Budgets allocated by local governments to support socially and culturally disadvantaged women, Dalits, persons with disabilities and other target groups remain unspent as elected representatives fail to come up with contingency plans.

Bidya Rai: Centre for Investigative Journalism, Nepal

The Bethanchowk Rural Municipality in Kavre District had in this year’s budget allocated 30 lakh rupees for 15 small projects aimed at supporting target groups. According to the rural municipality’s program and budget booklet for the current fiscal year, target groups include Dalits, women, senior citizens, children and persons with disabilities.

The Local Government Operation Act, 2074 (2017) mandates local governments to plan and implement programs that benefit target groups directly. However, the Bethanchowk Rural Municipality, focussed as it is on infrastructure development, allocated budgets for trainings and seminars rather than for those that benefit the target groups. 

Ruby Valley

“It would be of great help if the rural municipality provided us with training and grants to start vegetable farming. Earlier, when it used to be a village development committee, officials called us to inform about the budget on such programs. They don’t call us anymore,” said Nirmala Thapamagar, 40, a resident of Kinukharka in Bethanchowk-3. 

What’s more, even the minimum budget allocated for the target groups risks a diversion due to the pandemic. Thapamagar further said, “They haven’t spent the budget yet. How will they spend it in the wake of Covid-19?”

The Mahabharat Rural Municipality in Kavre allocated Rs. 148 million under the ‘development’ title for the current fiscal year, out of which Rs.6 million was for the target groups. The rural municipality that allocated Rs. 58.6 million for road, stadium and infrastructure development has allocated just a meagre 4.24 percent of the budget for the target groups.

Kanchha Lal Kimba, chairperson of the Mahabharat Rural Municipality, said there was a confusion regarding the utilisation of the budget for the target groups. “We haven’t been able to do anything due to Covid-19. We’re in no position to finish the budget allocated for the target groups,” Kimba added.

This means that due to Covid-19, local governments face difficulties spending the budget allocated for infrastructure development and for target groups. Due to the pandemic, the priorities of the local levels have shifted to distributing relief materials and constructing quarantine facilities among others. The budget is, therefore, likely to be used under another heading, said Prem Bahadur Timalsina, chairperson of the Bethanchowk Rural Municipality.

“We hadn’t expected the coronavirus pandemic. So we’ve had to spend all the budget on this. Since it is now impossible to spend the budget allocated for the trainings, meetings and seminars of the target groups, the budget head will be changed to a disaster fund,” Timalsina added.

The Northern Ruby Valley Rural Municipality in Dhading allocated Rs. 12 million for 69 projects  in the current fiscal year. None of the projects, however, was aimed at the target groups. The Rs. 3 million allocated for women-related projects also focused on construction of buildings and purchase of furniture. Whereas, the rural municipality allocated Rs 76.3 million for 25 building construction projects. Cherung Tamang, the chairperson of the rural municipality, said, “This is the only rural municipality which has no road that operates throughout the year. How, then, can we provide a budget to the target groups?”

The Godavari Municipality in Lalitpur allocated Rs 569.9 million for 66 major projects, out of which only one, titled “Gender Equality and Inclusion Program”, was for the target groups.

The municipality’s mayor, Gajendra Maharjan, said the Rs 15 million budget allocated under the title remains to be spent. “We spent around Rs 2.5 million on programs before Covid-19. The rest of the budget head will be changed to the disaster fund. The programs for the target groups will be shelved because our top priority at the moment is containing the pandemic,” Maharjan added.

Ward offices, which are the direct service providers for locals, have failed to allocate budgets for target groups. Dolakha’s Gauri Shankar Municipality-5 Suri allocated Rs 140,000 for the target groups while it allocated Rs 6 million for 13 other projects.

Instances such as these expose the bleak condition of the state’s principles of proportional inclusion. That the provisions of the Local Government Operation Act, 2074 (2017) have been summarily neglected is self-evident in the allocation of little or no budget for the target groups two-and-a-half years after elected representatives took over local levels under the new state structure.

