<figure><img width="1500" height="1125" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13ad9c7e80680e0a9935jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Newly constructed public toilet in Patan Dhoka is being inagurated on 19 November, World Toilet Day. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>The tactile pavement leads into a reception area inside a cylinder-shaped red brick building. The user pays Rs10, and the staff hands out a token for turnstiles that lead into the male and female lavatories. Visitors do a double take. This looks more like the entrance to the London Underground than <a href="https://www.aerosantoilets.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a public toilet in Kathmandu</a>. The shiny new facility has motion-detector flushes, taps with sensors, a diaper-changing station, turbo-fan ventilation and a menstrual hygiene dispenser for tampons. The effluent goes into a biogas digester, rainwater from the roof is harvested in this new toilet plan that is being built across the Valley. The design was selected among top five projects at the Sarphati Sanitation Challenge during World Water Week this year. <figure><img width="721" height="960" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b19c7e80680e0a9936jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Photo: PRAKASH AMATYA</figcaption></figure>“Our priority is to operate public toilets sustainably and hygienically, and making latrines comfortable, especially for women and people with disabilities,” says Prakash Amatya of Aerosan Sustainable Sanitation that has built six model public toilets ‘hubs’ in Baneswor, Mangal Bazar, Buddha Park, Tripureswor, Ratna Park. In 1980, only 2% of Nepali homes had toilets. By 2018, 97% of Nepalis had <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">latrine facilities</a>, and this improved hygiene and sanitation leading to a dramatic decrease in gastric infections, typhoid and other diseases, especially among children.Last year, amidst much fanfare, Nepal was declared ‘Open Defecation Free’, but the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Toilets-for,250" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">problem of sanitation and water-borne diseases</a> persist.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/do-not-fail-students-in-wash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Many schools</a>, for example, have toilets but no water for hand-washing. The facilities are poorly maintained, and so dirty that students prefer the outdoors.Functioning <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-to-take-a-dump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">faecal sludge treatment</a> plants are limited and with overflowing septic tanks and mismanaged household sewage systems, the waste often ends up in rivers.Across villages in Nepal, latrines built by local governments have been turned into storage space for neighbourhoods. Many in the Tarai still prefer to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">defecate in nearby fields</a>. The problem is even more pronounced in the case of public toilets. Only a third of the 84 public toilets in Kathmandu are operational and even those remain <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nature-calls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unhygienic and poorly maintained</a>. Most of the waste is left untreated and is often overflowing from septic tanks. <figure><img width="1500" height="1125" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b39c7e80680e0a9937jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A menstrual hygiene dispenser for sanitary pads at the Patan Dhoka 'hub'.</figcaption></figure>Now, the municipalities in the Valley are out to change that with the new model toilets. Aerosan’s designs incorporate an underground anaerobic bio-digester tank which turns the effluent into methane. The biofuel generated by the public toilet in Swayambhu, for example, is used by a nearby tea stand. The interior design is made as touch-free and hygienic as possible, and <a href="https://www.aerosantoilets.ca/copy-of-nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aerosan</a> has installed flushes that use minimal water. The facilities are also women and disability-friendly, conforming to international safety and cleanliness standards. The ‘hubs’ now sees 500 customers a day, of which 59% are women compared to 13% in other public toilets. Amatya is aware that maintenance and sustainability are key for any public facility in Nepal, which is why the toilets pay for themselves, and are managed with strict protocols for operations and hygiene.“The major reason public toilets are not maintained or are dirty in Nepal is because cleaning and sanitation jobs are frowned upon and are reserved for those from the so-called lower castes. We are trying to change that outlook by dignifying the job,” adds Amatya.  <figure><img width="960" height="720" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b79c7e80680e0a9938jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Budhha chok</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1600" height="1200" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b99c7e80680e0a9939jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Mangal bazar</figcaption></figure>The company employs 20 people at its six ‘hubs’, with each facility assigned three cleaners who are provided with gloves, personal protection equipment, work shoes, and other necessary equipment. Trained in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/covid-19-revives-nepals-wash-drive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sanitation</a>, each staff member is also ensured paid leave, medical insurance, a smartphone, and a monthly salary starting from Rs15,000. Aerosan has also established the Sanitation Workers’ Cooperative to help staff and marginalised communities through work placement programs. The government provides the land for the hubs, and the construction is financed through local municipal taxes. For now, Aerosan relies on grants to pay for the toilet fittings staff salaries. Aerosan is now working to mobilise more public finance to build the model hubs outside Kathmandu, and is looking at locations in Pokhara, Biratnagar, and on highway waypoints which are notorious for the lack of proper latrines.Says Amatya: “We need legal frameworks to maintain standards and norms in all public toilets, incentivise their use, and monitor management. Only then will we achieve sanitation and health for all in Nepal.”

