<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111414110/63723c339c7e80680e0c9605jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2304" height="1536"/><figcaption>Nearly three years after the outbreak of Covid-19, every day life is mostly back to normal. Photo: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption></figure>For the first time since it was first detected almost three years ago and ravaged Nepal, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been overtaken by another public health emergency: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/as-covid-abates-nepal-sees-dengue-outbreak/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the dengue epidemic</a>.Covid-19 is not gone (even President Bidya Devi Bhandari just had it), and new strains are co-mingling with various serotypes of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dengue-days-are-here-to-stay/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dengue that have officially claimed 39 lives</a> and infected over 30,000 people across Nepal this monsoon. But like the numbers for Covid-19, those are gross under-estimations.As we speak, a new Omicron sub-variant BF.7 which is better equipped to escape antibodies from earlier infections or vaccinations has already spread from the United States to China. Masks, bivalent boosters and avoiding crowds are the most effective prevention methods which only a few follow.Yale University researchers have found <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w30512" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">considerable growth in excess deaths</a> (total deaths in a population in a given period which is above what is normally expected) among anti-vaxers in Ohio and Florida.In fact, the fatality rate seems to have a direct correlation with political belief. The paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this month showed that excess death rates for American republicans increased from nearly 0% pre-pandemic to 35% by end-2021. The increase for Democrats was only 10%.Similarly, <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2796235#:~:text=Conclusions%20and%20Relevance%20In%20this,had%20received%20a%20booster%20dose." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">another study</a> published in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month revealed that Covid hospitalisations in 13 US states was 10.5 times higher among the unvaccinated and 2.5 times higher in vaccinated persons with no booster shots.Closer home, Hong Kong saw a disproportionate number of Omicron deaths earlier this year among the unvaccinated elderly. While highly transmissible, the strain was much less fatal among the vaccinated elsewhere.Even in Nepal, which has a full vaccination rate close to 80%, one of the highest in the world, those still being hospitalised with Covid were mostly unvaccinated.“I recently had a girl patient who had lost her parents and a brother to Covid who had not been vaccinated,” recalls Sher Bahadur Pun, a virologist at Teku Hospital in Kathmandu. “There have been one too many unvaccinated patients in my ICU who believed rumours on social media.”In Nepal, as elsewhere, the early days of the pandemic were marked by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-social-media-contagion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rampant misinformation</a>, first about the novel coronavirus itself, stigmatisation of patients and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-health-workers-battle-covid-19-but-also-stigma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">healthcare providers</a> alike. The general public was slow to adopt safety protocols, which contributed to over 1 million cases and 12,000 deaths in Nepal. Worldwide, there have been over 630 million cases and at least 6.5 million deaths from Covid so far.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111414110/63723c369c7e80680e0c9606jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="914" height="396"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111414110/63723c389c7e80680e0c9607jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="892" height="499"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The pandemic did reinforce hand washing, hygiene and mask-wearing in Nepal, which in turn also <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/silver-linings-in-the-covid-cloud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">helped reduce incidences</a> of tuberculosis, typhoid, flu and other infectious diseases.But the biggest disruption was caused by repeated lockdowns which led to an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/economic-cost-of-5-months-of-nepal-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economic crisis</a> in Nepal, lately worsened by the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ukraine-crisis-hits-nepal-economy-hard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>. All this has slowed improvements in nutrition levels as well as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/lockdown-fallout/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">maternal and infant health</a>.During the pandemic, Nepal had an early warning of what was to come just by following trends in neighbouring India (see book review, below). But lack of adequate preparation at the border meant ineffective quarantine and testing, and a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/returnees-may-be-taking-coronavirus-to-rural-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rapid spread of the virus to the remotest corners</a> of the country. As hospitals in India ran out of beds and oxygen, so did Nepal.The second wave in 2021 saw India register the highest daily Covid-19 deaths, but the death rate proportional to population was probably higher in Nepal. Better-equipped hospitals with trained staff and adequate <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/helping-nepalis-breathe-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">oxygen and ICU facilities</a> across the country would have saved many of those lives.“Countries like Nepal will have to prepare for not just new emerging diseases but also re-emerging and existing infections. And the only way to do that is by strengthening our health system,” adds Pun “We must start training our medical personnel and upgrade health infrastructure. That is the biggest takeaway from the pandemic.”Nepal was one of the first countries to volunteer for Oxford University’s <a href="https://www.recoverytrial.net" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Recovery Trial</a> which studied the efficacy of various drugs, yet there is rampant over-prescription and over-the-counter availability of antibiotics.“We are still using antibiotics like Azithromycin to treat viral infections such as Covid and dengue which is adding to the problem of antimicrobial resistance,” says Buddha Basnyat, a physician at the Patan Academy of Health Sciences.At Teku Hospital, many of virologist Sher Bahadur Pun’s patients are also testing negative for dengue and suspects the mosquitoes that bit them could have been carrying another virus like Zika or Chikungunya which have been detected in India. "The symptoms are very similar and transmitted by the same mosquito," he adds.Covid-19 is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-nature-of-pandemics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">just one of many pandemics</a>. But it won’t be the last. As humans interact with a deteriorating natural habitat and wildlife, they are exposed to zoonotic diseases — viruses that can jump from animals to humans. The growth in instantaneous international travel means infections can spread rapidly across the world.At the peak of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-real-cost-of-nepals-second-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">second wave with the Delta strain</a> more than 250 Nepalis were dying every day, but governments in Kathmandu and the provinces were preoccupied with a nasty power struggle. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/playing-politics-in-a-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Political infighting delayed response</a>, and led to many more unnecessary deaths.As Nepal and India prepare to mark the third year of the Covid-19 outbreak, the worst seems to be over. It took a global crisis and millions of deaths to remind us to be prepared for the next pandemic.Says Buddha Basnyat: “We now have to make the best use of our capacity and build on it. Let’s not be complacent, there are many other infections that afflict this part of the world.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111414110/63723c3a9c7e80680e0c9608jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1050" height="626"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Pandemic unmasked the real disease: governance failureOn 24 March 2020, the Narendra Modi government in India imposed the first lockdown with just four hours of warning. WHO praised this ‘timely and tough action’ to stop Covid, and the University of Oxford at the time called it the strictest lockdown in the world. With China’s zero-Covid policy that is probably not true anymore.Still, India’s sudden lockdown unleashed the greatest movement of people in the Subcontinent after the 1947 Partition, which had a cascading effect on Nepal.‘For a country with zero social security, which did not even have an authentic count of the number of people left without an income due to the lockdown, and where fractiousness and social fault lines make the poor and the backward easy preys of the systematic corruption, a measure like this would need weeks of planning. Even then it could still go wrong. So the repercussions of such a move without any preparation were unimaginable.’In her book Billions Under LockdownIndian journalist Abantika Ghosh chronicles the impact of lockdowns on her country. In a smaller scale, the upheavals caused by the lockdowns impacted Nepali migrant workers in India and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/indians-stuck-in-nepal-also-trying-to-get-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Indians in Nepal who had to undertake arduous treks home</a>.In her book, Ghosh tells the story of 38-year-old Ranveer trying to make the 400km journey on foot from Delhi to his village in Madhya Pradesh. He died along the way, 100m short of reaching his destination. Nepali migrant workers, prevented from entering their own country at the border, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-still-stuck-in-no-mans-land/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">swam across the Mahakali River in Darchula</a>. Some drowned.Once quarantined, often without proper testing and contact tracing, Covid refugees were housed in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-quarantines-hotspots-for-disease/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">crowded shelters</a> which themselves became super-spreaders for the virus. The outbreak snowballed as migrants took the virus home to families, leading to community transmission.As hospitals were overwhelmed with cases, several treatment therapies were introduced. From a combination of HIV drugs and convalescent plasma therapy to malaria drug <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-truth-about-the-chloroquine-scam/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hydroxychloroquine</a>, a typhoid antibiotic Azithromycin and Remdesivir, all of which were later proven to be ineffective, and sometimes even harmful. What saved lives was the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/pandemic-and-the-political-economy-of-oxygen-supply/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">timely supply of oxygen</a>, and the cheap steroid Dexamethasone.Ghosh writes about India: ‘The biggest lesson of all was how politics became the most insurmountable impediment in the control of the disease.’ Ditto for Nepal.The pandemic unmasked the real disease: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-a-hotbed-of-virus-and-politics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">state neglect, corruption, governance failure</a> leading to ad-hoc restrictions, lack of testing and surveillance, an overwhelmed health system that left hundreds of millions of hapless citizens to fend for themselves.It also showed what worked: empowered local health institutions which responded quickly with testing, tracing and quarantining. No surprise that the Indian state with the lowest Covid fatality rate despite high exposure was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-did-kerala-beat-covid-19-spread/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kerala</a>.Abantika Ghosh’s lessons learnt could just as well be written for Nepal: ‘A matured health system is also decentralized, transparent, and, on occasion, self-sustaining … If you don’t treat diseases early, you only treat them when they are complex, and because complex interventions are more expensive, you do not have the resources left to bolster primary care. The more hospitals you build without investments in primary care, the more hospitals you will need to build.’Sonia AwaleBillions Under Lockdown: The Inside Story of India's Fight Against Covid-19 By Abantika Ghosh2021 Bloomsbury IRS699393 pages<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111414110/63723c3c9c7e80680e0c9609jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="695" height="1080">

Sonia Awale

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Three years of living dangerously

