Kathmandu, October 15
Former finance minister Yubaraj Khatiwada has said that although Nepal’s class structure is changing, remnants of caste-based and social discrimination continue to persist.
Speaking at an event to launch the website of the CPN-UML’s Policy Study and Research Foundation at the party’s central office in Chyasal on Thursday, Khatiwada said analyses of Nepal’s class structure must also account for caste and gender discrimination.
He said traditional classes were being transformed and new classes were emerging alongside political, economic, social and cultural changes.
“As Nepali society develops, its class structure continues to change. Traditional classes are being transformed through political, economic, social and cultural developments, while new classes are also emerging,” Khatiwada said.
He said caste and class were distinct aspects of social structure but remained directly connected in Nepal. He expressed concern that access to state protection, public opportunities, facilities and concessions was often determined by caste, ethnicity and community rather than economic class.
Such practices, he argued, could weaken support and protection for lower-income groups. He also said approaches that interpreted society through traditional rather than scientific perspectives, along with existing systems of caste-based reservation, had created problems in the political sphere. Political parties, he added, had also failed to articulate clear class-based positions.
Khatiwada said intellectual property, technological knowledge, skills and innovation were becoming important foundations for the emergence of new classes in a modern, knowledge-based economy. He stressed the need to analyse class structures and relations of production in light of the changing economy.
“In a modern, knowledge-based economy, intellectual property is becoming a powerful, productive asset that generates high returns. Therefore, when analysing class structures and relations of production in the new economy, intellectual and technological knowledge, skills and assets generated through innovation must be considered alongside physical assets,” he said.
According to Khatiwada, around 60 percent of Nepali households belong to the ultra-low-income, low-income and lower-middle-income classes.
He said the agricultural sector had undergone changes but had yet to achieve full monetisation and commercialisation. Exploitative transactional relationships remained in agriculture, while farming was still often viewed as a compulsion rather than a commercial opportunity, he said.
Khatiwada said class-based economic and social inequalities had declined to some extent, but remnants of feudalism rooted in caste, community and social relationships remained.
“Although class-based economic and social discrimination has declined to some extent, remnants of feudalism based on caste, community and social relationships persist,” he said.
According to Khatiwada, Nepal is in a transitional phase in which feudalism is receding and capitalism is taking shape. Financial, intellectual and technological assets are becoming major drivers of the emergence of new classes during this transition, he said.
Although the middle class is expanding, Khatiwada said further planning was needed to help people move beyond lower-middle-class conditions.
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