New Christian Solidarity Worldwide report: rights or religion?

Posted on 3 November 2011 by NepaliKuire

Christian reports always make people nervous. Are they defending the right to religion or are they promoting the right to proselytise?

It’s made worse in Nepal by the growing presence of evangelicals – many little older than children – travelling the country from poor village to poor village. They bring gifts in exchange for conversions; a tv here, a computer there.

But then, perhaps the history of Christianity is obscuring the real need to fulfil a right to choose religion in Nepal, something that high caste Hindus have their own history of repressing.

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The Constituent Assembly (CA) of Nepal, created by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and elected in April 2008, took the fundamental decision to abolish the Hindu monarchy and declare Nepal a secular republic.

The CA is currently in the process of drafting a new constitution, having been tasked by the CPA with creating “a political system that fully complies with universally accepted fundamental human rights”. In addition, the 1991 Treaty Act requires that domestic legislation in Nepal should be in compliance with all ratified treaties. Nepal is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), of which article 18 provides for “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”.

The deadline for the new constitution has been extended twice, and currently stands at 31 August 2011. The Government of Nepal is also reviewing the current civil and penal code, and a new proposal was submitted to the CA in May 2011.

The right to freedom of religion or belief has particular importance in Nepal at this time: this is a pivotal moment in its history, undergoing a transition from a Hindu monarchy to a secular democracy, which entails a significant change in the role of religion in politics and society. The CA therefore needs to consider how to reflect this within the framework of rights in the new constitution.

One of two clauses on religious freedom held in common among the constitutions of 1959, 1962, 1990 and 2007, and the present two constitutional proposals is a provision that “no person shall be entitled to convert another person from one religion to another” (or a variant of this). This leaves no space for interpreting a religious conversion as a positive choice, or taking a rights-based approach, such as that with which the CA is tasked in Nepal.

This briefing argues that it is not appropriate to carry the anti-conversion clause into the new constitution. This is for three main reasons. Firstly, the new social and political circumstances of Nepal demand that the treatment of religion in the constitution should be different (section 3.4). Secondly, this type of measure has a record in south Asia for heightening prejudice and violence against religious minorities (section 4.3). Thirdly, it is in violation of the international human rights framework (sections 5-6).

There is a serious risk that already-drafted clauses which are inconsistent with the international human rights framework may pass through the CA without proper scrutiny.

Among them would be the right to religious freedom which, as currently framed in the two proposals, would be seriously curtailed. The specific problems with the new constitutional proposals on religious freedom are detailed in sections 6.2 of this briefing, and CSW makes specific recommendations on how the proposals can be made fully consistent with “universally accepted fundamental human rights”, as the CPA demands, in section 2.

In addition, the proposal on offences relating to religion for the new penal code contains a number of problematic sections, detailed in section 7.2 of this briefing. CSW recommends that section 160, on conversion, should be omitted, and sections 157-159, which stem from the colonial penal code of 1860, should be rethought in the present circumstances of Nepal.

The issues of pluralism and conversion are emotive ones, and the deep sensitivities around them should be addressed, but the question remains whether provisions in the new constitution and penal code are the best means for doing so, as they would curtail rights and strengthen negative attitudes towards religious minorities. Instead, a statutory body for inter-faith dialogue would constitute an innovative and potentially fruitful way forward.

Read the full report: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Nepal briefing, 2011

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Al Jazeera, Nepali sovereignty and Tibetan identity

Posted on 3 November 2011 by NepaliKuire

This Al Jazeera documentary was a thoroughly good piece on Mustang and was presented by a (Hong Kong-ese?) journalist who previously covered the one-China policy.

It’s surprising however that Thapa was unaware of the government’s legislative crackdown on Tibetans exercising their right to identity. Worse still that it takes a Chinese journalist working for an Arab channel to shine a light on Chinese invasion of Nepali sovereignty in Mustang.

It’s also surprising, if not shocking, that Thapa is so dismissive of foreigners interested in the Tibetan struggle? I agree that many people romanticise Tibetan identity – and Nepalis successfully milk that more than any – but the struggle is still profound. Would Thapa, had he lived in Zimbabwe, have said the same about interest in neighbouring Apartheid?