Rohit is from Bihar and drives an auto rickshaw in Mumbai. Life has been a struggle ever since he lost his parents in a car crash. Like many young men from Bihar in this big city, he migrated here to make a living.Then came the pandemic in 2020, and the lockdown meant that Rohit had no income at all. He and his family had to rely on the municpality’s two free meals a day.   “Mumbai belongs to the rich, except during elections,” says the 23-year-old as he negotiates the city’s dreary traffic, recalling how his wife and young son were evicted from their room for unpaid rent.But one day a miracle happened. A Nepali caregiver named Manjeela, whom Rohit knew, came to the rescue and along with her two daughters offering his family shelter and food for a few weeks.Rohit says he and his wife struggled to comprehend Manjeela’s generosity. Why was she going out of her way to help a poor family when their own family in Bihar had refused to help them?“I am so used to people turning their back on me that I just did not understand Manjeela’s kindness. It felt uncomfortable to accept such a genuine gesture,” he adds.Manjeela then found out from the media that the popular Bollywood actor Sonu Sood was helping migrant workers like Rohit with transportation to their homes. She coordinated with Sood’s team and registered Rohit and his family so they could travel back to Bihar.“Sonu Sir came to see us off and I even got to shake his hands,” smiles Rohit. Had it not been for Manjeela and Sonu Sood, Rohit knows he would have been one of the hundreds of thousands walking home to their villages along train tracks, evicted and penniless -- an iconic image during India’s first lockdown in early 2020. “What other option did we have? Even thinking about the possibility of walking back brings tears to my eyes,” he says. <img width="640" height="853" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203159c7e80680e0b27ecjpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Adds Rohit: “For tens of thousands like me, Sonu was a real-life hero. But for my family specifically, Manjeela was an angel. I will never be able to forget what they did for me and my family.” --AmitA quiet man with a wide smile, 45-year old Amit spent a decade in Saudi Arabia taking care of a family of 7, alongside three <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/south-asias-migrants-shared-problems-share-solutions/">other South Asian migrants</a> including a Nepali housemaid.He had come home to India for his nephew’s wedding when Covid-19 hit, and he was stuck because of a Saudi ban on flights because of the Delta outbreak. Two years later, it finally looks like he can <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/labour-mobility/crossborder-virus-and-nepali-migrant-workers/">rejoin his employment</a>, but only by making a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/indians-use-nepal-to-circumvent-travel-bans/">convoluted journey through Kathmandu</a> for a flight to Riyadh. India has finally been lifted off the Saudi red list, but direct flights from Mumbai are unaffordable for Amit. That is why he is flying from Delhi to Kathmandu along with three other stranded Indian migrant workers. This is a less expensive option – at least that is what his agent told him.Agents are skillful at finding loopholes around flight bans and restrictions, and provide options for desperate workers like Amit. But the Kathmandu option is also expensive for him: he had to pay the agent ₹85,000, including costs for a two-week quarantine in Nepal.It was not an ideal arrangement, given pre-Covid flights were a fraction of what he is paying now, but Amit says at least he will start earning again soon. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/living-with-covid-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">uncertainties brought by Omicorn</a> might trap him for extended periods once again, but he cannot afford to take any more chances.“For now, the priority is my daughter’s wedding,” says Amit who will have to pay the groom up to ₹400,000 (Rs640,000) in dowry. This is over 15 months of his wages, even if he were to save every paisa. There are other regular costs to take care of back home -- for food, medicine, loans for the ticket and his children’s education, making it difficult to save even a small portion of his earnings.Amit looks out of the plane’s window (pictured right) at Himalayan peaks as the plane begins its descent into Kathmandu. He says: “The work in Saudi is not easy. What work is easy? But it pays, and that’s what matters. I can save ₹25,000 a month, and that’s more than double of what I can earn in India.” <img width="640" height="853" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203189c7e80680e0b27edjpeg.jpg" alt="">Dhana Dhana is from Gulmi district in Nepal, and is finally flying home from Delhi after the pandemic hit two years ago.“Nepal is so close, yet I have not seen my family for two-and-half years,” he says.For many Nepalis, a work stint in India is a stepping stone to go to Malaysia or the Gulf. They can save enough in India to afford to pay recruiters for the overseas jobs.But Dhana’s work history is unique. He has been to India before, then to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UAE and he has come right back to India after his boss in the UAE transferred him to look after his home in India. <img width="640" height="853" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/6372031b9c7e80680e0b27eejpeg.jpg" alt="">Older Nepali migrant workers find the culture and familiarity of India more appealing, even though the earnings may not be as much as elsewhere. Many others are here for seasonal work as drivers or security guards because they cannot afford to pay recruiters for jobs in the Gulf. Younger Nepalis, however, do not find India as appealing.Despite being one of the largest destination countries for Nepali workers, India seldom gets the attention it deserves and is treated akin to internal migration. There is no precise count of Nepali workers in India because of the open border and no requirement for permits. But this migrant workforce <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/indias-covid-catastrophe-hits-nepalis-hard/">suddenly became visible during India’s Covid lockdowns</a> as Nepalis <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-braces-for-its-2nd-covid-wave/">streamed back</a> in the hundreds of thousands.Dhana himself works at an Indian household, so was spared during Covid-19. But he knows of many Nepalis who suffered. Four of his acquaintances who lived close by lost their lives during the 2021 Delta peak.Deaths of Nepali workers in India also go largely unnoticed -- with or without Covid-19. There is no count, no compensation to families of the deceased, and no government help with repatriation as happened from the Gulf or Malaysia.“The only consolation is that here you can expect that full procedures will be followed during funerals according to Hindu rituals which you probably cannot expect elsewhere,” says Dhana. “The Nepal government should compensate families of the deceased as they are from the poorest families.”But he is quick to note the privileges of being a migrant in India versus other countries where he has lived and worked. “You don’t become undocumented in India. You are not obliged to stay with the same employer,” he says.Dhana should know: he has spent months hiding in the jungles of Johor Baru in Malaysia with 19 other Nepalis to avoid raids when he became undocumented because his employer went bankrupt.He quit his job in Saudi Arabia after three months despite having paid Rs100,000 to a recruiter. In both cases, he felt trapped as he wasn’t able to exit the countries without incurring fees, and was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-the-minds-of-nepals-migrant-workers/">mentally stressed.</a>After making a full circle back to India where he had spent over a decade in his early twenties before venturing to Malaysia and the Gulf, he values the freedom for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/people-to-people-at-india-nepal-border/">Nepali workers like him in India. </a>Some names have been changed.

Rohit, Amit and Dhana

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637202fc9c7e80680e0b27e3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1366"/><figcaption>Vehicles are one of the biggest emitters of PM2.5 and other pollutants in Kathmandu. Photos: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>It is that time of the year again when smog makes <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kathmandu’s air hazardous to health</a>. Hospitals are swamped not with Covid, but COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).Once more, there is a flurry of media headlines about the dangerous concentration of suspended particles smaller than 2.5 microns from diesel exhaust.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/happy-new-air/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Happy New Air</a>, Sonia AwalePublic awareness about air pollution is at an all-time high, the average life expectancy of Kathmandu’s residents is reduced by at least four years. Yet, nothing happens. Why?“The awareness and knowledge have not translated into corrective action,” explains environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar. “We know about vehicle emission tests but we ignore it, open burning is bad but we don’t stop, we have the opportunity to reduce air pollution with electric mass transport but we don’t invest in it.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203009c7e80680e0b27e4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Air pollution was directly linked to at least 42,100 deaths in Nepal in 2019. Almost half of that was due to breathing in particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter which can cross the air blood barrier in the lung capillaries. Most of those particles come from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/green-sticker-green-light-to-pollute/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vehicle emission</a>.From 1990 to 2015, the number of vehicless in Nepal grew by 1,995,404 — most of them in Kathmandu Valley. In five years, that figure doubled to 3,987,267.This figure doesn’t include the exploding demand for cars and motorcycles after the end of the Covid second wave in mid-2021. Nepal spent Rs543 billion in importing vehicles, transport equipment and spare parts in four months from mid-July to mid-October, against Rs357 billion and Rs418 billion for the same periods in 2020 and 2019.“There has been an unexpectedly high demand for private vehicles in Nepal after the pandemic, especially two wheelers given the public’s hesitancy to use buses due to coronavirus fears,” says Dhruba Thapa of the National Automotive Dealers Association.<iframe style="border: none;" title="Total vehicles in Nepal" src="https://e.infogram.com/e0cdbfd0-0b3c-4f57-851e-7aced6e69116?src=embed" width="700" height="700" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><a style="color: #989898!important; text-decoration: none!important;" href="https://infogram.com/e0cdbfd0-0b3c-4f57-851e-7aced6e69116" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Total vehicles in Nepal</a><a style="color: #989898!important; text-decoration: none!important;" href="https://infogram.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Infogram</a>Raju Chettri, CEO of the MAW Enterprises that imports Yamaha bikes in Nepal has a similar observation. He saw a decline in the annual sales of two wheelers from about 250,000 units to 190,000 right after the pandemic. But this year, the sales went up to 350,000 units.“There are two reasons behind this: pent-up demand and reduced use of public transport because of Covid fears,” Chettri says.There are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/poisoning-the-air-we-breathe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than 3.1 million two-wheeers in Nepal</a>, over one million of them in Kathmandu. They are adding to the capital’s foul air, as they are up to 10 times more polluting per passenger kilometre than buses and cars.<iframe style="border: none;" title="Total Motorbikes in Nepal" src="https://e.infogram.com/ea449cd7-2598-4cd4-8ae2-cd91858f9553?src=embed" width="700" height="700" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><a style="color: #989898!important; text-decoration: none!important;" href="https://infogram.com/ea449cd7-2598-4cd4-8ae2-cd91858f9553" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Total Motorbikes in Nepal</a><a style="color: #989898!important; text-decoration: none!important;" href="https://infogram.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Infogram</a>Two-wheelers also emit invisible toxic gases like carbon monoxide, benzene and nitrous oxides, and increase the concentration of street-level ozone. Motorcycle exhaust may not be as visible as diesel exhaust, but they are highly poisonous — especially when there are so many of them. Besides exacerbating respiratory diseases, the gases are carcinogenic, causing cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer’s.The solution is to shift rapidly to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-electric-transport-future-is-here/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cleaner electric vehicles</a>, not just for healthier air but also to meet Nepal’s net-zero pledge in Glasgow and to reduce the country’s burgeoning petroleum import bill.“The priority has to be on electric public transport and supporting infrastructure,” says environmentalist Tuladhar. “Electric buses are more expensive than diesel ones, so the government has to help with capital, and better manage Kathmandu’s public transport.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203039c7e80680e0b27e5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="720" height="480"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>This week, Nepal opened its first electric charging station powered by solar panels for the Lumbini Development Trust. Similar charging stations can be set up for public and private vehicles in existing bus parks across Nepal and along highways. Sajha Yatayat which is procuring 40 electric buses is also trying to turn the former trolley bus terminal into a charging station.Shilshila Acharya of the Avni Center for Sustainability agrees that the priority should be on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/from-a-fossil-past-to-an-electric-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">electrifying public transport</a> and encouraging bicycle lanes. She says, “Replacing cars with more cars even if electric only promotes consumerism. We have to give people reliable alternatives.”Kathmandu Valley Air Quality Management Action Plan held its first implementation committee meeting this week, during which it discussed lunching of a USAID-funded project for air pollution and a forecasting system with technical support from ICIMOD.“The problem of air pollution will take some time to be solved but we have started our homework,” says Indu Joshi of the Department of Environment. “At the moment, our biggest challenge is controlling open burning.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114091156/637203069c7e80680e0b27e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="2625"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Apart from transport, garbage burning and biomass fuel for household heating and cooking are also contributors to Kathmandu’s dirty air. The problem is made worse in winter due to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-weather-elevates-air-pollution-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Valley’s topography that traps surface pollution</a> in an inversion layer.Improper <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/a-load-of-rubbish-kathmandus-garbage-problem,4039" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">solid waste management in Kathmandu</a> means locals burn garbage by the riverbanks near residential areas — while, as studies show, segregation of waste at homes can reduce the city’s garbage volume by up to 80%.There is no other problem that is so directly linked with the health and economy of the country as urban air pollution. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-lockdown-proves-air-quality-can-be-improved/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Covid-19 lockdown in 2020</a> is proof that Kathmandu can be cleaned up, it just needs <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dirty-politics-dirty-air/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the right leadership and the political will</a> to back it up.Says Shilashila Acharya: “Our policies on mobility and air pollution have to be people- and culture-centric, instead of focusing only on technology. We must build public pressure to force the politicians into action.”A public opinion poll in this paper just before the 2017 elections showed that a majority of Nepalis were concerned about the health impact of pollution. Since 2022 will be dominated by campaigning for the next election, this could be turned into the main criteria for candidates to win votes.

