Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), a national network of indigenous groups, torched the recently released census report in front of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Sunday.
NEFIN has condemned CBS for manipulating the data and shrinking indigenous population by deliberating leaving out several ethnic groups. NEFIN Chairman Raj Kumar Lekhi expressed dissatisfaction that the statistics has not only under represented the population of indigenous people but also left out at least a dozen ethnic groups.
After the protest and sit-in outside the CBS building in Thapathali, Lekhi presented a memorandum to CBS Director General Uttam Narayan Malla.
The indigenous leaders also expressed their anger over under-representation of Buddhists in the population, who they claim, make up for at least 30 per cent of the population. However, the statistics shows only 9 per cent people follow Buddhism in Nepal. The memorandum states that such manipulations are conspiracies to reinstate Nepal as a Hindu state.
The memorandum demands a recount to ascertain the real number of ethnic people and their linguistic identities. For that, it has demanded an independent mechanism with representatives from indigenous, Madhesi, Muslim and Dalit communities.