In Thapa’s first line he points to the real issue here: citizenship. Tibetans in Nepal don’t have it, and lose out therefore on all the civil and political rights that are guaranteed to Thapa under the Interim Constitution.

—

Nepal’s one-Tibet policy

SRADDA THAPA

If the words of Steve Chao in a recent Al Jazeera production contains even just a morsel of truth, then I, as a Nepali citizen, am embarrassed. “Any gathering of Tibetans without government approval is now illegal,” he’d said.

At first I dismissed him as yet another foreigner who was only too eager to romanticize all things Tibetan and vilify any supposed detractors to the Tibetan cause. After all, why would a nation such as ours, for whom freedom of speech, democracy, and sovereignty have been a constant struggle, even contemplate denying the same rights to another cohort? But before I could finish my thought to defend the case of Nepal by commenting under the YouTube video titled, ‘Mustang: Kingdom Under Siege,’ I recalled a blog post written by a young ethnically Tibetan/politically Nepali girl just weeks before.

It was hard to tell from her writing whether she was disappointed or disgusted or perhaps a healthy dose of both. After all, I too would be upset if an innocent gathering had been rudely interrupted by the Nepal Police (most likely taking a cue) simply because it was organized for and attended primarily by Tibetans. From her blog, it was evident that the community had just gathered to wear bakkhus, eat shefalay and listen to traditional music: Basically to celebrate their Tibetan heritage.  The post indicated that it was a harmless effort to preserve and promote a unique culture, a sentiment we in multi-cultural Nepal not only encourage but also prioritize.

Unfortunately, our national security forces cut the evening short by barging in and demanding they immediately stop the event. Maybe Chao did have a point in that broadcast.

Mainstream media, both in Nepal and around the world, either offer idyllic pictures of ancient Tibet or ruffle feathers with stories of Tibetan dissenters breaking into UN compounds. What we are carefully shielded from is the absurdity that the Tibetan community is forced to endure either as refugees or citizens, a minor distinction since both deserve equal access to basic human rights. In the case of Nepal, the Tibetans as legal residents must be provided with the same rights as that of any other Nepali. And one particularly important facet of such a provision would have to include the right to assemble.

What is democratic about Nepal if a particular group is ostracized, systematically targeted, and then exclusively denied the right to gather? Whether the assembly is impromptu or strategically organized, so long as they are not breaking any laws, they should not only be spared harassment from authorities, but could even be granted assistance to carry forth with their programs. If the traffic police ostensibly lend a helping hand to banda organizers when they divert pedestrians and vehicles to clear the path for various protests, how does it make obstruct to crash a non-violent gathering elsewhere?

“Nepal is a small impoverished country sandwiched between China and India…” or so goes every introductory sentence on our country. We cannot deny our history or our current state – insurgency and instability have been a long-running theme. But we have also made some progress. Did we not get an extensive makeover when the constitutional monarchy was christened a federal democratic republic?

Just the change in official name implies that sought to embody a tolerant society, hungry to practice democracy and eager to extend rights. Even just a few years ago I would not have imagined Nepal managing to pull its tail out from between its legs. Indeed in 2008, the Beijing Olympics was just a few months shy of the 50 year anniversary of the Tibetan uprising and the crackdown on Tibetan protestors in Kathmandu in support of the demonstrators in the capital of their homeland, Lhasa you will remember, was highlighted in international media. It was not a shining moment for Nepal (Police). It also happened to be when the then freshly selected Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav arrived in Washington DC to address a small crowd.

Madeshi politics was unknown to my European colleague who had wanted to attend the small talk with me. He asked the then Foreign Minister what the “Naya” Nepal stance on Tibet would be as opposed to the archaic one.  My friend innocently questioned the provocative attack on Tibetan protestors across Kathmandu and I had to stifle my laughter. March 2008: Weren’t we more self-involved than ever at that point? Still patting ourselves on our backs for wrapping up an insurgency and electing a new Constituent Assembly, all the while trying to make sense of the rise of ethnic politics? We didn’t have time to deal with Tibet and China, we were too preoccupied with our internal atrocities and easily caved to the whims of China.

