<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb29f9c7e80680e07baf2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1366"/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>Nepal reported the first death of a medical worker from Covid-19 last week, a 35-year-old health assistant in Mahottari district. Across the country, over 500 <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-frontline-workers-brave-it-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">healthcare providers</a> including doctors, nurses and lab technicians have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.But instead of crediting them for putting their own lives on the line at the frontlines of the war against the pandemic, heath workers in Nepal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/overseas-nepalis-on-the-covid-19-frontlines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are being ostracised</a>, publicly humiliated, and sometimes threatened by landlords and neighbours who fear that they will spread the virus.Even as they battle community transmission, in many cases it is the community itself that has turned against <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/overseas-nepalis-on-the-covid-19-frontlines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">medical personnel</a>.Over 20 staff at Bayalpata Hospital in Achham district have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last month, and all are currently isolated in the facility’s staff quarters because landlords have driven them out of their rented rooms in town.“The government has directed asymptomatic people to isolate themselves at home, but this shows just how difficult this is in reality,” says Bikash Gauchan, a doctor at Bayalpata. “It is harder to fight society than Covid-19.”Gauchan himself was in isolation after a previous outbreak and tested negative, but on a recent trip to the market to buy grocery, the shopkeeper stopped him from entering just because he worked at the hospital.At the Patan Academy of Health Sciences, the newly appointed director Rabi Shakya gets resignation letters from staff every day, and the reason cited by everyone of them is because of community harassment, or due to family pressure.“Health workers are already working in less than ideal conditions, they are not properly equipped, are overworked and have no incentives. Many don’t even have family support,” says Shakya. “They are risking their own health for the public, but when that very public turns against you, it is very painful.”Shakya says many younger doctors are now rethinking their decision to work in the medical field in Nepal. He adds, “Societal stigma stems from ignorance, and it means we have failed to communicate to the public how the virus is transmitted. Even some health workers themselves are not fully aware.”Says epidemiologist Mahesh Maskey: “It is ironic that these brave workers are receiving abuse from the very people they are protecting. I am surprised by how the psychology of fear has led us to do this, and I urge everyone to change their mentality.”https://youtu.be/6-IvZtDfPmYThe flood of positive cases in Kathmandu and other cities in the past month has led to public panic about Covid-19, and this is turning people against those who are self-isolating at home, or those working at close quarters with patients.Experts partly blame the relentless media focus on the daily case totals and fatalities, instead of the recovery rate, Nepal’s relatively low death rate, and the precautions the public needs to take. This has fed the notion that Covid-19 is highly lethal, fuelling the irrational fear.On Tuesday, Nepal recorded 1,069 new confirmed cases, 481 of them in Kathmandu Valley alone. There were 11 additional deaths, bringing the total to 239. However, what was buried in the news reports was that Tuesday also saw 768 recoveries, highest in a single day bringing the total recoveries to 22,178.Some doctors have retorted on social media with messages for those who stigmatise health workers, saying they should also think about who is going to save their lives when they find themselves in the ICU.Amidst the gloom and doom, there are glimmers of hope. Nepal Scouts, Nepal Medical Association and Higher Institutions and Secondary Schools' Association Nepal in coordination with the Ministry of Health have started a free bus service for medical personnel inside Kathmandu Valley to take them to and from hospital and their homes.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2a29c7e80680e07baf3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="450"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Charities are offering free daily meals for those without any source of sustenance. In Biratnagar, local youth groups are helping rehabilitate Covid-19 patients who have recovered (see below). And there are communities which have honoured medical frontline workers who live in their midst, saying they are true heroes.However, these are exceptions. Anisha Shakya, a medical officer at International Friendship Children Hospital says she and her colleagues are already working with limited equipment and resources, and the harassment heaped on health workers is stressful.She adds, “What would build morale is positive reinforcement, emotional support in this difficult time and more tolerance on the part of the public.”<h2>Youth help</h2>Kamal Rimal in Biratnagar<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2a49c7e80680e07baf4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="416"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Worried by the ostracisation and harassment of even those who have recovered from novel coronavirus infections, youth groups in Biratnagar have taken it upon themselves to help in their reintegration into society.They conduct home visits, sanitise homes and help with the management of funerals. Bargahi Youth Group recently helped perform the funeral of an individual who had passed away due to coronavirus in Birat Hospital, and who was shunned by relatives and the community. The entire team is now in quarantine. High Court Biratnagar recently ruled that the final rites of Covid-19 victim should be performed by the families, or as per their wishes.When a person was infected in Ashok Chok recently, locals blocked off the streets preventing residents from commuting.Nepal Communist Party Biratnagar Ward 8 committee chair Ram Pokhrel says increased fear of coronavirus in the community and the resulting societal stigma has forced his office to scale up the campaign.“We are sanitising homes among other things in order to prevent more incidents like this from happening in the future. But first and foremost, we need to change the way society thinks,” says Pokhrel, adding that even well-educated neighbours who are engineers and school principals were against the presence of infected individuals in the community.In its home visits and sanitisation campaign, the group tries to inform locals that the virus does not transmit if sufficient distance is maintained. They have also distributed masks, gloves, sanitiser and food rations to 54 households.Biratnagar Municipality members are also making home visits with immunity-boosting Ayurvedic herbs for those in self-isolation, and help them eventually reintegrate into society by boosting their morale.Former chair Binod Raut says he has sanitised about 70 houses with his own money: “Coronavirus is now spreading in the community. We are going house to house, informing people about how the virus spreads and sanitising the homes of infected people.”

