Nepal Now: On the move

Hi everyone. I’m Marty Logan. Thank you for clicking on this episode of Nepal Now: On the Move, where we speak with some of the huge number of people leaving – and occasionally returning – to this country wedged between India and China.

Bharat Adhikari is another former migrant worker who returned to live in Nepal, but his story could hardly be more different than Sushma’s, who we heard from in a previous episode. I chatted recently with Bharat at the Himal Media studio in Patan Dhoka. 

After more than a decade working in the retail sector in the Persian Gulf countries of Oman and Dubai, Bharat and his family decided it was time to come home. He describes the aha! moment when he returned home from work one day and realized that his mother and daughter had almost everything that money could buy to make them happy living overseas – but not a community. 

Bharat broke the news to his boss in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the man suggested he was crazy. But Bharat insisted that it was the best thing for his ageing mother and young daughter, and finally convinced him (although today he still gets offers from his former employer in Dubai to return). 

Aside from the decision to leave his successful career in exchange for society and culture in Nepal, what I find interesting about Bharat’s story is that his first venture here failed. Well not exactly – he gave up on starting a new business when he realized that he would have to ingratiate himself with government officials. Bharat understood then that having worked only in Gulf countries, he needed to be operating within a disciplined system. Luckily he’s now found it in his new job. 

Please listen now to my conversation with Bharat Adhikari. 

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

This is the first episode of our new micro-series: Nepal Now: Right Now.

These pieces will fill the gap between regular full episodes of the show, which are published every two weeks. About 5 minutes long, they will be published on alternate weeks and will focus on past and upcoming episodes — including listener feedback — sharing news about migration and Nepal, and anything else relevant to Nepal Now.

Let us know what you think of this new addition to the show, and about this first episode in particular.

Resources

Article quoting Nepal's Prime Minister Dahal on youth migration

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. I’m Marty Logan. Thank you for choosing to listen to Nepal Now: On the Move from the literally millions of podcasts available. This is our third episode since we shifted the show’s focus to migration — to, from, and within Nepal. And, I gotta say: I’m biting my nails waiting for feedback from you listeners — especially long-time fans. Good, bad or indifferent, I want to hear it. Your responses are the best way for me to see how I might improve the show. So please take a minute to leave a comment on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn, email me at nepalnowpod(at)gmail.com, or leave a review on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

Today we’re speaking with another returnee to Nepal, but one with a much different story than what we heard from baker/entrepreneur Aanchal last week. We’re calling her Sushma, which is not her real name, because she has received threats from people who were involved in sending her to work in Kuwait. Sushma has filed a report with police, but nothing had come of it as of March 31st. The good news is that she is back home with her children, who she was very worried about, and taking medication.

Sushma left her village in Nepal’s Karnali region last November, and within a month was in Dubai, waiting to be taken to a job in Kuwait. She arrived there after a month but stayed only 3 months because she fell ill — but not before being threatened with harm if she didn’t go back to work. She also saw another worker being hit by a house owner, had her phone taken away, and was told by employers in another house that she couldn’t leave because “We bought you.”

Back in Nepal, Sushma, who didn’t attend school as a child and used to earn money in her village by manually breaking stones, is now saddled with a huge debt after her family mortgaged land to pay the agent for her ticket home. But given what she experienced in her brief stay in Kuwait, that seems far better than other possible outcomes.

This is the first episode where I worked with an interpreter, Pranika Koyu, who was in the studio with Sushma and I. She did an amazing job, but occasionally you might hear that I left out a voice when I shouldn’t have. That and any other editing errors are mine. A couple other notes: you’ll hear us talk about lakhs of money: 1 lakh is 100,000 Nepali rupees, which is about $750. Sushma says sometimes that the agent demanded 3 lakhs, 50,000 rupees for her return; other times she says 3 lakhs 20,000. We settled on the last amount. Finally, near the end of our conversation I ask Sushma about something I had heard earlier in the day about her police case. I deliberately deleted the name of the person who told me, for the same security reasons.

Just one more thing: I recently found out that there are two versions of the show on Apple Podcasts. I have no idea how that happened but it means I need to delete one. The choice is easy: one has all the episodes and one has fewer; one has quite a few subscribers – I like to think – and one has only about 20. So that second one I’m going to delete tomorrow. If you listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, just be aware of that. And if you notice something has changed, particularly if you can’t listen to the show anymore, I suggest that you delete the show and then resubscribe or re-follow, however it works on Apple. If you have any problems beyond that, please let me know.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. I'm Marty Logan. Thank you for listening to Nepal Now: On the Move. 

Let me know what you think of this episode, and if you have ideas for future guests. My email is nepalnowpod@gmail.com. I’ve done about 10 interviews to date for the show and I can see that it’s going to be much more difficult to find female guests than male ones, so please do send me tips about women who I might speak to. As a bit of a teaser, the people you’re going to hear from in future episodes have, for example: 

The Covid-19 lockdown in New Delhi forced Aanchal Dutt to develop baking skills in order to satisfy her sweet tooth. Anxieties about her parents living hundreds of kilometres away in her hometown Surkhet, pushed her to give up life in the mega-city she had known from childhood to open a bakery in the small town once the restrictions had passed. 

Aanchal is one of a very small minority of Nepalis who are immigrating to the country instead of emigrating. But her/their story is important to hear if Nepal is to slow the now torrential flow of people leaving the country for what they hear are better opportunities abroad. 

Since I’ve been working on this revamped show, I’m quite sure that Aanchal is the only young Nepali I’ve met who hasn’t wanted to migrate and has actually returned here. The Cake House is now thriving, as a family affair, which I’m happy to say I witnessed when I was in Surkhet. (Btw, if you need a recommendation, the favourite sweet is cheesecake). Aanchal has also fallen in love with an alternative school that practises an holistic approach to learning, and is teaching English there. She says she understands why young people are leaving the country, but passionately urges them to return to help build a better Nepal.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. Thanks for listening to this first episode of Nepal Now: On the Move. I know there are literally millions of podcasts out there competing for your listening time, so I appreciate that you chose this one.

My name is Marty Logan. I’m a Canadian journalist who has lived in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on and off since 2005. You can reach me with feedback on anything you hear on Nepal Now or ideas for guests at nepalnowpod(at)gmail.com.

If you’re not familiar with the show, Nepal Now has been around for a while — I published more than 60 episodes from June 2020 to June 2023. And here we are again.

Why am I back? you might be wondering. You can listen to the new trailer for a full explanation. The short answer is that I think I still have something to contribute to informing people — both Nepalis and foreigners — about this country and I think I’ve found a way to make it more engaging.

To jump right in, today we’re speaking with Prem Awasthi. Prem worked for the United Nations in Nepal for 18 years, dealing with the growing number of humanitarian emergencies in the country. In December 2023 he moved to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. I caught up with him just hours before his flight left Kathmandu. We talked about the many practicalities of going as well as why he was leaving, and if it’s a good thing that so many people are migrating from Nepal. 

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. Welcome to Nepal Now, whose new title is Nepal Now: On the Move, for reasons I’ll explain shortly. Thanks for choosing this show from among the more than 2 millionpodcasts now competing for your ears.

I’m back! And since my last episode was titled Thank you and goodbye! I guess I should explain. But first, if you don’t know me, my name is Marty Logan. I’ve been a journalist for more than 30 years, in my native Canada, Malaysia and Nepal, where my wife is from. We’ve lived here since 2016 and before that from 2005 to 2010, when I worked with the UN human rights office. Since 2016 I’ve been reporting regularly about health and human rights issues; I started Nepal Now in June 2020 and uploaded my last episode in June 2023.

Actually, I’ve been thinking about reviving the show ever since recording that ‘final’ episode. I even kept paying to host it all this time, although I wasn’t uploading new episodes. I did that partly because I felt like I still had things to say. And also, I know that a small, but steadily growing, number of people were listening. That, I realized, is something special: that some people will devote time in their very full lives to pay attention to what I have to say.