“Several government offices of women, children and Dalits existed before the implementation of federalism. But now, neither those offices exist, nor have any new programs or budgets been provided. In terms of budget, the current system has been a bane for the target groups,” said Bimala Bishwakarma, a federal lawmaker.

In fact, local governments considered infrastructure development and road widening as the only definition of development even before the Covid-19 crisis began. Their definition of development hardly considered uplifting the lives of the people who had been left behind in the development process. Bishwakarma added, “No one listens to the voices of the target groups anyway. They have even abrogated the exemplary work done by the erstwhile VDCs, DDCs and municipalities. But now, Covid-19 has given them an even better excuse to divert the budget.”

Mohna Ansari, a member of the National Human Rights Commission, agreed with Bishwakarma. “Only physical development does not constitute overall human development. It is important to consider all kinds of development simultaneously. The exclusion of the target groups in the budget has not only done injustice to them but also made a mockery of republicanism itself,” Ansari said.

The participation of the target groups in government activities has increased after the country adopted the federal governance system with three levels–federal, provincial and local as per the 2015 Constitution. However, their budgets have been cut. While reservation of women ward members was mandatory during the 2054 (1997) elections, mandatory provisions of representation of woman and Dalit woman members were added in the 2015 Constitution.

In the elections, While the number of women elected in the co-chair/vice president position in the 2054 (1997) local elections was less than 1 percent, it has reached 93 percent in the 2074 (2017) elections. The number of women elected in chair/co-chair positions at the local levels have now reached a whopping 718 persons. The number of women being elected at local levels is 14,353, or 40.75 percent. Out of the total 35,041 representatives, there are 19 Dalits, 237 Madhesis and 1240 others elected in chair/co-chair position. There are four representatives with physical disabilities and  13,309 Dalit woman ward members and woman ward members at local levels.

These are exemplary numbers in terms of the inclusion of the target groups at local levels. Despite the increasing representation of target groups, though, the policies, projects and budgets have been reduced significantly.

“It’s as if the people have been exchanged with the budget at the local level,” said Bishwakarma, the lawmaker.

Forsaking the law

The 2015 Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to equality, clearly stating that “Provided that nothing shall be deemed to prevent the making of special provisions by law for the protection, empowerment or development of the citizens including the socially or culturally backward women, Dalit, indigenous people, indigenous nationalities, Madhesi, Tharu, Muslim, oppressed class, backward classes, minorities, the marginalized, farmers, labourers, youths, children, senior citizens, gender and sexual minorities, persons with disabilities, persons in pregnancy, incapacitated or helpless, backward region and indigent Khas Arya.”

On the basis of this provision, the LGO Act has made it mandatory for local governments to make policies and programs as well as allocate budget for the target groups. However, local levels have summarily neglected the Constitution and Act.

Earlier too, the Local Level Resource Mobilisation and Management Plan, 2069 had made it mandatory for local governments to allocate 10 percent budget for disadvantaged groups. The Government of Nepal had published a notice in the Gazette, making it mandatory by local levels to allocate a minimum of 15 percent budget in projects that directly benefit the target groups and communities. Those legal and policy-level provisions are, however, limited to paper yet and remain to be translated into action.

“If we don’t allocate a budget for the target groups, we face criticism. When we finally do, we can’t implement it,” lamented Prem Bahadur Timalsina, the chairperson of the Bethanchowk Rural Municipality. 

However, Shyam Krishna Bhurtel, a local governance expert, said elected representatives excuse themselves after failing to allocate budgets for the target groups. “The 2015 Constitution and the Local Governance Operation Act (2017) have mandated local governments to create policies and programs and implement them as per necessity. So they don’t have the liberty to wash their hands off the problem when they are clearly bound by legal provisions.”

According to Janak Rai, an anthropologist, the number of target groups is 1.5 crore as per the 2011 Census. The number of persons with disabilities is 5.13 lakh. According to Balananda Paudel, the chairperson of the National Natural Resources and Financial Commission, the spirit of federalism is to ensure that the target groups have equal access in state power. “The target groups may be less in number in some places and more in some others, but it is exactly to uplift their economic and social levels that federalism was implemented. The issues of the target groups, though, remains to be addressed as per the spirit of federalism,” Paudel added.