<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058359c7e80680e0ce191jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Pheriche Aid Post where David Shlim lived in 1979 where it was just part of seasonal yak pastures, managed by the Himalayan Rescue Association</figcaption></figure>My first home in Kathmandu was a glass A-frame house nestled in a lychee and mango orchard, sheltered by a magnificent old fig tree in Bansbari. It was rented from Prem who lived with his young family in the same garden, rice fields stretching beyond the back wall with distant views of the northern hills. It was tiny, with seating on floor cushions and the bedroom a mattress on the mezzanine accessed by a precarious circular staircase, but that did not preclude large parties on the lawn and jolly meals around a polished table in the cramped dining alcove.As Dr David Shlim recounts in his memoir, A Gentle Rain of Compassion, it was here at dinner one evening that his life was profoundly changed by meeting Jane, a leggy blond Canadian who worked for us at Tiger Tops. This chance encounter led to a series of events (spoiler alert) that broke his pattern of ricocheting romances and obsessive despair which, in the mysterious way of this magical Valley, eventually catapulted him out of his misery and onto the healing path of spiritual awakening.That evening would lead to the transformation of David’s life through his discovery of Tibetan Buddhism, personal tuition by reincarnate lamas and an enduring friendship with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, whom he met when offering free healthcare in his Boudha monastery. But this journey towards enlightenment, compellingly written with David’s signature self-deprecating humour, encapsulates much, much more. In the words of Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air: ‘Dr. Shlim’s story is candid, wise, fascinating, funny, tragic, astonishing, hopeful, and wonderfully entertaining.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058399c7e80680e0ce192jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="844"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/6390583c9c7e80680e0ce193jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1384"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Today David is world renowned as a specialist physician in travel medicine and has pioneered the bringing together of Buddhist philosophical practice with modern medical theory. Based in Jackson Hole Wyoming, he has lectured around the world on travel medicine topics and spends his time coaching caregivers to apply compassion in their daily interactions with patients, teaching Buddhism, and directing the Medicine and Compassion Project (<a href="http://www.davidshlim.com/medicine-compassion-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.davidshlim.com/medicine-compassion-project&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1668505584783000&amp;usg=AOvVaw20UaHm5NlXkxsR3gmzaaPd">www.davidshlim.com/medicine-compassion-project</a>).Collaboration with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and others resulted in the first-ever book that provided authentic Tibetan Buddhist insights into altruism and compassion for Western medical professionals, Medicine and Compassion, published in 2004. Monk philanthropist Matthieu Ricard (who David’s son is named after) writes: ‘Uniting his medical vocation with the essence of Buddhism … led to his teaching physicians around the world on how to bring back compassion at the heart of their profession and day to day activities.’<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058409c7e80680e0ce194jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="957" height="820"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Dr Shlim, as he is known locally, was a popular guest and a well-known fixture in 1980s’ Kathmandu. Adept at tolerating local conditions, both personal and medical, he first worked in Nepal in 1979 as the volunteer doctor posted in the Pheriche aid post high in the eastern Himalaya, lured away from his lacklustre life and flailing medical career in the US by the peerless mountain doctor and climber, Dr Peter Hackett.