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By CIVICUS
Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses the challenges facing Nepal’s Dalit community with Rup Sunar, chairperson of the Dignity Initiative, a Kathmandu-based research and advocacy organisation working to dismantle caste-based discrimination.

Rup Sunar

Dalits – a community that has historically faced systemic exclusion under the discriminatory label of ‘untouchables’– constitute around 13.4 per cent of Nepal’s population. They continue to experience systemic marginalisation despite constitutional and legal protections. The Dignity Initiative addresses these entrenched inequalities through evidence-based research, strategic advocacy and policy engagement. By collecting disaggregated data, advocating for inclusive legislative frameworks and amplifying excluded voices, it seeks to dismantle caste-based discrimination and open up civic space for Dalits and other excluded groups.

What human rights challenges do Dalits face in Nepal?

Nepal’s constitution explicitly protects Dalit rights as fundamental rights. Article 40 guarantees proportional representation, free education and land and housing rights. The 2011 Caste-Based Discrimination and Untouchability Act prohibits any discrimination on the basis of caste in any public or private sphere. But this impressive legal framework has remained on paper. In practice, Dalits continue to face severe economic, legal and social barriers, with state institutions consistently failing to enforce constitutional and legal protections.

Consider a tragic case in West Rukum, where a young Dalit man who had eloped with a girl from a higher caste was lynched along with five friends. Despite parliamentary investigations confirming caste prejudice as the motivation, the Surkhet High Court dismissed caste as a factor, revealing the judiciary’s entrenched biases.

The economic statistics paint a stark picture: over 87 per cent of Dalits lack sufficient land for subsistence, 42 per cent live below the poverty line and a mere two per cent work in the public sector. With no jobs reserved for Dalits in the private sector and traditional occupations disappearing in today’s market economy, many Dalits remain trapped in modern forms of bonded labour.

Why haven’t anti-discrimination laws created real change?

The gap between legislation and reality is due to weak enforcement. This happens because the state structure excludes Dalits, who hold only token positions in government and law enforcement. For context, their representation in the ruling Communist Party’s central committee is below two per cent. This renders ‘proportional representation’ merely a hollow political catchphrase.

As a result, those in power have a deeply rooted caste bias and Dalit concerns are largely invisible in national policy. When violence occurs, perpetrators often enjoy political protection while victims struggle for justice.

Meaningful change requires the establishment of proper enforcement mechanisms. State institutions must face accountability for implementation failures. The National Dalit Commission needs appropriate funding and expansion across all of Nepal’s seven provinces, while the Caste-Based Discrimination and Untouchability Act requires amendments to ensure meaningful consequences for perpetrators.

To ensure justice, we need specialised Dalit units – in charge of reporting and investigating caste-based violence – in all police offices, fast-track court procedures, free legal aid and witness protection for victims. These cases demand the same urgency and determination as other serious crimes.

What policy reforms are needed?

While the constitution promises free education and scholarships for Dalits from primary through higher education, these provisions are not enforced. School discrimination continues unabated, with tragic consequences, as in the case of a Dalit boy who took his life after being unable to pay a mere US$1.50 exam fee.

Both practical and cultural changes are needed to address these inequities. Beyond acknowledging discrimination, we must transform how history is taught. School curricula must incorporate Dalit histories, struggles and contributions to Nepalese society, while eliminating derogatory narratives and symbols.

Representation matters profoundly. Policies such as ‘one school, one Dalit teacher’ must be vigorously enforced. The severe underrepresentation of Dalit educators, particularly at secondary and higher levels, denies students crucial role models. The state must prioritise recruiting and retaining Dalit teachers to create an inclusive educational environment.

Have you observed any evolution in public attitudes towards Dalits?

Despite persistent deep-rooted prejudice and continued denial of caste discrimination, some encouraging shifts are emerging, particularly among young urban people. Dalit voices have gained greater visibility in media, politics and public discourse.