But, it’s 2011 today and I dare say we have made some progress. In recent months and in light of our even more recent political achievements, perhaps we as Nepalis – ethnically Tibetan or otherwise – can begin to challenge Nepal’s discrimination of the very people group we historically agreed to shelter. Shamelessly deporting Tibetans who have risked their lives to cross over the Chinese border into the supposed safety of Nepal is bad enough. But what is this nonsensical banning of Tibetans from congregating about?

I understand China has emerged as an economic giant, but does that mean Nepal is to cower like a mouse and scuttle to the corner to dance to the tune of the awkwardly phrased one-party democracy?

We are a sovereign state and it puzzles my generation – who were taught to value democracy to witness our government deny the same to Tibetans in Nepal. Of course, there is too much at stake to openly challenge the One-China policy – even the global hegemony, the US hasn’t dared, but must that stop us from granting Tibetan-Nepalis the same rights as non-Tibetan Nepalis when on our own soil?

When was it ever against the law for a community, and a marginalized community at that to congregate and express themselves? Let them get together and gather, let them strategize and organize, let them perform and protest, just let them be.

The Khampa warriors have long since put down their weapons and the Tibetan people have resolved to peaceful protest to fuel the dream of a Free Tibet.  Can we stop getting in their way

via MYREPUBLICA.com – News in Nepal: Fast, Full & Factual.

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Parties agree Maoist integration, at expense of victims

Posted on 2 November 2011 by NepaliKuire

It’s great news, unless you were a victim.

If you were, then you would be looking at this and thinking that over the past few years your War Crimes Commission has been watered down into a Truth and Reconciliation Commission,  and now into a Peace and Reconciliation Commission.

“What’s the difference?” I hear you say. Well, the first has the ability to bring criminal prosecutions against individuals. Similar to Nuremburg, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia or Sierra Leone.

The second does not have the power to bring criminal prosecution, but does have the power to investigate (to discover the truth) and was used in post-Apartheid South Africa.

The third, and newest formulation, appears (we don’t know until we see the detail) to have cut any attempt at discovering what happened, and instead focuses entirely on reconciliation.

What this means in practice is that there will be no investigation, no criminal trials, no justice, rather just a push for forgiveness.

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Nepals main political parties have agreed the last part of a landmark peace deal after years of wrangling.A spokesman for the prime minister said the deal revolves around the future of about 19,000 former Maoist fighters.About a third of them will be integrated into the security forces. The remainder will receive a pay-off.The Maoists ended a long-running insurgency five years ago. Peace moves had stalled over the future of former rebel fighters and a new constitution.A statement detailing the agreement was issued soon after it was announced by the four major parties of Nepal – the Maoists, the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist Leninist and the Madeshi Peoples Rights Forum Democratic party which represents people living in the southern plains.It said that agreement had been reached “on issues relating the integration of former Maoist combatants into the security forces and providing support to victims of the conflict”.The statement said that 500,000 to 800,000 Nepali rupees $6,300 to $10,190 would be given in compensation to those Maoists who do not join the security forces.In addition:Weapons used by former Maoist fighter will be handed in to the stateA peace and reconciliation commission will be formed within a monthLand captured or confiscated by the Maoists will be returned to original ownersCorrespondents say that while the deal has cross-party support from politicians representing different areas of the country, not everyone has come out in support of it.One influential Maoist leader, Mohan Baidya – the head of a hardline faction – has already expressed discontent.The BBCs Jill McGivering says that the end of the civil war raised hopes in Nepal – but since then many became increasingly disillusioned with successive political stalemates and resignations.Supporters of the deal hope that it will bring an end to one of the most difficult parts of the peace process – the future of weapons used by the Maoists during their insurgency and the future of the former insurgents themselves.Former Maoist fighters will now be integrated into the security forcesThe Maoists gave up their decade-long armed revolt in 2006 and joined a peace process. Their decade-long insurgency left 18,000 people dead and caused massive damage to the economy.They agreed to confine their fighters to UN-monitored camps and locked up their weapons, in addition to taking part in mainstream politics and contesting elections.But there were strong disagreements among the main parties over the future of the former rebel fighters.In 2009, Maoist leader Prachanda resigned as prime minister after his efforts to sack the countrys army chief – who he accused of hampering his efforts to integrate former Maoist fighters in the army – were blocked by the president.But the situation improved in September 2011 with the election of Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.Shortly after he was sworn in, most Maoist weapons were handed over to a multi-party committee tasked with overseeing the peace process.Mr Bhattarai is the fifth in the five years since the peace process started. He has been described by some as the countrys last hope.Despite the breakthrough with the country main parties, correspondents say that many challenges still lie ahead.One of the most pressing is the search to find consensus on drafting a new constitution, which is why another extension for the current Constituent Assembly has been agreed.

