Personal Statement

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I was not allowed to touch the people of so-called higher caste, the things they ate, the temple where they worshiped, the house in which they lived, and the books they read. I was not allowed to touch the public tap before they satiated with water. My seat in the school always used to be in the last row even when I reached the school in the earliest. I didn’t have many close friends in school. Because, there were least number of students from my caste group. As I was among the top students in my class, I wanted to make friends from so-called higher caste group and to share the ideas that I had learned. However, they never listened to me. Instead of my present social status as an officer in a government office, most of the people from so-called higher caste behave me in the same way as they did earlier. Such tough situations have hardened me off. Now, I have courage to face tougher challenges ahead.
Furthermore, I am the one among four million people being suffered from caste based discrimination. Most of us are poor because of long lasted exclusion from natural, physical, economic, human and social assets. We are marginalized from the development process. Most of our setlements are near the jungle where we depen up on while major cities are captured by the so-called higher caste people. Thus, present need is to bring the change in the poor through the scientific management of forest with their active participitation as well as biodiversity conservation for livelihood improvement. It will increase the access of the poor to the natural assets which will eventually be helpful to acquire physical, economic, human and social assets.
It was my routine job to do homework at the time of herding a cow and two goats in community fal...

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...ral community. I implemented the programs related to biodiversity conservation, community awareness and education. I organized, coordinated, and facilitated the trainings on leadership, women empowerment, capacity building, and governance in forest user groups. It was very difficult for me to convince them of conserving forests and wildlife. Most of the participants could not read and write. They were not used to the language I spoke. Their settlements were in the trans-Himalayan region. They had transhumance practice so that managing their time for trainings was really difficult. As a result, I followed them to their pastures to provide the training and make them aware. Although having the trouble, these days I feel proud of being strong and patient to face the problems. Sometimes I feel pleased when I speak in broken tibetan language while phoning my friends.

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