To briefly introduce myself, I am Anita Pariyar from the eastern part of Nepal. There are six children in my family (three daughters and three sons). I was born into a tailor's family and am thus known as a Dalit, or Untouchable, in Nepal's Hindu society. Moreover, as the member of a tailor's family, my subcaste is considered the lowest even among Dalits themselves. My parents are not well educated, are economically disadvantaged, politically neglected and socially untouchable, as are about 20 percent of the total population of our country of 23 million. My mother gave birth to a child when she was only 19 after getting married at the age of 18. She had to have many children, as my father required her to have a son.
When I was born, my father was not happy because he had hopes of having a son, and I was a daughter. Especially in my village, they think that to support a daughter is "like pouring water into the sand," a sentiment felt by other men in our society. I was encouraged though to study by my parents who wanted me to have a better life than themselves so that I could lead other women of the community. During my school years, however, I had to face many difficulties related to my caste because I received a scholarship by Sarah and Maggie Jacoby Fund and had to go to a different district, Siraha-Bastipur, where I stayed in a village. After I received the scholarship, it was a major problem for my father to find a place for me to live as there was no hostel for girls. No one was ready to provide me with a room, even if we paid rent, just because of my caste and because they thought it would be impure if they provided a room to a Dalit. My father though found one Dalit family; and after my father made a request, they allowed me to stay with them. There was no place to study, however. After one week, I decided that I could not study if I stayed with them because no one was there in the family to understand the problems of a young student as they did not send their children to school. I told my father about this concern of mine.
Now it was another major problem for him to find a different place for me. There was a meeting with the villagers to find a room for me. His friends have rooms, but they could not provide a room to his friend's daughter. The domestic helper of one of my father's friends was listening to my problems though. He belongs to an ethnic community that dared to help me and allowed me to stay in one of their homes. In the evening, I saw that it was a hut with two rooms. I entered inside and found two goats. I replied though to my father that I liked it. I cleaned the rooms, made it warm with firewood-there was no electricity-and I stayed there alone when I was 12 years old in seventh grade. My father had to go home, and I was alone. The owner though took me inside their home at around 11:30 p.m. and woke me up at 3 a.m. and said I had to go to my room. Because they provided me with a room, their neighbours shunned them. As a result, the man's wife used to scold me and quarrelled with her husband, asking him why he accepted me.
The owner of my room used to provide food to students, and I joined their meals. All of the other students were boys, and I could not eat first and could not serve myself because I was a Dalit girl. Instead, I had to wait until they finished and then had to stay behind and eat later. I also had to wash my dishes, although it was not necessary for others as we all paid for our food. I even could not touch the tap that they were using. After I used it, they used to clean it to make it pure. I spent four years there and finished my schooling. During my days there, people, especially women, used to make complaints to my teachers, saying that I am making them impure.
I went to college in Kathmandu where, again, there was a problem to find a place to stay since I did not have any relatives there. I started to stay with my friends at a so-called non-Dalit's house. After several months, when they realised that my surname belongs to the Dalit community, they said I had to leave the room. The house owner was a chief district officer. Up to now, I have left three places just because I am a Dalit. I have found that there is always a social gap between Dalits and non-Dalits.
For instance, there is a temple nearby my house where I could never enter, but my friends could enter. As I was born in a Hindu society, I wanted to worship and touch the statue of the so-called god, but my mother used to say that it is not good to go inside the temple. How can I go there if my mother thinks it is not good for me? Now I realise that she did not want to say that I am impure and cannot enter the temple.
I am a young woman fighting against caste and gender discrimination. I have had many bitter experiences when I work, go to visit rural areas, as well as in Nepal's capital city. I have had to face many problems caused by my caste. For example, I am not allowed to enter the temple, use public water taps, restaurants and the houses of so-called higher castes-something even a dog can do. A UNICEF report said that about 60 percent of Dalit women are victims of trafficking because of their poverty. These are all factors that motivate me to press ahead as a Dalit woman activist. I am involved in gathering information about these events of inhuman behaviour toward Dalit people. I am building a coalition and support network to influence opponents for positive change and to reduce the inhumane acts upon us.
Now I am working for the Feminist Dalit Organisation (FEDO), the only Dalit women's organisation in Nepal, as a central board member since 2000. Previously, I was a staff member of FEDO for two years beginning in 1998. Being an executive board member of the FEDO, I have represented Dalits at the regional preparation workshop on World Conference against Racism, AMARC 8 Conference 2003, UN Commission on Human Rights 2003. I have worked as a journalist at the Radio Nepal, Nepal Television and other community radio stations in Nepal, highlighting issues of caste-based and gender discrimination. Since September 2003 I have been interning at the Hong Kong-based regional human rights NGO Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
FEDO was established in 1994 with the mission to uplift and empower downtrodden Dalit women economically, educationally, socially and politically and to advocate against caste and gender discrimination from the grassroots level. By generating awareness and unity among Dalit men and women and by co-operating with our international friends, such problems will gradually be eliminated. Working together, it is possible to change the views of society and attain justice. We work at the grassroots level because we believe that if we can create change from the bottom to the top there will be effective results and we will not have to hang our heads.
I look forward to this opportunity to share my experiences with women activists in all around the world and to learn more about the lives of women and how they have sought to overcome the discrimination they face in their community.
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