Dhanakali Sunar has been discriminated against all her life for being born into a Dalit family. When Sunar was elected a ward member of Baijanath Rural Municipality-1 in the last local elections, she thought her perseverance had won over discrimination and that she could now lead a respectable life alongside her neighbours. But she was proven wrong on the evening of July 2 when Bhuwan Budha, a 25-year-old man from Chandanitol, verbally abused her and started throwing stones at her house. The unprovoked attack shocked Sunar. “He suddenly started abusing me verbally without provocation,” she said. “He used slurs against me, calling me names and labelling me a cow-eater.”

Although Budha continued abusing her, she did not react. The abuse and threats of violence continued for an hour. “When he started throwing stones at my house, I asked my husband to take our eight-year-old son and leave the house,” she said. “This incident jolted me back to the reality I was living in where people are abused just for being a Dalit.”

Since that day, Sunar says she feels unsafe in her own village. “The Dalits of this village do not feel safe anymore,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything about it at that time but wait to file a complaint with the police.”

Two days after the incident, Sunar lodged a case against Budha at the Area Police Office in Kohalpur.

Section 7 (a) of Caste-Based Discrimination and Untouchability (Offence and Punishment) Act, 2011, with its third amendment in 2018, says a person who commits the offence referred to in sub-sections (2), (3), (4), (5), (6) or (7) of Section 4 shall be liable to the punishment of imprisonment for a term between three months and three years and a fine between Rs50,000 and Rs200,000. Section 4 is related to incidents involving caste-based discrimination and untouchability.

Police said Budha was arrested soon after a caste-based discrimination charge was filed against him. Further investigation is underway into the incident, said police.

Sunar’s case is hardly singular in Baijanath. On April 7, Birama Tamata of Baijanath had gone to her neighbour Dil Bahadur Thapa’s house to attend the 13th-day death ritual. Tamata sat down with the village women to make leaf plates for the ritual when Naina Thapa, a local woman, stopped her and asked her to refrain from touching the leaves. Tamata, who is 42, was left speechless. “When I tried to fight back, the women started abusing me,” she said. “They manhandled me and told me I was not welcome there because I was a Dalit.”

Tamata’s son, Pradeep, who was with his mother at the time of the incident, tried to stop the village women from abusing his mother. “But they attacked my son, injuring his right eye,” she said. “That was when I decided to file a case against the perpetrator.” A few days later she filed a case at the Area Police Office in Kohalpur demanding action against the guilty.

But she hasn’t had any peace since the incident and after she filed the case. The villagers are threatening to drive Tamata’s family out of the village. Some villagers have been issuing threats to her son after the case was filed and have even threatened to kill the family if they don’t withdraw the case, Tamata said. “We are panicking as the legal process is underway,” she said. “I’m worried about the safety of my children.”

Deputy Superintendent of Police Sundar Tiwari at the Kohalpur Area Police Office said a caste-discrimination charge was filed against five people including two schoolteachers recently. The case is sub judice at the Banke district court. According to the District Police Office in Banke, four caste-based discrimination-related cases were filed in the fiscal year of 2022-23. Three of them are pending at the district court. But there are many cases that don’t make it to the police for fear of reprisal, rights activists say.

The Constitution of Nepal 2015 also has provisions against caste-based discrimination. Article 24 (1) of the statute says that no person shall be subjected to any form of untouchability or discrimination in any private and public places on grounds of his or her origin, caste, tribe, community, profession, occupation or physical condition. Clause 5 of the Article states that any act of untouchability and discrimination in any form committed in contravention of the constitutional provision shall be punishable by law as a severe social offence, and the victim of such act shall have the right to obtain compensation in accordance with the law.

Despite legal provisions in place, caste-based discrimination continues to haunt the country. Dalit rights advocates say the legal provisions regarding caste discrimination are lax, hindering swift justice delivery to the aggrieved. Abolition of untouchability and discrimination still remains a pipedream, they say.

Nirmala Sunar, a Banke-based rights activist, said that in several cases, the state does not take legal action against the guilty even after receiving complaints of caste discrimination. Those guilty of caste-based discrimination walk scot-free due to the loopholes of the existing legal provisions, Sunar added.

“If the government is serious about uprooting caste-based discrimination, it must work towards making more stringent laws with stricter penalties,” she said. “Nepali society continues to remain regressive as discrimination against Dalits persists to this day and age.”