This gradual transformation stems from educational progress, social media connectivity and persistent activism. Dalit-led groups and networks have been instrumental in raising awareness and applying pressure on government institutions. The most effective approaches have combined grassroots mobilisation, strategic legal action and targeted media campaigns. Social media has revolutionised advocacy by providing platforms to document and expose injustices in real time.

The Dignity Initiative contributes through activism, research, policy advocacy and leadership development. A study we conducted examined how political parties distributed tickets to Dalit candidates during the 2022 elections, uncovering systematic tokenism rather than genuine commitment to equitable representation. Our work challenges this form of political exclusion while building public awareness about the declining Dalit presence in decision-making.

How are Dalit women and young people seeking change?

A new generation of leadership is emerging. Over 6,000 Dalit women now serve as representatives at the local level and on municipal councils, using these positions to advocate for Dalit rights. Many are forging paths to upward mobility despite facing intersectional discrimination based on caste and gender.

Yet significant barriers persist. Political spaces remain firmly controlled by upper castes, with exclusionary practices still the norm. This was starkly illustrated by dismally low Dalit participation in recent student union elections.

The battleground has also shifted online, where caste-based hate speech proliferates. However, tech-savvy young Dalits are fighting back, employing digital tools to lead campaigns, document violence and demand state accountability. They’re also building strategic alliances with progressive groups and individuals.

International solidarity has proven crucial, with external pressure amplifying Dalit voices nationally and on the global stage.

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SEE ALSO
Nepal: ‘The Social Network Bill is part of a broader strategy to tighten control over digital communication’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Dikshya Khadgi 28.Feb.2025
Nepal: Activists and online critics arrested to stifle dissent as journalists remain at risk CIVICUS Monitor 18.Nov.2024
India: ‘We have achieved a historic labour rights win for female Dalit workers’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Jeeva M 12.May.2022

 

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Kano State declares Monday as a day of mourning after 22 people died a road accident while returning from a sports festival in south-west Nigeria.

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Residents of a Nigeria town tell the BBC they are homeless and penniless after devastating floods.

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Waste pickers in New Delhi are marginalized yet provide essential services, often in extreme heat. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS

By Aishwarya Bajpai
NEW DELHI, Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

Every day, Delhi’s waste pickers walk three to four kilometers under the blazing sun, collecting and sorting the garbage that keeps India’s capital functioning. Their work is essential—yet largely invisible.

There are an estimated 200,000 waste pickers in Delhi, many of whom are migrants from landless, rural families in northern and eastern India. Pushed out of agriculture and informal rural economies, they arrive in the city with little more than the hope of survival, often ending up in the informal recycling sector. Labeled as “unskilled” or “semi-skilled” labor, they perform some of the city’s most crucial work—without contracts, protection, or recognition.

Sheikh Akbar Ali, a waste picker from Seemapuri who has worked with the community for over 15 years, paints a grim picture.

“We’re often denied access to public buses because people say we smell,” he says. With a daily income of ₹300 (roughly USD 3.60), even a single auto ride costing ₹150 (USD 1.80) one way is unaffordable. For women waste pickers, things are worse—no access to toilets, no place to change, and no shelter from the searing heat.

“Since COVID-19, we’ve been pushed off shaded footpaths and society corners to work under the open sky,” he adds.

The Smart Cities Mission, aimed at modernizing urban infrastructure, has only shrunk their access to public spaces, replacing common corners with beautified zones and surveillance.

Sumit Chaddha, another waste picker in Kamla Nagar, recalls how there once was a rule to stop work by 10am during peak summer hours. “Now, the heat is unbearable, but we have to keep going. One man collapsed while working—he started vomiting and died,” Sumit says. “There’s no medical card or health service for us through the MCD. We handle waste for the whole city but don’t even get gloves, let alone health insurance.”

In 2024, Delhi recorded a temperature of 52.3°C during what the World Meteorological Organization declared the hottest year in 175 years. The city also continues to rank among the world’s most polluted, with 74 of the 100 most polluted cities in the world located in India, according to the 2024 World Air Quality Report.

