We often wonder how it has come to this, how a virus can change habits and implement a “new normal”. Is it that easy?

But there are realities that no matter how much pandemic or quarantine there is, they will not change, or at least will take decades to disappear if society does not move and continues to accept them as something of its own.we are talking about the caste system, so deeply rooted in them. Nepal abolished it, but only in theory. In practice, cases of exclusion, disputes, and tragic deaths continue to abound and are accepted as everyday occurrences. Nepal has struggled for decades to abolish social discrimination on the basis of caste, and in 1963 introduced a Civil Code to make such attacks a punishable offense. Finally, in 2011, the Untouchability and Discrimination Act was enacted, providing clear protections for Dalits, a caste that represents 13% of the population of this Hindu-majority country, under the 2015 Nepalese Constitution.

However, the reality remains what it is…, the traditions and the bent character of its inhabitants, coronavirus or not, do not change in a country like Nepal. We struggle to instill values in our girls, not only to be good and grateful, which they already are, and that we have so much to learn from western societies, but to be big and generous of heart, not to differentiate human beings by race, gender, condition, or religion, to fight and defend one of the fundamental rights of man, EQUALITY before the law and before others. We hope that with our work and their opportunity to study in schools where all castes have a place, they will be part of this profound change, and one day they will be able to freely choose their own destiny.