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Toilet-trained in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe469c7e80680e0a0c2ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2529" height="1427"/><figcaption>Photo: HIMALMEDIA</figcaption></figure>A white-coated nurse holding a blue and white, half-litre bag of milk stands in front of a small group of mothers seated near the entrance of the Nutrition Rehabilitation Home in Kathmandu.She is explaining the importance of feeding milk to their children, who are lolling on their mothers’ laps. On a table behind the nurse are containers of pulses and legumes and leaning against the wall, charts displaying leafy vegetables.But later, listening to the women’s stories, it is apparent that solving their children’s problems will require more than a healthy diet. Through tears, Chandra, 24, says she brought her son Raju, 21 months, to the Home after a routine hospital check-up found that he was malnourished.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe499c7e80680e0a0c2fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3706" height="2170">His father, who Chandra was forced to marry, bought barely enough food for them to survive, says the woman. That deprivation, plus physical beatings and “mental torture” caused Chandra to flee their village home for Kathmandu.Mother and son arrived in January at the 24-bed facility perched on a hill on the outskirts of the city, where housing colonies sprout on former farm fields. In the month since then, Raju has gained 1kg in weight and is much stronger.The boy will stay at the Home for a few more weeks, says Sunita Rimal, coordinator of the Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Program at the Nepal Youth Foundation, which runs the Home. By then she hopes to have found some work in Kathmandu for Chandra via her informal channels, so that the mother-son pair don’t have to go back.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe4d9c7e80680e0a0c30jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="901" height="786">Epidemic of hungerNina Parajuli, 45, brought her daughter Anushka, 7, to the Home weeks later on the advice of staff at a local non-governmental organisation. Nina had gone there for skills training after losing her house-cleaning job in Kathmandu.She was forced to find work unexpectedly after Anushka was born, when her husband deserted them. The family that hired her ate their first meal of the day only in the afternoon, which meant the girl left for school in the morning having eaten only snacks, while her mother worked. Eventually, Anushka grew dangerously thin and was considered severely malnourished when she arrived.Nina “was too concerned with her own problems to notice,” Rimal explains. Like her husband, she is HIV positive. She also has a heart condition and is on a waiting list for a uterus operation.Though unique, the stories of Nina and Chandra share a common thread — the causes of their children’s malnutrition are multifaceted. Rimal says that is the norm: “Most of the people who come here have other socioeconomic problems.”Past achievements Nepal is celebrated globally for its success in fighting malnutrition from the 1990s until recent years. Most notably, rates of stunting (low height for age) fell from the world’s highest, 68% in 1995, to 36% in 2016.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe509c7e80680e0a0c31jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2410" height="1064"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>New research has teased out exactly which development efforts had what impact on stunting. Indirect (also known as ‘nutrition-sensitive’) approaches were surprisingly effective. For example, better educated parents accounted for 25% of the improvement, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental factors</a> like building more toilets contributed 12% and economic growth made up 9%.Direct (‘nutrition-specific’) efforts included: improved nutrition of mothers (accounting for 19% of the gain), and maternal and newborn health care (12%), according to the research, published on the website <a href="https://www.exemplars.health/topics/stunting/nepal">Exemplars in Global Health</a>.“The exemplars that we picked were countries that did (development) much faster than others. Nepal is not necessarily the best example but it is an important example,” says Zulfiqar A Bhutta of the Centre for Global Child Health at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, one of the leaders of the research.“One thing is very clear, no one country has done it alone by only investing in health and nutrition sectors,” explained Bhutta via Zoom from Toronto. “And no one country has done it alone by only investing in poverty alleviation strategies. So the truth is that you have to do both in combination.”Nepal has continued that broad approach, investing in health both directly and indirectly, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">yet the progress has plateaued</a>.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe549c7e80680e0a0c32jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1628" height="1255">While stunting continues to fall, the 36% rate is greater than the developing country average of 25% and the Asia average of 21.8%. In fact, the country is on target to hit only one of its nutrition goals for 2025 set by the World Health Assembly — for underweight children under 5 — says the <a href="https://globalnutritionreport.org/resources/nutrition-profiles/asia/southern-asia/nepal/">Global Nutrition Report 2020</a>.So what happened?“The one thing that I was surprised by is that inequity has increased,” says Bhutta, “and I have a feeling some of that may have had to do with the urban poor or rural to urban migration.”Nepal, he adds, should work to pinpoint the who’s and why’s of poverty, but otherwise, it should maintain its balanced approach.Investment on nutrition A recent analysis from UNICEF found, however, that spending on indirect approaches to fight malnutrition was rising while declining for direct interventions. This goes against the direction given in the government’s <a href="http://nnfsp.gov.np/PortalContent.aspx?Doctype=Resources&amp;ID=330">Multi-sector Nutrition Plan</a> (MSNP), the blueprint for tackling malnutrition.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/hunger-for-governance/">Hunger for governance</a>, EditorialThe first phase of the MSNP ran from 2013 to 2017, and the current plan ends next year. The analysis in UNICEF’s <a href="https://www.unicef.org/nepal/media/13296/file/Nutrition%20-%20Budget%20brief.pdf">Nutrition Sector Budget Brief</a> also pointed out that the cost of programs in phase two (Rs48.9 billion) of the multisector plan is just 54% of phase one (Rs88.5 billion). In addition, the gap between budget numbers and actual spending has been growing.Kiran Rupakhetee of the Good Governance and Social Development Division at the National Planning Commission secretariat, helped shape MSNP-II. In an online interview he suggests that rather than the current plan’s budget being too low, the budget for MSNP-I might have been “over calculated at the time”.As to the growing gap between allocations and real spending — it results from many factors, including “rigidities and structural barriers” in the system, he explains.Another major challenge for MSNP-II is federalism, which introduced three levels of government after elections in 2017. “It’s a Herculean task… because at the moment it’s not only one government—we have 761 governments… There are some difficulties in ensuring coordination among them,” adds Rupakhetee.The pandemic challenge The Covid-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/covid-19-leaves-millions-of-south-asian-children-hungry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has added to the challenge</a>. “It definitely has hampered our activities,” says Rupakhetee, “but we tried our level best to keep the programme going.”For example, parents were trained to measure the arm circumference of infants to detect signs of malnutrition, a task usually done by female community health volunteers, who have been unable to do so due to frequent lockdowns.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141136/636cfe579c7e80680e0a0c33jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Nepal’s school feeding programme was also modified because of the pandemic, with food rerouted to students’ homes, says World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director Jane Pearce, in an online interview.“Whereas most of the world stopped all of their school meals programmes, Nepal has continued, which has meant that we’re maintaining the nutrition that we’re providing through our locally-managed school meals programmes by giving households take-home rations,” she said.WFP has also teamed up with UNICEF and other UN agencies to press the government to expand its malnutrition treatment to include not only children who are severely wasted (low weight for age) but moderately wasted, says WFP’s Head of Nutrition Anteneh Girma.“With the impact of Covid and others, if they’re not treated they will become severely malnourished, then chronically malnourished, or stunted,” he adds.In June <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/">this paper reported</a> on how severe malnutrition was killing children in the poorest communities in Nepal’s eastern plains. It told the story of Raju Devi Sada, whose first daughter died at 3, after being malnourished. A second daughter died soon after birth, a year later.A third daughter is underweight and local health workers have recommended feeding her nutritious food. But Raju Devi cannot afford vegetables, eggs, milk and meat, and what she earns as a daily wage labourer is barely enough to feed the rest of the family.“We have found that up to 70% of children who die every year in Province 2 do so due to malnutrition, and the main reason for that is extreme poverty,” said Kedar Parajuli at Nepal’s Family Welfare Division. “Without alleviating poverty, we can’t solve malnutrition.”WFP is doing mapping, using mobile data, to create what it calls a vulnerability index. It documents people’s access to water and sanitation services, health and other factors, in addition to nutrition, says Girma.He adds, “Our nutrition response, food security response, is informed by that index… it indicates those who are vulnerable for not having access on time, for being exposed to various inequalities.”The private sectorGirma points out that WFP, both in Nepal and globally, supports the multisector approach. In that vein, the UN agency is working closely with the government to establish the <a href="https://sunbusinessnetwork.org/">Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network</a> in Nepal. To date, 10 companies, all working in the food industry, have become members.Ending malnutrition and other food-related diseases “will happen only if the private sector is responsible for what they are producing, and producing something safe …  so their engagement, bringing them to the table, is very important,” says Girma.Leading collaboration with the private sector on the ground is <a href="https://www.baliyonepal.com/en/">Baliyo Nepal</a>, a non-profit company that generated headlines when it launched in 2019. The initiative was funded by the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation through the Chaudhary Foundation, the charity arm of the Chaudhary Group, makers of Wai Wai instant noodles, which are widely considered junk food.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/junk-food-is-making-nepali-children-shorter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Junk food is making Nepali children shorter</a>, Marty LoganToday Baliyo Nepal is set to expand a pilot project that has been running in Lumbini Province since 2020 — raising awareness about nutritious food among school children, including via a cricket program, and educating shopkeepers to sell the nutritious foods in the first phase of its ‘Baliyo Basket’: eggs and a single-portion Rs10 sachet of fortified porridge for infants.“Seventy percent of the sachets in the market were sold, according to the sales report,” says Baliyo Nepal CEO Atul Upadhyay, a nutritionist, in an interview in his Kathmandu office. “The feedback we’re getting from mothers is ‘Now we want it in a bigger package. We can’t go to the shop every day and buy the Rs10 package’.”Upadhyay says manufacturers will start making the larger packs by year end. That is just one of many plans he is cooking up — besides expanding pilot activities to Bagmati and Gandaki provinces, the company will soon be adding to its Baliyo Basket a fortified drink for pregnant and lactating women and fortified porridge for 2-5-year-olds, once they are approved by the government.Upadhyay notes that both the government and private sector are gradually embracing his innovative approach but stresses that new ways to fight malnutrition, like this public-private partnership model, are essential if Nepal is to reach its nutrition targets.“It’s not important who works for nutrition. It’s important that someone works for nutrition, whether it be WFP, Baliyo Nepal, company A, company C — I don’t mind,” he adds.Target StuntingStunting, low height for age, is a sign of chronic undernutrition. It can hinder brain development resulting in reduced mental ability and learning capacity, poor school performance in childhood and lower earnings and higher risks of nutrition-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity, in adulthood.Nepal cut its stunting rate dramatically in recent decades, and it is one form of malnutrition that the country might be on track to reduce in line with coming targets: MSNP-II (2022), World Health Assembly (2025) and SDGs (2030).The UNICEF Nutrition Sector Budget Brief says that the average yearly rate of stunting reduction since 2001 (3.25%) must increase to 3.8% to meet the MSNP-II and WHA targets, and rise to 6.5% to meet the SDG target.According to Kiran Rupakhetee at the National Planning Commission: “The Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey has brought some encouraging results, but it may still be difficult to make the WHA target... but since the SDGs deadline is quite far away I’m very much optimistic and hopeful that we can meet it.”Stunting rates and targets 2016: Nepal Demographic and Health Survey – 36%2019: Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey – 31.5%2022:  Target: Multi-sector Nutrition Plan-II – 28%2025:  Target: World Health Assembly – 25%2030:  Target: SDGs – 15%

Marty Logan

A tall order

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b92f49c7e80680e06f17bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2550" height="1429"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Nepal has had one emergency heaped on top of another for more than a year now. The Covid-19 emergency, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildfires</a>, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">now floods</a>.Political flux in Kathmandu continues to undermine the state’s ability to respond adequately. But this is nothing new. The most glaring governance failure of Nepal’s rulers for the past decades has been their incompetence in being able to ensure nutrition for its youngest citizens.Be it during the absolute and constitutional monarchy days, the post-democracy period or now, in the new federal system, the state has failed abjectly in its primary responsibility to fulfil the most basic of all human rights – access to adequate food.Nepal did reduce childhood stunting from 57% to 36% in the two decades after 1990. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">But progress stalled</a> because of the conflict and political upheavals. Nearly a third of Nepali children are still stunted due to lack of adequate food, 12% are wasted, and 24% low weight.The statistics are shocking. Nepal’s hunger hotspots are Far Western Province where 41% of children are stunted, and in Province 2 where 34% of children have low height due to lack of food. A survey in May by Sharecast Initiative and UNICEF shows that one in five families across Nepal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-eating-less-due-to-lockdown-hardships/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reduced the quantity of meals</a> their children ate during the lockdown.Children have so far been largely spared by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants, but they have become <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/children-are-collateral-damage-in-nepal-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">collateral damage in the pandemic</a>. Schools have been closed for most of the past year, and half the students had no access to distance learning. Immunisation drives against pre-existing killer diseases have been disrupted.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/half-of-nepalis-lost-jobs-in-past-month/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More than half of Nepalis lost their jobs</a> in the past month amidst the second wave, and loss of household income has led directly to insufficient food for children.Hunger is Nepal’s real national epidemic and rampant malnutrition pre-dated the Covid-19 outbreak. The pandemic has undermined the country’s past gains in battling childhood malnutrition.To meet its UN sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets, Nepal has to reduce stunting well below 15% and wasting and low weight to less than 5% in the next nine years. At the present rate, we will not meet those goals.Horrific as the statistics are, zooming down to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ground level in Dhanusha and Mahottari districts</a> of Province 2, our Saglo Samajtv magazine report this week shows how much worse things have got during the lockdowns.Despite Nepal being declared open-defecation free amidst much fanfare, Dalit and other marginalised communities in Dhanusha and Mahottari do not have toilets. If they do have one, there is no running water or soap. They use the same village pond for both humans and cattle, for cleaning and drinking. Things are not much better in pockets in the western mountains. Gastric infections compound malnutrition.The least the government could do is equitably distribute the ‘nutrition allowance’ allocated for the Dalit families and educate the communities on the basics of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sanitation and hygiene</a>.Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres for severely malnourished children must be set up closer to the communities so that the neediest can access the service. The annual budget on nutrition should be increased so that local health posts have sufficient supplements and micronutrients for new mothers and their children.The government’s Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan has not delivered as expected, tangled up over jurisdiction under the new federal structure. But it could just as easily deploy Female Community Health Volunteers, and local representatives to discourage <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/child-marriage-in-nepal-eloped-at-13-mother-by-17/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">child marriage</a> that feeds the vicious cycle of malnutrition and high maternal and child deaths.Malnutrition is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/junk-food-is-making-nepali-children-shorter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than the availability of food</a> and access to clean water, it is also confronting patriarchy, casteism and gender discrimination. It is a result of poor governance, lack of accountability and corruption.But nothing is stopping newly-empowered local governments with technical and financial backing from the centre to now achieve results that Kathmandu’s past centralised governments could not. Training of farmers on climate-smart agriculture, and leasing land to the landless is a good place to start.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/the-face-of-hunger-debt-malnutrition,3604" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Children are hungry</a> because of poverty. Their families are poor because of state neglect. We must draw that causal link between lack of food and failure to deliver it by elected representatives. That is the real scandal the evening news bulletins should be highlighting.