via BBC News – Nepal parties agree final part of landmark peace deal.

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Dixit: Journalism’s important public service remit

Posted on 28 October 2011 by NepaliKuire

Not sure I entirely agree with this on a global level; think about the exponential growth of Al Jazeera, for example. Experience says this is true about South Asia however – they’ve very much adopted the Fox News style that Dixit refers.

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Journalists, beware of falling into the voyeuristic entertainment trap.

That was the warning given by Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit who told the international conference Mediafabric, organised by Sourcefabric, that the media is rapidly losing its public service remit.

And he explained what needs to be done to reverse the trend.

The following is an edit of a presentation by Kunda Dixit, the editor of the Nepali Times, at the Mediafabric event organized by Sourcefabric in Prague on Friday 21 October, 2011. Reproduced here with Kunda’s permission.

Voyeuristic entertainment posing as news

If you flip through the 180 channels on the dish these days in India you can’t distinguish between real news and reality TV.

Journalism is only a narrow segment of the spectrum we call the “mass media”, and that segment is just getting narrower.

Current affairs programmes have turned into voyeuristic entertainment posing as news. There is a raucous reporting of trivia, or there is overkill.

Breathless live coverage of issues with five talking heads on the screen talking at the same time, so you can’t tell what the hell is happening.

The public service role of media has vanished

Recently in a hotel room in India, I flipped through Hindi and English news channels. The main news in all of them was cricket.

Cricket was not just the main news in the sports section; it was the number one item in the main news lineup. This went on for a day or two as long as the tournament lasted.

I teach journalism, and all this makes me wonder whether there is any point training college students in mass communications just so that they can feed the media industry’s voracious appetite for escapist entertainment masquerading as news.

Such content keeps us ignorant of the real state of our countries, the structural problems within our societies. It doesn’t throw the light on social injustice, discrimination and exploitation.

At a time when we need it the most, the public service role of media has vanished.

At a time when we need it the most, the public service role of media has vanished.

Journalism and democracy are two sides of the same coin. If one is undermined, the other is also weakened. If one is strong, it protects the other.

But the over-commercialisation of media is governed by an unspoken compact between advertisers and publishers that journalists will not be too controversial so that, in return, advertisers will have access to the widest possible audience.

Censorship by exclusion

We now have to deal with what John Pilger calls “the censorship by exclusion”. Commercialisation of media ownership sanitises the content of what journalists are allowed to report.

Censorship by exclusion is much more insidious because it happens in countries where the press is supposed to be free. Readers and viewers are lulled, and the TV set turns into an anesthesia machine.

Media gatekeepers argue that they are just giving the public what the public wants. But do we really know what the public wants? Do we really care what the public needs?

It is because the mainstream media has abdicated its public service role as a defender of media independence that I think there is new relevance for new media.

It is because the mainstream media has abdicated its public service role as a defender of media independence that I think there is new relevance for new media

Online sites, social networking and citizen journalism complement what the established press can’t, or doesn’t, touch because of state control, commercialisation or sheer laziness and complacency.

So, you see, new media isn’t just a fad. It is a tool that democratises delivery, takes journalism out of the hands of business and government. But it is just a tool. And like any tool it can be used, or misused.

We sometimes tend to get carried away by the medium. It shouldn’t be technology just for the sake of technology.

