March 12, 2005
The Common Meal
Some of the familiar methods of awareness-raising and advocacy among civil society organizations working for the upliftment of dalits and eradicating social discrimination in Nepal is to perform street dramas, participate in mass rallies and hold something called common meals where men and women of all castes can sit down with one another, converse freely and enjoy a meal together. The common meal is aimed at breaking down notions of untouchability and jutho (impurity) still prevalent among many Hindus in Nepal. These norms are particularly conservative with regards to food—in the countryside it is common that dalits are refused entry to teahouses (or are made to bring their own cup) and restaurants.
While the efficacy and impact of such events is questionable and not well documented, I have personally witnessed groups of dalit women marching through the streets of their villages to the Hindu temple demanding entry brought to tears once they step foot inside and are allowed to worship, and have observed groups of dalits and higher castes partaking of meals together in remote regions while sitting on the ground cross-legged and taking their food from simple, disposable plates fashioned out of leaves. Questions of impact and efficacy aside, these simple measures—and demanding of rights—seemed to have had a profound bearing on the lower caste participants themselves.
Out of curiosity, tonight I attended a common meal event in Kathmandu hosted by a large Nepalese NGO working in dalit rights and advocacy held at the Birendra International Convention Center (the only venue of its kind in Nepal) and attended by newly appointed ministers in His Majesty’s government—not the most common of venues nor guest lists. The event included a long list of speakers touting what should be done to uplift the condition of dalits in Nepal and declarations to do so at all costs. Upon the completion of speeches and kudos as the crowd moved outside for the meal portion of the event, myself and a small group of foreigners who work with Nepali NGOs were approached by a group of dalit students who opposed the night’s proceedings (conspicuously absent from the night’s events were some of the bigger INGOs themselves even the INGO whose funds sponsored the event!). The dalit student group passed out leaflets outlining their opposition to the event: a waste of funds that could be used in dalit communities themselves; the absence of any dalit speakers who could attest to the real and abysmal conditions of dalit communities; no real agenda/concrete action plan put forward as to how the civil society organizations would uplift the condition of dalit communities and uphold laws against “untouchability;” an attempt by the NGO/civil society community to “pat themselves on the back” by holding such an event.
In general, I sympathized with the dalit students because of my own background in more radical approaches to human rights and couldn’t have agreed with them more, discerning that the event mainly served as a means of highlighting what one NGO was doing to uplift the condition of dalits (with little details of their successes or failures) heavy on rhetoric of how more efforts should be put into dalit rights-based approaches with no concrete action plan put forward. Inviting recently appointed ministers in light of current curtailed human rights and abuses in some sense smacked of hypocrisy and served as a slap in the face of activists and dalit and other marginalized communities themselves. At the same time, however, awareness-raising and advocacy activities, I believe, must reach all levels of society from the bottom to the top for real change to occur and must seek to implement an integrated approach that uniformly impacts all castes and strata of society. While dalit and other marginalized communities are willing and eager to take measures to uplift their own condition, awareness raising efforts must also include components which reach out to all castes, particularly in an effort to demonstrate how caste discrimination has a harmful affect on the overall development of Nepal. Certainly, equality and adherence to basic human rights needs no justification; however, a collaborative, inter-caste approach is the best means towards abolishing the scourge of untouchability and caste-based discrimination. Open dialogue amongst all castes and social change activists from both lower and upper caste communities will go a long way towards promoting and facilitating equitable, sustainable and positive changes in the human condition. It could also be argued that the dalit student group themselves failed to forward their own plans and solutions; instead opting to focus on the shortcomings of the event. Could it not be maintained, then, that the student group is equally complicit in not addressing the real needs of dalit communities? Is there not a means by which all forces can join hands in the fight to eradicate social discrimination?
Without knowing the particulars of how much money when into organizing and holding the common meal program, it would be hard for me to criticize the event as a waste of funding. If the event amounted to only a small fraction of funding, then it could be argued that it was held as a means of sharing lessons learned and best practices and the floor could have been opened for a question and answer session. As the afternoon transpired, however, it became painfully apparent that none of that was on the agenda, and the event served very little purpose. As far as the meal itself, people mingled a bit on the soggy grounds outside the convention center as they ate their meal, but not much else happened… Perhaps a few people were moved by the speeches and vowed to either take up or continue the fight for dalit rights and ending all caste-based discrimination, but in the end, dalits themselves remain mostly far off in remote villages and in congested zones of poverty and inequality.
All dalit-focused projects should be designed and implemented bearing in mind that interventions are short-term whereas the development process is continuous. All efforts, therefore, should incorporate a strategy that both enables participants to maintain and continue a project as long as it is needed and to manage a development process that will lead to other community-initiated development efforts. All dalit upliftment efforts should be constant with this principle. All efforts must include an integrated basis of awareness raising and training to increase local understanding of dalit and lower caste rights and the harmful anti-development effects of caste discrimination and to reduce instances of discriminatory behavior; thereby, enabling greater access to the public sphere, educational and economic opportunities for dalit and other marginalized communities by working directly with community-based associations and allied groups from all walks of life. These are inherently sustainable actions and worthy of funding and support. Someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, the common meal will become just that—common.
Posted by david at March 12, 2005 11:26 AM