British explorer George Mallory had mysteriously vanished in his attempt to
become the first man to conquer Mt. Everest in 1924. Mallory’s body, preserved
in the mountain’s climate, was found by American mountaineer Conrad Anker in
the year 1999. Whether Mallory succeeded or not in reaching the summit before
his death remains a mystery till this date, but when asked by the media once on
why he wanted to climb the Everest, he had casually answered, “Because it is
there.”
If the media ever posed the same question to me, my answer, given the Nepali
context, would be, “Because no Dalit has ever climbed the Everest yet.”
It has been 58 years since climbers the world over have tasted success in
climbing the Everest, but none have come from a Dalit background. It is
unnecessary to mention that Dalits have been socially, politically,
economically and religiously excluded from the mainstream and that this has
demoralized them psychologically. The revolutions in the past two decades for a
more democratic society have brought no big change in the treatment of Dalits
by people who supposedly belong to the upper castes.
Given this context, the main goal of the Dalit-exclusive expedition to the
Everest is to empowering Dalits and downtrodden people by proving that they can
do anything if given equal opportunities and access to resources. The
expedition is meant to sensitize the world, the media, donors and development
agencies, political parties and religious leaders towards the Dalit condition
and programmes for Dalit empowerment. A successful expedition to Mt. Everest
will help a demoralised psychology grow stronger and more confident and will
counter to some extent the discouragement brought on to Dalits by the neglect
they face in so many sectors despite of comprising 20 percent of the total
population.
The Everest expedition could be a doorway for many Dalits to enter the tourism
industry, which is supposed to be the largest in the country— a trained climber
can be expected to contribute more in the field of mountain tourism, if
opportunity is given.
Besides, attempting to climb Mt. Everest is not an easy task. Since 1965, about
203 people have lost their lives in trying to conquer the Everest and about
2700 have been successful in their venture. The worst years have been 1993 when
8 people out of 129 died and in 1996 when 15 people out of 98 surrendered their
lives too. Among all routes, the Khumbu Icefall is said to be the most
dangerous one as it has taken about 19 lives until now. Such a task is
definitely likely to add to the esteem of the Dalit troupe.
The idea seems worthwhile and one with positive consequences for the Dalit
community. However, the Government’s behaviour has been adverse to it and
reflective of the discrimination traditionally cast against Dalits. The budget
proposed for the expedition was Rs 3,64,0000, but the government only allocated
Rs 2,000000 for the 11 Dalit climbers. This is noteworthy against the amount
allocated for the civil servant expedition in 2010, which was a sum total of Rs
3,030,000 for the 11-member team.
Also, the budget allocated for the Dalit expedition to Mt. Everest was not an
initiative of the Government of Nepal, but of energetic Dalit youth and Climber
Club Nepal. The vision was fully supported later by the National Dalit
Commission, the United Dalit Political Struggle Committee, the Dalit NGO
Federation and other Dalits around the nation.
I myself have the passion and vision to be the first Dalit to have climbed Mt.
Everest. In 1995, I had a self-funded formal basic training from the Himalayan
Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, India and in the year 2000, I had
climbed the 17000 feet tall mountain Frey Pick with members of the Indian Army
via Sikkim. Since then, I have been looking to climb Mt. Everest but have not
successful as it costs about Rs. 35, 00000 to Rs. 40, 00000 for a single
Nepali. Joining the Climber Club when it was preparing a historical team for
the first Dalit expedition to Mt. Everest in coordination with the Dalit NGO
Federation, was an answer of sorts to my long-held dream. There are 10 other
members beside myself who are receiving formal training free of cost with the
support of Da. Gombu Sherpa, the Chairman of Climber Club and a mountaineer of
international repute, who had successfully completed the women’s expedition in
2008.
The team is now ready and the budget is allocated after much struggle by the
Dalit community, but Government has been reluctant to give recognition to the
team which has officially selected through nationwide announcement. The
government wants to organise an expedition through its own agencies when they
have had no role making constructing its vision and mission. Government wants
to bypass those who have been actively involved in making the expedition
successful.
Given this attitude and the insufficient budget allocated for the Dalit
expedition to Mt. Everest, it is perhaps time that we knocked the doors of
donor agencies to fill in with the necessary.
Giri Bahadur Sunar
Sunar is a Sociologist
girithejorba@gmail.com
Posted on: 2011-10-30 08:59
Comments
- puskar_91@yahoo.com
Oct 30, 2011, 5:01 pm
Kirtipur
"Cosmetic Program" Although it is not undesirable to provide
financial support to Dalit climbers for climbing Everest by government, the
size of the budget allocated and the priority given to the expedition program
by the government make us worrying. The size of the budget is too high as
compared to the handful of the people who actually benefit from it. Instead of
targeting to handful of Dalit youths this budgets could be used for the sake of
thousands of Dalits. I think climbing Everest by Dalits does not contribute any
significant to the empowerment and to increasing self-esteem of Dalits as Sunar
claims. More than this, we need to pay attention to the other side of the
story: the nature of the program. This is a type of cosmetic and flimsy
programs that the government and some Dalit leaders and organizations are
tempted to formulate. The reason is obvious: they are driven by cheap
popularity. The government policies and programs so far are all cosmetic; take
example of National Dalit Commission, or Bikas Samity or the government's
giving allowance to inter-caste couples. So the need is to formulate programs
that have deeper and wider impact on Dalit community. Eulogizing and demanding
such cosmetic programs like the Everest Expedition one does not help to engender
a quick and true emancipation of Dalits.
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