Political Exclusion Badi of Nepal

CHAPTER V Current Issues of Exclusion and Inclusion

5.1 Political Exclusion

Badis seem to have low levels of political representation and understanding of political processes. In general, only four percent of Badis are engaged as executive members, eight percent are active members and 10 percent are general members of political parties. hey were seemingly involved in peoples’ movement I and II and also in human rights organizations. Data shows see Table 7 that the level of awareness and understanding on federalism, republic, proportional representation, reservation, and identity is very low. In the study area, Badis are only nominally represented and are not accorded leadership positions in political parties. he role of political parties at the village level is not good. here is a tendency to dominate others in political parties so that the voices of Dalit women and minorities who are not in leadership position are not heard. At tea shops and chautaras, supporters of one party are seen to be criticizing and accusing the other. here is no representation of Badis in political parties in Rakam VDC from any of the three major parties. People are heard saying that they voted for one party or the other, but no Badi was found to claim to be a cadre or occupying a leadership position. According to Pustak Badi, for women to be a member or cadre of a political party is a far cry. In Dang district, however, some Badi youth are active as cadres and some are in regional committees of political parties; however, they are not in any signiicant leadership positions. According to Horilal Badi, apart from some youth, the political representation of other Badi groups is nil in politics. Badis have begun 61 2014 to realize that there are structural weaknesses for not developing the Badi. Non participation in and exclusion from politics is also a major reason for lack of progress of Badis. Table 7: Representation in Politics 63 2014 62 2014 Political parties have not included Badis in their party. According to a youth Badi activist, if political parties included Badis then they could not compete with rival parties because their inluence will be less because Badis are untouchables. No political party has included Badis even at the village level, but in Dang there are village unit members. When asked about non participation in political parties, Badis say that parties are using tokenism. Parties have included a Dalit woman, but Badis have not been able to beneit from it. Also, he says Badi cadres have less contribution in parties as they cannot give time.

5.2 Identity Based Exclusion and Caste-Based Discrimination