Hunger for governance

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2789c7e80680e07bae4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="930" height="620"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Period stigma has long blighted the lives of young women and girls in Nepal, but the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ensuring-menstrual-hygiene-during-nepal-lockdown/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ensuring-menstrual-hygiene-during-nepal-lockdown/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFRijVaIWllHBMsdGej-K1GWY9sUw">pandemic is making things worse</a>. If action isn’t taken to help girls menstruate safely, hygienically, and with dignity, Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-superwomen-beat-superstition/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-superwomen-beat-superstition/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGthfvaonsA70ekl3khwSP5i87ZrA">gradual progress in tackling taboos</a> and stigma around menstruation risks being undone.Families are spending long days, weeks, months indoors, and the continued lockdown is reinforcing harmful practices and stigma around menstruation. We have all come to realise the importance of routine hand-washing, but hygiene does not stop there. Menstruation does not stop during a pandemic, nor does the intense stigma associated with it in Nepal.Even without the pressures of the lockdown, many girls and women in poor, rural parts of Nepal simply do not have access to clean running water and soap. They also do not have menstruation pads, and even when they do many find themselves <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/that-time-of-the-month/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/that-time-of-the-month/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGkUXe1S5cwSBXCUsDHIGPMJFT67w">facing stigma in the household</a>, making their day-to-day lives all the more difficult.In communities where our Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) works, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/tipping-point-on-menstrual-banishment-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/tipping-point-on-menstrual-banishment-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFwh8i-WtKzK-Z0JIQog2-ixKuTOw">chhaupadi</a> still persists despite the government’s ban on so-called <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/their-songs-from-the-forest/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/their-songs-from-the-forest/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEa0nTiimV03Cl0KYM5qIyPLMx5Vw">‘period huts’</a>, and a three-month prison sentence and fine for  forcing girls to menstruate in huts. But some are still sent to caves and other locations which put them at risk.To remain ‘clean’, girls are forbidden to touch communal objects in the household. Menstruation untouchability is still practiced and promoted, and even the Nepali word <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/menstruation-is-not-private-business-it-is-everyones-business/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/menstruation-is-not-private-business-it-is-everyones-business/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE4ZcZ-SxFHOZnulUF2iMVhGjGCLA">nachhuni</a> literally means ‘untouchable’.Women and girls are separated and not allowed to touch and enter kitchen and prayer room. They cannot touch male members of the household, and there is much mental pressure by the family and community members to maintain untouchability norms and practices. Failure to abide by them sometimes leads to ostracisation.At the individual level, it is a painful experience and there are long-term psychological effects of period stigma on girls’ self-esteem, especially among trans and disabled women and girls who face double marginalisation. Some of these women make up our frontline healthcare workers during the time of Covid-19, leading to increased anxiety during the lockdown.Added to all this, the economic crisis is leaving young women and girls unable to afford menstruation products, particularly as prices for sanitary pads have spiked.Last year, the government committed to providing every girl with sanitary pads to help them  continue to go to school in a dignified way and succeed in studies. This year, we reached many girls with the products, helping them stay in school and realise their dreams.This year the government has also allocated funding to provide sanitary pad distribution to schoolgirls. But with schools closed across Nepal for nearly six months now, the goal of reaching every schoolgirl with sanitary pads has been badly interrupted. We are now hearing that girls are resorting to makeshift solutions, risking infection and complications.The pandemic has disrupted every facet of life, but the fight to realise women’s rights to menstruate safely and with dignity must continue. Under the lockdown, VSO is providing hygiene kits to some 4,000 girls across rural Nepal, especially in areas where menstruation taboos and stigma persist.The kits include soap, chlorine wash, underwear and a hygiene kit bag. Prior to the lockdown, VSO also trained over 2,000 young women and girls across four districts to make reusable sanitary pads, a skill which many have put to good use under lockdown.The <a href="https://www.wsscc.org/media/resources/government-nepal-calls-dignified-menstrual-hygiene-management" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsscc.org/media/resources/government-nepal-calls-dignified-menstrual-hygiene-management&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHLw7xJvPvYa4obERECweTvlx_SxA">Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHMPA) Alliance Nepal</a> is a national network supporting over 80 initiatives to tackle period stigma in the country which works to shape policy and campaign for change. Its activities are constrained under the lockdown, but the mission to end period stigma across Nepal will not stop.The Nepal government has shown its commitment to end period stigma and other forms of gender inequality. While we fight Covid-19 together, we must also use this moment to ensure the promises we have made to young girls are kept throughout the pandemic and beyond.With the virus continuing to spread in Nepal and schools not opening any time soon, we are calling on national and local governments to honour their original commitment and ensure girls receive free menstrual products even when they are not in school.We have come a long way in improving the rights of women and girls in Nepal, legislating for increased participation of women in politics, while improving their rights in the home. Tackling period stigma is a fundamental part of moving towards a more equal society, and overcoming the barriers women face in public life.We can be <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-superwomen-beat-superstition/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-superwomen-beat-superstition/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGthfvaonsA70ekl3khwSP5i87ZrA">proud of the progress we have made</a> in challenging harmful practices like chhaupadi – and by working together as communities, civil society and government we can make sure that the pandemic does not hinder, or even reverse, our progress.We must use this moment to leverage the partnerships we have built in recent years between civil society and government to ensure that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/communicating-to-remove-menstrual-taboo/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/communicating-to-remove-menstrual-taboo/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599021346631000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGZh3CqDbtQwCnrdB1XdP0dbuVDag">women and girls are not left behind</a> today, and can thrive when the pandemic eventually ends.Geeta Pradhan is the global lead gender adviser at Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). She has worked in the Asia-Pacific and Africa.

Pandemic deepens period poverty

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121116/636b8c4d9c7e80680e06b2efjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4096" height="2730"/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>With no proven <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFhARSUb8HMQP_ZJgsaTmPoQDLWvA">cure or vaccine available yet for COVID-19</a>, various treatments with no proven benefits and potential deadly side-effects are being tried out on patients.One example of a desperate treatment measure is a New York City doctor carelessly declaring on primetime tv recently that COVID-19 pneumonia was similar to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/high-alert/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/high-alert/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGuDq-Ti_uWGlw-rY-q1PpyQQO54g">high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE)</a>, and he recommended high altitude drugs like Diamox for the treatment of Covid-19.Trekkers in Nepal are familiar with <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19693#.Xp-oJy8w0Wo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D19693%23.Xp-oJy8w0Wo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGSLnJg3LMR2gIcZz9LMdKOvruqJA">Diamox</a>, a pill they take to acclimatise better when hiking at higher altitudes. There is no scientific basis that the drug will work, but this idea of very low oxygen (hypoxia) and pneumonia in both afflictions was appealing.To counter this some of us in Nepal and other countries have a forthcoming Opinion in the British Medical Journalcautioning against this rash treatment strategy using high altitude medicines. In medicine, doctors have to remember the maxim, Primum non nocere (‘above all do no harm’).But there are some silver linings <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-must-hope-for-the-best-prepare-for-the-worst/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-must-hope-for-the-best-prepare-for-the-worst/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGtTkAInA3D5xIkzd65kTSfDvYESg">if Nepal escapes the worst of COVID-19</a>. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGbOqrkOzN3uP_va7u0F-uhlxipaQ">Tuberculosis</a> rates, which are very high in South Asia (more than 400 per 100,000) could go down if people continue to use the masks since it will also mean that a tuberculosis patient will not spread the bacteria, not to mention other respiratory infections.Similarly, as more people get into the habit of washing hands with soap and water where available, the rates of diseases like typhoid and hepatitis A and E, caused by fecal oral transmission, will certainly be reduced.An average of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHn0HGje-Tq3pDeekYbQAbhZxJOwg">230 people used to be killed every month</a> on Nepal’s highways and streets. The lockdown has now lasted a month, and that is approximately the number of lives saved due to vehicles being off the roads.The importance of public health for both the rich and poor countries has been highlighted by the pandemic. Industrialised countries had thought they had been done with infectious diseases, except perhaps the odd HIV patient. This pandemic has given great pause to that argument. Developing countries which having tried to come to grips with pre-existing epidemics have used lessons learnt in dealing with coronavirus in prevention.The Indian state of Kerala for example, has done relatively better in dealing with COVID-19 partly because it utilised prior lessons from the Nipah outbreak a year ago. Other South Asian countries with robust public health infrastructure like Sri Lanka also have a better handle on the disease.They strengthened their public health system, and it has paid rich dividends. South Korea too had an outbreak of MERS Coronavirus in 2015 which was brought by a South Korean returning from Kuwait, but they were able to effectively control the spread, and have been dealing successfully (so far) with the novel coronavirus. Singapore had been doing well, but discovered last week that it had a blind spot in the migrant workers’ dormitories. It has now announced a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown till 1 June.South Asian countries have had more time in preparing for the contagion, while they wait for a vaccine or drugs to treat COVID-19. Treatment trials are happening all over the world even as the patients and doctors await with bated breath (pardon the pun). In all likelihood, we will soon know if chloroquin works or not before we have a vaccine.Vaccines will be a game-changer against Covid-19, and competition is heating up because whoever makes this vaccine first will be the knight-in-shining armour. China, USA, UK are probably a few of the countries engaged in developing a vaccine, and among them are researchers at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit who <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-shot-in-the-arm-for-vaccines-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-shot-in-the-arm-for-vaccines-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHKJgZ_d-vQIhZ5sdehQmMT7iWvHQ">collaborated closely with Patan Academy of Health Science</a> in a recent successful typhoid vaccine study.This Oxford University group lead by Professors Sarah Gilbert and Andrew Pollard are optimistic about producing a million doses of the vaccine by autumn. The vaccine will be eventually required not in the millions, but in billions of dosages. It also has to be affordable for countries like ours.For making vaccines promptly for neglected tropical illnesses, it is hard to beat the Chinese. When <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19220#.Xp-nMS8w0Wo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D19220%23.Xp-nMS8w0Wo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEw-YGKhD3XomMEP736r5ileoWJ3g">Japanese Encephalitis (JE)</a> was raging in China and South Asia, it was the Chinese who tested, developed and made available the ‘Chengdu vaccine’ that revolutionised the prevention of the mosquito-borne disease. The earlier vaccine was expensive and only tourists in Nepal could afford it.Similarly, when <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18079#.Xp-m3S8w0Wo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D18079%23.Xp-m3S8w0Wo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEndZvjwlu6D0uMBXFMGO9OgvSoXg">hepatitis E</a> was a scourge in China, the Xiamen Innovax Biotech came up with a vaccine in 2012 to protect vulnerable populations. Because there is no other commercial vaccine available against hepatitis E, it will be valuable in South Asia if the virus is rampant again and affect pregnant women with a fatal outcome.Nepal clearly needs to have a strong public health infrastructure in collaboration with a prestigious institute abroad to be able to tackle COVID-19 and other infections. Just like earthquakes, there will be more pandemics in future. Humanity needs to up its game in the control of emergent infectious diseases, and Nepal can make a small contribution by helping itself, especially by strengthening public health.Buddha Basnyat is a clinical researcher at Patan Academy of Health Sciences and a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1587612692665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFhARSUb8HMQP_ZJgsaTmPoQDLWvA">frequent health columnist</a> for Nepali Times.Prevention while searching for a cur

