very soon.

Lumbini:- Lumbini is the lovely land of Nepal where Buddha, the Light of Asia was born. He is also called the Enlightened one. Formerly he was Sidhartha Gautam, the Shakya prince, the eventual Shakyamuni, and the ultimate Buddha. He was born twenty five hundred years ago. Nepal has been considered the sacred place for Buddhism since his time.

Lumbini is small town in the Southern Terai plains of Nepal. Now it has become world renowned place because of the birthplace of Buddha. He was born to a royal family. His father's name was Suddodhan and mother's name was Maya Devi. He was born with silver spoon in his mouth. He had all the luxuries and comforts to enjoy in the royal family. One day he ventured beyond the royal palace walls and encountered sorrow, pain and death. He saw a beggar, a crippled, a corpse and a holy man. He was deeply moved by these encounters. He determined to find the ultimate cause of suffering and how to get salvation. So he escaped from the royal palace one might leaving his beautiful queen Yashodhara and son Rahul putting off royal customs and cutting his curly hair. He became a wandering ascetic.

He fasted, meditated and spent his time in a rigorous attempt to find out a solution to end suffering. At last he succeeded in his endeavor. On a full moon night in the North Indian town of Bodhgaya, he got

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enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. He had direct communion with Almightily God. He had direct realization of Nirvana or Moksha(salvation) at the age of 84. He exhausted his human body for the welfare of all human beings.

Since then he started preaching a lesson of compassion, love, Nirvana and friendship. Lumbini has been since then a holy place for Buddhists all over the world.

Indian Emperor Ashoka erected a pillar in 250 B.C. which bears an inception about the birth of the Buddha. The original temple of Mayadevi was very historically important but now it is not in existence. It housed a stone image of Mayadevi giving birth to lord Buddha. There is a pond named Puskarni near by the temple in which she bathed after giving birth to Buddha, the Apostle of peace. She also gave purification bath to her son in that pond. Lumbini has become a place of pilgrimage for all Buddhists of the world. It is now being developed under the Master plan of the Lumbini Development Trust, a non governmental organization. It is also a world Heritage Site. Lumbini has religious as well as historical importance no doubt but it is also very well known place from the view point of culture. It offers cultural insights into the local life of southern Nepal especially Tharu's cultural life which is very rich in many aspects. It is also quintessential Buddhist heritages worth visiting site in the world. The sacred Garden is the main center of attraction of Lumbini which is spread over 8sq.kms. Besides this the Maya Devi temple is famous place of pilgrimage. It has become internationally a place of pilgrimage because many countries such as Japan, China, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, France and Germany are constructing stupas, monastries, meditation centers in the International Monastery Zone.

Now Lumbini has come in limelight. The foreign ministry is in the dark about the deal between Asia Pacific Exchange and cooperation Foundation (APECF) and the United Nations Industrial development organization. The two controversial organization inked memorandum of understanding for a three billion dollar project in Beijing on June15. This is a direct threat to national sovereignty. It is matter of great regret than a rouge organization has put Lord Buddha on auction.

Surendra Raj Devkota has written an article entitled Comrade monk of Lumbini Inc,' Is Lumbini a politico-economic object of an individual"-I would like to quote him here

" Let Lumbini be the real Lumbini, not a theme park! Money is the sole mantra for politicians but it won't solne the problems of derailment of values in the society. Economics, profiteering and social values are not mutually exclusive. Competing to mint money in the name of Buddha is wrong".

The Himalayan Times Daily. August 17,2011

Lumbini has been receiving international attention since 1970 when the then secretary General of U.N.O Uthant visited it UNDP developed Master Plan in the 1970s and UNESCO listed it as a world Heritage Site in 1997.

Bakhar Banauli- It was the citadedl of king Piraditya where great poet of Mathila Vidyapati spend twelve years. He also wrote his Likhnavali here. It became a famous cultural spot since then. Siraha Dist. is steeped in cultural heritage where there are many cultural spots.

Pakariyagarh- This culturally rich place lies 10 kms. north in the footsteps of a hill. It was royal palace of king Kuleshwor. There is a temple in the fort in which an idol of king Kuleshwor on sitting on the horse is seen. There is also an idol of king Salhesh. They are worshipped by local people.

Janakpur:- Today janakpur is the headquarter of Dhanusha district falls in Janakpur zone has historical and religious importance. It is the capital of the ancient Mithila, the kingdom which on many of its frontiers is believed to have been guarded by different cities.

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On the northern frontier by Kshireshwor, on the southern by Jaleshwor, on the north eastern by Mithileshwor on the south western by Kupeshwor.

Janakpur is the same sacred place where Janaki, the constant context of Lord Ram and the dutiful daughter of Janak was born from the womb of the mother earth. She is also considered as the most celebrated and illustrated heroine of the Hindu epic Ramayan .

Ram the king of Ayodhya was married to Sita at Janakpur. This marriage ceremony was celebrated on the auspicious occasion of Bibah Panchami(fifth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Agrahan(Nov.Dec.). Thus Ram and Sita are the two central characters of the great Hindu epic Ramayan. Their marriage took place there. The story goes like this. Ram broke a heavenly bow that originally belonged to Lord Shiva. He broke the bow into three pieces. One piece went to heaven . Another entered into the depth of the underworld. The third piece went to present day Dhanusha Dham, about 40 Kilometers from Janakpur. Today also piligrims can see huge rocks shaped like a bow under a tree.

There are a big number of magnifcient temples and large and deep ponds with green and clean water which reflect the glorious and golden past of Janakpur. These have earned it the honour of being the most sacred spot for millions and millions of Hindu piligrims from all over the world every year especially on the occasions such as Bibah Panchami and Ram Navami and Janali Navami. Therefore the charms of Janakpur, however, do not lie in its temple and ponds, it is also famous for numerous fairs and festivals that take place here on plenty of such occasions.

Town of Temples:- Janakpur has been rightly called a town of temples. There are so many ancient temples and artistic statues and shrines, which remind us the glorious and religious chapters written about Mithila in the history of Nepal. There are two temples (Janaki and Rama) which are popular and famous in the whole Hindu world.

References

1. Ram Dayal Rakesh: Cultural Heritage of Nepal- Terai: Nirala Publication, New Delhi, 1994.

2. Ram Dayal Rakesh: Janakpur: The Sacred Jewel of Nepal: Safari Nepal, 2005.

3. Saphlya Amatya: Archaeological and cultural Heritages of Kathmandu Valley, 2010.

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Media in MadheshDharmendra Jha

To appear.

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Chaos in the Water Sector: Developments Failure to Provide Safe Water in Terai

Dr. Linda SmithDirector, Filters for Families

director.linda@gmail.com

To appear.

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