I also thought that with a new format I could share information in a more engaging way. After three decades as a journalist, I believe more strongly than ever that almost everyone wants to hear stories. They’re happy learning something new but happiest if that content is presented in an engaging way – to put it simply, a story about people that has a narrative arc. So in this series I want to talk about migration — which is a mammoth issue in today’s Nepal, with social, cultural, and political impacts that go beyond the economic ones we usually hear about — AND I want to make it more entertaining.

And finally, honestly, I admit that I am happy performing. Hosting a podcast is a type of performance, and I enjoy asking questions and trying to make a connection with a guest in the short amount of time that we have together. Ideally this season I’ll be speaking with people multiple times – as they prepare to leave Nepal (or in some cases return here) and then at least once after they’ve arrived.

Of course, migration is nothing new for Nepal. Gurkha soldiers are one of the country’s best known exports, and have been joining the UK and Indian armies, and other forces, since the early 19th century. But the scale of today’s migration is awe-inspiring, and to many people, troubling. We will talk to the Nepalis making those trips, and others linked to the migration phenomenon, to try and make sense of this mass movement

By the way, we covered migration in the second episode of Nepal Now 1, if you want to check that out. The link will be in the show notes.

I hope you like the new music and the logo. The tune was composed by Jason Shaw, whose website is audionautix.com. The logo is by Sweven Visuals. Finally, thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal (ACORAB) and Himal Media for letting me record in their studios

If what I’ve said interests you, listen now to the first full episode of Nepal No

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me for this new episode of Nepal Now. I’m Marty Logan.

You might have noticed that this is an extra short episode. Frankly, that’s because it will be the last one. After 3 years I’m saying goodbye. Why? Put simply, I don’t have the energy to keep the show going any more.

I didn’t want to announce this at the end of the last full episode, because then I wouldn’t have had the chance to say this: Thanks to all of you who are listening and to everyone who ‘tuned in’ for one or more of the 64 episodes. I hope you took something away from the experience. I certainly did. I ‘met’ a lot of people, most of them online, as you do in this globalized world in the era of Covid-19. I especially appreciate the chats I had with younger guests — which is most of them : -). I think their approach to life rubbed off on me a little, and that’s a good thing.

If I have one regret it’s that I wish Nepal Now had been a little more entertaining, as opposed to informative. My journalism, mainly reporting on women and children’s health and on human rights, often focuses on serious topics but, personally, I appreciate a good laugh. Looking back, I think that I should have included more of them in this work... Next time, I hope.

A very big thank you to all of my guests, young and old, for sharing their time. I will single out the first guest, Nayantara Gurung Kakshapati, who very easily said yes to my invitation — and even loaned me an audio recorder afterwards. Special thanks to Lori, Shayne, Thom and Nicole, for encouraging me to keep going when I got discouraged way too early in this project. And to Suraya for helping me with social media, especially Instagram, where I was a total newbie. My biggest thank you goes to Niku, who was my advisor on all things Nepali, an insightful critic of my first drafts, and my biggest supporter.

This might sound strange given that I’m ending Nepal Now, but I feel like doing this podcast helped to spark my creativity in recent years. I have always enjoyed audio as a medium for journalism and hope to continue using it in my future work. Till then, you can find me on social media and check out my latest work on my Linktree — I’m martydlogan. You will be able to listen to any episodes of the show that you’ve missed on your podcast app until mid-July. After that, they’ll have a home on YouTube — look for @NepalNowPod.

Speaking of chuckles, I want to leave you with an outtake from another podcast I’ve hosted — Strive, by IPS News. 

Bye for now.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me for this new episode of Nepal Now, the podcast where we highlight different ideas and actions to move the country forward. I’m Marty Logan.

Thanks to those of you who filled out the poll on our last episode, about Jumli Marsi rice. It’s available if you listen on Spotify, and I post a new poll and a question there with each episode. This poll was tricky: Do you think the growing trend of selling nutritious crops instead of consuming them is good for farm families? That contradiction was reflected in the poll’s results, with most people choosing they ‘Didn’t know’ if it was a positive or negative development.

If you’re listening on Spotify look for the poll, and a separate question, that you can answer about this episode. No matter where you hear Nepal Now, you can always send me a comment, or question, to martylogancomms@gmail.com.

OK, on with today’s chat... I’ve noticed a huge difference in publicity around the topic of mental health since I returned to Nepal in 2016, compared to when I lived here from 2005 to 2010. The subject is highlighted in the news media more regularly, and certainly on social media. Also, there seem to be many more organizations offering mental health education or treatment, both to individuals and to organizations. For example, a couple years ago I interviewed someone from an NGO that is creating quiet spaces it calls ‘counselling rooms’ in schools in some pilot districts. You can find the link to that episode in the notes to this show.

Growing recognition of the importance of mental health might be one of the few positive results of recent disasters, like the 2014 earthquake and the Covid-19 pandemic, notes today’s guest, consultant psychologist Sneha Agarwal Chaudhary. Still, it is alarming that the suicide rate in the country continues to rise steadily.

Sneha and I also chat about a few popular perceptions / conceptions of mental health counselling, like the cost and confidentiality, then turn to discuss particular groups of people who make up the audience of this podcast. These include young people in general as well as those who leave Nepal temporarily to either work or study. I think the main takeaway from our conversation is: If you’re concerned about your mental health, find someone you can talk to. 

As today’s conversation includes talk of suicide – please take special care while listening.

Resources

Nepal National Suicide Prevention Helpline — Telephone 1166

Previous episode on mental health – Training teens on mental health

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Hi everyone. Thank you for being here for this new episode of Nepal Now, the podcast where we highlight different ideas and actions to move the country forward. I’m Marty Logan.

Here’s something new — did you know you can listen to Nepal Now on your smart speaker? Just ask Siri, Alexa or whoever you’re talking with to ‘play Nepal Now podcast’ and you’ll hear my voice.

OK, on with this episode, one I really enjoyed because our initial discussion about why the Government of Nepal invested 13 years into improving a strain of rice – even if it is the famous jumli marsi red rice -  mophed into a broader chat about poor farmers growing crops for export instead of for personal consumption.

As its name suggests, the rice is grown in Jumla, a district of the Karnali region in west Nepal, typically described as one of the country’s most remote and poorest areas. I remember going there 17 years ago with the World Food Programme as it helicoptered in rice during an ‘emergency operation’ because prolonged drought had withered crops. But things are slowly improving. For example, a major hospital, Karnali Academy of Health Sciences, is regularly praised for providing services, rather than for the lack of such, which is often the reason rural health facilities make headlines.

Today’s guest, senior scientist and molecular breeder Resham Babu Amagain of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, tells us that he thinks the livelihoods of poor farmers are also improving, largely because they are now selling what they grow – to Nepal’s middle class, eager to indulge in what they consider nutritious local food. (A 2018 photo of the current prime minister, and his predecessor, dining on jumli marsihelped to cement the rice’s reputation).

Before we play today’s chat, a quick reminder that you can show your appreciation for the work that goes into making Nepal Now clicking on the white ‘support’ button at the middle left of our homepage and making a contribution. If you have any questions or suggestions about this, or about the show in general — feedback on what you hear, an idea for an episode, or anything at all — you can write to me at martylogancomms@gmail.com.

Please listen now to my chat with Resham Babu Amagain.

Resources

Kathmandu Post story about the improved jumli marsi

Nepali Times article on jumli marsi

Nepal Agricultural Research Council

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. Thank you for being here for this new episode of Nepal Now, the podcast where we highlight different ideas and actions to move the country forward. I’m Marty Logan. A quick reminder that you can back the work that goes into creating this show, by clicking on the white ‘support’ button at the middle left of our homepage and making a contribution. If you have any questions or suggestions about this, or about the show in general — feedback on what you hear, an idea for an episode, or anything at all — you can write to me at martylogancomms@gmail.com.

