Nepali American prominent social leader Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar has been appointed to the New Jersey City as a women’s Advisory board member. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulp’s former advisor to the diversity and inclusive Board, Dr. Pariyar, is also a Jersey City employment and training committee member. The Jersey City women’s commission was formed on January 26 under the supervision of Council President Joyce Waterman and Dr. Pariyar.
Though the childhood of Bishnu Maya Pariyar was fraught with adversities, the problematic early life experiences instilled all the essential leadership characteristics in Dr. Pariyar. Dr. Pariyar is a role model for millions because she did not only eradicate the deep-seated social discrimination but also empowered women through advocacy and promotion of social inclusion, gender diversity, and equality for everyone.
In the U.S., Dr. Pariyar has vast professional experience working in family advocacy and prevention of domestic violence. She is also the founding member of the Association for Dalit Women’s Advancement of Nepal. She has also served on the New Jersey Mayor’s Advisory Committee on diversity and inclusion and is currently a Jersey City Employment and Training board member. In recognition of her meritorious service in social justice, she has been awarded hundreds of prestigious awards.
Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar, NJ Mayor Advisor, has played a crucial role in materializing this sister city concept. Indrawati village is one of the first towns that has become a sister city to the other cities in the nation.
Presently, Dr. Pariyar is the senior program coordinator at Hudson Speaks under Care Point Health in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. Hudson Speaks is a leading non-governmental and non-governmental emergency response organization against sexual violence in Hudson County, New Jersey.
Source: newyorkcitypost.org
The US states of Colorado and Michigan recently declared 14 April as Dr. BR Ambedkar Equity Day. Days before that, Canada’s British Columbia province also declared April as Dalit History Month.
Ambedkar, the architect of India’s constitution, is the venerated leader of the Dalits (formerly untouchables), who suffered from their lowly position in the caste hierarchy. He was born on 14 April 1891.
India’s constitution and courts have long recognized lower castes and Dalits as historically disadvantaged groups and offered protections in the form of quotas and anti-discriminatory laws.
Now Dalit activists and academics, particularly in the US, are trying to bring in similar recognition in the West, where the Indian diaspora has often strived to be the “model minority” – aspiring, diligent immigrants who assimilate seamlessly into the country.
“Ambedkar once quoted, ‘If Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem.’ That is precisely what is happening now in the United States,” Rama Krishna Bhupathi of the US-based civil rights group Ambedkar International Center told the BBC.
In a September 2020 episode of the NPR show Rough Translation, a tech employee using the alias of Sam Cornelius spoke about co-workers patting him on the back to figure out if he was wearing the white thread worn by men of the Brahmin caste.
“They will call you for a swim, you know? ‘Hey. Let’s go for a swim’ – because everybody takes their shirt off. And they all know who are wearing threads, who are not,” he said on the show.
Others also spoke of feeling afraid and uncomfortable as Indians asked each other their caste at university parties.
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGESThe work of activists from marginalized castes and a rise in online “safe” spaces have increased the visibility of this issue in recent years.
The Black Lives Matter protests, which intensified after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, also had an effect, said Sonja Thomas, an assistant professor who fought for caste protections at Colby College in Maine.
South Asian Americans are now thinking through how anti-Blackness in their own communities might be informed by casteism, she said.
One major change in the past decade, Ms Thomas explained, is that many from the upper-castes are also grappling with their historical privilege.
“Though we are all well-versed in the stories of how our mothers and fathers came here with one suitcase and a handful of dollars in their pocket, we have little understanding of how generations of caste privilege in India helped pave the way for our parents, us and our children to do well in this country,” documentary filmmaker Kavita Pillay said in the Caste In America series funded by the Pulitzer Center.
Activists say a pivotal moment in the US was the state of California’s 2020 lawsuit against IT conglomerate Cisco and two of its dominant caste employees of Indian origin for harassment and discrimination against a Dalit co-worker.
“The case gave credibility to the efforts that were already being made in the background,” the Ambedkar Association of North America (AANA) told the BBC.