We shouldn’t be so mesmerized by gadgets and the planned obsolescence of gizmos that we lose track about what that technology is supposed to do.

To turn Marshall McLuhan around: the message is the message.

Wake up calls for traditional press

Online media and citizen journalism are wake up calls for the traditional press to re-invent itself, for journalists to relearn what their profession is all about. We need a paradigm shift in the way we do journalism.

Half the children in South Asia are stunted because they are undernourished, but the covers of our news magazines are about how to lose weight.

In parts of India the maternal mortality rate is at sub-Saharan levels, but our newspapers must have a “tits and ass” section.

Nearly 200,000 Nepali women are trafficked to prostitution in India, yet the only sex our newspapers cover are about adulterous film stars.

Nearly 200,000 Nepali women are trafficked to prostitution in India, yet the only sex our newspapers cover are about adulterous film stars

The trouble begins with what we define as news.

Journalism schools have set the criteria: for a calamity to make it to the news pages the people who die have to do so in sufficiently large numbers, they should preferably be well-to-do, they have to die suddenly and all at once, in one place.

There have to be good visuals, and the victims should speak English.

Which is why the fact that 150 children in Nepal are killed every day due to preventable diseases isn’t news because they are from poor families, they don’t all die in one place but pass away silently, scattered in homes across the country.

The mainstream media has not sufficiently upheld the citizen’s right to know what is important and relevant to a majority of them. And that is why citizens have become journalists themselves.

Citizen journalists complement traditional journalists

Convergence of technology is making online journalism possible, and it is filling a gap that mainstream media has abandoned.

Just about every media conference I have attended in the last five years has dealt with a debate between old media vs. new media. This subject has been flogged to death.

Let’s not get distracted anymore by the debate between digital vs. analog. After all, it is not an either-or question. We need both. Citizen journalists complement traditional journalists.

What is important is not the platform. What is important is the content. And the delivery is dependent on the content: you choose the medium that best reaches the public that the message is meant for.

Also, just because we have grown tired of talking about the digital divide doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Things are changing fast, but affordability and accessibility because of language and bandwidth keep computers and the internet out of the reach of most citizens.

Actually the digital divide is just the manifestation of structural inequities within and between countries. There is the income divide, there is a school divide, there is a health divide. These are all problems that the mass media should be in the business of finding solutions to by improving governance and making democracies more accountable.

Press freedom is like a rubber band: to make it work you have to stretch it

In our enthusiasm for digital media, we have to remember that it tends to be an echo chamber. When you can customize your news feed, subjects or viewpoints that you don’t agree with can be blocked out.

This hardens opinions and works against the politics of compromise that is essential to make democracy work. Instead of being a bridge, therefore, the over-connected Internet fragments and compartmentalizes public opinion.

Virtual thought ghettos then populate cyberspace.

Press freedom is like a rubber band: to make it work you have to stretch it. Media pluralism has to be protected by its constant and maximum application so that journalists (citizen or otherwise) maintain our credibility and protect our agenda-setting role.

Finally, the real challenge for both new and old media is therefore to be relevant, to enhance our credibility, and to protect our freedoms.

This is true for whether our delivery platform is the Internet, broadcast or print, whether we work for a newspaper, we blog, or we tweet. Or we do all of the above.

Kunda Dixit is a graduate of Columbia University in New York and started out in journalism with BBC Radio at the United Nations headquarters. He was then the Region director, Asia-Pacific for Inter Press Service and returned to his home country of Nepal to launch Himalmedia publications. He is now editor and publisher of the Nepali Times newspaper in Kathmandu. He is a blogger and the author of the journalism handbook, Dateline Earth: Journalism As If The Planet Mattered (Inter press Service, Bangkok, 2011 edition) and A People War Trilogy of photo books on the Nepal conflict. Kunda tweets @kundadixit.