Though public perception often blames stubble burning or fireworks for Delhi’s toxic air, a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) analysis confirms that vehicular pollution is the leading contributor among combustion sources.

Pollution in Delhi is Not Seasonal.

Delhi breathes hazardous air nearly all year round—99 percent of the time. PM2.5 levels, which measure the concentration of fine particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, regularly exceed the World Health Organization’s safe limit by 30 times. Even short-term exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to heart attacks, strokes, and severe respiratory illnesses.

Yet, the poorest—those already battling extreme heat, living in cramped settlements, and working with hazardous waste—remain stranded. Public buses, their main mode of mobility, are in a state of collapse. Over 100,000 bus breakdowns were reported in just nine months of 2024 alone.

Transport-related emissions, while relatively easier to reduce, are still not a priority in most countries. Globally, the transport sector accounts for 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, with road transport alone responsible for 71 percent of that figure in 2019. India, now the third-largest emitter of CO₂ in the world, released 2.69 billion tons of fossil CO₂ in 2022—up by 6.5% from the previous year.

Increase in the CO₂ Emissions by the Transport Sector in India from 2000 to 2022.

 

In this context, public transport could be the most direct and transformative intervention—not just for the climate, but for the lives of the working poor.

As Sumana Narayanan, ecologist and environmental researcher, puts it, “We treat public transport like charity—something to be handed down to the poor. But mobility isn’t a favor; it’s a right, just like access to water, health, and clean air.”

She points to the success of Delhi’s fare-free bus scheme for women, introduced in 2019, which allowed women to save money, travel longer distances, and even gain greater say in household decisions. “Public transport doesn’t just move people—it carries dignity, opportunity, and the right to be part of public life,” she adds.

Other Countries are Showing What’s Possible

Germany’s €49 climate ticket has made low-emission travel more affordable. Luxembourg now offers free public transport to all its citizens. Bogotá’s TransMilenio system connects informal workers to opportunity while reducing emissions, and Paris is reducing car dependency with better metros and cycling infrastructure. These models demonstrate that transport, when reimagined, can be a cornerstone of both climate resilience and social justice.

But in India, such possibilities remain out of reach for communities like Delhi’s waste pickers. While programs like the National Electric Bus Programme (NEBP) aim to roll out 50,000 electric buses by 2030, implementation is slow and piecemeal. Without systemic reforms, vulnerable communities are left walking miles in dangerous heat, inhaling the city’s poison air, and risking their lives for the cleanliness everyone else takes for granted.

Nishant, Coordinator of the Public Transport Forum in Delhi, argues that existing schemes often serve short-term electoral agendas.

“What we really need is consistent investment in the quality and coverage of public buses. Public transport is a great equalizer in any society. And in terms of emissions and energy use, it’s at least ten times more efficient than private vehicles. It’s not just people-friendly—it’s climate-friendly too,” he says.

For Delhi’s waste pickers, a working bus route is not a luxury. It is a pathway to dignity, safety, and survival. In a city battling extreme heat, toxic air, and rising inequality, climate justice might just begin with a seat on a functioning, inclusive bus.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By External Source
Jun 2 2025 (IPS-Partners)

 
Plastic pollution is choking our planet.

An estimated 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year.

Less than 10% is ever recycled.

Over 23 million tonnes end up in lakes, rivers and oceans annually.

Plastic never truly disappears. It breaks down into microplastics.

These invisible particles are now in our food, our water and even our bodies.

Studies have found microplastics in human blood, lungs, and placentas.

The most vulnerable communities are hit hardest.

Marine life is suffocating.

Coastal economies are eroding.

Food systems are at risk.

We can’t recycle our way out of this crisis.

We need to rethink the system, by reduce, reusing and redesigning.

By 2040, plastic waste could triple if we do nothing.

But we can cut plastic pollution by 80% if we act now.