If you’re at least in your 20s you’ve probably heard of Tootle. It was the first ride-sharing app to operate in Nepal, starting in 2016. Today there is a multitude of competitors, from Pathao to InDriver, Bolt and more. In this episode, Tootle’s founder, Sixit Bhatta, tells us that he’s happy to see how the marketplace has developed since his project to track a bus on its route evolved into one of the country’s earliest forays into the so-called sharing economy. And he adds that he’s moving onto new things. Hint: They’re about as far away from Kathmandu’s traffic jams as he can get, both literally and figuratively.

But you have to wonder how things might have turned out if the government hadn’t delivered a ‘knockout blow’ to his new, local business via a tax bill that today’s ride-sharing ventures, backed by international resources, do not have to face. Sixit is surprisingly philosophical about this, preferring to focus on the ground that Tootle broke. That includes getting customers used to taking a lift from a motorcycle-riding stranger and — for the drivers — losing the ‘shame’ of accepting money for their work.

I think you’ll be surprised at his answer when I ask Sixit for one piece of advice he would give to entrepreneurs just starting out... I was.

Please listen now to my chat with Sixit Bhatta.

Resources

 Book mentioned by Sixit – Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Tootle Facebook page (not updated)

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Hi everyone. Thank you for being here for this new episode of Nepal Now, the podcast where we highlight different ideas and ways of moving the country forward. I’m Marty Logan, a journalist and communicator from Canada who’s lived in Nepal for 11 years.

Before we get into today’s chat, a follow-up from our recent episode about the satire-writing Ass of Nepali Times newspaper. You’ve probably heard about ChatGPT, the AI programme that has become essay-writing students’ new best friend. Well, Nepali Times recently asked ChatGPT to write various types of articles as a demonstration, including an example of Backside, the former column by The Ass. Unlike the straightforward news articles that the AI produced, it is not impressive, illustrating at least one limitation of the software — humour. Check it out at the link in the notes to this episode .

Also, a reminder that you’re now able to support Nepal Now financially — if you wish. Go to our website, nepalnow.buzzsprout.com, then to the black box titled Nepal Now+, where you can click to support the show. I’ve also included the link in the episode notes. If you have any questions or suggestions — about this support, an idea for an episode, or anything at all — you can write to me at martylogancomms@gmail.com. Thank you.

Today we’re speaking with Bala Rai, about the programme One School, One Nurse. I thought it started in 2022 but it was actually 4 years earlier, yet to date it’s reached just 1,100 of the tens of thousands of government schools. Still, providing health support and advice to school students — on things like nutrition, menstrual hygiene and mental health — seems like a great use of limited resources. Bala, who is Chief of the Nursing Section, in the Nursing and Social Security Division of the Department of Health, says that expansion will depend on provincial and local governments also footing some of the bills.

I also hope that the three levels of government find ways to adequately compensate the nurses — who are contract, not permanent, employees — so they don’t leave the country for overseas opportunities.

Finally, thank you to Anita Shrestha, who wrote about the One School, One Nurse programme for Himal magazine and suggested I contact Bela Rai for this episode. I’ve linked also to Anita’s article (translated) in the notes.

Resources

Chat GPT’s version of Backside

Anita Shrestha’s article translated in Nepali Times

Support Nepal Now

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Hi everyone. Thank you for being here for this new episode of Nepal Now, the podcast where we highlight different ideas and ways of moving the country forward. I’m Marty Logan, and I hope you can hear those birds chirping in the background. We just had a light rain so they've come out to celebrate. 

Before we get into this episode, I want to let you know that you’re now able to support Nepal Now financially — if you wish. Go to our website, nepalnow.buzzsprout.com, then to the narrow black box titled Nepal Now +, where you can click to support the show. I’ve also included the link in the notes to this episode. This is strictly voluntary; we will not restrict new episodes to people who support us, but it will help pay for the time that we put into the show. And, I must say, for me it is also a vote of confidence in our work. If you have any questions or suggestions you can write to me at martylogancomms@gmail.com. Thank you.

Today we’re speaking with Dr Mandira Sharma, a human rights activist, founder of the NGO Advocacy Forum, and senior international legal advisor at the International Commission of Jurists. She was involved in the very first exhumation of a body in a conflict-related case in Nepal, in 2007, and has been training in the process since then as a non-medical expert.

Mandira says that Nepal has been slow to undertake exhumations to try to find some of the more than 3,000 people said to be ‘disappeared’ during the conflict, from 1996 to 2006. It has also neglected to develop technical expertise and policies and guidelines to undertake the work.

We also chat about how exhumation fits into the four pillars of transitional justice and if Nepal is neglecting most of those pillars. Finally, Mandira argues that the state of the country today, including economic under-development and political instability can be traced back to the impunity that has reigned over Nepal since before the conflict.

Importantly, in the days following our recording, a case was filed in Nepal’s Supreme Court against Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Known as Prachanda when he led the Maoist uprising, in 2020 Dahal admitted that the Maoists were responsible for 5,000 of the 17,000 people estimated killed during the conflict. Starting on Thursday, the Supreme Court will hear if the prime minister should be investigated for that crime.

And a warning before we start: This episode discusses exhumation of the bodies of victims of conflict. Please take care while listening.

Resources

-       Mandira Sharma on Twitter

-       Ongoing news about the case against Prime Minister Dahal

-       Support Nepal Now

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

You can now support Nepal Now.

Hi everyone. This is Marty Logan. Apologies for the long delay between episodes. I finally made it home for the holidays after four years being delayed by Covid and took advantage with a longer than usual break. So, welcome back to Nepal Now, if you’re a return listener; greetings to those of you who are here for the first time. What I’m trying to do with this podcast is highlight some alternatives to the usual routes and ideas about so-called development in Nepal. If you have any suggestions for future episodes please write to me at martydlogan@proton.me.

We’ve all made asses of ourselves at one time or another. Unfortunately for me, it seems that those are some of my most enduring memories. But today’s guest actually made a career out of it — not of messing up but of being The Ass, the author of a satirical column that ran on the back page of the Nepali Timesnewspaper for more than two decades.

As full-time publisher and editor of the weekly paper he says that writing the column went way beyond horsing around. In fact, more than once during our chat he describes satire as serious business — it’s a way to hint at what is really going on in the halls of power without playing by the regular rules of journalism, but if you cross a line and hit too hard — or too low — you could find yourself in a heap of — well, you know what.

The Ass says that after decades of poking fun at Nepal’s leaders he started to repeat himself — which isn’t surprising as the politicians themselves have been revolving in and out of the top posts for just as long. At some point he also realized that the reality of party politics was actually more ridiculous than anything he could dream up. So, The Ass is out to pasture and today says he is sleeping like a foal once again.

We also discuss the birth and evolution of Nepali Times, which started off as a cash cow — apologies for the mixed animal metaphors in this episode — but soon became known as a media that reported on life in Nepal beyond the Kathmandu bubble, particularly during the Maoist insurgency, from 1996 to 2006.

A quick note: early in the episode The Ass talks about the panchayat, which was the party-less system of government that reigned in Nepal before democracy was restored in 1990.

Resources

The Ass' column, Backside

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Hi everyone. This is Marty Logan. Welcome to Nepal Now.

It’s been an up-and-down year for me, and for the podcast, as I’m sure it has for many of you. But thanks to support from you listeners I’ve been motivated to keep it going. So thank you all for that. 

These will be my last words through the podcast for 2022, but before I say goodbye I want to ask you to do one more thing. I’ve created a very short survey to help me decide if we should tweak Nepal Now in 2023 and I need your input. I’ve pasted the link in the notes to this episode. Filling it out should take you no more than 2 minutes — no exaggeration, it took me under 1 minute.

Besides doing the survey, you can always contact me with ideas for guests or any other feedback at my new email address: martyloganstuff@proton.me.

Thank you in advance. And special thank you's to Thom, Nicole and Lori for their encouragement, to all the guests who shared their time and ideas with me in 2022, and especially to Niku, whose support goes way beyond Nepal Now.

Bye for now. I’ll talk to you again next year!

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Please fill out the survey

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Welcome to Nepal Now, the podcast where we explore new ideas and innovations to move the country forward. My name is Marty Logan.

