Real People | Real Stories

Even in a vastly simplified form, a discussion of Nepal’s caste system is almost meaninglessly dense for a big-picture guy such as myself. Nominally outlawed before I was born, there nevertheless persists a deep and socially meaningful set of caste divisions in society here.

One of the Little Sisters is of an Untouchable caste. Not entirely coincidentally, she is also one of the top academic performers from the 500 girls or so currently sponsored by LSF. 

There is a huge set of prohibitions and sanctions involved in being untouchable. We don’t yet understand even 10% of what that status means. We do understand Shanta can’t have higher caste friends over to play or to study, that she can’t take water from the same fountains as regular folks, that she can’t touch foo dor drink items destined for others’ lips… All because of her last name, the profession of her forefathers.

Yesterday we visited Shanta in the tiny room (at a guess, I’d say it’s 7′ x 11′) which she shares with her brother, and his wife and daughter. In addition to a social call (we’re visiting as many girls as we can), we were ‘auditioning’ them for inclusion in our film.

That is to say that we were checking them out to see how comfortable they could be with us there; to what degree they could ignore the cameras; how fluidly and compellingly they could speak of their lives; and were they willing to let us into their lives for at minimum a couple of solid days?

This is all a lot to try to glean in a 90 minute visit, but Shanta and her brother passed with flying colors. They demonstrated not just that they didn’t mind having us around, but that they got what we’re doing, and understood how it might help other girls like Shanta. They were clearly auditioning us as well. Sweet!

The question of Shanta’s ‘untouchability’ is one we are optimistic, but far from certain we will be able to address directly in the film. We have some ideas, so stay tuned on that tip. It is something we are endlessly (perhaps morbidly) curious about.

And to put it in blunt terms, we hope that it does come up, and that it comes up big and scary and gross, and that we can leverage this obvious injustice into a compelling argument for supporting organizations like the Little Sisters Fund.

Because by gaining an education, Untouchables can make the jump out of the caste system.

We obviously have a ton more to learn about this whole matter. I hope we will be able to share some of it in a meaningful way.