World Environment Day 2025 calls for a future free from plastic pollution.

A future where circularity replaces waste. Where innovation replaces single use.

Where policy, industry, and people work together.

We are the generation that can break free from plastic.

Let’s not waste this chance.

 

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Street vendor exposed to extreme heat, New Delhi, 2024. Credit: Greenpeace India

“Some mornings, I can't even stand, my feet are so swollen. My whole body aches from working all day at the juicer. The doctor said my uric acid is high, but I waited months to get tested. Who has the time or money when missing work means no food?”-- Sana, a street vendor selling sugarcane juice in chronic pain, navigating long hours and poor hydration, in Delhi’s extreme temperatures.

By Selomi Garnaik and G. A. Rumeshi Perera
BENGALURU, India / COLOMBO Sri Lanka, Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

From the blistering heat of Delhi’s streets to Colombo’s humid corners, workers in the informal economy are silently enduring the toll of labour on their bodies and livelihoods.

In 2024, South Asian cities like Delhi and Dhaka, faced relentless, record-breaking heatwaves. Meanwhile, in Nepal, the heaviest rains in decades triggered deadly floods and landslides. Sri Lanka, too, faced repeated severe storms, displacing hundreds of thousands, underscoring the vulnerability of the region to climatic chaos.

Then, why are those hit hardest by climate collapse left out of the rooms where its future is decided?

Ms. Swastika, President of the United Federation of Labour Sri Lanka, highlighted on Labour Day how temperature has affected the workers and their daily livelihoods; asking the fundamental question, ‘when do polluters take accountability?’

Workers in Dhaka holding up messages for climate and labour justice during May Day activities. Credit: Hadi Uddin / Greenpeace South Asia

One of four people living today is from South Asia, yet the region is responsible for barely 8% of the cumulative CO2 emissions, while facing some of the harshest impacts of the climate crisis.

Climate Conversations Cannot Ignore Workers:

According to the World Bank, over the past two decades, more than 750 million people, over half of South Asia’s population, have been affected by one or more climate-related disasters.

It’s quickly becoming clear just what this means for workers: India alone is projected to lose 34 million full-time jobs by 2030 due to heat stress. Bangladesh loses US$ 6 billion a year in labour productivity due to the effects of extreme heat.

In Nepal, where over 70% of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, changing rainfall patterns and flash floods have already slashed yields and forced seasonal labourers to migrate. By 2050, climate change could displace 100-200 million people, leading to a rise in climate refugees.

Yet these impacts are reduced to mere ‘economic losses’, rarely acknowledged as human suffering and almost never compensated. This disconnect between climate damage and accountability lies at the heart of global climate injustice.

Workers, particularly in the Global South- must be central to the climate conversations. For them, climate change isn’t abstract: it’s failed crops, deadly heat, toxic air, and unsafe workplaces. These daily realities threaten their health, livelihoods, and dignity.

Despite this, climate planning and response mechanisms are designed by ministries and consultants isolated from the ground realities of workers. Labour ministries, welfare boards or labour unions are rarely included in national climate adaptation frameworks or climate budgeting. Heat Action Plans often overlook worker-centric measures like paid rest breaks, hydration stations, or medical preparedness for outdoor labourers.

This is not just a gap. It is a governance failure.

When national or global climate plans ignore labour protections they deepen existing injustices. Outdoor workers, gig workers, migrant workers, and women in informal employment must be seen not as “vulnerable groups” but as central stakeholders, whose inclusion is essential for a just and durable climate response.

The Unpaid Bill: Who Owes Whom?

For over a century, profits were extracted from the earth and the pain outsourced to its most exploited workers. Now, those frontline workers are leading the call for climate accountability. Polluters Pay Pact, an international movement supported by trade unions, climate justice groups, and frontline communities that calls on the world’s largest fossil fuel and gas corporations to compensate those who are living with the fallout of their actions.

