Nepal’s inclusion commissions are broke, powerless and mostly used as waiting rooms for politicians

Unless the inclusion commissions are empowered now, Nepal’s inclusion project remains mere window-dressing.

The 2015 Constitution of Nepal was touted as a transformative socio-economic document designed to rectify centuries of historical injustice against marginalised communities. A decade later, the seven inclusion commissions established through Part 27 of the Constitution to safeguard the rights of the marginalised stand as gaunt reminders of a promise unfulfilled. These institutions, born from the sweat and blood of the People’s Movement and the Tharuhat, Madhesh and Dalit struggles, have been reduced to ornamental fixtures within the state apparatus. As their ten-year review—mandated by Article 265 of the Constitution—looms, the state faces a difficult choice: Empower these commissions or admit that the inclusive project was merely an exercise in political window-dressing.