Caste System, Quota and Nepal

https://i-sight.com/resources/discrimination-in-the-workplace-guide/ 

It is an undeniable fact that influenced by Hindu caste system, Nepal has a complex social structure of different class of people which in past gave power to certain influential group only. There are four principle castes: Brahmin, Chhetri, Baise and Sudra. Sudra, the caste that was also considered the "untouchable" class in the time in past is still facing hard time in rural part of Nepal after so much of change. Different rules and regulations are established by the government to ensure the discrimination doesn't happen like before and the people who lagged behind in social context uplift their lifestyle. To ensure the lower class people gain economic stability and establish better social status, Nepal government ensures reservations "Quotas" in different civil service posts, Police, Army and other various institutions. In addition there are laws and many non-governmental organisation that are there to protect the underprivileged group. 

Caste system is a deep rooted problem in Nepalese society. After the constitution of Nepal 2015 was drafted,  there are various laws that discourages discrimination, encourages participation for minority groups and secures various other essential rights. However, lack of government effort to flow correct information around and the old mentality of society of unequal treatment of people have turned to be a bigger challenge. Illiteracy, ineffective local governing bodies and influence of certain "high" class people causes the people of so called lower class to face problems. Various incidents relating caste discrimination surfaces in media platforms time and again showing ineffectiveness of government in controlling these issues. Contradicting to that, small incidents that involve people of such caste but actually have nothing to do with discrimination gets highly politicised, pushing back societal reforms and establishing a firm identity of the caste system.

As an initiative to uplift social status of the people, certain percent of civil service posts are allocated to minorities which is also known as " Reservation Quotas".  In Nepal, 45% of all civil service posts are allocated for inclusive ( Reservation) and other 55% is allocated for open competition. 45% of the reservation quotas is converted into 100 percent and distributed according to given reservation clusters.Within that, 9% of post are allocated for "Dalit", people who are considered "untouchable". As educated people like us can distinct that it is a myth that passed-on in the society that these people should not be touched and later on it became a norm. It has been a challenge to make old generation people aware that such things should not exists and at some level, those who are the victims are not able to accept the change themselves. 

In contrast to positive efforts, the constitution of 2015 and the government have established various institutions like "dalit aayog" and "dalit uthan kendra", that always will identify the underprivileged as minority group "Dalit". It is like reminding the community of their real status though they get various support. If  Nepal government really want minorities uplift their life style, get ahead in society, the main thing needed is literacy. Its old norms and values that are holding the society back in accepting everyone to be equal. Reservation works only when the system is fair but in a corrupt government like of Nepal, reservation  gets exploited. Countable people and educated society might help the community to uplift their status but when it comes to getting social benefit, people in power will use it as a weapon to gather a mass around them. It is taken as a political advantage and a means to gather vote.

 No matter how much aware we have been, how far ahead we have come or how much we try, its those minorities who decides their fate. EDUCATION is MUST.