Just five oil and gas companies made over $100 billion in profits in 2024 alone, while informal workers are breathing toxic air, suffering heat extremes and losing workdays- without compensation or insurance. This isn’t aid, its owed justice.

The Polluters Pay Pact must result in binding commitments: climate-linked funding, worker led adaptation, and a global recognition of labour as central to climate action.

Most importantly, the pact is not waiting for international summits to act. Across the region, grassroots campaigns are gaining momentum- taking legal action, seeking compensation for heat-related losses, and pushing for fossil fuel taxes to fund worker protections.

This marks the beginning of a new phase in climate accountability: one that is worker-led, justice-driven, and grounded in the principle that those who suffer should not be left to shoulder the costs alone.

The way forward: From Survival to Dignity

The Polluters Pay Pact is beyond compensation. It’s about correcting a system that treats labour as disposable and emissions as externalities. To make climate justice real and tangible, governments must move beyond symbolic acknowledgments of “climate vulnerability’’ to institutional reforms that protect the people that hold up our economies.

It is inspiring to see countries like Sri Lanka take the fight to the International Court of Justice, highlighting how vulnerable nations are bearing the brunt of a crisis they did little to cause. By co-sponsoring the resolution and emphasizing intergenerational equity and human rights, Sri Lanka is underscoring that climate inaction by high-emitting states is a violation of basic rights like access to water and food. There is growing momentum from South Asian countries demanding climate justice.

Here is what ‘labour justice is climate justice’ would mean:

Classify climate risks as workplace hazards– National labour laws across South Asia must classify climate-induced hazards as occupational risks. This would entitle workers to compensation, paid rest, and workplace safety standards during extreme weather events.

Investment in localised worker centered infrastructure– Governments must prioritise tangible, community-level infrastructure like citizen-led early warning systems, much of which should be financed by new taxes on the oil and gas industry. Shade, hydration points and cooling infrastructure at high-risk sites, must become standard in heat-prone districts. The health care system needs to be strengthened to treat heat-related illness.

Embed Worker Voices in Climate Governance– Worker Unions of street vendors, construction workers, gig workers, waste pickers and migrant workers must be formally represented in local and national climate adaptation planning. Policies made without them are policies bound to fail.

We must move from damage to repair, from exploitation to protection. Climate action will only succeed by including those who face its worst impacts. Polluters must pay- investing in worker resilience across South Asia would save life and uphold climate justice.

Selomi Garnaik and G. A. Rumeshi Perera are climate and energy campaigners for Greenpeace, South Asia.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: NOAA Photo Library

The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3), scheduled to take place in Nice, France from 9-13 June, will bring together Heads of State, scientists, civil society and business leaders around a single goal: to halt the silent collapse of the planet's largest – and arguably most vital – ecosystem.

By Diva Amon and Lissette Victorero
NICE, France, Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

As David Attenborough reflects in his new documentary Ocean, “After living for nearly 100 years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea”. We wholeheartedly agree – and urge governments convening at the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in France next month to remember that life below water goes deep.

Everything below 200 metres – the deep sea – works silently to keep Earth habitable. It’s our planet’s greatest untold story: a living archive of evolution, adaptation, and resilience. This hidden world is not just a scientific wonder, it’s a cornerstone of life.

The deep sea captures a quarter of the carbon dioxide we emit, regulates global temperatures, drives ocean currents, and supports biodiversity that nurtures ocean health, enabling the fisheries that nourish billions.

Despite its importance, the deep sea remains largely unexplored. A recent study revealed that humans have only seen 0.001% of the deep seafloor, an area approximately a tenth of the size of Belgium. Still, even with our limited glimpses, the discoveries are astonishing. Just months ago, scientists off Canada’s coast discovered thousands of glowing golden skate eggs clustered beside an active underwater volcano – an otherworldly nursery never seen before.

The fiery seamount, pulsing with geothermal heat, acts as a natural incubator for skate pups that, like all in the deep, are adapted to crushing pressures and a total absence of sunlight, and continue to challenge our understanding of the limits of life.