Buddha Basnyat

Prevention while searching for a cure

<figure><img width="400" height="267" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110912118/636b8acb9c7e80680e06b25fjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Four Mahottari prison inmates watch television in the room also used for worship. Photo: KIRAN PANDAY/Nepali Times Archive</figcaption></figure>Even before the current coronavirus scare, Nepal’s overcrowded prisons were hotbeds for infectious diseases like tuberculosis, typhoid and influenza. But public health experts fear that the ease of spread of COVID-19 through breathing and touch could make Nepal’s jails incubators for the virus.There have been many studies of <a href="https://www.unafei.or.jp/publications/pdf/RS_No80/No80_13PA_Upadhyaya.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.unafei.or.jp/publications/pdf/RS_No80/No80_13PA_Upadhyaya.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586411848269000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEOGN3iUvhfW-wCzLrlZoihLVDcTg">crowded living conditions</a>, hygiene and violence in Nepal’s prisons, and a coronavirus outbreak there could affect the health of detainees, security staff and through them spread to the general population.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/prisons-can-be-incubators-for-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prisons can be incubators for COVID-19,</a> Nepali Times“Our prison infrastructure is not properly managed, as a result inmates have to be kept in crammed up places,” admits Sharmila Kumari Sharma, Senior Auxiliary Health Worker at Dilli Bazar prison. “We have regular awareness programs on washing hands and maintaining physical separation, but implementation is difficult. It is so crowded here that even maintaining 1.5m distance is not possible.” The World Health Organization (WHO) has published <a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-determinants/prisons-and-health/news/news/2020/3/preventing-covid-19-outbreak-in-prisons-a-challenging-but-essential-task-for-authorities" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-determinants/prisons-and-health/news/news/2020/3/preventing-covid-19-outbreak-in-prisons-a-challenging-but-essential-task-for-authorities&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586411848269000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyHYu6ntPVhmYSxWdNZc-GfiTgAA">guidelines</a> for preventing and managing the cases of COVID-19 in prisons and detention centres. According to the latest <a href="https://www.dopm.gov.np/uploads/files/falgunmaskebari076%20(version%201)%20-org2.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dopm.gov.np/uploads/files/falgunmaskebari076%2520(version%25201)%2520-org2.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586411848269000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEMlXqE9s0CBDU_uFJ4Il2wQh_KAw">report</a> of the Department of Prison Management (DOPM), there are 24,512 prisoners in Nepal’s jails -- 1,528 of them women, 1,281 foreigners and 91 are dependents. There are 8 juvenile correction centers in Nepal with 847 boys and 23 girls.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/charles-shobraj-out-of-lockup-during-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charles Shobraj out of lockup during lockdown?</a>, Deepak Kharel“Given that COVID-19 thrives on social contact, having crowded jails with people coming in and out is likely to promote transmission into jails, transmission within jails and  'spillover' of infections out of the jails into the community,” says Columbia University epidemiology professor <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/prisons-can-be-incubators-for-covid-19/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/prisons-can-be-incubators-for-covid-19/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586411848269000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEzapjwrlthuL-q32XJAonGxqAgjA">Barun Mathema in an email interview with Nepali Times</a> this week. Even within jails and detention centers it is important to identify the medically vulnerable people, those with chronic conditions like <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13002" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D13002&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586411848269000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGrsWVNSjsVyxrcHwF05diXURaoaQ">HIV</a>/AIDS respiratory illnesses and cancer. Individuals with these co-morbid conditions may be predisposed to poor COVID-19 clinical outcomes. Studies have shown that reducing the number of inmates would lessen the pressure on prisons. Releasing medically vulnerable, nonviolent offenders and people towards the end of their sentence could free up some space in the prisons, and would help in general mitigation goal of slowing the spread of the disease if there is an outbreak. In addition, use of bail, speedy trials, early release and community service could aid in resolving the issue of overcrowding in the prisons and unsanitary conditions – problem that predate who COVID-19. <figure><img width="640" height="320" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110912118/636b8acd9c7e80680e06b260jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In fact, the DOPM wrote a <a href="https://www.dopm.gov.np/uploads/files/covid-19%20nirdesan%20076-12-09.jpeg" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dopm.gov.np/uploads/files/covid-19%2520nirdesan%2520076-12-09.jpeg&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586411848269000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGoq27Ml8euVobHPkrgT8p7qimfmA">letter</a> to the Ministry of Home Affairs stating the need for personal protective equipment (PPE), thermal gun, mask, glove, sanitiser and testing kit in prisons and juvenile correction centers. Hospitals in Nepal are in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-those-who-protect-us-from-the-epidemic/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-those-who-protect-us-from-the-epidemic/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586411848269000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF3z5GZG-8DUsul-vzoutJuUQ2c-g">shortage</a> of PPEs and other protective gear, and it seems that for the overstretched government the prison system has the last priority. Unsanitary living conditions in the prisons make the facilities even more vulnerable. The Office of Attorney General (OAG) worked on the provisions to reduce the number of prisoners and inmates in juvenile detention centers. Depending on the gravitas of the crime, the concerned authority and the police may release a person from custody. Legally, if the police or adjudicating authority decide it is not necessary to keep a person in detention during the course of an investigation, they may release them on guarantee or bail or recognisance to appear on the given date. Says advocate Rabindra Bhattarai: “It is possible to reduce the reduce the number of prisoners in Nepal by one-third from 22,000 to about 7,000, this would make prisoner management and budget easier, as well as reduce the risk of a coronavirus spread.”The Supreme Court responded positively to a move by Attorney General Agni Kharel to release 13 elderly prisoners in Nepal’s jails and sent the file to the Home Ministry, among them the French-Vietnamese serial killer Charles Shobraj. The Court also decided to exercise the power of case diversion in accordance with the Act Relating to Children-2018 so that juvenile delinquents can be released on recognisance to appear when called by the court on the guarantee of their parent/guardian. The decision to pardon or suspend the jail sentence by the OAG is a win-win situation, legal experts say. It would reduce the load on prison management which would, in turn, minimise the risk of COVID-19. However, many inmates are in the prison because they do not have money to pay for bail, and some are not able to pay the fine. “It is up to the Home Ministry to make the final decision, but we are sending the list to them,” said the director general of the Jail Administration Department, Pradip Raj Kandel. However, there are a lot of questions before the elderly, juveniles or those jailed for non-violent crime are released on bail. How will the inmates or their families get the jail money, how with the district court hearing take place in a lockdown?