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100 Day Campaign against Caste Discrimination and Untouchability

Posted on 11 October 2011 by NepaliKuire

This is a Hundred Day Campaign jointly organized by the National Dalit Commission NDC and the United Nations Human Rights Office in Nepal OHCHR-Nepal. On 16th September, the President of Nepal officially inaugurated the launch of the campaign and over a 100 participants, including Government representatives, Human Rights Defenders and media personalities, took part in the campaigns first National Consultation programme. The ISSUE: Despite national legal standards and international obligations, caste discrimination and untouchability practices are still prevalent in Nepal, particularly in rural parts of the country. This campaign AIMS: to widely disseminate the content of the recently promulgated Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability Offence and Punishment Act 2068 to ensure its effective implementation. The ultimate goal is to ensure that victims as well as their family members are able to invoke the rule of law in order to access justice. A culture of accountability must replace the present culture of impunity in Nepal. Campaign activities: Throughout the 100 day campaign, until its completion on 24th December 2011, various awareness-raising activities will be organized country-wide in collaboration with government authorities, human rights defenders, media and civil society members. Ending: This campaign will formally end after a 100 days. However, its spirit and soul will live on, and continue to ignite the commitment to end caste discrimination and untouchability, helping thereby to ensure the effective elimination of one of the most degrading forms of human rights violations.For more details please refer the websites of the NDC www.ndc.gov.np and OHCHR in Nepal nepal.ohchr.org/en/index.html Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability Offence and Punishment Act, 2011Download the Act in English. [नेपालीमा]

via 100 Day Campaign against Caste Discrimination and Untouchability.

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Cash grants for food incentivise birth registrations | Nepal | Children | Health & Nutrition

Posted on 7 October 2011 by NepaliKuire

A cash grant programme to promote the purchase of nutritious food for children in the remote Karnali region of Mid-West Nepal increased birth registration by 300 percent in the past year, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The child grant programme, implemented by the government in October 2009, offers about US$2.75 each month to families with children under five throughout the five districts of Karnali, and also to poor Dalit families nationwide. Each family can receive up to two grants a month for their documented children.

Prior to the implementation of the programme in Karnali, only 20,896 children had birth certificates, now 85,624 children do.

Though generally not prioritized in Nepal, birth registration is important for children to begin to receive governmental support, from health care to education. Proving one’s age without a birth certificate can be legally problematic, though citizenship is still possible without birth registration.

The spending of the money is not tracked, but whether or not families are buying leafy greens, the increase in birth registration is a by-product to boast about, Thakur Dhakal, social policy specialist at UNICEF, told IRIN in Kathmandu.

“Just having cash doesn’t solve the problem of malnutrition,” Thakur said. “These poor families might have another priority for the money – say a leak in the roof.”

It is a condition of the grant that all mothers register their newborn children.

Malnourished

Some women in Urthu, a village in Jumla District, part of Karnali Zone where the government estimates more than half the children are chronically malnourished, told IRIN they had used the extra income to buy eggs and vegetables, but others said husbands were using the money for gambling or alcohol.

At the moment, mothers are receiving the grants in two or three lump sums per year, which might add to the temptation to spend the money elsewhere, aid workers say. “Some women say they have never held so much money at once in their life,” Thakur said.

Birth registration is a priority for many international agencies working in Nepal, including UNICEF, Save the Children and Plan International.

While cash in hand is a great new incentive for parents to put their children on the books, in the past families were reluctant to spend the tiny sum it costs to register their newborn.

The process still requires awareness and convincing, said Kirti Thapa, programme manager for child protection and child rights governance for Save the Children in Nepal. Save the Children has focused on registration in Mugu, one of the five Karnali districts.

“We explain to people that birth registration is important for access to any basic service such as health and education,” Thapa said. “It’s even important when facing criminal charges, to prove the person should be tried as a child versus an adult.”

In addition to the child grant programme, Save the Children has been mobilizing Hindu priests, who ceremoniously name babies on their ninth day, to also promote birth registration.

via IRIN Asia | NEPAL: Cash grants for food incentivize birth registrations | Nepal | Children | Health & Nutrition.

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The Milky Way as seen in the Mardi Khola Valley

Posted on 3 October 2011 by NepaliKuire

The Milky Way as seen in the Mardi Khola valley in the Himalayas, with clouds of galactic dust illuminated in red by young stars. Anton Jankovoy braved freezing temperatures for this shot during a trek in Nepal Photograph: Anton Jankovoy/ Caters News Agency (via the Guardian)

via The Milky Way as seen in the Mardi Khola Valley near Pokhara in Nepal | United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal.