Thank you for joining me today a in my noisy neighbourhood. It feels like it’s construction season in this part of Kathmandu – but on with the show as they say!

Like what seems to  be a growing number of Nepalis, Rumee Singh always had an itch to return home and use her abilities to improve her own country. She went overseas to finish her education and then scored a “cushy” job in the corporate world in New York, but when a year-long stint in Dubai ended, she and her Nepali husband chose to return east instead of west.

The move paid off. Her work has been recognized with an investment from something called the UNICEF Innovation Fund, which puts money into development solutions based on blockchain technology. (Don’t worry – Rumee and I describe blockchain in simple terms in our chat coming up).

Rumee’s innovation, Rahat (‘relief’ in Nepali) is a digital payment system for humanitarian emergencies, such as following natural disasters like flooding. It’s a way to get money, or even goods, to affected people using mobile phones. Rahat’s advantage is that every transaction is tracked and because it uses blockchain, anyone anywhere can go online and see all those dealings — creating a huge barrier to corruption.

It's simple, but also complicated in some ways, explains Rumee. For example, not everyone post-disaster has access to a phone, so those people might actually receive physical cards that they can exchange for money or goods. Another wrinkle is that even people who do have phones don’t always know how to use them — even for simple things like receiving a text message — so Rahat has to do digital literacy sessions in some areas.

But overall, results from early tests have been positive and now Rahat is doing a pilot project with the UNICEF country office here. If all goes well, Rumee thinks that her innovation could succeed beyond Nepal, especially because Rahat is based on blockchain, which is borderless. She encourages her countrywomen and men overseas who are considering a move home to take the plunge. It can be frustrating, she says, but it’s also cheaper to set up a business, the talent pool is deep, and it’s familiar territory.

If you have any thoughts about this episode, or ideas for future ones, let me know. My email is marty@martylogan.net.

Resources

Rahat

UNICEF Innovation Fund

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Thank you for joining me today. I think it’s fair to say that the discussion you’re going to hear raises at least as many questions as it answers. We’re talking about domestic abuse and women who leave Nepal to work abroad. Labour migration is a huge part of the country’s economy and, as I think this episode reveals, it has a major impact on many other aspects of life here. Earlier this century the money that migrant workers sent home accounted for close to 1/3 of Nepal’s entire economy; today it is closer to a quarter – still a major chunk of what keeps this country going.

Today I’m speaking with Dr Arjun Kharel, assistant professor of sociology at Tribhuvan University and a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility. He and co-author Amrita Gurung recently published a paper that looks at spousal abuse experienced by 148 Nepali women who worked in various countries overseas. Much has been reported about women migrant workers who are abused in their working countries but this research focuses on domestic abuse faced by women in Nepal before and after they worked overseas, mostly in Persian Gulf countries or Malaysia. These are – aside from Nepal’s neighbour India – the main destination countries for Nepali workers, women and men.

One of the main findings of the research, which surprised the academics, is that women migrant workers did not face higher levels of abuse after they returned home. Researchers expected that because there is such a stigma about women who go abroad alone, specifically that they will hook up with other men that female migrants would be ‘punished’ after returning home. Another surprising finding was that the women surveyed believed that it was OK for men to beat women in certain circumstances, for example if they were not caring for children properly. In that sense, their opinions matched those of Nepali women in general, whereas researchers thought that exposure to another culture might affect the migrants’ thinking about abuse.

Other questions that I think the research raises include: how many Nepali women who leave for overseas work are abused and how big a factor is that abuse in their decision to leave? Arjun does have answers based on his research, as you’ll hear, but I think this needs to be examined further. Also, why isn’t more being done to prevent domestic abuse in general, which in turn might reduce the number of women who feel they have to leave the country?

I could go on, but instead please listen now to my chat with Dr Arjun Kharel to learn more.

Resources

Research paper — Women's Participation in Foreign Labour Migration and Spousal Violence: A Study on Returnee Women Migrant Workers in Nepal

Our earlier episode – The Labour Migration Trap

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I reached out to Gyanu Adhikari wondering if I had missed the boat. I wanted to speak to him about co-founding The Record, an online news portal that started publishing in 2014, but the website had stopped posting new information this past July. I probably should have contacted him two years earlier, after I started this podcast, but I think as a media person myself I just took the website for granted as another media portal not as an experiment in providing news without advertising and in multiple formats.

So I was happily surprised when Gyanu agreed to an interview – but startled when he said that what he really wanted to discuss was his optimism about Nepal’s future. It’s rare to hear that view. Instead, what many people seem to want to talk about are government failures: the lack of action on air pollution and to combat health crises like Covid-19 and the ongoing dengue outbreak. Myself, I can easily get fixated on the glacial progress toward solving long-standing issues, like lack of healthcare in rural areas and the mind-boggling neglect of preparations for the inevitable disasters that occur during the monsoon. So it was really good to hear from someone who can see beyond the obvious problems.

Back to The Record, and journalism in Nepal more broadly. Here I think Gyanu was hopeful rather than optimistic. Hopeful that some young, entrepreneurial media people would build on The Record’s record, in particular counting on subscribers instead of advertisers to generate the resources to keep the portal running, and with an eye to maintaining its independence. That would be easier today than when the site was launched thanks to huge advances in online payment services, Gyanu pointed out. Perhaps the new operation could be bilingual too, he suggested.

This conversation reminded me of my chat with Shailee Basnet, who has climbed Mt Everest and is now a stand-up comic, motivational speaker and mentor to young women. When I asked her in 2021 why so many Nepalis were reaching global heights, as climbers, chefs, performers, etc, she made it sound like a natural evolution, part of the country’s so-called development if you like. I still feel that it is largely the people of Nepal who are leading the country forward rather than its leaders. As you’ll hear, Gyanu disagrees with me. Listen to our chat now to learn more.

Resources

Website of The Record

Gyanu Adhikari on Twitter

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Welcome to Nepal Now, the podcast where we discuss new ideas and approaches to move the country forward. My name is Marty Logan.

Thanks for joining me for this episode, which, if you’re counting, is #52. You might be wondering what happened to the video version of the last episode, my chat with Sanjib Chaudhary. Well, that’s a good question. I received a rough cut and suggested two changes — and weeks later I’m still waiting for the updated version. I promise to let you know if it ever appears.

If you’ve been listening to Nepal Now for a while you’ll know that I sometimes switch up the usual 1-1 interview format. A couple episodes back I was at a college collecting opinions from journalism students, and before that I twice visited a village in Sindhupalchowk district, to see the state of maternal health.

Today is also different. This episode is based on an interview I first recorded for Strive, a podcast I host for Inter Press Service – or IPS – News. We talked so much about Nepal, as an example, that I thought you might be interested in hearing it too. The focus is human rights, specifically a new approach to assessing countries’ human rights performance.

I’ve been reporting about human rights for many years and I know that more often than not governments will respond to articles about serious violations, including killings, by saying that it didn’t happen that way or even if it did, it was a one-time incident that doesn’t represent a pattern. I think those types of reactions might be happening more often in this age of misinformation and disinformation.

Too often the issue ends there, with no consequences. The great thing about today’s topic, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative’s Rights Tracker, is that it quantifies governments’ performances, based on objective data, in some cases, and on in-depth interviews in others. It’s not a perfect system, as you’ll hear, but combined with the existing ‘naming and shaming’ approach, it could be a better way to ensure that human rights are respected.

Please listen now to my chat with Stephen Bagwell from HRMI and the University of Missouri, St Louis.

Resources

Human Rights Measurement Initiative

Nepal page on HRMI's Rights Tracker

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Welcome to Nepal Now, the podcast where we discuss new ideas and approaches to move the country forward. My name is Marty Logan.

I hope you don’t mind a slight digression to start. A few weeks ago I met a friend, someone I see every few months. One of the first things he said to me was, 'I see your podcast is on a break'. We chatted for a while and later I realized that I had no idea he kept up with the show. This has happened to me regularly this year: every so often I meet someone who says they've been listening or that they met someone who mentioned Nepal Now.