Nepal’s prisons need to be depopulated

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101156/636b79739c7e80680e064704jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1152" height="864"/><figcaption>Historical sites like Kathmandu Darbar Square looked deserted as Nepalis chose to stay indoors amidst COVID-19 pandemic scare. Photo: ALISHA SIJAPATI</figcaption></figure>“It just doesn’t make sense!” You might have heard this phrase more than once lately in the context of Nepal and COVID-19: next to the epicentre in Wuhan and host to a large number of Chinese tourists and residents, this country has still only recorded one case of the coronavirus, and the person recovered. How can that be?You might also have heard, and scoffed, at the rumour that Nepalis have superior immune systems. ‘Nepali people have a stronger immunity power’ was one reason given <a href="https://english.khabarhub.com/2020/13/81620/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://english.khabarhub.com/2020/13/81620/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1584943003593000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFc1KpV0IZPmrgxEFmxs8qmB0EFIQ">in this article</a> for why COVID-19 has not hit the country yet. As time goes on and the number of cases remains at just one, could there actually be something to the claim?<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101156/636b79769c7e80680e064705jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960">“The whole world is raising the question of Nepal because of the lack of COVID-19 cases and especially after the country recorded only three deaths from two previous virus outbreaks originating in China — SARS in 2002 and the 2009 H1N1,” says Baburam Marasini, former director of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division of the Department of Health Services.“I believe that more cases of COVID-19 would have been detected by now if there was an active surveillance system in place,” added Marasini who says he has advised health officials to test people already hospitalised for pneumonia or with major breathing difficulties. “If you compare the number of those people with the number from last year you will see they have increased and have indirect proof that the virus is here.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101156/636b797a9c7e80680e064706jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960">Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/why-nepal-must-watch-about-coronavirus-but-not-panic/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/why-nepal-must-watch-about-coronavirus-but-not-panic/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1584943003593000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGvsYFUHfFB29Dfd_gj9XfxzoCYYg">Sameer Dixit of the Centre for Molecular Dynamics</a> says he has done that comparison and in the past four months there has been no increase in reports of flu-like illnesses to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division compared to previous years. Across the country 20-25 government, private and community hospitals report to the division via the Early Warning and Response System.Yet based on experiences in other countries to date, 10-15% of those infected with COVID-19 should become seriously ill. Asks Dixit: “The limited testing to date could be a major factor, but don’t you think that there should be huge spikes everywhere of severe illness among the elderly population? It’s not happening. At night I lie in bed wondering why, and it’s bothering the hell out of me.”Dixit, who has postgraduate degrees in immunology and biotechnology, believes that people are not getting seriously ill because Nepal is experiencing a less severe strain of the virus, and/or Nepalis do have stronger immune systems."While lack of testing is also a big cause for missing cases, I believe that immunity may be a major player in developing countries. I know this sounds far-fetched, and people will laugh when they hear it, but there is a ‘hygiene hypothesis’." The theory suggests that people who grow up in less hygienic surroundings develop strong immunity to external health threats. Dixit notes that the hypothesis has not been tested for virus outbreaks. But to support the hygiene hypothesis he notes figures from previous outbreaks:  2009 Influenza A H1N1 pandemic: Global infected 700 million -1.4 billion, Global deaths 150,000-600,000, Nepal: Infected 173, Deaths 3.2003 SARS Corona outbreak: Global infected ~8,000, Global deaths ~770, Nepal: Infected 0, Deaths 0.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101156/636b797d9c7e80680e064707jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1584943003593000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEHbM3RH59Ci_1YI8koW6JWamgnKw">Buddha Basnyat, a physician at Patan Hospital,</a> downright rejects the notion of ‘Nepali immunity’. He says: “I think it is foolhardy to think that we are somehow immune – there is no scientific basis for this. I think it is a silly, wild conjecture.”He adds: “I hope it does not happen here, I hope all of these theories about immunity are true, but this is not a one-off virus, I think. Our health system is in a shambles, I think we should just make plans for a disaster.”Dixit, however, is not convinced that wider testing is necessary. “Developing countries like Nepal have a limited number of tests. It is very hard to justify testing among the 80-85% of people who could develop mild symptoms — how would we find them anyway? You’d basically have to go door-to-door and how practical is that … we basically need to save lives. Screw the detective work.”Instead, Dixit counsels trying to identify the 10-15% of the population most at risk, suggesting that people might have been hospitalised and mistakenly diagnosed with Influenza A when they actually have COVID-19.

Covid-19, Nepal and the hygiene hypothesis

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101156/636b796c9c7e80680e064700jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="335" height="490"/>Nepal has had three months of lead time to study the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/wait-and-watch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus pandemic</a> and behaviours that have been associated with flattening the curve of the COVID-19 infection. Every cultural circumstance has the potential to contribute a different solution, and we should attempt to link our own common practices with the pandemic to come up with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/all-nepal-flights-cancelled-22-31-march/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">novel ways of dealing</a> with it.One such behaviour could the Nepali habit of blowing the nose hard (seee-seee!) and the deep, loud, clearing the throat (haak-thoo!).The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/global-thinking-and-local-action-on-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID-19</a> spreads through droplets transmitted though the air from sneezing and coughing. If two people have not maintained social distancing, virus particles from an infected person may land on an uninfected companion and enter the latter’s body through her eyes, nose, or mouth. The particles then travel to the back of the nasal passages and to the mucus membrane at the back of the throat.The spiked protein of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/this-is-a-test/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus</a> particles hook on to cell membranes at the back of the throat, and it is here that the virus’s genetic material enters the cells of the human body, resulting in infection. The symptoms of dry cough and sore throat start with this. The genetic material of the virus then uses the cells as the virus’s carriers and multipliers and starts to move down the bronchial tubes towards the lungs, where it does the most damage.If <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus</a> particles travel to the back of the nasal passage and the back of the throat to infect the individual in question, could it be that the loud Nepali habit of blowing the nose hard and clearing the throat can contribute to reducing the numbers of infected?If this is indeed the case, all that blowing and spitting must be done in an appropriate place. Doing it in public and where others are present risks spreading the virus even more widely.Given that the coronavirus resides at the back of the nose and throat before making its way to the lungs, could it be that our first line of defense – if we should get the virus – would be to wash our faces, including our eyes, and to blow our noses and clear our throats?We should <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/covid-19-revives-nepals-wash-drive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wash our hands several times a day</a>  as we have been instructed. Our hands can transfer the virus from one place to another. They can infect us if they bring the virus in contact with our own eyes, nose, or mouth, and if we are infected, they can pass the virus on by bringing the virus into contact with things that others will touch.But if the virus has in fact already found its way on to our bodies, then we will want to get it off of our bodies, and perhaps washing our faces and ejecting it from our noses and mouths – as so many Nepalis do – is the way.Once again, it is critical that we never spit or blow our noses in public places. Avoiding this restricts the spread not only of coronavirus but of major killers that have been around for much longer, such as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TB</a>  If we must blow our noses or clear our throats in public, we should blow our noses into a handkerchief which we later wash, and we must swallow our saliva. If swallowed, the virus particles would be killed by the juices in the digestive tract.Perhaps, in addition to frequent hand-washing, we should wash our faces, blow our noses and cough out several times a day as part of an anti-coronavirus regimen.Shanta Basnet has a PhD in public health from Columbia University.

Keeping nose and throat clean

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101148/636b779f9c7e80680e064648jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="997"/><figcaption>Eco Soap Bank Nepal's Nicky Lama teaching a student about hand hygiene. Photo: ECO SOAP BANK NEPAL</figcaption></figure>Many Nepalis woke up on Wednesday to an early-morning SMS from the Ministry of Health and Population: ‘Let’s wash our hands with soap and water regularly and if possible refrain from going to crowded places to be safe from coronavirus disease. Cover your mouth and nose while coughing or sneezing.’The public service announcement was aimed at stopping the spread of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/why-nepal-must-watch-about-coronavirus-but-not-panic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID-19</a>, but will revive Nepal’s hand-washing drive to control other infections like diarrohea and typhoid that kill mainly children.COVID-19 has now hit 78 countries. New infections and fatalities are tapering off in China, but the outbreak is spreading in Iran, Europe and the United States. Visit Nepal Year 2020 has been shelved, the Sagarmatha Sambaad postponed, and the US Embassy has put off its Independence Day celebration at Phora Darbar.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-panic-goes-viral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When panic goes viral</a>, Editorial“There is still widespread lack of awareness about hand-washing, even right here in Kathmandu among marginalised communities,” says Diwakar Acharya, principal of Pulchoki School in Godavari. “Schools play an important role in educating children, their families and the community as a whole. This becomes especially important with the rise of new emerging diseases like coronavirus.”Nicky Lama of <a href="https://ecosoapbank.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eco Soap Bank</a> Nepal, which supplies recycled hotel soap to schools, has been visiting government schools in Kathmandu to train children in hand hygiene. “We have been training students and teachers so parents are also sensitised. It is a protective measure against not only coronavirus but already existing seasonal flus and common infections like typhoid,” says Lama.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nature-calls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal was declared free of open defecation last year</a>, and is a model for the region. While this is dramatic progress from 1990 when only 6% of households had toilets, public health experts have raised questions about poorly maintained toilets and lack of water supply.In a 2018 study, the Global Sanitation Fund Programme found that 3% of households in communities declared ‘open defecation free’ did not in fact have toilets, and that in 5% of families who had a toilet at home, at least one member continued to defecate outdoors.“Despite declaring open defecation free, toilet infrastructure is not always optimum, septic tanks are now filling up and availability and quality of water is questionable, particularly in urban slums,” says Sandhya Chaulagain, Hygiene officer at WaterAid Nepal. “But most  health workers are focused on curative measures and often wait for the outbreaks to happen instead of preventing them.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/do-not-fail-students-in-wash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Do not fail students in WASH</a>, Marty LoganThe additional challenge for the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) campaign in Nepal comes from the lack of clarity about  jurisdiction and roles of each tier of government in the new federal structure. A new bill on WASH is undergoing review at the parliament.Good news is that some municipalities have started collecting household-level sanitation, hygiene and water data using the GIS-based app NWASH. Says Govind Shrestha, policy specialist at the NGO WaterAid Nepal, “Moving ahead we need to find and then reach all the areas that do not have proper water and sanitation facilities yet. The challenge is to reach all 753 local bodies and as soon as possible.”<h2>Recycling soap</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101148/636b77a29c7e80680e064649jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1068">Nicky Lama was volunteering at a hospital in Cambodia when she met Samir Lakhani, of Eco Soap Bank fame and Top Ten CNN Hero of 2017. She was so moved by his commitment to improve child health that she decided to return to Nepal and bring with her the campaign of collecting used soap from fancy hotels and recycling it to improve hygiene in schools.Thousands of children die unnecessarily or fall sick due to diarrhoeal dehydration and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17306#.XmGoynIzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">typhoid</a>. These illnesses have faecal-oral transmission, which can be easily prevented through regular handwashing.Lakhani founded Eco Soap Bank in 2014 with the aim of saving, sanitising, and supplying recycled hotel soap for the developing world. The soap bank is currently operating in ten countries: Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzinia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and now Nepal.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/virtuous-cycle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virtuous cycle</a>, Yuvaraj ShresthaThe Nepal branch works independently from the network and was set up three years ago. It networks with 23 hotels in Kathmandu including the Hyatt Regency, Hotel Annapurna, Soaltee Crowne Plaza and Kathmandu Guest House. Women in its Swayambhu workshop process the soaps to produce 7,000 bars of recycled soap per year, most of which are distributed in government schools in parts of Kathmandu Valley.“At the moment we are a small set-up, but we plan to expand to hotels in Chitwan and Pokhara, set up workshops there, employ many more disadvantaged women and help spread hand-hygiene awareness in schools,” says Lama, who is now country director of Eco Soap Bank Nepal.After finishing high school in Kalimpong, Lama went to the UK to study International Development. She then worked in Zambia, introducing tablet computers in community schools. Later, in Cambodia, she volunteered at a children’s hospital.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Alcohol,276" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alcohol to the rescue</a>, Buddha Basnyat Eco Soap Bank Nepal is looking to collaborate with agencies working on the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) campaign. “We want to not only promote eco soap banks but also create employment and spread the message about handwashing with a focus on the prevention side of healthcare,” says Niall Kavanagh, an adviser to the Nepal operation.The added benefit of the Eco Soap Bank concept is that it promotes a cost-effective hygiene product that also reduces waste generated by the hotel industry. Says project coordinator Narendra Lamichhane: “There is a misconception that recycled goods cannot be used. We need to change that, while at the same time creating jobs for women.”