Soon after the Cisco case became public, a hotline set up by Dalit rights organization Equality Labs received reports of caste-based harassment from more than 250 tech workers in Google, Facebook, Apple, and several other companies in Silicon Valley.
The Cisco case received support from the workers’ union of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
“It was the first time an American institution outside of our countries of origin recognized caste as a significant civil rights problem and one that required governmental litigation,” Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder of Equality Labs, told the BBC.
In 2021, a separate federal lawsuit accused Hindu organization Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) of exploiting Dalit workers to build temples across various sites while paying them far less than the minimum wages.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESThe same year, the University of California, Davis, Colby College, Harvard University and the California Democratic Party added protections against caste discrimination in their policies.
A landmark moment came in January 2022 when California State University became the first and the largest university system in the country to add caste as a protected category in its policy.
The student campaign at Cal State had the support of major labour unions in California which was a “gamechanger” as it highlighted that caste equity was also a workers’ rights issue, Ms Soundararajan said.
This solidarity from the labour movement is expected to influence more global conversations on caste equity, she added.
Explaining caste to America
“Unlike race which is mostly based on skin colour”, the complex nature of the caste system is difficult to explain to Americans, Mr Bhupathi said.
“It’s determined by birth. It determines where you stand in the hierarchical Hindu system,” he said.
Prem Pariyar, a Nepali-origin academic and a lead organiser for Cal State’s policy change, said he often used the metaphor “caste is the bone and race is the skin” from Isabel Wilkerson’s book as an explanation.
The 2020 book – Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – had compared the histories of caste and race and Mr Pariyar felt it helped spotlight caste discrimination in the US mainstream.
Mr Pariyar’s experience had been undermined by upper-caste faculty at an academic senate of the university who said caste discrimination was “an Indian issue” so why discuss it in an American university?
This aversion to acknowledging caste is not uncommon among the dominant caste, said Ms Thomas, whose work delves into caste and gender in Christianity.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESThey fear using the word “privilege” would make it seem like they hadn’t earned their position in American society where South Asians were a minority as were Hindus and Muslims, she explained.
But caste was a structure of inequality not limited to Hinduism and present within every South Asian religion, Ajantha Subramanium, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies at Harvard, wrote in a letter to Cal State earlier this year.
“Moreover, many oppressed caste individuals are themselves Hindus,” she wrote.
The challenge from right-wing Hindu groups
A win for this rights movement in the US has usually been followed by a challenge from right-wing Indian American groups like the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) which mobilise parts of the diaspora against it.
The foundation stood against the Cal State policy and the Cisco case, calling them “discriminatory” and a violation of “the rights of Hindu Americans”.
In his book Open Embrace, Verghese K George wrote that the Indian-American community was willing to buy into the narrative that conflated “being Indian with being Hindu and being Hindu with being Indian”.
The notion found an easy overlap with the ruling Indian government’s agenda of promoting a pan-Hindu identity that did not address caste.
HAF is among several Indian-American organisations that have rallied support in the US for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has called the diaspora a “strategic asset”.
With BJP’s rise in India, Hindutva groups in the US have felt more empowered to increase their lobbying and legal efforts to curtail any changes to the status quo in the US, Mr Bhupathi said.
But caste equity is a vital and urgent frontier in global civil and human rights, Ms Soundararajan said. “We want to see those oppressed by caste informing institutions on how to transform themselves into places accessible to all.”
DIGNITY REPORTER
KATHMANDU, APRIL 17: Founder general secretary and former chairperson of Jagaran Media Centre Rem Bishwokarma, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of dignitypost.com has been honored by the President of The Jersey City Council of USA on Saturday.
Bishwokarma, who was also the former secretary of the Federation of Nepali Journalists–an umbrella organization of all the journalists of Nepal–was honored at the function organized by The Jersey City Council in coordination with Dr. Ambedkar International Mission (AIM) to mark the 131st birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar at the Jersey City Hall.
A human rights and Dalit rights activist Bishwokarma has been advocating for Dalit rights and social inclusion for decades through various platforms including media. 
After a gap of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ambedkarites in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania enthusiastically celebrated this special day.