Breathing can kill you

<figure><img width="1098" height="732" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161148/636d1d329c7e80680e0af39djpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>The fact that Omicron was detected in an individual who had arrived in Nepal five days before the new variant was first identified in Botswana is proof it was already circulating and travel bans do not work.
<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-on-high-alert-for-omicron/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The new strain</a> has been detected in over 40 countries mere two weeks after it was first detected. What is known so far of Omicron is that it is highly transmissible but likely not very severe as there has been no significant increase in hospitalisations among infected individuals in places with outbreaks.
“Looking at preliminary findings I don’t think it will lead to another <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-real-cost-of-nepals-second-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">major surge or lockdowns like Delta</a>, but having said that we must be prepared and contain it to prevent further mutation and more virulent strains,” says epidemiologist Lhamo Yangchen Sherpa of IPAS Nepal.
She adds: “We do that by vaccinating as many people as possible including boosters if they are nearing expiry date as we know them to be, following safety measures especially indoors and by better communicating government policies to control the spread of new strains.”
One of the main concerns with Omicron is mutations in the spike protein that binds it to the receptor. Most vaccines including Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and J&amp;J primarily target this spike protein, so there are worries that the new variant will escape immunity afforded by jabs.
Mutations are natural, but coronaviruses make fewer of them than other viruses because of their much stronger <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1097276520305189" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proofreading system</a> to survive.
<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.indiaspend.com/indiaspend-interviews/omicron-wont-be-much-more-dangerous-than-other-circulating-covid-19-variants-790812" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Speaking with India Spend</a>, Polly Roy, professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine said: ‘Even though we have a mutation, it’s not in the receptor-binding site area so much. Thus, if they change too much, the virus will not bind to host cells and will not survive. And the vaccines target that area, so the vaccines will still work against Omicron infection.’
Says infectious disease specialist at HAMS Hospital Anup Subedee: “Even if the vaccines are less effective against this variant, it will still provide significant immunity to fight off new infections. And given that antibodies wane over time, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-health-workers-battle-covid-19-but-also-stigma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s frontline workers</a> and the elderly should be prioritised for boosters, if possible with vaccines known to have higher efficacy.”
There are also concerns that despite registering only mild symptoms Omicron could affect vulnerable populations much later as it is the younger mobile population who are usually infected first without much impact on their health. 
Most of the initial Omicron infections are said to be mild and among young and vaccinated people, which means Nepal could be ripe for another surge. 
“Don’t be surprised if we do,” says Sushil Koirala, a Nepali public health expert based in Bangkok. “We have all the necessary fuel to start the wildfire: low vaccination coverage, poor adherence to public health measures, lackluster preparedness, and questionable surveillance,” Koirala warns.
But <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/do-nepalis-need-covid-booster-shots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the moral dilemma over booster</a> remains when over 60% of Nepal’s targeted population is yet to even receive the first dose.
“In an ideal world, universal coverage is the way to go but the government hasn’t been able to vaccinate the majority of Nepalis, so we cannot wait forever for boosters either,” adds Subedee.With the rapid spread of Omicron in the region, the Nepal government has announced that it will vaccinate at least 200,000 people a day and the Health Minister Birodh Khatiwada has asked people who have inoculated with two doses of vaccine to also receive the third dose to prevent <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-needs-to-prepare-for-new-covid-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the risk of the third wave</a>.
Khatiwada was quoted as saying that the government had a stock of 20 million doses of different jabs and it will start administering the booster from mid-December with 16,000 vaccination centres across the country.
So far Nepal has received 25,658,630 doses of the Covid vaccine of which some 660,000 doses still in stock. In the next three months, a total of 34,594,460 doses of different jabs are arriving in Nepal: 9,403,000 doses of AstraZeneca, 3,000,000 Coronavax, 2,386,800 VeroCell (one vial, one dose), 2,174,400 J&amp;J and 1,965,600 Moderna.
But the government’s focal person for vaccine Shyam Raj Upreti told Nepali Times health authorities are authorised to administer only an additional dose, not <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/booster-lack-strands-israel-bound-nepalis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a booster</a>, and only for immunocompromised people and individuals above 60 who had received VeroCell, as recommended by the WHO.
“Our priority is still to vaccinate the targeted population and hence those who are still not vaccinated,” adds Uprety. “And for this, we are focusing on activities to convince more people to inoculate, add vaccination booths to increase access and where required administer the doses door to door.”
At present, 29% of Nepal’s population has been fully inoculated while 33.9% have been vaccinated partially. Experts say better communication about vaccination schedules a few days before the campaign in local language and on platforms most consumed is crucial in further <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/giving-all-nepalis-a-shot-at-the-covid-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increasing the uptake</a>.
Equally important is building a storage facility for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are in the pipeline to vaccinate children 12 and above. A limited number of students who revived Pfizer jabs last month are yet to receive their second dose, recommended after three weeks of the first.
Speaking on his social platform, Sameer Dixit of the Centre for Molecular Dynamics Nepal recommended patience over panic: “Let’s wait and watch until we have more concrete findings on Omicron. Until then mask up and vaccinate as soon as it is available. As for boosters, those in vulnerable groups should get it.”