Sonia Awale

COVID-19 revives Nepal’s WASH drive

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813110/636a450d9c7e80680e04d364jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1002"/><figcaption>No Privacy Photo taken by Sushma, 15, from Sindhuli, in a WaterAid UK participatory project She said: “This is the girls’ toilet at our school. It doesn’t lock properly. If someone is inside, someone else has to wait outside, pushing the door. This is why we need more girl-friendly toilets.”</figcaption></figure>By the numbers, Nepal’s progress in water, sanitation and health (WASH) is encouraging. More than <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/survey-is-wakeup-call-for-nepal-government/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">90% of people now have access to toilets and 74% enjoy safe drinking water</a>, a recent survey found.But as usual, facts and figures alone don’t tell the full story. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/nepal/media/1026/file/A%20CONCEPTUAL%20FRAMEWORK%20FOR%20RESOURCE%20MOBILIZATION.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to Unicef</a>, just 25% of water supply systems in the country work properly, 36% require minor repairs and 39% need either major repairs, rehabilitation or reconstruction.<a href="https://www.unicef.org/nepal/media/1026/file/A%20CONCEPTUAL%20FRAMEWORK%20FOR%20RESOURCE%20MOBILIZATION.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Schools are also reporting progress</a> — 82% now have toilets and close to 80% can boast an improved water source — but in only 47% of schools was water supply available during a recent survey.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813110/636a45119c7e80680e04d365jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="844"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Nationally, two-thirds of schools have separate toilets for girls. That is supported by <a href="https://www.unicef.org/nepal/media/336/file/ANALYSIS%20OF%20MENSTRUAL%20HYGIENE%20PRACTICES%20IN%20NEPAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research done in 12 schools</a> in Achham, Bajura and Parsa in 2016. It found that all schools had toilets, with 10 having separate ones for girls. Yet only 3 toilets in all 12 schools had a water tap that children could reach and just 1 toilet in all the schools was disabled-friendly. Nineteen toilets had a door that locked while 33 lacked a door; no toilets had soap and water nearby for hand-washing.Girl students especially are sensitive to the availability of toilets, and if they have to share facilities with boys, or if there are no locking doors or if no water is available, some girls will choose to stay home instead.Given that enrolment of girls in schools is already lower than boys because of traditional beliefs that educating females is simply not a smart investment, effort is needed to ensure they remain in class. When girls are menstruating equipped private toilets are even more important.The number of examples is growing country-wide of <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/sanitary-pads-bring-down-girl-students-absenteeism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">schools where the administration and students are overcoming traditional barriers</a> to together manage girl students’ menstruation so that they don’t miss classes. There was good news in the recent budget too, the government promising to supply all community schools with sanitary pads and also allocating Rs43 billion for water supply and sanitation projects.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813110/636a45149c7e80680e04d366jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="366">While implementation will be key, such initiatives should be praised. WASH is not a luxury or an add-on like a science lab or a football pitch; it is a necessity. Having working toilets does not equate to equipping schools with fancy facilities but of taking pains to create healthy environments, and habits, for Nepali children.Advances in water supply will undoubtedly be challenged by growing shortages as the climate crisis deepens. Water quality also remains a priority concern in this country. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/nepal/media/1026/file/A%20CONCEPTUAL%20FRAMEWORK%20FOR%20RESOURCE%20MOBILIZATION.pdf">Surveys have found</a> that 71% of households in Nepal are at risk from E. coli contamination of source water, and 82% from E.coli at the household level. <a href="https://www.wateraid.org/uk/where-we-work/nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">700 children die from diarrhoea yearly</a>.If we want our girls to have the same opportunities as boys, and if we want all children to be healthy enough to attend school every day, it’s time that we took building — and maintaining — toilets as seriously as we do building roads.To mark World Environment Day (5 June) a WASH Mela is being held 8-9 June, 8AM-5PM, Basantapur, Kathmandu

Do not fail students in WASH

The daily 10-hour curfew at Tribhuvan International Airport from 8 November that will last five months has affected tourism during Nepal’s peak season, with some hotels and trekking agencies here reporting cancellations into spring next year. The reduced hours at Nepal’s main aviation gateway till 31 March means that a third of all flights have been cut. This has also caused ticket prices to surge by up to eight times of normal fares. For example a Kathmandu-Delhi ticket that used to cost Rs12,000 is now listed at Rs50,000, and even then seats are not available.&nbsp; “Especially if they are here to trek, change in flight dates can cause tourists to miss their connections,” says Jagan Timilsina, who runs a trail running and outdoor education business. &nbsp; Pokhara is feeling the brunt as hotels report last-minute cancellations for November because of flight disorders. Some hoteliers also say although there have been some cancelled trips, most itineraries have been rescheduled.&nbsp; Hari Prasad Sharma Gaire of the local chapter of the Hotel Association of Nepal says the Kathmandu airport closure should have been timed for the off-season. He told us: “Starting construction during the peak tourist season was a mistake and will cause the tourism industry to lose a lot of business. The upgrade could have been spread out over a longer time but closed for fewer hours at night so that disruption was minimal.”&nbsp; Nearly a third of the 1.2 million tourists who visit Nepal annually come to Pokhara, which is also the gateway to Mustang, the Annapurna treks and pilgrimage tourism to Muktinath. Located by scenic lakes with a range of adventure sports like hot air ballooning, paragliding, canyoning, bungee and ziplines, Pokhara is also popular among diaspora Nepalis. “Besides its own attractions, Pokhara is really the hub for central Nepal, and we have been trying to get visitors to extend their stay here,” says Timilsina, who started out as a trekking porter and rose up the ranks to be an expedition guide and entrepreneur. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60" data-rendition-name="original" width="3500" height="2333" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara's tourism woes NT"> <figcaption>Tourist arrivals in Pokhara have slumped since the disruptions at Kathmandu airport due to upgrading work. Photo: KRISHNA MANI BARAL/NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption> </figure>  Even without the Kathmandu airport closure affecting tourist arrivals, Pokhara was already suffering from a decline due to many factors like the poor state of the Prithvi Highway, the shortage of luxury accommodation for high-end tourists, and the reluctance of international airlines to start direct flights to Pokhara despite an expensive new airport that was inaugurated two years ago.&nbsp; “There was a lot of initial excitement on the construction of the international airport,” says Timilsina, “but it hasn’t delivered as expected due to politics. People have invested in nearby businesses, and have faced losses.” India has blocked direct flights from its cities to Pokhara because the facility was built by a Chinese company. Although tourists and pilgrims from India hit record levels this year, the poor state of the highways and the Indian bus accident on the highway to Kathmandu in July that killed 27 pilgrims from Maharashtra state dampened arrival figures. Gaire says, “While tourist arrivals to Pokhara are now approaching pre-Covid levels, we haven’t seen the improvement we were expecting. We need a better marketing strategy. What are our embassies abroad doing?”&nbsp; Indeed, Pokhara used to be a favourite destination for Chinese tourists. There was a boom in arrivals from China before Covid, especially after a popular Chinese tv serial was shot on location here. But arrivals from China have not really recovered since the pandemic because of the economic slowdown there. Promoting Pokhara airport to handle direct flights from Chengdu or Kunming could revive Chinese arrivals.&nbsp; Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN) has used the Kathmandu airport closure as an excuse to arm-twist international airlines to start flying to Bhairawa, which has barely been in operation for two years since it was inaugurated. So far, Fly Dubai, Thai AirAsia, Jazeera and Qatar are flying to Bhairawa, but most use it as a hop before flying on to Kathmandu, which does not reduce congestion at Kathmandu.&nbsp; An ideal situation could have been to get Pokhara to run to full capacity while Kathmandu is partially out of action. Pokhara entrepreneurs are puzzled why the CAAN and the national government have not taken more interest in promoting Pokhara as an alternative to reduce the congestion in Kathmandu. Nepal’s football team that was flying to Dushanbe this week couldn’t get tickets via Delhi, and took a domestic flight to Bhadrapur, crossed over to Bagdogra and flew on to Delhi to catch their flight to Tajikistan.

