New constitution offers several rights to indigenous nationalities communities: Minister Gurung

Kathmandu, August 9: Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung has stated that the country entered the federal system due to the struggles of the indigenous nationalities and Madhesi communities.

At a programme here on Saturday, organised by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities on the 31st International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Minister Gurung shared that the members of the indigenous nationalities have enjoyed immense rights after the promulgation of the federal democratic republican constitution through the Constituent Assembly (CA).

“Indigenous nationalities have achieved linguistic identity. All members of the indigenous nationalities have gotten rights on language and culture, although this was not complete,” Minister Gurung said. He also viewed that managing possible conflicts between indigenous nationalities who have recently received their rights and those privileged communities as a need of the hour.

Minister Gurung argued that rights will not be guaranteed until there is the participation of indigenous nationalities at the policy level and the implementing bodies. He also expressed satisfaction with the increasing state of participation of indigenous nationalities at the policy level and the implementing bodies, too.

“There has been massive participation even from our community in the policy level,” Gurung said while stating that the effective role of the representatives of the indigenous nationalities should be scrutinized. Also speaking at the event, CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Suresh Ale Magar called for renewed struggles from indigenous nationalities to pitch for ethnic identity-based federalism.

Ale Magar said that the indigenous nationalities should work for the promotion of their identity along with the struggle for rights. Nepali Congress leader Sita Gurung cautioned that the rights of indigenous nationalities could be curtailed in the name of the constitution amendment. She drew attention to the government for the implementation of ILO Convention 169 and the other rights of indigenous nationalities communities accepted by the UN.

CPN (UML) leader Sher Bahadur Tamang, CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Durga Rai and other leaders of the indigenous nationalities communities also expressed their views at the event by calling the state to be serious for the rights of the indigenous nationalities since they are being affected by several issues including the climate change and the excessive extraction of the natural resources.