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Youth and drugs, Dharan

Posted on 30 September 2011 by NepaliKuire

Child drug users in one of Nepal’s largest cities, Dharan, near the border with India, lack access to proper rehabilitation and social services, and those from lower caste families are especially vulnerable.

“More than 50 percent of youth [in Dharan] are involved in drug use,” said Rajendra Bista, deputy superintendent of police in Dharan. “Most of their parents are abroad working, so the children are not given proper guidance, but they get a lot of money. Misguidance leads them to drug addiction.”

In contrast with other Nepalese cities, Dharan boasts well-maintained roads and good infrastructure, thanks to remittances sent home by Nepalis working abroad.

In the absence of decent social services, however, particularly for low-income and lower caste families, some parents have resorted to drastic measures to restrain their children. For Durga Bishwakarma, chaining her 10-year-old, drug-abusing son, Nagendra, to the family bed was her only option.

“While I was at work or asleep at night, he would run away. I would pay one of the street kids to find him and pay another child and another until I had no money left to give,” Durga told IRIN.

Durga and her family are Dalits, a marginalized caste in South Asia, and live in a single room off the squatter tenements in Dharan.

According to a 2006 survey by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics, 53 percent of hard drug users are aged 15-24 in Nepal. Buprenorphine, in the form of Tidigesic (an injecting painkiller illegal in Nepal) and considered a hard drug, is popular in Dharan, and available for as little as US$3. Dharan’s proximity to the Nepal-India border eases drug-trafficking.

The last published local drug statistics for Dharan are a decade old and indicated that 5,000 of the city’s 68,000 people were using drugs.

In the last six months, Nagendra has played truant and joined a band of street children who use substances like glue (Dendrite) and prescription drugs like diazepam (Valium).

Reluctant to answer questions, Nagendra said his friends coerce him into stealing and using drugs. “I don’t come home because my friends will beat me,” he said.

One day last June, Durga found Nagendra unconscious on the street: For hours, he was unresponsive until he started to vomit, she said. He had taken alcohol laced with prescription pills.

Child drug users neglected? 

Durga turned to the Disabled and Helpless Rehabilitation Service Centre (DHERSEC), a local NGO working with the disabled and underprivileged, but they could not get Nagendra off drugs.

“We gave him everything: school dress, stationery and supplies. We were thinking he was going to school but he wasn’t,” said Sunil Khadkha, director of DHERSEC. “With 80 kids in one classroom, the school teachers don’t care about who comes and goes.” Government schools in Dharan are unprepared to handle vulnerable children, he added.

Kirat Yakthung Chumlung (KYC), a cultural organization run by the Limbu ethnic group, opened a drug dependence treatment and post-rehabilitation centre in Dharan in 1996; and Sanjivani Kendra, a non-profit drug rehabilitation centre, is in its third year of operation. Both centres cater primarily for adult male injecting drug users.

Dristi Nepal  an NGO run by female ex-drug users in Kathmandu, established a drop-in centre in Dharan offering counselling, referral and outreach services to female drug users.

While some resources are available, there are no drug rehabilitation centres in Dharan for child drugs users.

Glue-sniffing 

Underprivileged Children Association (UPCA), an NGO and local partner of Save the Children, is working with 74 street children (aged 5-18) in Dharan. Twenty-seven children have been reintegrated into their families and schools, but cases of remission occur.

Of its caseload, 95 percent are sniffing glue. In an agreement with local hardware stores and shoemakers, UPCA was successful in halting the sale of Dendrite and other harmful substances to children.

“But what we found is that kids were using adults to purchase Dendrite. The rickshaw puller would take a cut,” said Sudarshan Shrestha, advocacy director of Save the Children in Kathmandu.

“In terms of rehabilitation, a lot of our resources are used to identify street children and get them back with their family and into schools… There are lots of resources, education and counseling support. Drug rehab centres for children, no,” said Shrestha.

