Nepali’s journey from discrimination to empowerment

Tikadevi Nepali lives in Lahachowk, Kaski District, where only 33 percent of the population is Dalit. As a single mother, Nepali raised her two sons and one daughter through commercial farming and animal husbandry. Before her, no one in the community had engaged in business by raising cattle and buffaloes.

Nepali’s journey began when the Lahachowk Small Farmers Agricultural Cooperative Society was established. Initially, she raised Murrah buffaloes to sell milk and advance her business. However, she recalls a difficult experience: “People did not buy the milk brought by Dalits, which was very challenging.”

The turning point came when the cooperative served everyone at a community program, reducing the discrimination and allowing Nepali’s milk to be sold in the market. Kamala Kumari Subedi Poudel, president of the cooperative, recounts the incident: “Even the dairy tried to boycott her, saying that if you bring milk, no one else will. But at a cooperative event, we served kheer made from Nepali’s buffalo milk to those who had discriminated against her. After that, no one got sick, and attitudes began to change.”

Iman Singh Gurung, another farmer in the village, started buying Nepali’s buffalo milk and selling it in Pokhara. This helped spread awareness about cow and buffalo farming among other Dalits, who later took loans from the cooperative to start their own livestock farming.

Now 51 years old, Nepali has been selling buffalo milk for nine years. Inspired by her success, other Dalits in the area have also begun raising buffaloes after taking loans, says Chairperson Poudel. Nepali believes that the discrimination she once faced has now been eliminated because of the milk. “Nowadays, everyone eats together at feasts. Discrimination has been reduced due to the milk,” she shared.

Her children have now grown and are helping expand the family’s agricultural enterprise. With the help of her son-in-law, she has also added an additional ropani of land earned from her animal husbandry, vegetable farming, and poultry business. She has also gradually paid off her mortgaged lands and brought them under her name. Nepali's experience shows how enterprise loans not only reduced societal discrimination but also empowered her economically.

The Lahachowk cooperative, which was registered on 31 Aug 2022, initially provided small loans of up to Rs 20,000. However, with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the government, the cooperative now offers rural agricultural enterprise loans at a concessional nine percent interest rate, with individual loan limits of Rs 5m. This has allowed livestock farmers to expand their businesses.

Today, Lahachowk’s milk is famous in Pokhara, and the region now sells 12,000 liters of milk daily. While the cooperative’s loan limit remains Rs 5m, many commercial farmers now prefer loans from banks, which allow for larger investments. As a result, only three rural agricultural enterprises have received loans from the cooperative, according to Chairperson Poudel.

Lahachowk boasts 44 cooperatives, three of which are run solely by women. Chairperson Poudel noted that women-run cooperatives face fewer issues, as loans are efficiently utilized, and the recovery rate is higher.