This year’s event was made even more special as the City Council of Jersey City partnered with Ambedkar International Mission (AIM), USA, and made the historic declaration of recognizing 14th April as “Equality Day,” a fitting tribute to the champion of equality, whose life mission was establishing equality through the constitution in a society where it was most needed.
Jersey City is renowned to be immigration friendly and a champion in upholding human rights values.
“AIM takes this opportunity to express our profound gratitude towards the City Council of Jersey City and hope that this pioneering step towards upholding humanist values will inspire more civic, public, and private organizations across the USA to take up similar initiatives,” states a press statement issued by AIM.
Since there is growing curiosity and interest in Dr. Ambedkar’s work in academia and civil society across the globe, AIM had designed the event to rekindle and strengthen its platform for engaging with varied thinkers and expand the reach of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s monumental work.
The erudite and enlightening speeches by dignitaries like Professor Timothy Loftus, Professor Jenik Radon, Professor Jayashree Kamble, Professor Biju Mathew, Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar and Ms. Yashica Dutt were followed by cultural performances by AIM artists, adding a joyous note to the occasion.
Continuing the tradition started by AIM’s founder-president, late Mr. Raju Kamble, AIM had also set up a booth for free distribution of Dr. Ambedkar’s writing and speeches.
“AIM would also like to thank Jersey City’s Immigrant’s Affairs Commission(IAC) team for initiating this proclamation and also the Mayor of Jersey City, Steven M. Fulop for signing it, which is now available under public record,” the statement said. “AIM also thanks to the representatives from the Consulate General of India, New York, for gracing the occasion.”
Around 200 guests attended the function which was also covered by local news channels.
DIGNITY REPORTER
KATHMANDU, APRIL 17
The 131st Dr Ambedkar Birth Anniversary was marked at the City hall of Jersey City on Saturday amid the illuminating speeches from distinguished luminaries in academia besides festivities and celebrations.
After a gap of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ambedkarites in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania enthusiastically celebrated this special day.
This year’s event was made even more special as the City Council of Jersey City partnered with Ambedkar International Mission (AIM), USA, and made the historic declaration of recognizing 14th April as “Equality Day,” a fitting tribute to the champion of equality, whose life mission was establishing equality through the constitution in a society where it was most needed.
Jersey City is renowned to be immigration friendly and a champion in upholding human rights values.
“AIM takes this opportunity to express our profound gratitude towards the City Council of Jersey City and hope that this pioneering step towards upholding humanist values will inspire more civic, public, and private organizations across the USA to take up similar initiatives,” states a press statement issued by AIM.
Since there is growing curiosity and interest in Dr. Ambedkar’s work in academia and civil society across the globe, AIM had designed the event to rekindle and strengthen its platform for engaging with varied thinkers and expand the reach of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s monumental work.
The erudite and enlightening speeches by dignitaries like Professor Timothy Loftus, Professor Jenik Radon, Professor Jayashree Kamble, Professor Biju Mathew, Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar, and Ms. Yashica Dutt were followed by cultural performances by AIM artists, adding a joyous note to the occasion.
Continuing the tradition started by AIM’s founder-president, late Mr. Raju Kamble, AIM had also set up a booth for free distribution of Dr. Ambedkar’s writing and speeches.
“AIM would also like to thank Jersey City’s Immigrant’s Affairs Commission(IAC) team for initiating this proclamation and also the Mayor of Jersey City, Steven M. Fulop for signing it, which is now available under public record,” the statement said. “AIM also thanks to the representatives from the Consulate General of India, New York, for gracing the occasion.”
Around 200 guests attended the function which was also covered by local news channels.
KATHMANDU, FEB 2:
Amnesty International has said the Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.
The investigation report of Amnesty International revealed on February 1 details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights.
The detail includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.
The comprehensive report titled “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity,” sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.
This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty International found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention.
Amnesty International has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation in the OPT and calls on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to bring perpetrators of apartheid crimes to justice.
“Our report reveals the true extent of Israel’s apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights. We found that Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid. The international community has an obligation to act,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary-General.