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058439c7e80680e0ce195jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="948" height="1061"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Returning as director of CIWEC, Nepal’s first international clinic with which he remains associated, Dr Shlim was a lifesaver, literally. Prior to CIWEC’s establishment in 1982 with Canadian assistance, we all relied on the Shanta Bhawan Hospital in a former Rana palace, run by dedicated and hard-working missionaries. I would regularly invite David down to Chitwan and Bardia for the reassurance of his gentle medical expertise when we had celebrity guests such as Henry Kissinger, Ringo Starr and Robert Redford in our care.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058469c7e80680e0ce196jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1141" height="1261"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In a unique position to study medical conditions afflicting travellers, including diarrhoea, tropical diseases and travellers’ depression, the research that David led during his 15 years in Nepal made CIWEC the most famous travel clinic in the world. In addition, he served ten years as medical director of the Himalayan Rescue Association and became president of the International Society of Travel Medicine, an organization with 4,000 members in 100 countries. In 1998 Dr David Shlim was recognised by the Prime Minister of Nepal for his lifetime contribution to Himalayan rescue and mountain medicine.It was to CIWEC that Beck Weathers and Makalu Gau were brought after the epic 1996 high altitude flight by Madhan KC above the Everest icefall, at that time the highest ever helicopter rescue. I coordinated the rescue operation, manning the phones in Kathmandu with Rob Hall’s team at basecamp, the American Embassy and Adventure Consultants in Christchurch. Having been left for dead above Camp II after the storm, we held the phone to Beck Weathers’ ear as he called his wife from David’s consulting room to tell her that he was still alive, tears streaming down his face, his frostbitten nose treated and both hands bandaged by Dr Shlim.David is a good storyteller as this page-turner attests, and inevitably was at the centre of expat life in those early self-reliant days, with all their dramas, disasters, accidents and adventures. A sober physician by day, David let off steam as a rock and roll singer by night. The Fear of Heights band had us dancing late into the night, a precursor for another twist in his eclectic career as tour doctor travelling the world with the Rolling Stones for three years - David had originally met Mick Jagger and his family in 1990 at my house in Kathmandu.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/6390584b9c7e80680e0ce197jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1622" height="1160"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>As Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche writes in the Foreword: ‘Dr. Shlim’s life was filled with many challenges and many successes, both medically and personally. He tells these stories very well.’  Particularly remarkable is the way he shares the step by step progression of a Jewish American doctor’s skepticism that evolved from a growing spiritual awareness into a deep connection with Tibetan Buddhism.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058529c7e80680e0ce198jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1022"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>But this unputdownable book is about more than medical sagas and spiritual exploration, on which David clearly left his mark in Nepal and vise versa, gripping as they are. The narrative gallops along, featuring romances, travel and personal trauma, sweeping us through the delights and deprivations of Kathmandu life in the 1980s and the stark reality of Sherpa living in the high Khumbu with little health support. We follow David through the unsatisfactory dead ends of his early years in the US, settling into the beguiling rhythms of life in Nepal, then returning to the American Tetons having found the other Jane - another beautiful Canadian lady chanced upon in Kathmandu with whom he has shared his extraordinary life and two children.Recently released in the US and Kathmandu, it is fitting that A Gentle Rain of Compassion was selected as the best autobiography/memoir by International Book Awards 2022 - a great boost for Dr Shlim, and nice recognition for Nepal as the most rewarding of adventure and spiritual destinations.A Gentle Rain of Compassion by Dr David R Shlim Di Angelo Publications USA 2022Distributed in Nepal by Vajra Books362 pages $19.99<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058569c7e80680e0ce199jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1383">