When I started the show more than two years ago I imagined it becoming a viable piece of journalism, one that might generate a buzz, or at least a mention, among people interested in development and positive change. From what I can tell, that has not happened. I think we've gathered a small audience, like my friend above, which is relatively stable but not evidently growing. This has discouraged me – and I will admit, after musing over the future of Nepal Now regularly during the past couple of years, that I might discourage too easily. But now I wonder if I've failed to communicate clearly to you, dear listeners, my vision for the podcast.

So I will say very clearly now — I'm not doing this as a hobby, but as a journalism initiative. And frankly speaking, I think that we could have, and should have, more listeners, but I need your help to spread the word and attract more fans. That’s how we will make Nepal Now a sustainable venture. So please, share this episode with at least one other person you think would like it . You can click on the share icon (the one with the up-pointing arrow) in your podcast app, which is probably where you’re listening now. On social media it's even easier — just share one of our posts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Thanks very much. Now on with the episode.

Today we’re chatting with Sanjib Chaudhary.

He’s a communicator I got to know through his Twitter account, where he posts about the food, flora and fauna of Nepal’s tarai or plains region. Many of his Tweets are about the culture of the Tharu indigenous people, who are native to the tarai, or Madhesh region. Sanjib himself is Tharu.

And now, since it seems to be a day for speaking frankly, I have to tell you. When I invited Sanjib on the show I assumed that his social media activity was driven by Tharu nationalism, or Madhesi nationalism. But after you listen to our conversation I think you’ll agree that’s probably not the case—Sanjib just wants to share the new things that he discovers on his travels.

And one other confession: I put Sanjib through the nerve-wracking experience of recording this episode in visual as well as audio format. Sure he works in communications, so putting on a lapel mic, posing for cameras, and being told you can move your hands here but not there was nothing new to him. But it’s still something he didn’t sign up for when I invited him on the show.

This episode will be available on the Nepal Now YouTube channel as soon as I work up the nerve to see how funny I looked on video.

Resources

Sanjib Chaudhary on Twitter

Sanjib on Instagram

Nepal Now social links

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Welcome to Nepal Now. My name is Marty Logan. I’m back after a long break – thanks for joining me. Today we’re doing something different. On Aug 21st I was at St. Xavier’s College in Kathmandu, talking with journalism students about podcasting. Actually, I tried to keep the talking part to a minimum — our main task was to create this episode that you’re listening to now. The theme of the session was: When you’re a journalist, how will you do journalism differently?  

I was impressed with the ideas expressed by the students, who are between 18 and 22 years old, and still have three years of studies to complete. On the positive side, one noted the growing accessibility of global news, including during the Covid-19 pandemic. But others pointed out faults of Nepal’s media, including the lack of female talk show hosts and the concentration of media in the capital, Kathmandu.   

 They also offered many suggestions for improving the industry. One shared her passion for becoming a voice for the voiceless, another of covering stories about minority communities, and a third would aim to tackle fake news and misinformation. More than one student believes it’s important to divert the current focus of Nepal’s journalism from politics to other aspects of society. Other approaches, like storytelling and citizen journalism, were also offered as new directions.

 A quick note to say that the sound is more echo-y than usual today because we recorded in a classroom at the college. I forgot to record the questions during the session so I added them afterwards.

Resources

St. Xavier's College

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Welcome to Nepal Now, the podcast where we discuss new ideas and initiatives to move the country forward. My name is Marty Logan. 

A lot has happened around menstrual health issues in Nepal in recent years. And it seems that all that work is bearing fruit. In its last budget the government pledged to drastically cut the tax and import duty on menstrual hygiene products, while a toolkit created by a group of organizations will soon be distributed in government schools. 

Today’s guests have taken very different routes to contribute to better menstrual health. Working with 80 young Nepali illustrators, Sophie Maliphant  has just published the book Kumari’s Adventure with her Moon Cycle to help young girls, and others, to understand the changes in their bodies with menstruation. Gyan Maharjan has been called Nepal’s Pad man for his efforts to create chemical-free, climate-friendly pads and make them available country wide. And Neeta Timsina has introduced menstrual leave for employees in her company. 

Of course much more remains to be done. As Gyan points out, only one-third of the bathrooms in government schools have reliable running water, a prerequisite for good hygiene. While chhaupadi, the practice of segregating women — usually in small, unsafe sheds outdoors — after giving birth or when having their periods, happens mostly in Far Western Nepal, women in every type of household in all parts of the country face discrimination when menstruating. And, as we all know, government budget pledges are only the first step to seeing changes made on the ground. 

Finally, we people living in the capital Kathmandu – particularly those of us who spend much of our days online – have a skewed understanding of life in Nepal. Awareness-raising efforts need to focus on the country’s villages. Here, recently elected local governments, which have proven to be effective in other health and education ventures, should be enlisted as partners. 

Please listen now to my chat with Neeta Timsina, Gyan Maharjan and Sophie Maliphant.

This is episode #50 of Nepal Now. Thank you to everyone who’s helped us reach this mark, and to you for listening. After two years we’re going to take a break and will be back in September.  Meanwhile, if you haven’t been with us from Day 1, please take the time to check out our 49 previous episodes.

Resources

Kumari’s Adventure with her Moon Cycle — Book by Sophie Maliphant and others

X-pose Nepal — Gyan Maharjan’s organization

Zendatum — Neeta Timsina’s company 

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Last Saturday two trucks carrying smuggled fertilizer across the southern border between India and Nepal were seized at Nepal customs. Police took charge and were escorting the trucks to the capital Kathmandu when they were blocked on the highway by desperate farmers in Dhading district, who seized 400 of the 500 bags of fertilizer and vanished, reported the Kathmandu Post. 

Fertilizer shortages are a perennial issue in Nepal. This year the Russian attack on Ukraine has caused a global shortage, possibly worsening the situation here. Also, the monsoon came early, so the fertilizer was needed sooner than usual because farmers were ready to plant rice in their waterlogged fields earlier than in most years. A day after the truck hijacking some farmers started planting without the fertilizers, hoping for the best, again reported the Post. 

Those events symbolize the state of agriculture in Nepal today. Dependent on external input, the country’s food supply is at the whim of events outside of its border so when calamities hit, like the invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic, alarm bells ring. On top of that, much agriculture land is unused as hundreds of thousands potential farmers seek greener pastures working as migrant labourers in India, Malaysia and Persian Gulf countries. Finally, climate change is scrambling weather patterns and generating many more extreme weather events, like drought and torrential rainfall, which endanger crops. Once a rice exporter, today Nepal depends on imports to feed its nearly 30 million people. 

In its recent budget the government, like many before it, pledged to revive agriculture. Led by mechanization and improved seeds the country will boost rice production three times and cut overfall food imports by one-third, it promised. 

Today’s guest, development policy expert Jagannath Adhikari, is sceptical of the promises. He says that Nepal should be focusing on rebooting traditional family farming, in part so it generates enough food to feed the growing number of urban dwellers, but also so growers can earn the increased amount of cash required by today’s farming families.  

Resources

Fertilizer truck hijacking — report in the Kathmandu Post

Climate change and agriculture — op-ed article

UN Food System Summit meeting, Kathmandu, September 2021

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This is another episode in our series Nepal Then and Now, where we catch up with former guests. Before we do that, I have a request. We know that the show has some dedicated listeners because they’ve been saying really positive things about us, which have been passed on, and it is very encouraging. But, honestly, we need more subscribers in order for the show to be sustainable and to keep producing these episodes. So please, take a minute — two at most — to give us a rating on Apple podcasts. That will help more potential subscribers find us. 

Karma Tamang gave up a solid career in Germany to enter politics in Nepal. That’s not a path many of her fellow Nepalis have followed, or are likely to tread, given the reputation of politics here as a dirty and corrupt practice. 

When we spoke to Karma in 2020, she explained what motivated her to take such a unique path. Not only did she leave her job, she began to study politics, and is currently working on a PhD. Karma told us that that she feels all Nepalis have a duty to dedicate themselves to the country — even temporarily — especially privileged ones like herself. She chose politics because from abroad she learned quickly how it played a role in everything that happened — or didn’t happen — in the country. 