“There is no possible justification for a system built around the institutionalized and prolonged racist oppression of millions of people. Apartheid has no place in our world, and states which choose to make allowances for Israel will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Governments who continue to supply Israel with arms and shield it from accountability at the UN are supporting a system of apartheid, undermining the international legal order, and exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people. The international community must face up to the reality of Israel’s apartheid, and pursue the many avenues to justice which remain shamefully unexplored.”
Amnesty International’s findings build on a growing body of work by Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs, who have increasingly applied the apartheid framework to the situation in Israel and/or the OPT.
Identifying apartheid
A system of apartheid is an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination by one racial group over another. It is a serious human rights violation which is prohibited in public international law. Amnesty International’s extensive research and legal analysis, carried out in consultation with external experts, demonstrates that Israel enforces such a system against Palestinians through laws, policies and practices which ensure their prolonged and cruel discriminatory treatment.
In international criminal law, specific unlawful acts which are committed within a system of oppression and domination, with the intention of maintaining it, constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid. These acts are set out in the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute, and include unlawful killing, torture, forcible transfer, and the denial of basic rights and freedoms.
According to Amnesty International, it has documented acts proscribed in the Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute in all the areas Israel controls, although they occur more frequently and violently in the OPT than in Israel. “Israeli authorities enact multiple measures to deliberately deny Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms, including draconian movement restrictions in the OPT, chronic discriminatory underinvestment in Palestinian communities in Israel, and the denial of refugees’ right to return,” states the press released issued by the Amnesty International.
The report also documents forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, and unlawful killings, in both Israel and the OPT.
Amnesty International found that these acts form part of a systematic and widespread attack directed against the Palestinian population and are committed with the intent to maintain the system of oppression and domination. “They therefore constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid.”
The unlawful killing of Palestinian protesters is perhaps the clearest illustration of how Israeli authorities use proscribed acts to maintain the status quo. In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began to hold weekly protests along the border with Israel, calling for the right of return for refugees and an end to the blockade. Before protests even began, senior Israeli officials warned that Palestinians approaching the wall would be shot. By the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians, including 46 children.
In light of the systematic unlawful killings of Palestinians documented in its report, Amnesty International is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. This should cover all weapons and munitions as well as law enforcement equipment, given the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been unlawfully killed by Israeli forces. The Security Council should also impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid.
Palestinians treated as a demographic threat
Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued a policy of establishing and then maintaining a Jewish demographic majority, and maximising control over land and resources to benefit Jewish Israelis. In 1967, Israel extended this policy to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Today, all territories controlled by Israel continue to be administered with the purpose of benefiting Jewish Israelis to the detriment of Palestinians, while Palestinian refugees continue to be excluded.
Amnesty International recognizes that Jews, like Palestinians, claim a right to self-determination, and does not challenge Israel’s desire to be a home for Jews. Similarly, it does not consider that Israel labelling itself a “Jewish state” in itself indicates an intention to oppress and dominate.
However, Amnesty International’s report shows that successive Israeli governments have considered Palestinians a demographic threat, and imposed measures to control and decrease their presence and access to land in Israel and the OPT. These demographic aims are well illustrated by official plans to “Judaize” areas of Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which continue to put thousands of Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer.
Oppression without borders
The 1947-49 and 1967 wars, Israel’s ongoing military rule of the OPT, and the creation of separate legal and administrative regimes within the territory, have separated Palestinian communities and segregated them from Jewish Israelis. Palestinians have been fragmented geographically and politically, and experience different levels of discrimination depending on their status and where they live.
Palestinian citizens in Israel currently enjoy greater rights and freedoms than their counterparts in the OPT, while the experience of Palestinians in Gaza is very different to that of those living in the West Bank. Nonetheless, Amnesty International’s research shows that all Palestinians are subject to the same overarching system. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians across all areas is pursuant to the same objective: to privilege Jewish Israelis in distribution of land and resources, and to minimize the Palestinian presence and access to land.
Amnesty International demonstrates that Israeli authorities treat Palestinians as an inferior racial group who are defined by their non-Jewish, Arab status. This racial discrimination is cemented in laws which affect Palestinians across Israel and the OPT.