Omicron may not be as risky, but take care

<figure><img width="1500" height="1122" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141124/636cfc3f9c7e80680e0a0b7ajpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Minor girls from Nepal stopped at the Indian border at Gaddachowki last week by an anti-trafficking group. They are handed over to their parents through the police if they are suspected to be victims of smugglers. All photos: NAMRATA SHARMA</figcaption></figure>The checkpoint at the India-Nepal border here has a whole range of Nepalis crossing over: innocent Nepali workers in search of jobs in India so they can support families back home, quite a few Indian workers crossing over, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/epicentre-trafficking-migration,3256" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepali girls being trafficked to India</a>, young women snared into relationships with Indians via social media, or people travelling for medical treatment in both directions.However, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-workers-returning-to-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open India-Nepal border</a> is also associated with crime and smuggling of goods, drugs, and people. The problems seem to have got worse in the past year of the pandemic, according to participants at a crossborder conference of Indian and Nepali journalists organised by the Human Rights Journalist Association in Dhangadi last week.The conference came soon after the disappearance of a young Nepali man who plunged into the swollen Mahakali as he tried to cross Nepal’s western border into India by hanging below a wire bridge. The SSB (Indian border security force) reportedly cut the wire with a hack just as the man was crossing.The man’s body has not been found. The case got high profile coverage in the Kathmandu media, putting Nepal’s new government in a tight spot, and threatening once more to sour the rocky relations between the two countries. Indian Journalist Rakesh Tiwari of the Hindustan Times in Dharchula claimed the Indian SSB would have never cut the cable on purpose while someone was crossing. “Actually, the border guards must have been trying to stop smuggling and did not know that a person was coming across on the wire,” said Tiwari. “It would not have been done intentionally, and unlike other border points, there have always been good relations between Nepal’s Darchula and Dharchula on the Indian side even during the pandemic.” Indeed, the open border between India and Nepal allows unrestricted travel in both directions, and during the pandemic checkpoints have had to deal with tens of thousands of Nepali and Indian migrant workers returning to their own countries. <figure><img width="1500" height="1122" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141124/636cfc429c7e80680e0a0b7bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The booth of the Peace and Rehabilitation Centre (PRC) stops 5-6 minors suspected of being trafficked to India at the border near Dhangadi.</figcaption></figure>Tiwari felt the death in Darchula spotlighted the border, and gave the wrong impression that there has always been tension and acrimony between people on the two sides.Although the plight of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/workers-return-to-jobless-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepalis going to India</a> is often highlighted in the Kathmandu press, there are other problems that go unnoticed. For example, although many Nepalis go to India for medical treatment, there are also Indians streaming to Dhangadi Hospital for treatment. But they are now stopped by the Nepali authorities because of the pandemic.Indian journalist Mahesh Singh Bhadauria of the Dainik Jagaran Gaurifanta says this is unfortunate because Nepalis needing hospital treatment in Delhi are allowed smooth passage even during the pandemic. “It is very inhumane for the Nepali authorities to stop Indian patients from the border region seeking treatment in Dhangadi because they are often the poorest people,” Bhadauria said.Participants at the conference agreed that small problems at the India-Nepal frontier tend to get magnified by the media in both countries, and ultimately it is the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lockdown-limbo-in-no-mans-land/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">people living near the border on both sides who suffer from new rules and restrictions</a>. This is especially true during the Covid-19 crisis when the most vulnerable people are put at even more risk by overcrowding and lack of sufficient testing and quarantine facilities. It is the poorest and most distressed Nepalis who suffer: either when they are trying to leave the country for India, or returning. This pushes them even deeper into a vicious cycle of poverty.At the Indian border near here, there are again long lines of Nepali families queued up to cross over. The pandemic has heightened their desperation as they headed out to jobs in India. <figure><img width="1500" height="1122" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141124/636cfc469c7e80680e0a0b7cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure><img width="1500" height="1122" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141124/636cfc499c7e80680e0a0b7djpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="1500" height="1122" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141124/636cfc4c9c7e80680e0a0b7ejpeg.jpg" alt="">Among them is a young woman carrying a baby, and she is stopped by a member of Nepali non-profit, Peace and Rehabilitation Centre (PRC), that is working to prevent human trafficking, especially of Nepali women to India.“Where are you going in India,” asked Sanjeet Singh, at the PRC booth at the Gaddachowki checkpoint one morning last week. Although she was with an infant, she looked like a minor herself.A man standing nearby answered on her behalf that they were going to Bengaluru to work. Not convinced, Singh asked for her Nepal citizenship card which she did not have. She looked like a minor.The man looked disappointed. They could very well be telling the truth, but the girl who fit the profile of someone being trafficked, and the police tried to get in touch with her parents.At the PRC booth, there is another 18-year-old girl from Dang who is accompanied by a boy from Kailali claiming to be 22, and living and working in Bengaluru. He said they wanted to get married, even though the girl was below the minimum age for marriage.The girl said she had <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/love-in-the-time-of-facebook,2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">met the boy on Facebook</a>, and they had been together for four years. She said at home her parents were always fighting each other, and she wanted to escape. The boy’s story was the same: they developed relationship via Facebook but it was the first time they met. He had come from Bengaluru to take her. Suspicious, the PRC booth handed the two over to the border police who called the girl’s father to come to Dhangadi to take her home to Dang. The boy is now in prison. <img width="1056" height="872" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141124/636cfc4f9c7e80680e0a0b7fjpeg.jpg" alt="">Another 21-year-old woman from Kailali was also accompanied by someone she called her “boyfriend” from Biratnagar. However, he had an Indian identity card, and said he had permission from her parents to take her to India to get married.The PRC team was trying to contact the girl’s parents to find out if this was true. She would be in a shelter run by the centre till both parents come, and if they agree they would be allowed to cross into India. “We have had 5-6 cases like these every day since the pandemic,” says Umesh Shiwakoti of PRC in Kailali district. “We are at the border round the clock with the police to stop human trafficking. Sometimes it is difficult to find the facts, but we try our best.”Such is the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-workers-returning-to-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">desperation of Nepali workers headed to India</a> that they are willing to risk being cheated by bus operators and others to find a job in an Indian city. Many have taken loans to make the trip, and have to work many months before they can pay back the debts.

People-to-people at India-Nepal border

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94d89c7e80680e06f225jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Farming communities across Nepal came out by their hundreds of thousands to transplant rice seedings on Tuesday, which is officially <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/not-so-soon-monsoon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Paddy Plantation Day</a>.Most wore masks as the men waded knee-deep into flooded terraces to level the soil, so that the seedlings could be planted, a work traditionally done by women.Despite the pandemic and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/disasters-in-nepal-come-in-waves/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deadly floods this month</a>, most farmers were happy to be out in the fields to take advantage of a monsoon that arrived on time with plenty of rain. Paddy plantation day also coincided with a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-covid-19-lockdown-relaxed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">relaxation of Covid-19 lockdowns</a> this week.The 15th day of the Nepali month of Asar is marked as National <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-celebrates-paddy-planting-day/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paddy Planting Day</a>, and a day for celebration, not just work. Farmers plant their paddy to song and dance, partake in joyous mud-slinging, and enjoy the traditional feast of 'dahi-chiura', curd and beaten rice.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94db9c7e80680e06f226jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94de9c7e80680e06f227jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="639"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94e19c7e80680e06f228jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94e49c7e80680e06f229jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94e69c7e80680e06f22ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1364"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94ea9c7e80680e06f22bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1364"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94ed9c7e80680e06f22cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1364"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94f09c7e80680e06f22djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1364">Farmers in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/no-visitors-in-pokhara-to-admire-view/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pokhara Valley</a> (pictured below), which grows Nepal's most famous indigenous varieties of rice, were out in force on the terraces at Tari above Begnas Lake and Birauta. Most of them wore masks.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94f49c7e80680e06f22ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3200" height="2133"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94f79c7e80680e06f22fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3200" height="2103"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>After suffering erratic monsoons for the past two decades, Nepal has had favourable and timely rains in the past few years. This has resulted in an increase in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-rise-of-rice-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rice production</a>. In 2020, rice harvests increased by 1.3% to over 5.62 million tonnes of paddy compared to the year before.Rice is the most important crop in Nepal with more than two-thirds of farming households depending on it for their livelihood and income, in turn contributing more than 7% to the GDP.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94fb9c7e80680e06f230jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1364"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94fe9c7e80680e06f231jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1364"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b95019c7e80680e06f232jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1364">Rice is grown in the Tarai plains, along Himalayan Valleys, and up to3,200m in Jumla Valley -- the highest rice growing area in the world.The annual rice planting day is also a reminder of the fact that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/are-nepalis-really-eating-more-rice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal is more dependent on the import</a> of this staple than ever before. It imported rice worth Rs39 billion mainly from India between August 2020 and April 2021, up 64% from the same period the previous year.Pokhara photos: Krishna Mani BaralBhaktapur photos: Monika Deupala and Amit Machamasi

Nepal marks rice planting day

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94c09c7e80680e06f21cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2600" height="1733"/><figcaption>All photos: KRISHNAMANI NARAL</figcaption></figure>After raining every day for the past two weeks since the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/after-the-deluge-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monsoon rains arrived</a>, Pokhara got a rare respite from clouds on Sunday, bringing the mountains out in all their glory.Because of its low elevation and proximity to the mountains, Pokhara has some of the highest precipitation rates in Nepal, with 3,500mm per year. Nearly 80% of that rain falls in the three months June-August.This year, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-braces-for-monsoon-pandemic-double-hit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monsoon has been heavier</a> than normal. Swollen rivers have washed away homes in Manang and Mustang, destroyed roads and bridges, and damaged several hydro-electric projects, including the 44MW Super Madi plant that was nearing completion.On Sunday morning the view was best from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/cleared-to-land/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pokhara's new airport</a> and the nearby stadium, which is being refurbished with a new roof and seats.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94c49c7e80680e06f21djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2100" height="1400"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94c79c7e80680e06f21ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2600" height="1733"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94ca9c7e80680e06f21fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2046" height="1104"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/pokhara-locked-down/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pokhara</a> is also completing a statue of Lord Shiva atop of dome in Pumdikot. The 20m high statue has been put up next to the temple on the peak, and locals hope it will attract tourists to the spot from where there is a view of mountains from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-clouds-are-lifting-below-dhaulagiri/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dhaulagiri</a> to Himalchuli, including the entire Annapurna and Machapuchre massif, as well as the Phewa Lake below.The panorama from the Shiva statue on Sunday was all the more spectacular because it was on a monsoon morning.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94cd9c7e80680e06f220jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="894" height="1368"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94d09c7e80680e06f221jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="894" height="1368">By afternoon, the heat in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-will-be-a-game-changer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pokhara</a> got oppressive, and people thronged to swim below the Phewa Dam that has just been repaired. The dam is  upstream from the popular Davis Falls, which had a few people on Sunday because of the lockdown (above left).