More than a year later, and after just completed municipal elections, Karma — who is now the leader of Nepal Bibeksheel Party — sounds more upbeat. She is positive about some of the outcomes of the polls, including the elections to high-profile positions of independent candidates. None of those who ran from her party were elected but as she repeated, Bibeksheel has always described its approach as similar to running a marathon not a sprint. 

One note before we start: near the end of our chat Karma says that the party hasn’t decided yet if she will run in November. Well, I have an update — which I will share at the end of this episode. Please listen now to my conversation with Karma Tamang.   

Let us know your thoughts on this episode. We are on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as @nepalnow or @nepalbnowpod. If you haven’t already subscribed, do so by clicking like, follow, or subscribe on your favourite podcast app. I’m Marty Logan. I produce Nepal Now and I’ll talk to you again soon.

 Resources 

Coming home to give back — Our first chat with Karma, in 2020

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Today is the second instalment in our series Nepal Then and Now, where we catch up with former guests. We first spoke with Pallavi Payal in mid-2020 about the situation of women in the country during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time she focused on unequal citizenship provisions for women in the country, particularly those living in the southern Madesh region. 

In today’s chat we’re focused on online violence against women, particularly the torrent of threats of rape and other violence made against women, including Pallavi, following the Women’s March, a women’s rights rally held in Kathmandu in February 2021. She describes the frustrating process of trying to lodge a report with the cyber bureau of Nepal Police, which includes that office’s inability to accept online violence as a threat that should be investigated. 

Pallavi explains why the women activists didn’t try to pursue their complaint further up the Police chain of command but also how today she is more determined than ever to speak up about patriarchy in Nepali society, including in religion.

Let us know what you thought of this episode – and how you’re finding this series, Nepal Then and Now. We’re @nepalnow or @nepalnowpod on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. If you loved it, and don’t want to miss a future episode, make sure you follow the show on your usual podcast app. We’re on Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Google and Apple Podcasts as well as Pocket Casts and many more. 

Resources 

Media coverage of the women’s march, 12 February 2021 – Kathmandu Post

Media coverage of online threats and attempts to register a police case following the women’s march – Record Nepal

2020 episode with Pallavi – Women in the Age of Covid-19

Website of Body & Data, a Nepal-based NGO that works on online access for women and sexual minorities

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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That is the sound of hundreds of students at Tilingatar High School in Tokha Municipality lining up for their midday meal of rice and veggies. This still unfinished concrete school of 1,100 students on the urban edge of the Kathmandu Valley is one among tens of thousands of government schools country wide that serve hot meals to their students. In two more years the midday meal programme (known here as diya khaja) will feed children in all 77 districts, after the remaining 6 districts transition from meals provided by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This is no small feat, nor cheap. From 2017 to 2020 the diya khaja budget almost quadrupled (from $20 million to nearly $70 million). After teachers’ salaries, this is the largest education expense in Nepal.

In March I travelled to the Far West region and visited five schools in both the hills and the Tarai plains. Unanimously I found that officials and parents liked the government’s school feeding. It made students excited about going to class and provided some of them with their most healthy meal of the day.

I'm not saying there are no challenges: some schools and the municipal governments that transfer the money to them to run the programme — budgeted by the central government — say that providing 15 rupees per child per meal just isn’t enough, when they also have to pay for cooks, utensils and transportation. And media reports appear regularly about low quality food in a certain school or of officials substituting processed food for the nutrition-based menu created by the ministry of education and WFP. Surprisingly, neither the government nor the UN agency has analysed the impact of school feeding on child nutrition in Nepal, a country where malnutrition remains a major health problem.

That said, schools and municipalities are forging ahead with diya khaja. In the fertile outskirts of Kailali district — with the help of the WFP — schools are contracting local women farmers to provide rice, lentils, milk, yogurt and almost every other ingredient needed for their menus fresh from their fields. And here in Tokha, the municipality has itself expanded school feeding beyond grade 5, the last year of the government programme, to grade 10.

Resources

Article and video on school feeding in Nepal

Article on school meals in Nepal and Canada

World Food Programme global report, with Nepal case study

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Today is the first episode in our new series, NepalThen andNow, where we’ll talk with former guests and catch up on their work and lives. We created the series partly in response to feedback we got in our recent survey — that episodes were too long. If you are one of the listeners who felt that way — or even if you’re not! — please let us know what you think about this approach.

I’m really happy that our first guest in the series is filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar. Yes, I consider him a friend but it’s also because I’m impressed by how deeply he thinks about his craft and how quickly he’s become a world-class director. Deepak’s films to date include Chaukat (Threshold in English), Highway, the first Nepali movie to be screened at a major international festival, and White Sun, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2016, where it was nominated as Best Film. 

Like many of us, Deepak got sidelined by Covid-19, particularly his project to make his next Nepal-based feature film, The Sky is Mine. There is now a new tentative date for shooting to start, as you’ll hear in our conversation. But unlike some of us, Deepak didn’t use the pandemic as an excuse to spend more time on Netflix. Instead, he made another movie. He and his collaborator and wife, Asha Magrati, created the short film Four Nights, which debuted at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival in February, where it was nominated for the Golden Bear Award. 

Slightly more challenging, Deepak explains, is his new gig teaching film studies full-time at a US university. 

Please listen to my Nepal Then and Now chat with Deepak Rauniyar. You’ll find a link to our earlier interview in the episode notes.  

Resources

-       Deepak Rauniyar’s website

-       Interview with Deepak Rauniyar, 2020

-       Short version of 2020 interview with Deepak Rauniyar

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One request  before we get to today’s episode—we’ve created a short survey to get your feedback on the show. It’s just 4 questions, and according to Survey Monkey the average person takes just 2 minutes to fill it out, so it’s fast. I’ve pasted the link in the episode notes. Thanks to everyone who gives feedback.

Ek Ek Paila (which means step by step in Nepali) was one of many initiatives started to provide emergency relief following the devastating earthquakes of 2015, which killed almost 9,000 people and destroyed 600,000 homes and 20,000 schools. Unlike some other responses, the non-profit has continued, delivering nearly two dozen health camps in remote, mountainous parts of the country.

But about 1 year ago the Nepali-led NGO opened a community health centre in the heart of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. I visited recently and was pleasantly surprised to see it is equipped like a small hospital, including a space for minor surgeries, a dental room and an eyeglass shop. That shop is perhaps not so startling because the president of the Ek Ek Paila Foundation, Dr Suman Thapa, is an opthamologist, with links to Tilganga Eye Hospital.

In our chat today he explains his very personal connection to the clinic’s location and the vision for it as a care centre for the urban poor, including a squatter community living on the banks of the nearby Bagmati River. We also discuss how Ek Ek Paila is expanding, in partnership with the Government of Nepal, to provide permanent health care services in rural areas. At the same time it is using tele-medicine to maintain links with the remote communities where it has already held health camps.

Resources

Ek Ek Paila website

Give your feedback—Nepal Now survey

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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When I was thinking about the topic of today’s episode, veganism in Nepal, it seemed oddly out of place. It’s not that being vegan is new in Nepal—historically many Hindus and Buddhists have not eaten meat or dairy products—but I was associating veganism with the emerging movement in the west, which probably more than anything else reveals the overwhelming reach of western culture. Of course, the basic diet is the same, but there are similarities and differences, noted in my chat with Suresh Prasad Sharma, Chair of the World Vegan Organisation—Nepal.

Both here and abroad the new wave of veganism is being led by young people, and shared and promoted on social media. It has various motivations globally: to eat more healthily, to reduce the impact on the planet of a diet that includes meat and dairy, and to prevent cruelty to animals. For Suresh, this last point is what transformed him from being a vegetarian into a vegan: the treatment of dairy cows. Somehow I naively thought that in Nepal the cow—which is worshipped by Hindus and protected in law—was always pampered by loving farmers on small family farms. According to Suresh that’s far from the truth.

