Untouchability and Modern Nepal  King Prithivi Narayan Shan, initiated the formation of Hindu Kingdom.  This resulted in formation of a modern Nepal based caste system and untouchability.  In 1816 AD the Sugauli Treaty created Terai resided by groups that followed the caste hierarchy system.  The New Nepal resulted in increase of practice of untouchability amidst the Buddhists and the Naturalists too.  The Janajatis (indigenous community) were also gradually trained to follow the pattern of untouchability  Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa (1863-1896 AD) added another brick to the foundation of untouchability  The 1854 civil code ratified the traditional custom by defining untouchability in the law.  King Mahendra in 1960 declared all citizens not to think themselves as untouchables  In 1962 Nepal was declared as a Hindu nation  Civil Code 1963, declared untouchability as a crime .  The 1990-Constitution, the Civil Rights Act-1955 and the Defamation Act-1963 are some of the major breakthrough.  In 1964, with the land reform policy, there were speculations on relief to the victims of untouchability;  Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 strictly provisioned untouchability as a punitive crime.  In 2001, the state issued an eight point charter for the elimination of untouchability.  In 2003 untouchability was annexed under Annex A of the Nepal State party cases Act 1992 as a severe nature criminal offence. International Obligations • Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 • International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965 (ICERD) was ratified by Nepal in 1971. • International Convention of the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, 1973 was ratified by Nepal in 1977.