Exclusion refers to the process through which an individual or groups wholly or partially deprived in social, economic or political participation by the society in which they live. It is a socio-economic and political discrimination on the basis of caste, gender, religion, ethnicity nationalities etc.

Nepal is a pluralistic society with diverse ethnic, caste, linguistic and religious communities. Dalit, Janjati, Madhesi, Muslim, persons with disability, people of Karnali zone and women have been identified as socially, economically and politically excluded i.e. disadvantaged, vulnerable, powerless, voiceless groups in Nepal. Dalits 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.

All these excluded groups have very low participation in governance from the very beginning to present in Nepal’s history. The proportion of Brahman, Chhetri, and Newar in all the bodies of governance: main political parties, cabinet, parliament, legislature, judiciary, civil service has been dominant and has increased over time. Their dominance in civil service increased from 70 to 90 percent between 1985 and 2002 (DFID and the World Bank, 2006). Women have never gained more than six percent of the seats in the lower house. The Madeshi community shares 32 percent of the country’s total population, their representation in governance has been less than 10 percent. Similarly, the representation of Dalits and Janjati has also been very low.

Among dominant groups, the Brahmans and Chhetris who constitutes about 31 percent of total population has above 65 percent representation in all sectors of the governance except private sector followed by the Newars who constitutes 5.5 percent of total population has above 10 percent representation in all sectors of governance in the country. On the other hand, Madhesis, Janjatis and Dalits, who constitute 31.5, 23.1 and 7.9 percent of total population respectively, have very low representation in governance compared to their population.   

Nature and Incidence of Poverty among Excluded Groups:

Poverty is a complex multidimensional problem. It is a reflection of lack of dynamism in society. It is a holistic approach of human deprivation. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of income as well as human poverty. Perpetuating poverty is one of the important causes of conflict in Nepal. It is higher among marginalized groups Dalits, Janjatis, and Muslims compared to well-off groups because employment problems are entrenched in the marginalized groups located largely in rural and backward areas of the country.

Although the incidence of poverty has decreased from 42 percent in 1995/96 to 31 percent in 2003/04, data show that the absolute number of poor living below the poverty line has increased sharply in Nepal, i.e., from 4.2 million in 1977 to 7.6 million in 2004 (Prasad, 2008).

In Nepal, the Dalits have been most poverty stricken followed by Hill Janjatis and Muslims respectively. In 2003/04, the incidence of poverty among Dalits was 45.5 percent followed by 44.0 and 41.3 percent among Hill Janjatis and Muslims respectively. Newars and Brahmans are less poverty stricken.

UNDP introduced the concept of human poverty in its human development report in 1999 to look beyond income poverty to other aspect of human deprivation. It comprises lack of capabilities, political freedom, and personal security, inability to participate in decision-making process and participate in the life of community. Nepal has made significant progress over the past two decades in terms of human development indicators. Despite significant progress, human development indicators are still low with significant urban/rural, caste/ethnicity, gender and geographical variations.

Although Nepal Human Development Report 2009 reveals that the HDI value increased by 8 percent from 0.471 in 2001 to 0.509 for the whole country in 2006, it varies more widely by caste and ethnicity. For every Human Development Indicators, Dalits Janjatis and Muslims fall below the national average. The people of three caste and ethnic groups-Madhesi Brahmans and Chhetris, Newars and Hill Brahmans have higher HDI value i.e. above 0.6. The Madhesi Brahmans and Chhetris who constitute about 2 percent of Nepal’s total population have highest HDI value. Whereas the Madhesi Dalits who constitute about 5 percent of Nepal’s total population has lowest HDI value followed by hill Dalits.

Gender Based Exclusion

There has been widespread gender based exclusion in Nepal. It is likely to be chronic in male-dominated societies. Gender disparity starts right from birth. Sons are considered assets while daughters are considered liabilities in the developing countries. The level of education, health and nutrition among women and girls’ are much lower than for men and boys, particularly in rural areas. For some work, typically women get lower wage than men.  In some cultures, widows face barriers against employment or remarriage. They are treated as second-class family member within the home leading to high risk of poverty. Most of the poor children are given birth by malnourished and illiterate mothers. They suffer from birth complications like low birth weight, neonatal tetanus leading to high infant mortality risk.

Human Development Indicators clearly show existing gender disparities in Nepal. For example, despite significant progress, the adult literacy rate of women in 2006 was just half of men. This was also visible in the indicator for average years of schooling. Representation of Nepalese women in civil and all three levels of elected government lag far behind that of men. Women representation in civil service and officer level is very low compared to men.

The vulnerability of Dalit women has been serious due to severe exploitation and suppression by the upper classes. 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.  

Economic Exclusion

For nearly 240 years of a unitary system of governance, the regional, social, economic and political inequalities remained more or less unchanged. The domination of Brahmans, Chhetris and Newars continued ignoring the reality of the diversified and pluralistic characteristics of Nepali society. 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.

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. Data reveals that there is wide variation in the per capita expenditures in Nepal. The government expenditure, both recurrent as well as capital, is higher in hill across all development regions. Tarai has the lowest per capita government expenditure across all development regions. Per capita capital expenditure in all Tarai districts has been far below than the national average. For example, per capita capital expenditure in 2006/06 was only Rs. 241 and Rs. 242 in Rautahat and Mahottari districts respectively in comparison to national average of Rs. 2,135 (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.

Article Courtesy CETS-Centre for Economic and Technical Studies and FES- Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 2009 Seminar on “Building Bridges for Peace in Nepal”.

Comments (1)

To the Writer: If you are preparing your thesis on this subject, get it right ! janjatis of Hill area are facing more poverty than madhesis in Tarai. Spend more time on your research please.

Commented by samrat~ - October 10, 2009 @ 6:26 PM

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