Towards Dalit Responsive Policies during COVID-19: A Case of Karnali Provincial Government of Nepal

The widening civic space reveals the needs of the needy people during the pandemic while making policies. The article intends to explore the civic space of Dalits in the policies and programs of Karnali Provincial Government during the period of COVID-19 by addressing the questions ahead: Why was the civic space for Dalits shrunk during the pandemic? How did Dalits influence local duty-bearers? The primary and secondary sources of information were interpreted. It found that Dalits were deprived of the civic spaces in terms of policies and programs of the provincial government. As the civil society organizations are overwhelmed by the dominance of non-Dalits in the decision-making levels, the Dalits were less participated in the meetings, forums and debates on the reliefs and resources for the local victims. Non-Dalits had accessed to the reliefs and resources due to their nexus to the policy-makers of the provincial government. There was no impartiality in distributing resources to the COVID-victims. Dalits have had a compulsion to live up to the mercy of others. The reigning ideology of caste system remained proactive to discriminate Dalits. It was reflected in the performances of the political, social and religious elites in the society. The civic space is shrunk even in democracy due to the unchanged power relationships on the basis of caste, class, gender and regional imbalances. It is suggested that the civil society organizations must work to the cause of tolerance and equal footing fostering the values of pluralism. Uncivil society hampers to the spirit of democracy.