Municipal level mass awareness campaign was conducted by Municipal Musahar Empowerment Committee on the occasion of 16-day activism against gender-based violence on 4 December 2022 at the building of the Red Cross Society in Haripur. The event was conducted by WoMEF network with support of SAP Nepal and UNDEF and collaboration with Haripur Municipality and National Musahar Association. The event was participated by 105 Mushar men and women along with the local CSOs, local government and political party representatives, social leaders and journalists. The event was conducted at chairmanship Gopal Panjiyar (Mayor of Haripur) and in presence of Thaneshwor Gautam (Chief District Officer) as the chief guest of the event.
In the program, Santara Paswan, Secretary of Musahar Women’s Empowerment Forum, said that there is caste discrimination against Musahar girls even in schools and Dalits have to be deprived of education because they have to pay money to study in government schools. Urmila Majhi, president of Musahar Women’s Empowerment Forum, Chitain, said that the state has discriminated Musahar community. In the event, the participants informed the guests about their issues of vital registration, caste-based discrimination and extreme poverty. The government representatives in the program committed to solve the issues of Musahar community in the days to come. The participants complained to the chief guests about their community’s birth registration, citizenship, untouchability, discrimination against children in schools, poverty, etc.
Chief Inspector Sangita Pandel of Women’s Cell of Malangwa District Police Office said that women should raise their voices against all kinds of violence against women, and informed that if there is violence, one should call the 104 number which is free of charge. The chief guest of the program, Chief District Officer Thaneshwar Gautam, said that children of the Musahar community should not be discriminated and that action should be taken against who discriminates. He also said that a circular has been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs to prepare the birth registration of Musahar children so that no child is deprived of vital registration services.