Japan provides grant for Dalit Scholarships, rice

The Government of Japan has agreed to provide Counterpart Fund of Rs 50 million under the Non-Project Grant Aid for implementing the Project of Dalit Scholarship for Primary School Children in 38 disadvantaged districts of the Himalayan Kingdom, Kathmandu based Japanese embassy said.

As agreed between the Japanese and Nepalese government, Nepal will use the counterpart fund for scholarships for about 200,000 dalit children of primary school level in the allocated areas, a press communiqué dispatched by the embassy on Thursday said.

The support is targeted to cover about 36 percent of the total dalit children of districts identified by the poverty index as the poorest and most disadvantaged, it said.

Japan is Nepal’s largest donor country.

The fund will help in accessing primary education, improve the completion of primary education and enhance the achievement of primary education by children of the dalit community of the target districts, to some extent, contributing towards achieving the goals of Education for All, among others, it said.

Considering the aspirations of the people of Nepal, Japan has been responding to Nepal’s requests to achieve sustainable socio-economic development for poverty alleviation, which will ultimately facilitate peace building and human security, the statement said and added, “Japan hopes that Nepal will recover its peace and stability as soon as possible on the basis of democracy and constitutional monarchy.”

The benefiting districts include Taplejung, Panchthar, Shankhuwasabha, Terhathum, Bhojpur, Solukhumbu, Khotang, Udayapur and Okhaldhunga in the Eastern Development Region; Sindhuli, Ramechhap, Sindhupalchowk, Rasuwa and Dhading in the Central Development Region; Argakhanchi, Gulmi, Gorkha, Manang, Lamjung, Myagdi and Mustang in the Western Development Region; Mugu, Dolpa, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot, Rukum, Rolpa, Pyuthan, Jajarkot and Dailekh in the Mid-Western Development Region; and Doti, Achham, Bajura, Bajhang, Darchula, Baitadi and Dadeldhura in the Far-Western Development Region.

Similarly, Japan’s envoy to Nepal Tsutomu Hiraoka, Thursday, handed over 9,700 metric tons of rice equivalent to Rs 227m to Nepal, a separate press statement of the Japanese embassy said. The rice was received under Japan’s Food Aid (KR) in Japan’s fiscal year 2003, it added.

The assistance was provided with a basic objective of enabling the Nepali government to procure rice and supply it to the needy population living in the food deficit districts of Nepal. Nepal Food Corporation will be responsible for the transportation of rice to the food deficit areas in the hilly and mountainous regions, it said.

About 31 of the 75 districts in Nepal are food-deficit, according to reports. nepalnews.com pd June 02 05