Pokhara’s tourism woes

An excerpt of a conversation between an anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin, PhD and Lava Deo Awasthi, PhD, the first Chairperson of the Language Commission of Nepal. Nepali Times: What is the role of Nepal’s Language Commission and when was it formed? Lava Deo Awasthi: The Constitution of Nepal (2015) created a Language Commission (LC) with the following four core mandates: (a) to develop eligibility criteria for gaining status as an official language and offer recommendations to the Government of Nepal about the official language(s) in each province; (b) to offer recommendations to the Government about measures to be taken for the conservation, promotion, and development of languages; (c) to suggest possible ways of using mother tongues in education by assessing their stage of development; and, (d) to conduct studies, carry out research and perform monitoring functions about the response to the constitutional provisions for the federalisation of languages in Nepal. The Commission was founded in 2016 and I was appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission in September of the same year by the Cabinet of Ministers. What in your own professional and educational background helped to prepare you for the role? I have worked with the Government of Nepal for about 30 years, alongside holding teaching appointments at universities in Nepal. Prior to assuming the role of the Chairperson of the Commission, I served as permanent Secretary to the Government of Nepal and worked as the Chief Administrator of the Central Development Region. I was appointed as Director General of the Department of Education and completed my assignments as Joint Secretary at the Planning, Monitoring and Educational Administration Divisions of the Ministry of Education.&nbsp; In addition, I have taught courses as a visiting professor at Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University for more than three decades. Later, I also started supervising MPhil and PhD students at the Far Western University in Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur. My PhD project from the Danish University of Education was dedicated to making sense of Nepal’s social construct and commitment to multilingualism, exploring the persistence of monolingual school practices in the face of constitutional promises and state commitments to multilingualism. I conducted a survey of Nepal’s languages and carried out a qualitative study of the Tharu language in the district of Bardia. I analysed language policy statements and explored classroom pedagogies in schools. I documented how teachers showed a tendency to resist change and maintain the status quo because they were not consulted when new educational language policies were introduced. Teachers also exhibited a deeply-held adherence to the Gurukul education system which appears to have been harnessed as a way to resist newer pedagogical ideologies imported from the West. Recognising how engrained these rich traditions of knowledge transmission are, I wanted to know how students’ engagement in the learning process appeared to have dwindled, creating a gap between children’s home languages and the language(s) of the school. Whilst statutory provisions for education in the mother tongue were oriented towards promotion, classroom pedagogies remained resolutely monolingual and exclusionary. The result was that multilingual education policies that had been introduced in Nepal did not result in meaningful changes in classroom practices. My research was also a reflection of childhood traumas I had experienced at the earliest stage of formal education. My home language, Baitadeli, has a strong oral tradition and no written literature. English is my fifth language in terms of exposure and competence, and my home district of Baitadi is well-known for its loyalty to the local language. I had to drop out of school after completing my sixth grade. Staying at home, I received much attention from my family and had much greater exposure to my native language, culture and environment. My overall impression is that dropping out of school had a surprisingly positive impact on my life. The opportunity offered a surprising dividend for me as I gained mastery in my mother tongue and received extensive exposure to folk literature and Indigenous knowledge and survival skills, cultivating my interest in language, culture, literature and local cosmologies.&nbsp; Now that I reflect on it, I appreciate how language has always played a key role in my life. I grew up in a multilingual environment: brought up with Baitadeli, Hindi, Sanskrit, Nepali and English. Language played a major part in my decision to leave school and my later success is closely linked to my competence in several languages. It was rewarding to be at home with my family as I deepened my understanding of native language and culture, which in turn helped me to harness and refine my art of living. Languages matter so much to me because they are both software and hardware. Later, when I was in secondary school, I realised that my command of my home language contributed significantly to enhancing my Nepali and English. I used my mother tongue as a form of linguistic capital to strengthen my competence in both English and Nepali.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi"> </figure>  In your term as the Commission’s first Chairperson, what were your strategic goals and objectives? My first strategic goal was to create an environment conducive to implementing the provisions of the Constitution of Nepal in relation to language. My priority was to prepare a detailed action plan for my six-year tenure in consultation with language stakeholders, including language experts, professionals, activists, Indigenous community members and representatives of relevant national and local-level institutions. The Commission formed a body of high-level advisors to ensure that the Chairperson’s work was well-informed and credible. The advisors to the committee had highly visible professional and social reputations in Nepal and had much experience in the field of language conservation, promotion, research and development. Another strategy we adopted was to establish close institutional linkages with federal, provincial, and local level governments for collecting opinions and disseminating information widely.&nbsp; What critical issues did you have to consider while discharging your duty? When Nepal’s new Constitution was drafted, a number of concerns could not be adequately addressed. These related to the conservation of languages, the recognition of official languages at the provincial level, and the use of mother tongues at federal, provincial, and local levels. These unresolved issues and matters pertaining to the federalizsation of Nepal’s languages were passed on to the Language Commission to address and resolve.&nbsp; Regarding the recommendations for official languages, a five-year timeline had been set by the Constitution. With great effort, we succeeded in having all provinces agree to recognise their official languages as per the recommendations of the Commission.&nbsp; What were your greatest achievements during your term? One of the greatest achievements was that we succeeded in setting a language agenda at all levels. Nepal’s language communities and other stakeholders expressed the view that this was the first time their languages were recognised and their voices heard by the state. People participated in debates and discussed issues relating to language that in all likelihood had never before happened in their lifetimes, at least not in ways that were supported by the state. We encouraged people to speak in their own language(s) and provided translators during plenary sessions and group discussions. Another major achievement was developing criteria for the status planning of languages at federal, provincial, and local levels, and to recommend 11 province-level official languages, in addition to the Nepali language. Similarly, a notable achievement was recognising Indigenous languages spoken by smaller communities, all of whom faced ongoing marginalisation and high levels of endangerment. The Commission identified 9 new languages that had not been reported in the 2011 census, and provided a framework for recognising official languages within a municipality. The commission emphasised the need for documentation and digitisation of languages for developing corpora and archives at national and sub-national levels.&nbsp; Languages of historical importance as well as classical languages were given recognition for their protection, growth, and development. Recommendations were made for the conservation, promotion and development of Nepal’s marginalised languages that are threatened by majority languages and for those languages that hold particular power at local and global levels. Recommendations were also made for how best to safeguard Nepal’s languages from the ever-growing spread of English and other powerful, globalising languages.&nbsp; A further important aspect of the Commission’s work was to emphasise mother tongue medium instruction in schools across the nation. Recognising the role of language in children’s cognitive, socio-emotional and academic development, the Commission suggested strategies for linking schools with ward-level language clusters for use in the classroom. The importance of nurturing and respecting a child’s first language was reiterated in the Commission’s recommendations for children’s learning and all-round development. By the end of my term, a remarkable change could be observed in terms of building trust within and across Nepal’s diverse language communities. A network of language groups and stakeholders across the country proved to be a powerful way of bringing all language communities under one roof for a collective review of and response to the process of federalising language policy. The many language stakeholders across Nepal appreciated the opportunity to work within a coordinated framework, and—feeling empowered by this—seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the initiatives taken by the Commission.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi NT"> </figure>  What were the most significant challenges for you as Chairperson? One of the major challenges was winning people’s trust in advocating for the mission of the Language Commission. I faced considerable resistance as I sought to emphasise the use of native languages in families and communities. While the Commission advocated for multilingualism and promoted linguistic diversity, the prevailing policy circles and central level institutions had been deeply influenced by a one-language discourse and ideology of Nepali only. The spread of English also poses a huge threat to Nepal’s languages. However, people in power do not seem to see this as a problem. They tend to abandon their own languages in preference for English. The way that Nepal’s municipalities are increasingly introducing English as a medium of instruction at the earliest stage of a child’s school-based education has proven to be detrimental to their cognitive development, socio-emotional wellbeing and academic success. Most of Nepal’s elites have been heavily influenced by the spread of English and remain unaware about its impact on their home languages as well as on the inter-generational transmission of Indigenous languages in the country. I wish that we could have produced more compelling evidence to show the consequences of making poor policy choices for our children’s education. Demystification calls for a collective response. To make change happen across this entire, complex and federalising country was daunting work and left like a race against time. I feel that I could have done more to offer concrete examples in favour of using the mother tongue as a medium of children’s education at the earliest stages of a child’s education. What do you see the Language Commission achieving in the next 5-10 years? The Language Commission will have to ensure that all of its key recommendations are implemented at all levels of government. In 10 years’ time, all seven of Nepal’s provinces will have their official languages in place. These languages will also be recognised as languages of federal business, alongside Nepali. I anticipate that all official languages in the federal and provincial systems will have a national portal for inter-language corpora using machine translation to fulfil their federal, provincial and local level language functions, and that all languages spoken in Nepal will be represented through a digital database in the national archive. The Office of Statistics will monitor the status of Nepal’s languages over time. By the end of the next decade, each municipality in the country will have recognised one or two official languages at the local level, based on speech populations. Other local languages will have received community-level legal recognition and official status to fulfil their functional roles. Languages that are highly endangered or at risk will be entitled to receive state grants for enhancing local level capabilities to encourage families and young learners to speak the language. Incentive schemes will be introduced in municipalities that promote language within the family and at home. Inter-generational transmission of languages will have received welcome and timely attention across Nepal. It is my hope that all schools—public and private—will have introduced mother tongue medium instruction at the earliest stage of school education, at least up to class five. Nepali, English and other national as well as classical and foreign languages will be taught as subjects. The existing policy of English medium education at the early stage of education will be abolished. The Government of Nepal will be held accountable if the number of speakers of any language decreases or if local communities face language loss and greater endangerment. Under the aegis of the Language Commission, a Centre for Language Research and Innovation will be created with world-class facilities for language documentation and archiving in collaboration with Tribhuvan University’s Central Department of Linguistics and other relevant institutions. Harnessing the vastness of Nepal’s linguistic diversity, the Language Commission will morph into a centre of excellence for national and international communities to engage in collaborative language research, to share experiences and document best practices at in service of global linguistic diversity and Nepal’s many Indigenous languages.