No visitors in Pokhara to admire view

<figure><img width="1919" height="778" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94709c7e80680e06f200jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>All illustrations by Brian Houghton Hodgson.</figcaption></figure>“Does it have a tail?”“I can’t see because it's sitting on it.”“What about its eyes and coat?”“Bright and black eyes with spikey brown fur.”“Sounds like a greater bandicoot.”“Oh dear. Not again.”“The bamboo rat lives underground so he has tiny eyes. Stocky. Short tail. Reddish colour.”“I don’t think it’s him.”“Disappointing. Check its tail when you let it go.” “You mean when Laxman lets it go - at the bottom of the garden. It’s pouring with rain and I’m ready for bed.”“Tomorrow put the trap right up against the burrow below the bamboo clump.”“Ok. We’ll keep trying.”“At least it’s a big one tonight, not another Himalayan field rat or Niviventer like we had before.”“I really like these jungly outdoor chaps, especially the little ones with the mickey mouse ears, white tummies and pink feet.”“Careful. Don’t get attached.”“Ha!”“He’s historic, first described by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-antelope-and-an-artist/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-antelope-and-an-artist/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624848414007000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE9iRmWBm18R4pl0PTFwQXcdB4puA">Brian Houghton Hodgson</a> in 1845.” <figure><img width="1555" height="370" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94739c7e80680e06f201jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It is day six of our wildlife catching exercise, trying to entrap a lesser bamboo rat (also first recorded by <a href="https://www.currentconservation.org/brian-houghton-hodgson-1801-1894-2/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.currentconservation.org/brian-houghton-hodgson-1801-1894-2/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624848414008000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFupEgVISbfPggSqOdoAzpG4-n1hQ">Hodgson in Nepal in 1841</a>) for Stuart Chapman -- one of the few species he has never seen. A new big tick for his mammal list. After a career in conservation, only 24 people in the world are in front of him. Stuart’s natural competitiveness is thwarted by the pandemic and rivals are creeping ahead – the unforgiving world of mammalogists. “The Fawn-coloured mouse at <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/business/no-tiger-no-mountain/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/business/no-tiger-no-mountain/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624848414008000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG2NL4BtN5AHeGrrH-DLHGuDkMyzA">Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge</a> was a big win. I need to bag some more new species.” Our garden is not that big and suffers from a ruthless gardener and four energetic dogs but still has proven to be teeming with nocturnal wildlife. “Three species identified are the bandicoot Bandicota indica and lesser Himalayan Rattus nitidus who seem to inhabit bamboo, and the niviventer Niviventer niviventer who are the fellows you see in the creeper around the terrace. I strongly suspect the bamboo rat is also there <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannomys_badius" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannomys_badius&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624848414008000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyjrPSIgHGH1RLre_fGBax9OCvSg">Cannomys badius</a>. After these, I’m desperate to get onto the Tibetan plateau to find a pika (Ochotona himalayana).” <figure><img width="1500" height="448" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94759c7e80680e06f202jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Not all after-dark critter activity in the garden is benign. The main suspect for killing the stately stand of bamboo are the bandicoots, turning the waxy yellow stems streaked with delicate green into a sickly flat ochre, the dead fronds a brittle rattle in the evening breeze. In the quiet of the night the chomping rats are sometimes audible, although the holes amongst the tangled roots are expanded by the dogs digging frantically into the sound. Although there used to be mongoose and squirrels, we seldom see them because of the dogs. They also drive away the monkeys who visit when the trees are fruiting, and occasionally catch an unfortunate snake. Because of our proximity to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6950#.YNffXC8RoWp" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D6950%23.YNffXC8RoWp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624848414008000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFIbPVx3v27p76n2OYYkl_FgXSJTg">Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park</a>, wild night-time barking usually signals a passing civet, or even a leopard. I’ve seen both in our vicinity. One of our family legends is when a leopard got into the garden over the high wire fence entwined with climbers, probably jumping down from an overhanging tree. Dogs are known to be their favourite meal, and many Budhanilkantha neighbours have lost their pets. But in our case the leopard took fright, driven by our pack into the shelter of a big rocky cluster.  <figure><img width="1384" height="288" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94779c7e80680e06f203jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The story goes that the smallest dog Rusty, a feisty half terrier mixed with serious Kathmandu street variety, caught the end of the poor leopard’s tail and tried to pull him out backwards from his shelter beneath the stones. The Department of Wildlife had to be called, but it all ended happily when the leopard found its own way out over the fence and back into the forest, without eating any of them.Last month heavy rain after the long drought triggered swarms of winged termites. Rising in clouds out of holes in the ground, their fragile wings and frail lifespans filled the mauve sunset and caused a feeding frenzy of feasting toads, swooping swallows and darting fruit bats. (“Fulvous fruit bats Rousettus leschenaultia, at its maximum altitude range in your garden,” says Stuart.)  <figure><img width="1834" height="1106" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b94799c7e80680e06f204jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Brushing the flying alates out of our hair and eyes, we realise these rapacious insects have colonised the outside room, infested the foundations and are devouring the wooden floor. There is a limit to our termite tolerance -- time to call the terminator to save the building. <figure><img width="1824" height="1102" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b947c9c7e80680e06f205jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Stuart, however, is committed to wilding. He is adamant that before being released from the trap, which is a metal box baited with a tasty carrot, the animal is not left too long to get too hot, too cold, too wet or too stressed. Laxman has watched Stuart decant a rodent from his steel trap into a clear plastic bag for closer examination before being let go behind the garage, but that was the much smaller Himalayan rat -- and at best it is a tricky manoeuvrer. One greater bandicoot during the same transition made a bid for safety, vaulting through Stuart’s experienced hands.It is a dark raining June night, and Laxman helpfully thinks I should check its tail myself as he attempts to tip the rat into a ziplock bag on the front doorstep. The four dogs look on with interest, safely tied, and so does Hari the cook, Ram the gardener, Mohan the night guard and me in my pyjamas. <figure><img width="500" height="531" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121152/636b947f9c7e80680e06f206jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The inevitable happens, and we all have an excellent view of his tail as the bandicoot’s escape route takes him straight past me into the house. The long tail trails him up the staircase before he can be turned back down, dislodged from behind furniture, pursued by brooms and dishcloths through the dining room, hall, bathroom and eventually out through the kitchen. I have climbed to safety on a chair with Stuart’s bearded face grinning with concern on my phone. “Such a handsome looking animal!”

Lisa Choegyal

Kathmandu’s other nightlife

Everything about living in Nepal these days is smart, and getting smarter. When he got elected, Kathmandu's Mayor declared that he could make the capital a ‘smart city’. It may not seem like it to a casual observer, but he is making progress:Smart politicsThe reason lockdowns are so easy to enforce in Kathmandu is because we have been trained well to be locked up. First we had 30 years of Panchayat, then the dawn of democracy ushered in the glorious era of political shutdowns, when there were so many bands that we needed a website to just keep track of them. The way it worked was that if a disgruntled political party wanted to show a gruntled party who was boss, it incinerated a couple of taxis on the Ring Road early in the morning. After that, the public willingly stayed home in support of this ingenious non-violent form of civil disobedience. Unfortunately, after the new constitution, most political parties had been too lazy to organise lockdowns. But there is hope, the 5-party Alliance announced this week that Kathmandu will be a smart city again with daily street protests.Smart trashBy closing down the Sisdole Landfill site from time to time, our over-smart city encourages a circular economy and lets trash pile up on roadsides, allowing street fauna to forage on it. What remains decays organically, producing compost that recycles valuable nutrients back into the soil, and protects our urban biodiversity.Smart Alec PMAside from a smart mayor, we also have a Smarty Pants PM. People call him Prime Minister Wily, or the Old Fox, but he should call himself the Old Mule. From one mule to another, I must say this guy has outdone donkeyhood in general and asses in particular. Every time it looks like this is the end, he pulls another bunny out of his hat. How many hares does he have up his hair, anyway? The government is now down to a Gang of Five, so the only way for the opposition Gang of Four to keep up the pressure while the ball is in the Supreme Commander’s Court is to declare a nationwide smart shutdown during this smart lockdown.Street smartOne way to protect the city’s smartness is to make sure the streets are permanently dug up. This is deliberate. There is no better way to make people street smart, keep them on their toes, alert, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, than to lay booby traps along public thoroughfares. This also prepares for next year’s tourism by preserving the Valley’s rustic charm. Tourists don’t come to Kathmandu to see smooth asphalt roads and functioning traffic lights, they can do that in Singapore.Smart sewerAside from roads, what gives this smart city its distinctive ambience and unique aroma is the Bagmuddy River. Nepal’s capital may have been declared open-defecation free, but it still has a Sewage Canal running past our religious sites. When Nepalis exclaim “Holy shit!” they mean it literally.

