TIKAPUR, April 7: Locals from the Badi community of Lamki Chuha Municipality-1 in Kailali district have been induced to convert to Christianity. Badis are traditionally Hindus. A total of 77 households living on encroached forest land in Kailali have converted to Christianity.
While many of them have admitted that they were induced to convert, others argued that they were compelled to change their faith due to social stigma attached to their community.
Premlal Badi, a local, said he converted to Christianity two years ago. He said he converted hoping that his financial woes would go away.
"I converted hoping that my financial problems would be resolved."
Some of the converts said they they were given assurances that their illnesses would be healed after adopting Christianity. Many of them who are unable to afford their treatment have been lured to convert to Christianity. One of them is Shankar Nepali, whose four-year-old son Siben was born disabled.
"As my son could not walk, they told me that my son would walk if I converted to Christianity," Nepali said.
To his surprise, his son's condition improved and he started to walk. But his mental health has yet to improve and he cannot speak, Nepali said.
"My conversion and improvement in son's condition might be a coincidence," Nepali said. "But all I can say is this happened after I adopted Christianity." The Nepali family has been following Christianity for the last six years.
A Badi elder, Rudra Bahadur Badi, said his community members were attracted to Christianity to aviod exisiting discriminations from other communities. According to him, members of his community who still follow Hinduism face caste-based discriminations.
"We are not treated like human being. Fed up with discriminations, we chose to convert," he said. "Even the Dalits discriminate us."
However, some locals denied that they were induced to convert. "I decided to convert to be free from all sins after death."
After the Badi community adopted Christianity, some positive changes have also been seen, according to the locals. Many of the converts have given up bad habits including drinking, smoking and gambling.