Languages are both software and hardware

Nearly 750,000 Nepalis went abroad for employment in the past year, and more than 100,000 left on student visas. Most of them were young Nepali men and women, and the number has been increasing every year. As with other sections of society, Nepal’s security agencies also face a recruitment crisis. Nepal Police opened recruitment for 64 inspectors in September, and received 2,239 applications, compared to 2,718 candidates last year. Police also invited candidates for 256 assistant sub-inspectors this year for which it received 17,756 applications – down from 19,932 last year. It is the same story in the Nepal Army, the number of applicants for the post of Officer Cadet (Second Lieutenant) went down from 6,144 for 400 open seats in 2019 to 4,390 in 2020. Meanwhile, applicants in the paramilitary Armed Police Force went down from 857 applications for 75 posts in 2021 to 536 applicants for 99 posts last year. While the number of applicants appears higher than the demand, the data shows a significant decrease in applications for vacancies in Nepal’s law enforcement agencies. Security personnel are recruited on the basis of rank and age in Nepal, and the age cutoff for entry into Nepal’s security agencies is typically 25 years. Sociologist and migration expert Ganesh Gurung says that the demographic of young, physically fit Nepalis emigrating abroad in search of better opportunities has impacted recruitment into law enforcement and the military here at home. “The returns from working in Nepal’s police and army are minimal, whereas overseas job opportunities are more attractive,” Gurung says. “The work may be physically demanding abroad, but the pay is a lot higher.”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="534" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal Police"><figcaption>Nepal Police</figcaption></figure>  Nepal Police spokesperson DIG Dan Bahadur Karki agrees that the physical and mental demands of a law enforcement job is incomparable to the income that security personnel earn. “A young Nepali who works in Dubai earns enough to build a home in the village within four years, while a Nepali with the same qualifications and physical ability in a security agency here barely makes enough to survive,” says Karki. “Obviously the youth prefer foreign employment.” Security agencies are now worried about the quality of inducted manpower. “There is a difference in work ethic between an applicant chosen from a competitive pool of 50 candidates versus one chosen from a pool of three candidates,” explains Gurung. “Unmotivated employees hamper the overall performance of the state apparatus.” Nepal Army spokesperson Brigadier General Gaurab Kumar KC says recruitment has not been hampered by outmigration: “We have still been getting more than three times the applicants than there are open posts, so we are not yet worried.” Even so, the passing rates of aspirants have gone down for security forces after the Public Service Commission began examinations for military recruitment in 2015. In fact, the Nepal Army complained about the Commission’s involvement in recruitment. Still, the number of vacant military posts tends to exceed the number of passing candidates. Nepal Army’s KC says that the military will not compromise on intake criteria even if there are fewer passing applicants. “Unqualified persons will not be admitted even if there are less-than-required passing candidates. We will re-advertise if that is the case.” But Nepal’s security forces now also have to worry about retention of existing personnel. About 900 Nepal Army, 600 Nepal Police, and 300 Armed police personnel resign every year before the completion of their tenure.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9" data-rendition-name="original" width="750" height="378" loading="lazy" alt="Armed police forces"><figcaption>Armed Police Force</figcaption></figure>  In 2020, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa recalled almost 1,000 police personnel who had been deployed for the security of VIPs after long-standing criticism that security forces were being misused to cater to political and bureaucratic leadership. However, security personnel have continued to be assigned to high-ranking officials as glorified housekeepers. In December 2022, Rabi Lamichhane’s Home Ministry had instructed its offices to recall unauthorised security personnel assigned to high-ranking officials, following which 500 officers from Nepal Police and Armed Police Force were withdrawn from their details. But the Nepal Army does not have to follow such rules, and the practice of army personnel serving high-ranking active-duty and retired military personnel remains. Conditions here are dire enough that many active duty officers in Nepal’s military and police forces have chosen to leave their jobs to serve in the Russian Army to fight in the Ukraine war. The hierarchical culture and chain of command of politics, bureaucracy, law enforcement and military has also meant that abuse and mistreatment of subordinates is rife in Nepal’s security forces. “Feudalism is alive and well within our security institutions,” says Gurung. “When soldiers and security forces who swore to protect and serve the nation are made to be at the beck and call of politicians and bureaucrats, it is easy to understand why they are disillusioned with their jobs and why they choose to quit and find jobs abroad.”

Job insecurity in security forces

Earlier this month, Nepal received Rs1.6 billion from the World Bank as part of its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/will-nepal-ever-be-paid-for-saving-trees">Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)</a>, rewarding the country for increasing its carbon sink capacity. Nepal is the first in South Asia to benefit from this facility, and it is specifically to recompense the country for increasing forest cover in 13 Tarai districts between 2018-2024. “We are also trying to get another Rs13 billion from the facility while also preparing for free market-based carbon trading in the international market,” says Nabaraj Pudasaini of the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) Implementation Centre. Big emitters of greenhouse gases are under pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, and many have signed agreements to do so by investing in decarbonisation projects in developing countries. Countries that emit more than a specified amount of carbon would be able to buy emission rights from countries that emit less. Nepal is internationally known for its community forestry program which has been largely credited for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous">increasing tree cover to over 45%</a> in less than three decades. But this achievement had not been adequately recognised or rewarded internationally before. Forests, especially in the tropics, absorb and store large amounts of carbon while releasing oxygen in a process known as photosynthesis. <a href="https://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/en/">Preventing deforestation</a> and increasing canopy cover is considered a much more achievable goal than reducing emission in the scale necessary to limit global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP11 in Montreal in 2005 first proposed reducing carbon emissions by improving forest quality by halting degradation. By 2015, a new mechanism of financial assistance was created to help less developed countries with sustainable management of forests <a href="https://www.un-redd.org/">(called REDD+)</a>. Under this new mechanism, countries receive aid based on their efforts to prevent forest degradation and increase carbon sink, and in 2021 the World Bank was entrusted with implementing it. Nepal’s FCPF receipt this month was calculated on the basis of 2.4 million tons of carbon stored at a rate of $5 per ton. In the second phase, Nepal will receive more than Rs4 billion within the next year for storing an additional 7 million tons of carbon. Eighty per cent of this amount obtained from carbon trading needs to be spent on local beneficiaries and indigenous communities.&nbsp; But carbon trading is not easy, Nepal needs to prove that protected forests will not be destroyed in future.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="Greenbacks for greenery NT "> <figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Explains carbon trading expert Yugan Manandhar. “Forests should be handed over to the community and shown that they are managed sustainably. Proving this will be particularly challenging; forest encroachment and degradation is rife in the Tarai.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke">Deliberate forest fires</a> have also added to the challenge because they increase carbon emissions and reduce the sink capacity of forests. The basis for the amount that Nepal received was set five years ago by calculating the carbon reserves of forests in the 13 Tarai districts. In the meantime, sustainable forest management, tree plantation, forest destruction and erosion control were prioritised to increase carbon reserves in those forests. Nepal is signing another carbon trading agreement during the ongoing Baku climate conference. The <a href="https://www.leafcoalition.org/">Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF Coalition) </a>proposes to sell the carbon stored in the forests of Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces. For this, Nepal signed the letter of intent three years ago at COP26 in Glasgow. The target is to store 70 million tons of carbon in 32 million hectares of forest in the three provinces per which Nepal will receive Rs13 billion in four years at $10 per ton with provisions to increase the rate if various conditions are met. However, the agreement in itself doesn’t guarantee the amount. According to the targets set by Nepal, forest degradation should be stopped and carbon reserves increased by protecting tree cover. Preparations are also underway for clean air carbon trade because it has offset fossil fuel use by introducing 30,000 electric vehicles. Nepal has been selected for the first round to receive $40 million within one and a half years through the Clean Air System of the World Bank. Given that most of Nepal’s energy mix is from biomass, replacing them with electric stoves can significantly improve health by reducing indoor pollution as well as strengthen the country’s capacity for carbon trade. “Nepal's goal now is to sell carbon in the free market where carbon credits are bought and sold based on supply and demand in an open and transparent manner,” adds Pudasaini of the REDD Implementation Centre. “Nepal can now set its own price and bargain with interested buyer countries and organisations.” Lately, India has been discussing setting up a carbon market. Nepal has exported Rs12.72 billion worth of electricity to India so far this fiscal year, which can be traded under Nepal’s carbon market. “Carbon trading can create significant economic benefits for Nepal, which will help reinvest in development and environmental protection projects,” says Manandhar. “But we must prioritise sustainable management of forests, cutting older trees and allowing regrowth as well as promoting electric stoves and electric vehicles.”