KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Sushila Karki asserted that it is the responsibility of the State to protect and promote inclusion, social justice and cultural and lingual diversity.
Inaugurating the 26th Board Meeting of the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities here Sunday, PM Karki commended Foundation’s contributions in ensuring recognition, rights, culture and overall development of the indigenous communities across the country.
Karki expressed her confidence that the decisions, guidelines and policy recommendations to be made by the meeting would be relevant for the effective implementation of the national policies.
She was also hopeful that the meeting would provide a clear direction for institutional strengthening, effectiveness of programmes, policy recommendations based on research, documentation and protection of the mother languages of various ethnic communities and sustainable socio-economic empowerment of the indigenous communities in the country.
The Head of the interim government informed that the government had been providing the Foundation with the policy and structural reforms and budgets to effectively enforce Foundation’s programmes. Emphasizing the need to further enhance cooperation among the development partners, civil societies, local government and local communities to achieve the goals of inclusive development, PM Karki articulated government’s readiness to facilitate for the same.
Furthermore, the PM reiterated that it is the responsibility of both the government and the general public to implement the core components of the Constitution such as republic, federalism, secularism and inclusiveness to secure the welfare of all indigenous communities. She also urged effective enforcement of the provisions guaranteed by the constitution to transform diversity into national unity as well as to protect the cultural rights of the indigenous communities.
On a different note, PM Karki expressed government’s commitment to revise the laws in line with Supreme Court’s directives, the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. According to her, formation of constitutional commissions like Indigenous Commission and Tharu Commission had played vital roles in protection and promotion of the rights of the aboriginal communities.
She called for mutual cooperation and coordination between constitutional bodies and the Foundation to achieve common goals.
The first women PM observed that the demands raised in the Gen Z movement such as good governance, prosperity, end of nepotism and favoritism and biasness were urgency of inclusive development and social justice in place.
The PM, who also led the Supreme Court as the first woman Chief Justice of the country, asserted that the development based on equal access and participation of all classes and communities is the only sustainable form of development that, she argued, would further reinforce the nation.
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