For example, Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied a nationality, establishing a legal differentiation from Jewish Israelis. In the West Bank and Gaza, where Israel has controlled the population registry since 1967, Palestinians have no citizenship and most are considered stateless, requiring ID cards from the Israeli military to live and work in the territories.
Palestinian refugees and their descendants, who were displaced in the 1947-49 and 1967 conflicts, continue to be denied the right to return to their former places of residence. Israel’s exclusion of refugees is a flagrant violation of international law which has left millions in a perpetual limbo of forced displacement.
Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem are granted permanent residence instead of citizenship – though this status is permanent in name only. Since 1967, more than 14,000 Palestinians have had their residency revoked at the discretion of the Ministry of the Interior, resulting in their forcible transfer outside the city.
Lesser citizens
Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise about 19% of the population, face many forms of institutionalized discrimination. In 2018, discrimination against Palestinians was crystallized in a constitutional law which, for the first time, enshrined Israel exclusively as the “nation state of the Jewish people”. The law also promotes the building of Jewish settlements and downgrades Arabic’s status as an official language.
The report documents how Palestinians are effectively blocked from leasing on 80% of Israel’s state land, as a result of racist land seizures and a web of discriminatory laws on land allocation, planning and zoning.
The situation in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel is a prime example of how Israel’s planning and building policies intentionally exclude Palestinians. Since 1948 Israeli authorities have adopted various policies to “Judaize” the Negev/Naqab, including designating large areas as nature reserves or military firing zones, and setting targets for increasing the Jewish population. This has had devastating consequences for the tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins who live in the region.
Thirty-five Bedouin villages, home to about 68,000 people, are currently “unrecognised” by Israel, which means they are cut off from the national electricity and water supply and targeted for repeated demolitions. As the villages have no official status, their residents also face restrictions on political participation and are excluded from the healthcare and education systems. These conditions have coerced many into leaving their homes and villages, in what amounts to forcible transfer.
Decades of deliberately unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left them consistently economically disadvantaged in comparison to Jewish Israelis. This is exacerbated by blatantly discriminatory allocation of state resources: a recent example is the government’s Covid-19 recovery package, of which just 1.7% was given to Palestinian local authorities.
Dispossession
The dispossession and displacement of Palestinians from their homes is a crucial pillar of Israel’s apartheid system. Since its establishment the Israeli state has enforced massive and cruel land seizures against Palestinians, and continues to implement myriad laws and policies to force Palestinians into small enclaves. Since 1948, Israel has demolished hundreds of thousands of Palestinian homes and other properties across all areas under its jurisdiction and effective control.
As in the Negev/Naqab, Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Area C of the OPT live under full Israeli control. The authorities deny building permits to Palestinians in these areas, forcing them to build illegal structures which are demolished again and again.
In the OPT, the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements exacerbates the situation. The construction of these settlements in the OPT has been a government policy since 1967. Settlements today cover 10% of the land in the West Bank, and some 38% of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem was expropriated between 1967 and 2017.
Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem are frequently targeted by settler organizations that, with the full backing of the Israeli government, work to displace Palestinian families and hand their homes to settlers. One such neighborhood, Sheikh Jarrah, has been the site of frequent protests since May 2021 as families battle to keep their homes under the threat of a settler lawsuit.
Draconian movement restrictions
Since the mid-1990s Israeli authorities have imposed increasingly stringent movement restrictions on Palestinians in the OPT. A web of military checkpoints, roadblocks, fences and other structures controls the movement of Palestinians within the OPT, and restricts their travel into Israel or abroad.
A 700km fence, which Israel is still extending, has isolated Palestinian communities inside “military zones”, and they must obtain multiple special permits any time they enter or leave their homes. In Gaza, more than 2 million Palestinians live under an Israeli blockade which has created a humanitarian crisis. It is near-impossible for Gazans to travel abroad or into the rest of the OPT, and they are effectively segregated from the rest of the world.
“For Palestinians, the difficulty of travelling within and in and out of the OPT is a constant reminder of their powerlessness. Their every move is subject to the Israeli military’s approval, and the simplest daily task means navigating a web of violent control,” said Agnès Callamard.