The Ass

Smartass lockdown

<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

One smoggy winter morning in February 2019, Ekta regretted coming to her sculpture class. It was the first day of her period, and the 19-year-old wished she was home, curled up in bed with a hot water bag to soothe her cramps.
Her class was at Kalapremi Ceramic Studio, a dark room on the ground floor of a house in Maharajganj, and Ekta’s teacher was the artist Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’, a noted sculptor.
Two other students were already there, using all their muscle strength to knead the sculpting clay. Ekta, now 24, recalls how Kalapremi asked her if she was feeling all right. She avoided him, as she did not want everyone to know she was menstruating.
Kalapremi repeatedly asked Ekta what was wrong. She finally muttered that she was having her period, after which he grabbed her hand and led her to a partitioned corner of the studio and sat her on a chair. Before she could stop him, he slid his hand under her dress, and started massaging her abdomen.
“I was horrified,” Ekta recalls. “I told him to stop, but he didn’t listen, asking me not to be shy, saying he knew how to relieve my pain. He stopped only after I protested furiously.”&nbsp;
The art tutor then said, “You’re like my daughter. I’m doing it out of love to make you feel better, but you’re so stubborn.”&nbsp;
“Instead of saying sorry he acted like I was the one having crazy thoughts,” remembers Ekta, adding that from April 2016 to August 2020 beginning the time she was 16, the artist sexually abused and harassed her on several occasions. &nbsp;
Now, Ekta and the artist’s other former students are finally sharing their experiences and some are pressing legal charges against him, hoping that others do not have to endure what they did.&nbsp;
Award-winning artist and teacher Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’ (the name means ‘Art Lover’) is known for his ceramic art, sculpture, and contemporary pottery. He was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-house-of-kalapremi">profiled in Nepali Times after a collaborative exhibition</a>, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ at the Siddhartha Art Gallery three years ago.&nbsp;
His pieces, titled Gaalis, featured sculpted female figures with the heads of dogs, sheep, and donkeys (pictured) to depict derogatory terms for women. Some critics said the collection was a satire on feminists.
Kalapremi started his artistic and teaching career in 1983 and over the years taught at Bhanubhakta School, Kathmandu University School of Arts, Lalitkala Campus and at his private Kalapremi Ceramic Studio. He has also lectured at Jeonju University in South Korea and recently at Tabor Academy in the United States.
Seven of Kalapremi’s former students were interviewed for this story. Five female students said he touched them inappropriately in his studio or at Kathmandu University. Two male students said they witnessed him abuse and harass the women. In all cases, the students struggled to recognise the abuse when it occurred, and the lack of reporting systems left them to cope on their own for years.&nbsp;
Earlier this year, students shared a social media post hinting at Kalapremi’s history of abusive behaviour following which more students of the artist reached out sharing similar experiences. Some students spoke of abuse that happened as long as 20 years ago.
Kalapremi, 60, has denied the allegations. He told Nepali Times: “Some years ago, there was a movement encouraging people to hug and kiss. I used to do it purely out of friendship and love. But after seeing posts on social media last year calling out my behaviour, I realised my actions may have hurt some people. I understand now that I should have been more mindful.”
He added: “I am also an auxiliary health worker, so I know the exact points to massage to relieve menstrual pain. It’s not just menstruation, I take anyone who is ill to the hospital.”
Sexual abuse is much more rampant than reported given how difficult it is to prove it in court. The law defines sexual abuse as occuring when someone touches another’s private parts, coerces them into touching theirs, uses vulgar language, shows degrading images, or behaves indecently towards them without consent.&nbsp;
Ekta and her fellow students are consulting lawyer Suneeta Regmi Pokhrel, who says they know that even if the court decides in their favour, it is difficult to survive after speaking up, and influential men defend themselves saying they are being framed.&nbsp;
“They are in a lot of pain and weep when recalling how he abused them,” Regmi Pokhrel told us. “They are angry and have filed a case against him, but they are also terrified. They know he is a powerful man and they have seen how our society treats women who speak up against abusers. Unless people speak up, perpetrators will be emboldened.”
Art and academia in Nepal simply reflect the power imbalances in society where people with intersecting identities experience worse forms of abuse. Theatre actors Raj Kumar Pudasaini, Rajan Khatiwada, and Sunil Pokhrel were called out during the #MeToo movement in the Nepali theatre scene in 2019. Even after the allegations Pokhrel went on to receive national awards, while others continued to work without repercussions.
“If you speak up against abusers, you gradually get sidelined from projects,” explained a theatre artist who wished anonymity fearing professional setbacks. “The theatre scene in Nepal is quite small, you just have to make peace with the perpetrators and work with them if you want to sustain yourself.”&nbsp;
In academia there is a history of faculty members sexually harassing students and getting away with it. After Tribhuvan University (TU) lecturer Krishna Bhattachan was accused of harassing women students, the university said it would follow Nepal’s sexual harassment law and set up a reporting mechanism. But nothing happened to the professor, who had already retired. Instead, he counter-accused the students of 'attacking the indigenous people’s movement with baseless allegations' as <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/letters/2019/01/29/bhattachan-responds">he told the Kathmandu Post in 2019</a>. He continues to be featured as a prominent speaker including at TU.
Other faculty members previously accused of sexual harassment include Jagadish Murti Koirala from TU, Bishnu Prasad Acharya from Ratna Rajya Campus, and Bodha Raj Tripathee from Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyalaya. A woman staff member from TU also filed a sexual abuse complaint against Dambar Chemjong from TU.
Prominent figures like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-nims-purja">mountaineer Nims Purja</a> have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/sports/mountaineering-sexual-harassment-abuse-nims-purja.html">accused of sexual assault</a>, and cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, actor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/celebrity-rape-case-spotlights-nepal-laws">Paul Shah</a>, and former speaker of Parliament <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mahara-arrested">Krishna Bahadur Mahara</a> have been accused of rape, but society-at-large has let off the alleged perpetrators amdist a larger debate about justice for survivors and punishment of perpetrators.&nbsp;
‘Gaushala-26’ is the court name given to the 18-year-old who accused Sandeep Lamichhane, former captain of Nepal’s national cricket team and skipper of Biratnagar Kings in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/here-comes-the-nepal-premier-league">ongoing Nepal Premier League</a>, of rape. She left the country citing society questioning her character affecting her mental health while Lamichhane got an outpouring of support. In May, the Patan High Court overturned a prior verdict that found Lamichhane guilty of rape and had sentenced him to eight years in prison. During the 23-month legal battle to pursue justice, Gaushala-26 faced threats of gang rape and acid attacks.&nbsp;
Exhausted by the struggle, Gaushala-26 sought to “move to a new world” where she could live free without hiding her identity.
Actress Samragyee Rajya Laxmi Shah in an Instagram video now deleted detailed the harassment she faced from a filmmaker during a movie shoot. She did not name any name but veteran actor Bhuwan KC filed a defamation case against Rana, but the court ruled that the charge lacked sufficient evidence.&nbsp;
Former Kathmandu mayor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/theytoo">Keshav Sthapit also mocked the #MeToo movement</a>, calling accusations against him by journalists Rashmila Prajapati and Ujjwala Maharjan “a rape of men’s rights”.
Serial Abuse
Back at the Kalapremi Ceramics studio, another former student, 24-year-old Rajiv, says he felt the need to speak out after seeing his female classmates being abused.&nbsp;
“He frequently kissed them on their cheeks,” he told Nepali Times. “Whenever they walked into the studio he flailed his arms like a child asking for a hug. They awkwardly hugged him from the side, but he pulled them closer, held their chin, and kissed their cheeks.”&nbsp;
Rajiv says he also saw Kalapremi pull the women’s bra straps, touch their breasts, and slap their buttocks. The young students would freeze, not knowing how to react, and if they protested, he would say it was “normal in art”. Rajiv, 19 at the time like his classmates, remembers thinking perhaps the well-respected artist was right after all.
Another student, Luna, who took lessons at Kalapremi’s studio from 2020 to 2022 did try to confront the tutor after he made an obscene proposal to her. She recalls: “One day when the other students had left the studio and it was just the two of us, he told me that God had given him special artistic talent and he could transfer those powers to me. But to do that both of us will have to be naked, inside a dark room, and have sex.”
Luna, who was 18 then, was livid and told him she did not want any of his powers, but she says he laughed at her as if he was joking. She did not tell her family about the incident because she thought no one would believe her.&nbsp;
“They were all in awe of this famous artist and felt I should be grateful that to be learning sculpting from him,” she says. “I was scared to be alone with him in case he talked about sex again. My coping mechanism was to be rude so he wouldn’t try to come close to me.”
Seeing how some classmates were standing up to Kalapremi, Ekta too tried to push back against his advances, but she said he found ways to coerce her. Since Ekta, Rajiv, and Luna could not afford Kalapremi’s Rs30,000 monthly fee for lessons, he had offered them all a stipend to assist him in the studio.
“He had spondylosis and took me to his therapy sessions to learn massage techniques, then he often made me and other students massage him,” says Ekta. Whenever she refused, he would feign pain to make her feel sorry for him. “He would insist that I put my hands under his shirt so that I could massage him better,” she adds.
The art tutor often tried to “seduce sympathy” from Ekta by sharing how he had never been loved as a child and was “sexually frustrated” as an adult.&nbsp;
“At 7PM, he would pour himself Signature whiskey and immediately go off again about how he was sex-starved. I didn’t know how to respond. It took me time to realise alcohol was just an excuse to talk about sex,” Ekta says.
If convicted, Kalapremi could face financial penalty and/or a prison sentence of up to three years according to Section 224 of National Penal (Code) Act 2017.&nbsp;
Data suggests that victims of child sexual abuse on average take nearly 24 years to tell someone about their trauma, and some may never disclose it at all.&nbsp;
“In our culture, children are rarely taught about boundaries. They often react, show anger when adults pinch their cheeks. But adults insist they did it out of love, and force the children to accept it,” says Sita Lama, a psychotherapist at Manka Kura. “And even when someone touches them inappropriately they struggle to identify and verbalise it.”
When perpetrators claim to be “acting out of love”, Lama says survivors are likely to perceive it as something safe, rather than recognising it as abuse.&nbsp;
“It may take years for them to realise they were abused,” she explains. "And even when they become aware, the power imbalance with the abuser and the associated shame often prevents survivors from speaking up."
Other former students from the School of Art at Kathmandu University have also come forward years later, saying Kalapremi sexually abused them. As young adults, they felt his behaviour was off but were uncertain if it was inappropriate, illegal, or they did not know how to respond. After having understood that it was indeed abuse, they say they are speaking out now to protect others.&nbsp;
Amina Singh, a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, says there is no clause against sexual abuse in contracts of teachers, and there is no formal grievance handling mechanism for the students.&nbsp;
“So the only way students can to deal with sexual abuse is approach someone they trust,” she says.
Eight other former art students of Lalit Kala Campus and Srijana College of Fine Arts of Tribhuvan University and other private art studios in Kathmandu say they were also sexually abused by their art teachers. Three faculty members interviewed from these institutions said they saw the abuse, but felt it was futile to report it given how powerful the teachers were.
In the absence of a formal system, some longtime women artists warned each other about “problematic” artists. They shared &nbsp;a “heads-up” to be more cautious when collaborating with them, and avoided responding to their calls and texts after work hours.
To ensure art institutions are safe for all, galleries, museums, artist studios, and smaller art spaces need to develop policies on sexual harassment. This would include a code of conduct or studio policies that hold the leadership accountable and outline the principles of professional ethics.&nbsp;
Students and employees should inquire about accountability mechanisms for raising concerns, both formally and informally, advocates say.
Three years after Ekta left the ceramics studio, she learnt that Kalapremi had harassed many other women. Still trying to get a footing in the art industry, she attended a workshop in Kathmandu where women artists discussed ways to stay safe in the art sector.&nbsp;
Since it was a close-knit group Ekta opened up about how she felt violated and realised she was not alone, he had been abusing underprivileged students for years, and this was common knowledge among artists in Nepal.
Ekta says that even after she quit, Kalapremi continued sending her text messages like ‘I am thinking of you’, ‘Why have you stopped speaking with me’, or ‘I am waiting for your call’.&nbsp;
But what really forced her to act was when Ekta found out that he was sending similar texts to her younger sister.&nbsp;
“I’ve had enough,” she told us. “He abused me all these years but I won’t let him abuse my sister.” &nbsp;
Ekta, Rajiv and Luna are not the real names of the students.&nbsp;