Lisa Choegyal

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The good doctor

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151116/636bb65c9c7e80680e07bc59jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1365"/><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>Last year this time, the Infectious and Tropical Disease Hospital in Teku would be filled with patients suffering from mosquito or dog bites. But for the past week, entire families are sleeping in the open overnight at the hospital gate waiting for their turn to get Covid-19 PCR tests in the morning.The novel coronavirus has overshadowed many prevalent diseases and their treatment in Nepal, and one of the deadliest among them is <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19652#.X3E9tS2B0b0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rabies</a>.Last month, on a day that saw six Covid-19 fatalities nationwide, at least three people died of rabies in Dolakha district after a dog bit 10 people. The three, aged 32, 14 and 8, died despite receiving anti-rabies vaccines.Their families filed police complaints against a local clinic for using faulty vaccine, but ward chair Raj Kusum Lama later said the three died because they did not go for the full treatment of three injections.In Kathmandu, the Teku hospital is the only one which administers free anti-rabies vaccines. It used to get as many as 150 dog bite cases a day, but the number dwindled to only about 30 daily cases in the past months – even though there is anecdotal evidence of hungry street dogs getting more aggressive during the lockdown.Surya Ghimire was recently walking from his home in Dhapakhel to a school in Patan where he is a security guard, when he was suddenly attacked by a <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/woof-of-fresh-air-for-street-dogs-in-kathmandu,4132" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">canine pack</a>."There were no cars on Sat Dobato, and the dogs ruled the intersection. It was so dangerous, I started carrying a stick to protect myself,” he recalled. “The dogs were chasing people on motorcycles. They never did this before.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151116/636bb65f9c7e80680e07bc5ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3264" height="2448"><figcaption>Photo: BASU PARAJULI/THE KAT CENTRE</figcaption></figure>The lockdown also meant that without transport, people could not travel to health facilities to access the vaccine on time. Even after travel restrictions were lifted, many dog bite victims are afraid to visit Teku because it is also where Covid-19 patients are tested and treated.“Rabies is a under-diagnosed and under-rated in Nepal,” explained Buddha Basnyat of Patan Academy of Health Sciences. “Rabies doesn’t take any prisoners, it kills. Good thing we have a set of highly effective preventive measures.”A post-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as anti-rabies vaccine, must be administered immediately after a dog bite, even if the dog may not be rabid. No one wants to take the chance. The vaccine takes about a week for the body to develop antibodies to fight the virus.While completely preventable, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17455#.X3E9tS2B0b0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rabies</a> is a disease with the highest documented case-fatality rate -- close to 100%. Globally, it is responsible for 59,000 deaths every year, and 40% of all human rabies deaths are of children under 15.While rabies occurs in more than 150 countries, it is endemic in South Asia and Africa. India alone accounts for 40% of all annual rabies deaths in the world.Nepal has an average of 125 cases a year, but experts say most of the cases in remote rural areas go unreported. In fact, given the uncontrolled and growing population of stray dogs in urban areas, rabies and its preventive measures deserve more attention.“Teku hospital is synonymous with dog bite treatment, but the anti-rabies vaccine should be made available across the country and not just in few government hospitals,” says Prativa Pandey of CIWEC Travel Medicine Centre in Kathmandu. “Widespread access to the vaccine also means cutting down on travel cost for patients seeking treatment.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151116/636bb6629c7e80680e07bc5bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="530"><figcaption>Photo: KAT CENTRE</figcaption></figure>Indeed, if all major hospitals, health facilities and clinics had a stock of vaccines, many more lives would have been saved during the lockdown. Free anti-rabies vaccines are available only in Teku and limited district hospitals. Private hospitals stock the vaccine, but there is a hefty charge. Even then, most facilities are not equipped with immunoglobulin, which together with post-exposure prophylaxis is considered a complete treatment against rabies.An immunoglobulin shot is crucial in severe bite wounds, but both equine and human immunoglobulin can be found only in a select few clinics.“South India has made much progress in equine serum and we should invest on making it more widely available in Nepal,” says Basnyat. “It’s much cheaper than human immunoglobulin and doesn’t need a lot of maintenance, and the side effects are reduced.”Knowledge about immediate and thorough bite wound washing with soap and water is also crucial, and can save lives. But prevention by <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17934#.X3E9xS2B0b0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">controlling the street dog population</a> and canine vaccination are equally important. Although bats and monkeys also carry the rabies virus, dog bites make up 99% of all transmission in Nepal.Animal welfare organisations such as Kathmandu Animal Treatment (KAT) Centre and Sneha’s Care have been immunising community dogs in the Valley. Along with individual initiatives, they have also been busy <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/singha-darbar-dogs-go-hungry-in-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feeding and caring for stray animals during the lockdown</a> so they are not as aggressive.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151116/636bb6649c7e80680e07bc5cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>On Monday, 28 September, the Global Alliance for Rabies Control is marking the 14th World Rabies Day with the slogan ‘End Rabies: Collaborate, Vaccinate’. Nepal and other endemic countries should renew their commitment to end rabies by prioritising and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bhaktapurs-dog-catchers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">investing on preventive measures</a> and meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) target of bringing down human deaths from dog-mediated rabies to zero by 2030.Elsewhere in the world, pre-exposure vaccines are readily available and most travellers to Nepal use one so that even in case of a dog bite, they can survive with only one booster dose of the anti-rabies vaccine.Says Prativa Pandey: “Ideally, immunisation against rabies like we have for polio is recommended for this part of the world even though it is expensive. Even so, we must make the vaccine available and invest on preventive measures to save lives.”

Dog bites man is still news in Nepal

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

Pokhara’s tourism woes

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

Languages are both software and hardware

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

Job insecurity in security forces

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

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