Citizenship and social security of landless Dalits in Nepal

The intertwined relationship between rights and responsibilities are reciprocal between people and the State. Citizenship and land ownership are fundamental means through which people's relationship with the State is adjudged and determined. The study explores how the lack of accessibility of land ownership and citizenship certificate affects peoples' civil, political and social rights. The same is concluded through the case study of landless Dalits. To factor the relationship between landlessness, citizenship and social security; unstructured interviews with 60 household heads were conducted. The study found that the lack of citizenship certificate and land ownership certificate promotes the feeling of statelessness, without a change in patriotic impulse. Despite the government’s attempts to redistribute land in the area, the gradients of socio-economic and political power determine the fate of landless Dalits. The Dalits, inept and minority stakeholders, continue to be landless after more than four decades, whereas the elites are able to obtain land ownership certificate through their influence on the local authorities. Landless Dalits are being ignored not only by the State and political parties, but also by national and international organizations. Discriminatory behaviour of the State towards Dalits is an ongoing process without the provision of basic fundamental rights. This has affected their sense of citizenship.

民众与国家之间的权利与责任关系相互交织且具有互惠性。公民身份与土地所有权是判定并确立民众与国家关系的核心依据。本研究探讨了土地所有权证书与公民身份证书的获取障碍如何影响民众的民事、政治与社会权利。该研究结论通过对无地达利特人（Dalits）的案例研究得到了验证。为剖析无地状态、公民身份与社会保障之间的关联，研究团队对60名户主开展了非结构化访谈。研究发现，公民身份证书与土地所有权证书的缺失会催生民众的无国籍感，但并未改变其爱国情怀。尽管当地政府曾尝试推进该区域的土地再分配，但社会经济与政治权力的层级梯度决定了无地达利特人的命运。作为弱势且少数的利益相关方，达利特人在四十余年后依然处于无地状态；而精英群体则可通过对地方当局施加影响，顺利获取土地所有权证书。无地达利特人不仅遭到国家与各政党的忽视，亦被国内及国际组织所漠视。国家对达利特人的歧视行为始终存在，且未为其提供基本的法定权利，这已严重损害了达利特人的公民身份认同感。