Social Inclusion and Exclusion among the Kumal Community in Lamjung, Nepal

Abstract

This paper explores the daily life of social inclusion and social exclusion within one of Nepal’s indigenous communities, the Kumal community in Lamjung District. As a convergent parallel mixed-methods study, it integrates a household survey (n=150), key informant interviews (n=6), and focus group discussions (n=3) to investigate four critical areas of exclusion, namely education, health, political participation, and cultural identity. The quantitative findings indicate a high level of deprivation: 45.3 per cent of the Kumal participants reported experiencing discrimination in schooling, and only 28.3 per cent of them had attended secondary or higher education. Although political participation was relatively high (88%), representation remained limited, with only 6 percent serving in local ward committees, and only 32 percent believed that they were represented in politics. Though cultural involvement was high, 96 percent of the respondents took part in the traditional festivals, and qualitative information obtained showed that structural and symbolic exclusion continued. The research paper demonstrates a sharp discrepancy between the discourse of inclusion and the lived conditions of the indigenous people of Nepal. These results reveal the analytical and practical shortcomings of top-down inclusion models, and suggest that inclusive citizenship and meaningful empowerment for indigenous peoples in Nepal will depend on policy measures at the bottom, which are culturally rooted and structurally transformative: culturally responsive curricula, ethnically representative service delivery, and indigenous participation in local planning and decision-making.