Krishna B. Bhattachan & Dilli Ram DahalThe larger objective of the paper is to consider how inequality is produced and how affirmative measures are being taken in Nepal over the years and the prospects for affirmative action as a strategy for addressing inequality in Nepal. Particularly, this paper explores the nature of the respective preferential policy/reservation packages of the government, political parties and the non-governmental organizations, the ways they are written and implemented and their impacts to the concerned groups as a whole. Broadly, these issues are discussed at four levels: i) Concepts of in equality and reservation/affirmative action, ii) Why reservation is necessary for certain groups, iii) Reservation policy: packages of the government, political parties and other various agencies, and iv) Problems, issues and schemes for reservation.  

  Ram B. Chhetri This paper discusses women’s participation in governance (local, district and central level), describes initiatives taken to increase women’s involvement, and highlight factors that facilitate or inhibit women’s participation in public activities, including governance. The arrangement of quota for women in local and national governance through policy and legal instruments have made a difference in the way the public governance landscape looks at present in terms of gender representation. The affirmative action taken by the state and its implications for women’s empowerment will be examined by presenting selected case studies. I will also discuss some socially and culturally grounded ideals on the issues of women’s involvement in public arenas. The information comes from a study that looked at the status (depth and breadth) of women’s participation in…

Pramod Bhatta This paper describes the various social inequalities that exist in Nepal’s higher education and provides a critical analysis of the ways in which affirmative action is posited as an obvious response to address these inequalities. The paper delves into the ways in which inequality in education is understood and debated in the Nepali context, often resulting in very ‘confused’ and blanket responses to addressing them. It argues that while affirmative action may be a highly popular and a widely accepted method of addressing graded inequalities in higher education, it is not the only way per se and that further clarity is required on what the term constitutes. Given that many of Nepal’s inequalities in higher education stem from an unequal base (i.e., school education), the paper concludes that…

Tulsi Ram Pandey It is an obvious fact of society that people in all contexts are characterized by a number of differences. Some of these differences are natural and are marked by the feature of one’s race, sex, age and such others. Some others are constructed and structural, and are marked by differences of culture as well as that of control over or access to power, property and other productive resources. Still others represent the differences of individual capability of people based on variations at the level of their exposure, achieved skills and related ability. All these three categories of inequalities and differences have their own specific social importance. However, they are mutually related to each other. Each of them is used as a factor for shaping the features and…

Hilary Silver This paper examines the relationships—and disjunctures—between social inclusion and affirmative action as policy frameworks to address multidimensional inequalities. Both concepts are currently circulating widely in the public sphere in Nepal, but there is a great deal of confusion about what ‘social inclusion’ in fact means, how it can be best implemented through policy measures, and how it is similar to/different from more well-understood but equally contentious concepts like affirmative action. The paper will provide a comparative framework for considering these issues drawing upon experience from various countries.

Mukta S. Tamang The classification of societies around categories such as caste, ethnicity, race, social class and gender is a pervasive feature of sociality as well as governmentality.  Perhaps more starkly in Nepal, social classification by the state is critical to understanding of the past structuring of the inequality, as well as future initiatives for equity.  Nepal has traversed through infamous Muluki Ain of 1854 which classified all the people of the country in hierarchy of caste structure to present-day identity-based social categories of Indigenous Nationalities, Dalits, Madhesis, and others for the purpose of affirmative action and anti-discrimination policies.  This paper outlines the terrain of the social classification in Nepal along the complexities added by the reclaiming of identities by those who bear them in recent years and challenges for…

Ashwini Deshpande The paper begins with a summary of evidence on economic disparities between broad caste groups. Measuring disparity is relatively straightforward; estimating discrimination is not. I briefly discuss some of the latest methods for gauging economic discrimination, and present the evidence on discrimination in the Indian context. What this evidence reveals is that lip-service to merit notwithstanding, contemporary, formal, urban sector labour markets show a deep awareness of caste, religion, gender, and class cleavages, and that discrimination is very much a modern sector phenomenon, perpetuated in the present, not a thing of the past, nor is it confined only to the rural areas. Thus, caste discrimination is clear and persistent, and needs targeted interventions. The paper argues that affirmative action should be seen as one of the remedies for…

N. R. Madhava Menon Inequality and discrimination are vexed problems in societies aspiring for an egalitarian social order through democratic processes under rule of law.  A variety of affirmative action strategies including preferential discrimination in favour of marginalised people, reservation of seats in education and employment and equalizing opportunities through socio-economic planning are employed by countries which advanced the cause of equality in varying degrees.  Though reservation and affirmative action can mitigate extreme manifestations of inequality in income and status, long term results by way of equality in outcomes can happen only if equality of opportunities is achieved, particularly in education, health, housing, employment, and other basic needs.  Towards this end, an independent Equal Opportunities Commission with constitutional status will be enormously helpful.  Outlining the contours of such a Commission…

Om Gurung Nepal government’s Act of 2002 legally recognised 59 groups as indigenous peoples with their distinct identity. But many others were left out. This not only affected their ethnic identity but it also deprived them of the socio-economic benefits of the state. This led to the agitation for self-identification as indigenous peoples. In order to address this agitation, the Council of Minister of the Government of Nepal formed a 9 Member High Level Task Force under my Coordinatorship in April 2009. The main task of the Task Force was to re-identify and reschedule indigenous peoples and reclassify them into proper groups for social services and economic benefits. The Task Force spent 10 months to study. Based on national and international standard and criteria, the Task Force revised the list…

Marc Galanter This paper provides a schematic overview of affirmative action policy in a democratic polity with commitments to multiple groups of beneficiaries. It sorts out the major choices about structure, operation, extent, duration, and evaluation  that policy architects must make and suggests some of the potential advantages and disadvantages of certain architectural features. It proposes the necessity for continuing assessment and adaptation to changing conditions. (This is a revised version of The First Samata Annual Lecture, delivered in Kathmandu on September 23, 2011.)