The National Inclusion Commission has made a number of recommendations to local governments on the measures to be taken to protect the rights of marginalised people and empower them.

The constitutional body is supposed to make necessary recommendations for the protection of rights and empowerment of the Khas-Arya, backward people, disabled people, elderly people, farmers, minorities, marginalised groups, endangered communities, poor people and backward areas as per the National Inclusion Commission Act.

As the local governments are preparing their annual budget for the next fiscal year, the commission last week came up with a number of recommendations including various facilities to be provided to them as well as preservation of language, culture and customs of different communities.

Commission Chairman Shanta Raj Subedi said that recommendations were made after holding detailed discussions with the stakeholders and studying various reports related to marginalised groups.

“We have also made recommendations to the federal government and provincial governments,” he said.

For the benefit of elderly people, the commission has suggested that the local federal units run awareness programmes on the diseases like the Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injury, autism, and Parkinson’s that affect elderly and disabled people.

“For this, the ward office and community police should be mobilised to identify these diseases,” the recommendation says. “Medical facilities for single persons, destitutes and people without protection should be made available free of charge gradually and local governments should make payments for health insurance.”

The commission calls for establishing a helpline to hear complaints about the mistreatment of eldery people from family and society. Elderly care centre, entertainment park, religious park and sports ground targeting the elderly should be built, it has been suggested.

In order to preserve the language, culture and customs of the Khas-Arya, backward people, minorities and marginalised groups, museums should be established at the local level.

The commission has also made a number of recommendations to improve the condition of farmers and farm workers. It says the subsidies offered by local governments should be provided only through the banking channel.

Registration of middlemen that link farmers with the markert must be made compulsory at the local level to ensure that farmers get reasonable prices for agricultural goods. Usually, farmers and consumers have been at a disadvantage as middlemen purchase goods from farmers at cheaper rates and sell them in the market for high prices. The commission has also called for identifying agricultural workers who own land and those who are landless and distributing separate identity cards. “The landless agricultural workers should be provided with barren and government land on contract basis for farming,” the commission says.

The commission has suggested introducing special programmes related to skills and capacity development to empower backward, marginalised and people of backward regions. Regarding the disabled people, the commission has called for building information park, sports ground and entertainment park. Making buildings, roads and public infrastructure leading to toilet and drinking water facility disabled-friendly is another recommendation of the commission.

In order to ensure that children of backward, marginalised, poor and endangered communities don’t drop out of school, local governments could offer lunch, scholarships and shelter. A minimum employment guarantee scheme should be launched targeting the backward, marginalised, endangered and very poor people, the commission says.

According to Subedi, the commission will also make necessary recommendations on the reservation policy after a detailed study. “We are also going to study the effectiveness of programmes targeting Karnali, which is the most backward region.”