Facilitator Jamuna helps Sapana sew her story

“Here I portray the story of my story cloth which I have made during the Sajha Dhago program. In this story of story cloth I portray the pain that I felt and I wanted to reduce the pain and to upraise the voice against discrimination and also to uplift the confidence, I collect and sew small pieces of cloths to make this story of story cloth. I felt extremely unpleasant even after hearing the name of caste discrimination. Thousands of people lost their life because of discrimination. Even in our country Nepal, so many people had to lose their lives just because of their lower caste. Some by touching water, some by stepping into temples, inter-caste marriage, just because they are son and daughter of lower caste they were raped and killed, some children are beaten till death in the minor case of stealing yogurt. We saw and heard such stories.

“I feel there are only two castes in mankind, male and female but because of the caste based system so many people lost their life in our country. In 23rd May, 2020 there was the biggest massacre in history related to caste. The massacre occurred in the West Rukum Chaurjahari -8. There was the massacre of Nawaraj Biswokarma, a resident of Seti Gaun, Jajarkot and 6 other peoples. The main cause of this massacre was the inter caste relationship between Nawaraj Bishworkarma and his Mrs. Malla. Just because Nawaraj was dalit, the family of his girlfriend killed him and 6 others. The death of peoples was of 4 Dalit and 2 non Dalit.

“Dalit community has helped in moving forward with their skills; Dalits make land fertile with efforts and sweat; Dalits are the magicians of the songs and knowledge. Sewing and weaving are done by Dalit. Temples and statues are made by Dalits and yet they are poor, landless and untouchable. Forever they are locked in an open prison. There are a bigger number of Dalits that have contributed to Nepal's core Economy through remittance with foreign employment where they sell their skills and time at a lower price. Revolution needs Dalit; Peace needs Dalit; Dalits are needed for brain and civilization, yet they are locked in this everlasting grip of untouchable and discrimination. This opposite system of caste and ethnicity management and this thought of being above base is the making of caste-based society. To change this general people must unite.

“These sorts of incidents have been affecting and hurting my feelings. Because I am a dalit woman who is representing this community. So in the story cloth I drew the story of the dead bodies of 6 peoples, stones and the heart which indicates death by attacking with the stone because of inter-caste marriage. During the process of story cloth making I had a lot of questions about caste based discrimination and I felt headache and could not complete this. After 4-5 days I completed this work. I feel I should add so many things if I remember that incident. There is no limit to caste based discrimination in our country and the number of times I portray this in the story cloth.”

Sapana’s story cloth, in her own words