‘Art Lover’ accused of sexual abuse

It was 8:15 in the evening of 25 March 1968 when everyone in the village of Batulechaur near Pokhara heard a deafening sound like thunder as a bright flashing object hurtled down to land in a field.&nbsp; That field belonged to Kul Timilsina, and the next morning he retrieved a sheet of metal about 2m by 1m and carried it home with the help of a few others, thinking it would be useful for his buffalo shed.&nbsp; Before he died at age 83 three years ago, Timilsina had told photo archivist Sunil Ulak that the black metal sheet was not rectangular and had rounded corners. There are a few witnesses still alive who have a clear recollection of the object that fell from the sky that night.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="601" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>The field in Batulechaur belonging to Kul Timilsina where fragments of a flying object fell from the sky in 1968.</figcaption> </figure>  One of them is Timilsina’s wife Gyanu, who was 22 at the time. She had been at home, and remembers hearing the big bang and the sky becoming very bright. “We saw the thing in the field in the morning,” she told us. “It looked like a lid, a covering of some sort. The way it was stuck in the ground, it must have fallen from the sky. We thought we could use it to dry clothes on, and took it home.”&nbsp; Another witness is Kul Narayan Paudel. “I was only eight then. We ran to the field to see what had fallen. It was a four-sided metal sheet. The elders took it away, and I don't know what happened to it.” &nbsp; Ram Bahadur Baniya, a teacher at the local school, says he had heard the sheet had been brought to the school, and later handed over to the Zonal Commissioner at the time, Nanda Prasad Malla. “But that is all hearsay,” he says.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="610" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Gyanu Timilsina, wife of Kul Timilsina.</figcaption> </figure>  There are two versions of what happened to Kul Timilsina’s metal sheet. One is that an American Peace Corp Volunteer teaching at the nearby Bindyabasini School took it, and another is that it was handed over to the government. Recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and US State Department documents from the time say that the US Embassy in Kathmandu tracked down the object two years later and had it shipped back to the US. A telegram from the Department of State and Department of Defense tagged as ‘MOON DUST / Space Fragments’ dated 1 March 1972 stated: ‘1. Restored space fragment will be on board Embassy support flight 115 arriving Kathmandu on or about March 10. Fragment is packed in shipping crate (cargo no. 72-33365) marked in care of DAO.&nbsp; 2. State and Defense representatives examined fragments prior to shipment finding restoration acceptable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df" data-rendition-name="original" width="856" height="568" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Declassified CIA documents about the investigation into the object sighted in Pokhara. </figcaption> </figure>  The documents show that the US government, military and intelligence agencies investigated this incident thoroughly when it occurred, and have continued to revisit it ever since, as recently as five years ago. What is even more intriguing is that the object that fell in Pokhara was not the only unidentified space object that fell to earth that year. There were similar sightings of objects falling from the sky in Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan between 19 February and 25 March 1968.&nbsp; These mysteries were the subject of a CIA investigation in 1968 titled ‘<a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81R00560R000100070007-8.pdf">Sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects in Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan</a>’, and the report is part of the recent online declassification of 800,000 top-secret documents from the period.&nbsp; &nbsp;Although unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have a connotation now of being alien craft, it could be pieces of satellite, missile, rocket or even aircraft. The CIA report documents six sightings in 1968 and quotes local sources as describing all of them having similar characteristics: bright blue or red streaks in the sky accompanied by loud sounds like lightning and thunder and objects falling to the ground. Aside from the metallic object that was found in Batlechaur, there were other items also found nearby in Tallakot, Tureypasal, Armalakot and Maidan. Whatever the object was, it seems to have disintegrated even before it hit the ground.&nbsp; The CIA report records the first sighting on 19 February 1968 in various parts of Sikkim and Olangchung Gola and Ghunsa in eastern Nepal. The light was said to be ‘long and thin’ and giving out ‘green and red light’. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb" data-rendition-name="original" width="892" height="596" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara "> </figure>  Two days later on 21 February, a soundless blue object was seen traveling fast across the sky above Thimphu in Bhutan. Then on 4 March there were multiple daytime sightings or white streaks in the sky at Chang La Pass, Fukche and Koyul in Ladakh. There were more sightings in Ladakh on the very day fragments fell near Pokhara on 25 March 1968.&nbsp; After the sightings in Pokhara, rumours started flying in Kathmandu that these were aliens trying to land on Earth, it could be Russian or Chinese spy planes or satellites, and some even say it as a sign from heaven that the end of the world was near. This was at the height of the Cold War. The Russians and Americans were testing their thermonuclear devices as well as intercontinental ballistic missile delivery systems. The Washington-Beijing rapprochement had not yet happened, and China was making quick progress testing atomic bombs. Within two years after its first atomic test, in 1966 China exploded its first hydrogen bomb at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang, 3,000km to the north from Nepal. After neary six decades, what is still intriguing is that all the sightings within a few months of each other in 1968 were along the Himalayan arc bordering Tibet: from Bhutan, Sikkim Nepal, to Ladakh. The US military intelligence seems to have concluded that this was not a coincidence and there were frequent research trips to the site in Pokhara by American officials in the months after the incident. With the help of the Royal Nepal Army, the region north of Pokhara was thoroughly searched.&nbsp; A confidential memo dated 25 June 1968 by Jerry C Trippy to a ‘Mr Farley’ mentions that the US Air Force’s Foreign Technology Division had decided that the debris could be important because it may be related to a Chinese missile test or a Soviet ‘Vehicle Venik’ rocket.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  On 28 August 1968 the US Embassy in Kathmandu sent a letter to Washington DC saying that the object could be of Soviet origin, possibly from when the rocket carrying the ‘Kosmos 208’ satellite re-entered the atmosphere. But why were the fragments falling to earth several weeks apart, and in the same region? No one knows where the metal sheet that Kul Timilsina recovered is now. It was definitely packed in a crate and taken to the US, and although it is rumoured that it was returned that is not very likely. Archivist Sunil Ulak heard from the Timilsina family that CIA officials had returned to the site five years ago. &nbsp; Interest in UFOs peaked in the US in the 1950s, with the Cold War space race and tests of atomic weapons and delivery rockets. CIA and scientists were being sent to investigate sightings, both publicly and privately. Could the Pokhara fragments as well as the sightings in Ladakh and Bhutan actually be alien craft falling to earth? The renewal in interest in space travel in large part due to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, UFOs and sightings are again subjects of public interest.&nbsp; Even 57 years later, even if there was definitive proof about whether the Batlechaur fragment was from a Chinese missile or a soviet rocket, it has not been made public in documents declassified so far. We may never know.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598" data-rendition-name="original" width="642" height="320" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  Sunil Ulak speculates if the debris actually came from an American aircraft, perhaps on an intel mission upon China. “Which could explain why they were so thorough in collecting the fragments in Pokhara,” he says. But that still does not explain the multiple sightings weeks apart in 1968.&nbsp; Indeed, US military aircraft were at that time flying frequent night-time missions from air force bases in India to supply weapons to Khampa guerrilla camps in Nepal located north of Pokhara in Mustang. It could very well be that the Chinese shot down one such aircraft. The other sightings could have been contrails of US spy planes, or Chinese anti-aircraft missiles.&nbsp; There were quite a few developments regarding UFOs in 2024. In a US congressional hearing in July, former intelligence officer David Grusch claimed that the government had long been involved in a program to investigate and retrieve non-human craft crashes, and then try to reverse engineer them. However Grusch did not show any evidence.&nbsp; The UAP Disclosure Act of 2024 was signed into law by Joe Biden in December 2023. It plans to oversee the public disclosure of UFO information. However, there is a clause in it that prevents disclosure if it would cause threats to military defense, intelligence operations or foreign relations.&nbsp; It is unlikely that the declassified documents about sightings in the Himalayan will cause any real surprise about definite evidence of alien life even if it was found. It seems humanity will continue, at least for now, to wonder about curious lights in the sky and whether there is anybody out there.&nbsp;