“The permit system in the OPT is emblematic of Israel’s brazen discrimination against Palestinians. While Palestinians are locked in a blockade, stuck for hours at checkpoints, or waiting for yet another permit to come through, Israeli citizens and settlers can move around as they please.”
Amnesty International examined each of the security justifications which Israel cites as the basis for its treatment of Palestinians. The report shows that, while some of Israel’s policies may have been designed to fulfil legitimate security objectives, they have been implemented in a grossly disproportionate and discriminatory way that fails to comply with international law. Other policies have absolutely no reasonable basis in security and are clearly shaped by the intent to oppress and dominate.
The way forward
Amnesty International provides numerous specific recommendations for how the Israeli authorities can dismantle the apartheid system and the discrimination, segregation and oppression which sustain it.
The organization is calling for an end to the brutal practice of home demolitions and forced evictions as a first step. Israel must grant equal rights to all Palestinians in Israel and the OPT, in line with principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived, and provide victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity with full reparations.
The scale and seriousness of the violations documented in Amnesty International’s report call for a drastic change in the international community’s approach to the human rights crisis in Israel and the OPT.
All states may exercise universal jurisdiction over persons reasonably suspected of committing the crime of apartheid under international law, and states that are party to the Apartheid Convention have an obligation to do so.
“The international response to apartheid must no longer be limited to bland condemnations and equivocating. Unless we tackle the root causes, Palestinians and Israelis will remain locked in the cycle of violence which has destroyed so many lives,” said Agnès Callamard.
“Israel must dismantle the apartheid system and start treating Palestinians as human beings with equal rights and dignity. Until it does, peace and security will remain a distant prospect for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
KATHMANDU: An award-winning scholar, prolific social entrepreneur Dr Bishnu Maya Pariyar has been awarded with New Jersey-11 hero.
The program to honor heroes was introduced by the member of the lower house representing the New Jersey 11th Congressional district — Mikie Sherrill.
A Democratic Party member of the US House Sherrill had assumed office in January 2019. This honor was awarded to those who played a crucial and inspiring role to combat pandemics in the communities.
Among which Dr Pariyar was selected from the Nepali community, according to Sherrin’s office. Heroes were selected from among the teachers, health workers, volunteers, and first responders.
Her colleague Sandy Hecker had nominated Dr Pariyar, one of the most admired Nepali-American personalities, for the honor.
Also the coordinator of Gender and Domestic Violence program Dr Pariyar had played an inspiring role in combating pandemic in Nepal. She was honored by different organizations for her contribution to fight coronavirus.
In 2015 the City of Louisville, Kentucky honored September 27 as “Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar Day” by Mayor Greg E. Fischer for her outstanding social contribution.
Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar’s life-struggle story has been featured in a higher education textbook, ‘The Writer’s Mindset’ by Dr. Lisa Wright Hoeffner which was published by one of the world’s top publications, McGraw Hill in 2021.
Dr. Pariyar’s brain-child social integration organization, ADWAN aims to foster a measure of economic independence, to boost self-esteem, dignity and to instill solidarity among diverse communities and build a sense of national pride.
Through her dedication and passion for the marginalized and Dalit community-the so-called low-caste or untouchable people, Dr. Pariyar has overcome tremendous obstacles of gender, caste discrimination, and poverty in Nepal as well as challenges that emerged because of socio-economic inequality and exclusion.
In the years 2020 and 2021, as Coronavirus devastated the community in the United States and around the world, Dr. Pariyar has been in the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic relief assistance program to needy Nepali and South Asian American community and international students.
Dr. Pariyar was conferred with honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from her alma mater, Pine Manor College, MA for her pioneer social contribution.
DIGNITY REPORTER
WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 7:
A group of civil rights organisations including International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR) have submitted a policy memorandum to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the US Department of State requesting the Department recognize and elevate the important of fighting case-based discrimination across the world.
The rights organisations calling for the attention of the US Department of State include Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus Sadhana, Boston Study Group and Dalit Solidarity Forum and South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) besies the International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR).