In collaboration with KYC and the local government, UPCA is planning to monitor street children engaged in substance abuse and better implement programmes.

With a local government budget to tap into, resources exist, but lack of coordination is an impediment, aid workers say.

“In this fiscal year, the local government allocated a budget for street children,” said Bijaya Limbu, programme manager of KYC, who was directly involved in the budget meeting. “No specific programme has been outlined, but the money is there.”

The day after IRIN met the Bishwakarma family, Nagendra was back on the streets.

From IRIN

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“S*x Gurung”, “Nepali prostit**ion”: top website searches

Posted on 26 September 2011 by NepaliKuire

**edit 3/2/12: I have asterisk-ed the title of this in order to stop more people coming. It seems that such a title is exactly what people are looking for on google…**

It makes us proud to have the internet when we learn such things…

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News flash: Nepal is f***ed

Posted on 26 September 2011 by NepaliKuire

We ran from the house, everybody thinking ‘this is it’. Days later, the epicentre remains cloaked in secret as the Nepali and Sikkimi governments show the world their complete ineptitude.

NEPAL: Indian earthquake prompts “wake-up call”

KATHMANDU, 19 September 2011 (IRIN) – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake on 18 September in northeastern India which also caused deaths in parts of Nepal and China, serves as a stark warning to the earthquake-prone region, experts say.

“This is a wake-up call for many, for all of those indifferent to earthquakes,” Amod Mani Dixit, executive director of Nepal’s National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET), told IRIN in Kathmandu.

“I am happy the earthquake took place, though I am sorry for the loss of life. I feel earthquakes are being forgotten. Now they are saying, ‘Don’t forget me’.”

Reports say dozens of people were killed in the region – including 16 in India, six in Nepal and seven in Tibet. Scores more were reportedly injured by the quake, which was felt as far away as Delhi and parts of Bangladesh. The tremor was felt across 20 districts of Nepal.

The main affected districts included Sankhuwasabha, Taplejung, Ilam, Dhankuta, Pachthar, Sunsari, Okhaldhunga in the Eastern Region, and Bhaktapur in the central region, Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Centre within the Ministry of Home Affairs reported on 19 September.

The tremor in Kathmandu, though relatively mild, brought people onto the capital’s streets, 272km west of the epicentre in India’s mountainous Sikkim State.

Some residents leapt from windows, a reaction experts say reinforces the need for greater preparedness – in particular what to do and what not to do before, during and after an earthquake.

“This generation has never experienced an earthquake like this before,” said Umesh Prasad Dhakal, executive director of the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRC), urging the need for increased earthquake preparedness and awareness.

Read more

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Training schoolchildren in earthquake preparedness

Haiti wake-up call for earthquake preparedness

Densely-populated Kathmandu facing increased earthquake risk

International earthquake exercise planned for April Kathmandu Valley has a history of major earthquakes every 70-80 years. The last big quake (8.1 on the Richter scale) was in 1934 and killed 10,700 people. Scientists say major seismic activity is inevitable; the city has been bracing itself for “a big one” for years.

According to NSET, if an earthquake of the same magnitude that struck Haiti in January 2010 were to hit Kathmandu, some 200,000 people would die, 200,000 would be severely injured, some 1.5 million would be made homeless, and 60 percent of homes would be damaged beyond repair.

And while some experts believe the 18 September quake was a seismic energy release which could help avoid such a scenario, others warn against complacency.

“At the moment we are not very sure whether or not this will be repeated,” said Rita Dhakal, humanitarian affairs specialist with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “Regardless, this is a signal for Nepal to be prepared.”

Nepal’s most recent big earthquake was 6.8 on the Richter scale in 1988 and killed 721 people.

“We were lucky this time the tremor was mild. If it was a stronger earthquake the destruction could have been massive,” the NRC’s Umesh Prasad Dhakal said.

Over 16 major earthquakes have struck Nepal since 1223, the last occurring in 1988, according to the 2009 Nepal Disaster Report by the government of Nepal and the Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal (DPNET).

via IRIN Asia | NEPAL: Indian earthquake prompts “wake-up call” | Nepal | Natural Disasters.

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