Sonia Awale

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Nepal health workers battle Covid-19, but also stigma

Ashraf Shah looked forlorn as he knelt in prayer inside the deserted Kashmiri Masjid in the centre of Kathmandu this week. The mosque would have been crowded and noisy during the holy month of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/ramadan-during-the-covid-19-lockdown/">Ramadan</a>. But today, the only sound was the azaan prayer recited five times a day, which echoed through the empty chamber.Since Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-lockdown-to-be-extended/">strict nationwide lockdown </a>went into effect on 24 March, and is likely to be extended beyond 7 May, the country has tested 75 people with COVID-19. Since some of them are from the Muslim community, the religious minority has been singled out for contact tracing especially in Nepalganj, Birganj, Rautahat and Udaypur where the cases were detected.Ashraf is lost for words. “What a world are we living in now,” he says, looking skyward.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-india-connection-in-nepals-covid-19-status/">The India connection in Nepal's COVID-19 status</a>, Nepali Times<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221202151240/638a0e6c9c7e80680e0cd46djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4096" height="2730"/><figcaption>An employee stationed at the Kashmiri Masjid during his namaaz. All photos: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>Ramadan has always meant a time of joyous celebration with friends and family, the coming together in the evenings to break fast. This year, there is anxiety and fear among Nepal’s Muslims because of fears that they will be blamed for the virus. Since many Nepalis watch Hindi tv channels, some of the stigmatisation is due to the Indian media scapegoating Muslims for the spread of the virus there.“Muslims in Nepal are a minority and have peacefully coexisted without any conflict for centuries, but now I dread the future, and the rise of xenophobia and intolerance spreading from across the border,” says Abdul Shamim, head of Nepal Jame Masjid.In early April, 13 men from the Tablighi Jamaat living in a mosque in Udayapur tested positive for coronavirus, and 11 of them were Indian nationals who had come for religious instruction. The district has been virtually sealed off since then, and there has been contact tracing of people who they had been in close proximity with them.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-muslims-on-the-margins/">Nepali Muslims on the margin</a>, Prakriti Kandel<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Muslim-woman-activist-Udaypur%20,3997">Najbul Nilam Khan</a>, a rights activist in Udayapur, is worried. Although a majority of those who tested positive were Indians, locals have virtually ostracised the Muslim community there, she says.“They try to avoid conversation and just look the other way when they see us passing by on the road, neighbours avoid any sort of conversation with us even from distance. Sometimes eyes speak louder than words,” she told us on the phone.While world has been hit hard by the global pandemic, in India and Nepal it is mainly the Muslims in particular who find themselves bearing the stigma – largely because of the social media and tv networks stereotyping them. During such a crisis, Ramadan would have been a time for solidarity and bringing the community together, but even that is not possible because of the lockdown.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221202151240/638a0e6f9c7e80680e0cd46ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2520" height="1680">“We work hard and save money for the last 11 months long so that we can lay out the best meals for ourselves for Ramadan,” says Shamim, who blames coverage of the ‘<a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/113042">Corona bomb’</a> on Indian TV for the stigma. The leaked Indian security memo naming Nepali national Jalim Mukhia for being involved in a conspiracy to infiltrate coronavirus-infected individuals to spread the pandemic in India was widely broadcast on Indian tv channels.The stereotyping has spread faster than the virus itself to Kathmandu Valley. Last month, social media posts cited 13 Indonesians who were to travel to Saptari for a religious assembly being moved from a mosque in Imadol to Godavari for quarantine. When locals found out, they came out to oppose it.<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Tibetan-muslims-celebrate-ramadan,1505">A minority within a minority</a>, Claire Hennig“There are facts and there are rumours. Spreading misinformation stigmatises entire communities, making the world even more miserable than it is already,” Shamim says.After the Udayapur and Birganj outbreaks, police and other health officials searched the premises of the Kashmiri Masjid in Kathmandu, and nine mosque employees had Rapid Diagnostic Tests. They were all negative. But the fear among Muslims heightened this week after nine among 60 at a mosque in Nepalganj testing PCR positive.Says Abdul Shamim, head of Nepal Jame Masjid: “After these cases, whenever there is news of confirmed cases going up, people are always asking were they Muslims? Were they caught in a mosque? The media highlights Muslim positives, they never says a Hindu or a Christian tested positive.”<h2>Smaller, quieter meals</h2><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221202151240/638a0e739c7e80680e0cd46fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="360"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Ramadan is not the same for 64-year-old Mohammed Israil this year, who has been volunteering as a head chef during the month-long festival in the Kashmiri Masjid since 1982, preparing meals for more than 300 people every day during Ramadan.This time Israil is confined to his home in Thamel with his family. Like others from his community, Israil says he is abiding by the government’s strict lockdown rules which he says is also a religious act which will make Allah happy.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221202151240/638a0e769c7e80680e0cd470jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“I love cooking meals for people, I think it’s a blessing to feed those who need food more than us,” says Israil, who recalls preparing rumali roti, chana, keema samosa, aalu keema, pakoda, fruits and firni, a dish made of sweet rice.For the first time in four decades, Israil is at home this month, confined to a small kitchen cooking with tiny utensils on much smaller pans, in comparison to those at the mosque. He says: “I am accustomed to cooking in a big kitchen with big utensils, these look like miniatures.”Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/assimilating-generations-of-Newari-muslims,2937">How to braid two cultures together</a>, Seulki Lee<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/unlock-the-country-in-phases/">Unlock the country in phases</a>, Editorial

Nepal's Muslims face stigma after COVID-19 tests

Four-fold increase in reported rape in 10 years

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Nepal health workers battle Covid-19, but also stigma

Nepal's Muslims face stigma after COVID-19 tests

Four-fold increase in reported rape in 10 years