“We strongly believe that recognizing and elevating caste based discrimination internationally represents a fundamental human rights issue and aligns with US foreign policy goals, especially as it champions democracy and inclusion in its upcoming Democracy Summit,”states the released issued on Thursday. “We provided multiple recommendations of various complexity to the US Department of State that would help progress the US’s leadership on this issue.”
The civil rights organisations have said they have recommended that the Department include caste-based discrimination within the human rights section of the White House Summit for Democracy on December 9 and 10, as well as within the commitments that relevant national governments are expected to bring to the Summit.
“We further recommended for action the Department take a renewed focus
on caste discrimination by increasing programming and research funding to the issue, reviewing and refining existent policies—including immigration policies—to account for caste discrimination, and engage with interagency partners and non-governmental organization partners to advance the issue,” the release states.
According to recent estimates in South Asia, over 300 million Dalits are impacted every day by caste-based atrocities, lynching, and discriminatory practices that were formally outlawed by national constitutions and international laws.
Congress has already recognized that caste-based discrimination exists and is unacceptable in India and other South Asian countries. In 2007, the 110th Congress (2007-2008) passed the historic House Concurrent Resolution (H.Con.Res.139), “expressing that ‘caste-based discrimination’ is unacceptable and the United States is committed to eliminating it and ensuring the human dignity and rights of Dalits by the U.S. government or U.S. organizations.”
The civil rights organisations also believe that the upcoming Democracy Summit would be a prime opportunity for the US to be a leader on caste-based discrimination issues, and that leadership on that issue now and in the future will be strategically advantageous for US foreign policy interests.
Agency: As negotiators at the Glasgow climate talks try to agree on greenhouse gas cuts, African leaders say poorer countries can’t be expected to remake their systems as quickly as wealthy ones.
Sub-Saharan Africa contributes about 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, among the lowest of the world’s regions. Yet African countries are particularly affected by the consequences of climate change.
Improvements can be costly, and many people still don’t have basic needs like electricity. Leaders point out that some wealthier countries keep natural gas in their own transition plans.
Context: Development banks and richer countries alike have been rolling back their support for fossil fuel projects, including ones in African countries with an abundance of fossil fuel resources.
Agency: Global markets weeks ago were fretting over the possible failure of China Evergrande Group, the property developer, as it grapples with $300 billion of unpaid debts. A broader panic contributed to a wave of defaults among Chinese developers. Property value is still falling, and sales are plummeting.
But the developer says the worst is over, and the Chinese authorities say the risks are manageable even as other companies show signs of trouble. Evergrande and Beijing are managing the company’s struggles in secret, allowing it to meet some payment deadlines without explaining how.
The approach may stem panic, but it papers over broader pressures on the sector. “The fundamental situation for Evergrande hasn’t really changed,” Matthew Chow, a China property analyst and director at S&P Global Ratings, said. “We remain sure that default is almost a certainty.”
In flux: More than a million home buyers are waiting for unfinished apartments, and the company may owe money to just as many workers. Another deadline for Evergrande approaches on Wednesday, when the grace period on $150 million worth of bond payments will end.
Agency: India’s coronavirus crisis, which was killing thousands of people a day just seven months ago, has eased after the nation’s leaders revamped policies and drastically ramped up their vaccination drive.
Now, as India celebrates the delivery of its one billionth dose, a feat that until recently seemed improbable, public health experts are sounding a new warning: The turnaround is losing steam.
Vaccinations are slowing, with only one-quarter of India’s population fully inoculated. People are crowding again for religious festivals, and the government is still taking the approach that things are calming down.
Numbers: By official figures, daily infections have plunged to about 12,000 per day, from about 42,000 four months ago. Deaths, too, have fallen by half, to about 400 per day. More than three out of four adults have received at least one shot.
Context: India’s progress is a key part of ending the pandemic globally. After a deadly wave, the government threw money at vaccine production, stopped vaccine exports and tossed out cumbersome rules that had made it hard for local officials to procure shots.
What’s next: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned from a climate conference, he met with officials to tackle areas of the country where fewer than half of residents were fully vaccinated.