And yet, even as we begin to glimpse its mysteries, the deep sea faces destruction.

An unknown realm already under siege

Ancient seamounts, abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, and more – home to some of nature’s most extraordinary adaptations – face destruction before we’ve even catalogued, understood, or valued their inhabitants. The deep harbours communities that exist nowhere else on Earth; living time capsules that could hold keys to understanding life’s origins or solutions to some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

No wonder many are recognised in global agreements as vulnerable ecosystems, places where special care is most needed to maintain a healthy ocean.

For over 70 years, destructive fishing practices have inflicted extensive damage on the deep, including seamounts. Bottom trawlers drag nets weighted with heavy rollers across the seabed, flattening everything in their path while hunting deep-dwelling fish of extraordinary age and resilience – some over 250 years old.

These practices destroy coral forests and sponge gardens that have grown over centuries or even millennia – ecological cathedrals that may never return. This destruction not only erases ecosystems, it unravels the foundations of complex and connected ocean systems, stripping away vital breeding and feeding grounds.

Meanwhile, a nascent deep-sea mining industry is pushing to open the ocean floor to commercial extraction. Each operation could damage thousands of square kilometres, crush delicate life, create clouds of sediment that can impair breathing, communication, or feeding of ocean species far beyond the mining site, and destroy habitats that have developed over thousands to millions of years.

The destruction of these largely out-of-sight ecosystems doesn’t only just mean the loss of extraordinary and undiscovered species and ecosystems. It means undermining the processes that make life on Earth possible, from climate regulation to food security. And, as with many environmental crises, those already most vulnerable will likely suffer the greatest burden.

A warning from the scientific community.

Since 2004, scientists have been raising the alarm about the destruction of deep-sea ecosystems and the potential knock-on effects, first from bottom trawling, and now from deep-sea mining. Their message remains consistent and urgent: we must understand the deep before we decide to condemn it to ruin.

Today, this warning has become a global call to action. Over 900 marine scientists and policy experts have endorsed a moratorium on deep-sea mining. They are joined by an unprecedented alliance of 33 countries – including France, Palau, Brazil, Germany, Canada, and Samoa – as well as parliamentarians, celebrities, youth leaders, major companies like BMW, Google, and Volvo, and leading financial institutions such as Credit Suisse, Lloyd’s, and NatWest.

This growing coalition underscores a simple truth: the deep sea is too important, fragile, and poorly understood to gamble with.

This June, the One Ocean Science Congress and the monumental UNOC3, in Nice, France, present pivotal opportunities for governments to act. The official focus of UNOC3 is Sustainable Development Goal 14: “Life Below Water”, but this must extend deeper…literally.

Governments must seize this moment to make bold, lasting commitments:

1) Protect seamounts and other vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems from destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling.
2) Implement a moratorium on deep-sea mining until independent scientific studies understand its full ecological cost.
3) Invest in deep-sea science that is uncoupled from extractive interests.

The choice before us

The science is unequivocal: the deep sea provides essential services critical to all life on Earth. What we stand to gain through understanding this realm far outweighs what we’d earn by destroying it.

As world governments gather in Nice, we face a simple choice: protect our planet’s most mysterious and vital frontier, or exploit it blindly before we even begin to understand what we are losing.

The health of our ocean – and our own well-being – depends on us choosing wisely.

Dr. Diva Amon, a marine biologist, is a researcher and adviser at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the director of SpeSeas, an ocean conservation NGO based in Trinidad and Tobago. She is also a co-lead of the Biodiversity Conservation Task Force of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative, and SpeSeas is a member of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.

Dr. Lissette Víctorero is a deep-sea ecologist specialised in deep-sea fisheries and the macroecology of vulnerable habitats such as seamounts and hydrothermal vents. She serves as Science Advisor to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and co-leads the Fisheries Working Group of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI).

IPS UN Bureau

 

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