One major difference between being vegan in Nepal and say in my home country, Canada, is that made-for-vegan products are hard to find. The ones that do exist can be out of the price range of many people who are contemplating giving up meat and dairy. Suresh says that work has begun to start making products like non-dairy milk and cheese, along with mock meat, in Nepal. Perhaps the project will have progressed so that these vegan substitutes will be on display at the Himalayan Vegan Festival , scheduled for September in Kathmandu and Bhutan. In any case, one thing that I like about this episode is that it contains lots of practical information about being, or becoming, vegan in Nepal.

A couple of notes before we start:

-Suresh mentions the word ‘ahimsa’ near the end of the episode, when discussing the Buddha and tourism. It is the Nepali word for non-violence.
-Also, earlier in our chat we discuss the number of Nepali vegans who are not getting vaccinated for Covid-19. Animal testing of vaccines is one reason for that opposition, says Suresh. Afterwards I confirmed that animal testing of vaccines did occur. I’ve put a few links to that info in the Resources section.

What do you think? Are you vegan, or thinking about making the move? Let us know if this chat was helpful and if you have any follow-up questions. You can find Nepal Now, or Nepal Now pod, on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

My name is Marty Logan. I’m a long-time vegetarian but now thinking again about going vegan. I produce Nepal Now and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Resources

World Vegan Organisation—Nepal

Online Khabar article on veganism in Nepal

Animal testing of Covid-19 vaccines

Animal testing 2

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As SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Jan 13th 2022, a group of friends took up positions on a rooftop in Kathmandu, laptops open, waiting for a signal. Inside Falcon 9 was the satellite they had spent years building, first as students and then working as engineers—Sanosat-1. 

The size and shape of a Rubik’s Cube, Sanosat was one of 106 satellites shuttled into space on the Falcon 9 then released into orbit to begin their various missions. 500 kilometres above Earth, the first made-in-Nepal satellite is measuring radiation levels, relaying signals that can be used by amateur radio operators, and proving that Nepal has the resources to dive into space research. 

“We were really really nervous that day,” says Saurav Paudel, one of Sanosat’s creators and today’s guest. “We had been waiting for the launch for 1 ½ years—there had been delays due to Covid, and a couple of scheduled launch dates had already come and gone.” The group sat on the roof, next to warming fires on the cold winter night, watching the launch online. They knew that there would be a delay after all the satellites were released from the rocket and Sanosat started orbiting. “We finally caught the signal at about 3 am. That was a really exciting moment for us,” Saurav says.

Sanosat-1 will revolve in space for as long as two years, relaying data to earth. Its makers are already working on Sanosat-2, which will be designed to carry out more complicated missions that might also include external customers who will pay to use the satellite. Saurav dreams of a day when hundreds of Nepal-made satellites will orbit above Earth gathering important information exclusively for the country.

Thanks again to Saurav Poudel for sharing the story of Sanosat with us today. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow, like or favourite Nepal Now on your podcast app so you don’t miss a conversation. Let us know your thoughts about what you hear via our social media accounts. We’re Nepal Now or Nepal Now Pod on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Resources

YouTube video

Orion Space

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(Listen to the first part of this report.)

I’d been wanting to return to Chimling Village in the hills of Sindhupalchowk district since soon after my first visit in March 2021. That’s when I accompanied health workers to find out the status of women who had given birth recently, but had delivered their babies at home. In particular, I was curious about their experiences with misoprostol, a drug that’s given to pregnant women who might deliver without the support of a skilled birth attendant. The main cause of death in home deliveries in Nepal, and elsewhere, is excessive bleeding after the birth; misoprostol is meant to stop that.

The visit was a real eye-opener. I found out that of 10 women who had recently given birth at home, only one, Dilmaya Tamang, had received the pills. And she got them only because a visiting health worker had spoken to the female community health volunteer responsible for the village, who happened to be Dilmaya’s   sister-in-law and neighbour, before Dilmaya gave birth.

That specific incident was troubling, but I think what bothered me most as I returned from my trip was the casual attitudes I found in many people involved in providing health services. In some cases the health care given to mother and child could easily mean the difference between life and death.

So, I was happy to see that Dilmaya and her neighbour Priya were healthy, as were their nine-month-old babies. The one woman in the village currently pregnant told us that she was planning to deliver in the birthing centre—another piece of good news. When we visited the centre in March the building was complete but equipment and drugs were not on hand and essential staff had gone for training.

But then we heard about a home delivery that had taken place nearby a few days earlier. We could get few details from the birthing centre, so we went to speak with the new mother and her family, a conversation that brought back my earlier fears about health care in the hills of Nepal. 

Resources

One Heart Worldwide 

Location of Chimling village, Balephi Municipality

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Happy New Year and welcome to Nepal Now’s first episode of 2022. My name is Marty Logan. Please bear with the nostalgia that accompanies the new year: I still remember when the new millennia was a thing (and we all fretted about the impending cyber doom that would be delivered by the Y2K virus—until 12:01 am on January first 2000, when we sighed with relief after our computers booted up).

Actually, my memories reach much further into the past—but that is for another time. Today we are talking with epidemiologist Dr Lhamo Sherpa. Our chat also delves into the past, as far back as her mother’s childhood in Jiri, Dolakha district, but our focus is current. In particular, we’re discussing what barriers—if any—constrain what a doctor can or should say publicly beyond her specialization. To Dr Sherpa, an avid Twitter user, the lines are clear: see the world through a feminist lens, be compassionate, but bold at the same time.

Embracing that vision doesn’t mean that she has not been intimidated by online trolls in recent times. She singles out the violent reaction against herself and many others who protested authorities’ failed attempts to swiftly and effectively investigate the 2018 rape and murder of 14-year-old Nirmala Pant. They were labelled as foreign agents, fuelled by dollars. (Dr Sherpa doesn’t say this but I know that some women who spoke out on this issue were threatened with brutal sexual assault).

She says that she is more careful now with her online advocacy but the detailed daily posts she uploaded during the recent 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence demonstrate that she takes her tweeting as seriously as her paid work. Still, more must be done to ensure that women’s rights are tangible, she insists, particularly the right to make decisions about their bodies. Development actors need to revise their approaches, especially to see issues through the eyes of the people they’re meant to  be supporting. Wryly, she notes that both men and women in the villages she works with are very receptive to the message of women’s empowerment—it’s the so-called educated  people in Kathmandu who are slow to accept the need for change.

Resources

Dr Lhamo Sherpa on Twitter

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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I first thought about interviewing today’s guest soon after I saw her Instagram channel when, I must say, I was shocked by some of its contents. We finally spoke last week, and I was certainly impressed by what I heard. 

We’ll get to our chat in a minute, but first a quick word about this podcast. The feedback we’ve received about Nepal Now in the past 18 months has all been positive, but frankly we’ve haven’t yet hit a point where this work is sustainable. Simply put — we need more listeners. So if you enjoy the show, and haven’t already done so, could you let your friends know about us? Alternatively, you can rate and review us on Apple podcasts. I know that many of you — more than half in fact — do not listen to the show on Apple, but because it’s such a popular platform, it apparently does give us a boost throughout the podcast world if we’re well-known there. To make it easier, I’ve pasted the Apple podcasts link to the show. Thank you for doing what you can. Now on to today’s episode. 

There is a saying that I like a lot: change is the only constant in life. Undoubtedly, change is not always easy, especially if it entails you giving up something — be it power, prestige, money, or all of those — but in general I think it’s healthier to adapt than to resist.  

These days, however, it seems that resistance to change is hardening. Perhaps that’s because change is happening faster than ever. Or maybe it’s affecting a group of people who are not used to giving up their advantages. In any case, I’m sure there are many people studying change currently who can enlighten you further. 

Today’s guest experienced one of life’s major changes — getting married — and began to wonder why, as a Nepali woman married into a Nepali family, various things were done in certain ways. Speaking to friends, she learned that they were also questioning some traditions they were expected to follow as new brides (or buhari in Nepali). Thinking there must be even more women living similar experiences, she started the Instagram account Tales of a Modern Buhari. Today, after just over one year, she has an impressive 20,000 followers — and some influence on many lives, more than half of them unmarried women (and a few guys as well). 

