Minorities and Inclusive Electoral Processes in South Asia

This overview brings together major findings and crosscutting issues in the “country situation reports” from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively, which were commissioned by South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) as part of its project on the minorities and inclusive electoral processes in South Asia.2 The overall objective of this publication is to throw light on the challenges faced in ensuring that electoral processes in South Asia meaningfully include disadvantaged and hitherto excluded communities and social groups. In keeping with this objective, the country reports focus on the major axes of exclusion in South Asia such as gender, ethnicity, caste and religion but also refer to other less visible groups such as internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities, and migrant workers. This overview uses the term ‘political minorities’, underlining the shared trait of political exclusion and structural disadvantage, to refer to this large and otherwise heterogeneous population.