NEW HORIZONS - NEPAL

Well we guess it all begins here. After months of recruitment and selection, training, medical checkups and bidding we’re off to Kathmandu on February 20th for what we hope is one of the most fullfilling stages of our lives – working with the world renowned Voluntary Services Overseas to develop organisation capacity in local Nepalese NGOs so that they might better address the needs of the country’s disadvantaged people.

Simon will be contracted to the Dalit Welfare Organisation - a local Nepalese NGO trying to get the issue of this "untouchables" caste of society further up the agenda of the government.

Laura is waiting for a suitable placement. More news to follow.

THE DALITS

The Indian subcontinent caste system has historically divided populations into different groups. At the top are the priestly castes followed by the warrior castes, trading and artisan castes and labouring and servant castes.

One other group has no caste and are referred to as the “untouchables” or “dalits”. In traditional Hindu society Dalits were often associated with occupations regarded as ritually impure – the killing and handling of animal carcasses or the management of human waste. Engaging in these activities was considered polluting to the individual who performed them, and this pollution was considered to be 'contagious'. As a result, Dalits commonly banned and segregated from full participation in Hindu social life.

And even with legislation outlawing caste based discrimination it still exists today and is in no way limited to the Hindu religion.

The four million Dalits in Nepal make up around 12% of the total population but have today no representation in the lower house of government and very limited representation in the upper house.

With limited access to health-care life expectancy in the dalit communities has been estimated at 52 years versus the national average of 62 years.

But perhaps the two worst measures of disadvantage are literacy and income:

- Nepal’s adult literacy rate has been estimated at 48.6% of the population. In the dalit communities only 10% of men and 3% of women are literate.

- Nepal’s average income per capita is now estimated at between 270US$ and 300US$ per year, making Nepal in real terms, one of the poorest nations of earth. Shockingly some estimates place the average income per capita in the dalit communities at little over 10% of the national average – 30US$ to 40US$ PER YEAR.

The Dalit Welfare Organisation, established in 1994, aims to build awareness of this level of disadvantage and through the media and demonstration force real changes in Nepalese society. Concurrently the organisation aims to provide basic and vocational training in the DWO communities as well as facilitating income generation initiatives.