The Chepang of Chitwan

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

NEPAL | Tuesday, 8 January 2013 | Views [430] | View Larger Image

Her entire life, until she held this slip of paper, she was stateless within her own country. This Chepang woman tucks away her new Nepali citizenship card which facilitates access to rights that she has never previously known.

A group of Chepang people congregate on the edge of their Himalayan foothills village in the Chitwan district of Nepal. On this momentous day, some of them received their citizenship documentation.

The Chepang are a semi-nomadic indigenous group considered to be the poorest of the poor in Nepal. Isolated from modern facilities and services, and largely lacking in education, they spent their lives without access to basic rights. In absence of citizenship certificates, the Chepang people were not able to vote, access various public services such as electricity, and enroll their children in the local schools.

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Despite limited access to education and remoteness of their village, some Chepang children are able to receive their basic schooling in a bare and simple classroom.

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The Chepang of Chitwan

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

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