UFO over Pokhara

When Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) president Rabi Lamichhane was arrested in October on charges of defrauding depositors of cooperatives, the party’s vice president Swarnim Wagle gifted him Fareed Zakaria’s book, Age of Revolutions.
Since then, Lamichhane has been shunted around from Kathmandu to Pokhara to Chitwan and back to Pokhara to attend police investigations and court proceedings. He was being flown to Birganj via Kathmandu on Buddha Air on Monday. There is another pending case in Janakpur.
Human rights groups and civil society have criticised the government for hounding Lamichhane with inhumane treatment that borders on physical torture. The two parties in the coalition, Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML, see Lamichhane’s RSP as a potentially formidable challenge to their power.
Even if the fraud charges against Lamichhane are true, the Nepali public is increasingly looking at the government’s actions through the police and courts as political vendetta.
Despite all the travelling, sometimes by plane and often by road at night, Lamichhane appears to be in high spirits, waving to supporters who often gather if they know he is going to be driven around. A social media video shows him giving high fives to fellow passengers on a recent flight to Pokhara.&nbsp;
In the past weeks, streets in Pokhara have erupted with parallel protests by Lamichhane’s supporters as well as depositors of cooperatives who lost their savings to the scam.&nbsp;
Although family visits are allowed, prison officials in Pokhara told Nepali Times that not many people visit Lamichhane these days. He added, “When he does get visitors, he asks them to bring him books.”
Lamichhane is currently Nepal’s most high-profile public figure in custody, and highlights the stark difference between how influential prisoners are treated compared to ordinary inmates.
There are six prison cells at Kaski District Police Office’s two-story detention centre, three on each floor. And while authorities pack prisoners into already overcrowded cells, Lamichhane has an entire room on the second floor to himself.&nbsp;
He has also been allowed to call his family every few days. Other prisoners are not permitted phone calls except for emergencies.
Meanwhile, Lamichhane’s former business partner Chhabilal Joshi, an ex-Deputy Inspector General of Police with whom he established his Gorkha Media Network, is in custody under the same charges in the prison cell next to him.
Lamichhane is accused of siphoning off depositors' money to the tv network in which he was part-owner and anchor. &nbsp;
Both Lamichhane and Joshi are able to buy food from the police canteen instead of being served the regular meal like other prisoners. Joshi has also given his statement to authorities in Rupandehi and Kathmandu for his alleged role in the scam. Lamichhane is yet to be presented in Kathmandu for questioning.
While he was in custody at the Kathmandu District Police Complex, Joshi expressed his desire to sleep in a police officer’s office, reportedly assuring authorities that he would not run away and he was entitled to certain facilities as a former officer of the law.
“He seemed to be under the impression that he is still a police officer,” says a source at the Kathmandu District Police. “We made it clear to him that as someone accused of a crime, he was not entitled to special treatment.”
Former ministers Balkrishna Khand and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, and ex-home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, who were arrested in connection with the fake refugee scam last year, were similarly housed in the offices of law enforcement officials instead of prison cells. Khand has since been released after six months in jail.
While there is no legal provision to keep high-ranking officials in separate detention centres when they are arrested, authorities granting them special facilities is not uncommon. Law enforcement officials say VIP detainees expect preferential treatment while in police custody.
Among those is former Kosi Province minister Lila Ballav Adhikari, who was arrested from Biratnagar on 10 November over his alleged involvement in human trafficking and brought to Kathmandu. Adhikari had flown to Japan without government approval with three individuals on 29 October to attend a cultural conference, but had been sent back to Nepal from Narita.&nbsp;
His three companions were arrested at Kathmandu airport upon their arrival, but Adhikari was able to exit unscathed from the VIP lounge. Adhikari had resigned as the Kosi Province Minister for Internal Affairs and Law when it became public that his companions had been taken into custody, and was himself arrested shortly after. He has since been cleared by the courts.
Throughout his detention, Adhikari was kept separately from other inmates. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basant Rajouri, head of the Bhadrakali complex, says that while there is no separate detention area for VIPs, some detainees are kept separately depending on the nature of their crime.
However, sources say that arrangements were made for retired judges and others to visit Adhikari frequently worked at the office of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) during his time in custody.&nbsp;
“He used to constantly pester the authorities to let him sit outside in the sun, and to be able to use the police officer’s shower area,” added an officer.
Adhikari was released on 25 November after the government prosecutor’s office decided not to charge him in a move that was seen to expose the government’s double standards.
Over at Kathmandu’s Dilli Bazar Prison, former Kist Bank CEO Kamal Gyawali emerges from his prison cell into the courtyard of the prison’s ‘Ka (क)’ block every morning with a thick book in his hands, ready to give his daily sermon.
With his long beard, Gyawali, who is serving a prison sentence for banking fraud, looks the part of a religious guru as he implores his rapt listeners to “walk the right path, abandon bad thoughts and turn to scripture and spirituality”.&nbsp;
Afterward, the attendees gather to discuss politics and current affairs. Inmates at his daily sermons at the prison include other high-profile detainees, including former MP Ichchha Raj Tamang, who is in jail for money laundering and cooperatives fraud, former joint secretary Chudamani Sharma, who was convicted of corruption, as well as NC leader Chandra Bahadur Lama and Krishna Bahadur Upreti of the UML both of whom are on trial for embezzling billions of rupees.
Victims of the cooperatives scam that former lawmaker Tamang was involved in have made trips to the prison and requested visits, but he has refused to meet with any of them.
“Tamang often complains that the state has prevented him from returning the money to the victims by locking him up,” says a police officer at the Dili Bazar jail.
“All you hear every day from the VIP prisoners is that they have been framed,” adds the officer. “No one admits that they were involved in misdeeds.”
But while most high-profile prisoners complain about prison conditions, one exception is former provincial lawmaker Deepak Manange, who is serving a sentence at Dilli Bazar Jail for attempted murder.
“He is the happiest prisoner here,” says a warden. “Unlike the others, he doesn’t claim to have been framed, in fact he doesn’t seem to care that he is in prison.”
Manange is detained in the ‘Kha (ख)’ block of the prison complex, which he renovated at his own expense. The block previously housed female prisoners, but Manange used his influence to transfer them elsewhere. He faces no shortage of visitors, who range from political leaders to people from the underworld.
Along with Manange, other well-known prisoners in this block include Nepal Telecom Managing Director Sunil Poudel, and former executive director of the Surakshan Printing Centre Bikal Poudel, who are serving time for corruption.
Former prisoners at Dilli Bazar prison include ex-ministers Khum Bahadur Khadka and Shyam Sundar Gupta, NC leader Ganesh Lama, Maoist MP Balkrishna Dhungel, Nagarik Unmukti Party leader Resham Chaudhary, as well as former IGs Ramesh Chand Thakuri, Om Bikram Rana, and Hem Bahadur Gurung.
Section 54 of Nepal’s Prison Act assigns each prison’s internal administration the
responsibility of governing its prisoners, which means the more favourable the jail management is, the more comfortable it is for prisoners.
Dilli Bazar prison has been the prison of choice for many high-ranking prisoners, especially those convicted of white collar crimes, due to its more accommodating administrators. The prison, which has the capacity to house 700 inmates, is also less crowded than other jails.
Anuj Bhattarai, spokesperson of the Department of Prison Management, says that there is no legal classification in Nepal for felons to be assigned prisons based on the nature of their crimes.
“That Dilli Bazar Jail has a higher number of prisoners convicted of crimes like corruption is most likely a coincidence,” says Bhattarai. “There is no provision for influential people to be able to choose where they will be incarcerated.”&nbsp;
Translated by Shristi Karki from the Nepali original published in himalkhabar.com

What Nepal’s VIP prisoners do in jail

If you were raised in Nepal, you must have picked up its unique set of vocabulary: आन्दोलन, चक्का जाम, बन्द, राँके जुलुस, आफ्नो मान्छे, हाम्रो दल, कर्फु and many more words connoting political protest.
We became familiar with the acrid smell of burning tyres, and eyes smarting from tear gas. And yet, everyone speaks of another revolution in the making. Not by desire, but by suffocation.
We heard speeches about नयाँ नेपाल, but the New Nepal never arrived. The governance system changed, but it did not reflect on people’s lives — except for those close to centres of power. The state is still unreachable and is not bothered about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/matter-of-life-and-debt">victims of loan sharks</a>, cooperative scams and other injustices.
Politicians continue to speak in sound bites, but fail to deliver. They have mastered the game of pointing fingers towards an external enemy and convincing people that they are never at fault. The political narrative is so disconnected from the actual analysis of the problem that suffocation doesn’t go away after every revolution.
No genuine effort has been made to deliver at all, which is why there is a palpable sense of disillusionment in the air forcing us to seek another revolution, even if Nepal may not be able to afford it.
How has the current system successfully held power, even if the public is deeply frustrated? How is it that for three decades we continue to be led by the same faces, who have time and again, proved to us that they may be great politicians but not national leaders?
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/improving-internet-governance-in-nepal">My experience at the epicentre of politics</a> has led me to identify three cultures that have enabled political parties to keep a tight hold on power: acceptance, silence and dependency.
We accept things the way they are. We use fatalistic phrases like “नेपालमा यस्तै हो” or “नेपालको कानुन दैब जानुन”. While this resilience enables us to rise back up from devastating calamities, it is also a reason for our compliance with the status quo.
Despite so many ‘revolutions’ that have led to significant reforms, these phrases keep getting reinforced, to the point that the upcoming generations have made it their lingo.&nbsp;
This acceptance is not a symbol of law-abiding citizens, but citizens living in fear of those in power, unable to ask the whys and why-nots.
Innovation suffocates in this culture of acceptance of the status quo. This is manifested in remarks like “but we don’t have any laws for this,” or “we don’t have the capacity to implement this”. An innovator or entrepreneur therefore has to spend that energy to become a political lobbyist, often educating and convincing the bureaucracy.&nbsp;
Remember when locally assembled <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/designed-and-made-in-nepal">Yatri motorbikes</a>, despite having willing customers, had to suffer to secure license numbers because of a lack of regulations? Instead of creating new laws, the government kept chanting the “We will promote Nepal-made goods” mantra, leaving entrepreneurs in a labyrinth of bureaucracy. The weight of acceptance of the law lies heavily on innovators. Fatalism is a tactic used by those in power to generate mass fear in society.
When we accept, we become silent. This is a pervasive phenomenon. We are trained to keep quiet, lest we ruffle feathers, burn bridges, or not get the help we need in future. We know, yet we don’t speak.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bureaucratic-hurdles-in-researching-nepals-bureaucracy">Bureaucratic hurdles in researching Nepal's bureaucracy</a>, Daniel W Edwards
Here is one example: the 2021 census shows that the number of baby boys born for every 100 baby girls is 112. This is a clear indication of female foeticide because of boy preference in society.
Despite such horrifying realities, there is finger-pointing within the government between the Ministry of Health and Population with the Ministry of Home Affairs. At the citizen level, we know those who are involved in killing girls. Yet, we don’t speak up. The Nepal Medical Council reports state that despite this gender imbalance at birth, there is no indication of any action.
But why would anyone speak against one's own fraternity, no matter how vile the act is?
When we accept and keep quiet, we become dependent on those who yield power. From getting our government procedure completed on time to getting transfers, to accessing any of our legally protected rights as well, we are forced to depend on our networks of चिनेको मान्छे people we know by blood, village, relations, political affiliation.
The culture of dependency has been the established way in Nepal. If you drive a two-wheeler or four-wheeler, and you get into a small accident, you will be asked to sort it yourself, dialing up the most powerful person you know. It becomes a competition of who knows who.
Recently I was told that there were calls from the Ministry of Health and Population and another from the Prime Minister's Office for just one medical position in a private hospital. Each was pushing its own candidate. Guess which candidate got the position.&nbsp;
The dependency of people is not on the laws or the state, it is with people in power, a reliance on the network of somebody who knows somebody, including those not officially in power.
These cultures are deeply ingrained in our heads, and in society. Collectively they form a vicious circle that helps those in power to retain power. This is not the society we want to live in.
Then, what do we do as a collective to break away from this? How do we break away from the cultures of acceptance and silence that have created this dependency? What can we do to ensure that our children do not have to learn the jargon of आन्दोलन before they learn about the state?
These are the cultures political parties need to shed rather than use them to perpetuate their power. This is what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/an-alternative-to-alternative-politics-in-nepal">alternative politics</a> needs to be about.
Sumana Shrestha is a member of Parliament’s Education, Health and Information Technology parliamentary committee and represents the Rastriya Swatantara Party.

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