Badi is a Dalit, Khas community in Nepal. 'Badi' means Vadyabadak, one who plays musical instruments, in Sanskrit. Badi is also a common name used throughout the middle-east and Arab region.
It is estimated that there are 40,000 to 70,000 living in Nepal. Sometimes called untouchables among the untouchables, they have for decades been doomed to supporting their impoverished families through prostitution.
Badis trace their roots to the Licchavi dynasty in what is now northern India's Bihar state. According to a research paper by Thomas Cox, an anthropologist at Katmandu's Tribhuvan University, the tribe moved to Nepal. There they received land and money for providing concubines to small-time rulers in western Nepal. After 1950, as local royalty lost power in the pro-democracy movement, the Badis saw their clientele disappear. The tribe eventually turned to prostitution.
In 2005, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the government to extend formal citizenship to the Badis, establish retraining and alternative employment programs, and extend grants to poor families. The government stalled until in 2007, Badi activists threatened embarrass the government by undressing publicly in the capital Katmandu. Despite the legislation, discrimination against the Badis continues. Badi activists blame tradition, corruption, and Nepal's polarized government for the lack of change.
The Badi remain the lowest ranking untouchable caste in western Nepal. The rules of orthodox Hinduism dictate that members of the higher castes (Braham, Chetri, or Thakuri) cannot allow the Badi into their houses, accept water or food from them, use the same village pump, or even brush against them; although higher caste men are allowed to have sex with Badi prostitutes. "For many years, I thought it was my fate to be a prostitute," says a Badi prostitute. "Now I realize this system wasn't made by God. It was made by man."