We spoke about her desire to expand this work, but also the burden that it delivers, both as an investment of time and also on her emotional well-being. I was glad to hear that most opposition to the ideas expressed in her posts and discussions is delivered respectfully, not in hateful diatribes. Perhaps that’s because young people are more open to change? 

Please listen now to my chat with Modern Buhari. To preserve her anonymity we’ve disguised her voice. 

Resources

Tales of a Modern Buhari Instagram page

Nepal Now on Apple Podcasts

Nepal Now social links

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Welcome to Nepal Now. My name is Marty Logan.

Looking back on the early days of my relationship with Nepal, I see that it took me far too long to realise that this is a country of incredible diversity of cultures and peoples. Today I can understand why — the face of Nepal is very much upper-caste, Hindu, male and Nepali speaking. Yet roughly a third of the country’s nearly 30 million people belong to about 100 Indigenous groups, 60 of them officially recognized. Surprisingly, you hear very little about those groups on a day-to-day basis here, especially compared to countries like Canada or Australia, where the proportion of Indigenous people is much lower, but Indigenous rights is a major talking point and issue.

When I moved to Nepal just before the end of the 10-year Maoist conflict in 2005, a lot of heat was being generated in discussions over the rebels’ proposal to divide the country based on the territories of the major Indigenous groups. In the end, that vision was not realised and people like today’s guest, Indigenous rights activist Prabin Shakya, argue that the Maoists were playing with the aspirations of many marginalized people in the country simply to attain their political ends.

Since the peace process ended, Indigenous rights is a topic that is highlighted in mainstream media annually on Indigenous Peoples Day, then fades away. Those of us living in Kathmandu do hear regularly about disputes over development projects that threaten the lands of the Newa (or Newar) Indigenous people of the Kathmandu Valley, but these are rarely framed as Indigenous rights issues.

Shakya tells me that a lot of activism is happening. Yes, much of it is in reaction to government plans to take over Indigenous people’s lands in the name of development. But some proactive initiatives to recognize Indigenous rights are taking place at local levels.

Resources

Community Empowerment and Social Justice Network (NGO led by Prabin Shakya)

Nepal Now social links

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Before we start, a warning: This episode discusses rape and might be disturbing for some listeners.

Kriti was raped regularly by her father and grandfather from the age of nine. When she was 15 she was finally able to report the violence at the police station in Dhulikhel, near Kathmandu. The legal term for rape in Nepali is a mouthful: ja-bar-jas-ti-ka-ra-ni. When a police officer, a woman, at the police station asked Kriti to recall the first time she was raped, she didn’t understand. She asked the officer what ‘jabarjasti karani’ meant. The woman in uniform scoffed, “If you don’t know what that means, why are you here?”

This shocking anecdote is told in an excellent article by Bhrikuti Rai about how the Nepal Police deals with rape cases. If you haven’t already read it, it provides painful insight into how victim-blaming adds insult to the injury suffered by rape survivors. The article was published in the Kathmandu Post on July 17, 2019. 

I referred to it because in today’s episode we discuss in detail recent updates to Nepal’s rape law. I think it’s important when we’re delving into such minutiae that we don’t forget the people whose lives are shattered by this horrendous crime. 

In the second half of 2020 numerous media reported about a disturbing rise in rape cases in the country. Activists hit the street to protest the violent crimes, and we devoted an episode to one such group. Early in 2021 the rape law was amended by a government ordinance, bypassing Parliament. We discussed its changes, and omissions, in an episode with lawyer Anita Thapaliya. And then last month, the ordinance lapsed because it hadn’t been approved by Parliament within the stipulated timeframe. The rape law reverted to the earlier version. 

What happens now? Please listen to my chat with Indu Tuladhar, Advocate and Executive Chair of Himal Innovative Development and Research, to find out. 

Let us know what you thought of this episode by connecting with the show on social media. We’re Nepal Now or Nepal Now pod, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

If you’re listening to us on your website browser, did you know that you can subscribe to the show on most podcast apps, so you don’t miss an episode? These apps include Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, PocketCasts, Player FM, and more. 

I’m Marty Logan. I produced this show, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Resources

Bhrikuti Rai article in the Kathmandu Post

Himal Innovative Development and Research (Facebook page)

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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I’ve lived in Nepal for over a decade now, and I’m still astonished to see where, and what, Nepalis worship. Temples and shrines are mostly obvious—sometimes because roads or sidewalks will curve sharply to avoid them—but as I’m walking through my neighbourhood I might spot a smudge of auspicious vermillion powder on a tree trunk, a tiny niche in a cement wall, or even on a sidewalk.

That is why I was not surprised when today’s guest, Roshan Mishra of Taragaon Museum and the Global Nepali Museum, stressed that Nepal’s is a living culture. And that is one of the main reasons he is among a group of dedicated culture activists who have just launched a new campaign to repatriate idols and other works of art that were stolen from Nepal after it opened to tourism in the 1950s.

One estimate is that 70-80 percent of ‘gods and goddesses’ were spirited from the country until the 1990s. Activists have been trying for years to get them back, with some success. Mishra says the strength of the new Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign is that it adopted a process to work with the Nepal department of archaeology and other institutions, inside and outside the country. Since it launched informally in January of this year, more than 25 possibly stolen objects have been identified, a “huge achievement”, he says.

Just one note: when describing the launch of the new campaign Roshan refers a couple of times to the DG. That is the director general of Nepal’s department of archaeology.

I’m happy to be posting this episode in the middle of one of Nepal’s biggest festivals—Dasain. To everyone listening who is celebrating, Happy Dasain!

Resources

Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign

Global Nepali Museum

Lost Arts of Nepal

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In less than a month COP26 will have begun. Because of the shocking and destructive fires, floods, droughts and other climate disasters worldwide in the past year, it’s a good guess that more people than ever will focus on the global climate meeting in the UK.  How much will the leaders of the richest and most polluting countries promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, and how much money will they pledge to poorer countries to adapt to the new, dangerous climate realities? Those are the questions that everyone will want answered.

Meanwhile, every day, people on the ground have no choice but to adapt in order to survive in a new world of intense rainfall, heat and cold. In Nepal, women are especially affected: they must walk further to fetch the day’s water, tend to family members who become ill from previously unknown diseases borne by mosquitoes flying ever higher in the hills and, as they increasingly lead household farms, women must find alternatives when water becomes too scarce to grow traditional crops.

Thanks to one initiative, women are also taking the lead to approach local governments for money to fund projects to adapt to climate change. Today we’ll hear about three efforts in Bardiya and Ilam districts, spearheaded by women trained to identify community needs and develop plans and budgets necessary to respond to them.

Speaking of money, our guest today, Anuja Shrestha from TEWA, will mention lakhs of Nepali rupees. If you don’t know this term, one lakh equals 100,000 rupees.

If you haven't already, don't forget to like, follow or favourite Nepal Now in your usual podcast app. Leave a review in Apple podcasts if you think more people should know about the show. Thanks!

Resources

TEWA

Prakriti Resources Center

COP26

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Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. This is what I’m talking and reading about these days when the subject is Covid-19. I’ve had my jab, and so has my wife, but my daughter, who’s under 18, has not, because Nepal hasn’t offered them to that age group yet, but she still has to go to school this week to take exams. My parents in Canada, who are over 80, have had two jabs, and now they’re talking about a booster shot. And on it goes.

But here in Nepal only 20% of people are fully vaccinated and 22% partly vaccinated. More doses are reportedly on the way, and this week’s news that neighbouring India will start exporting vaccines in October is encouraging, but it’s going to be months, at least, before the population approaches a vaccination rate where we can start to relax. 

In the meantime, masks are the answer. Today we’re speaking with Preeti Adhikary of the NORMmask project. You may have heard about its work in Bangladesh, where it was launched in 2020. The project is now also rolling out in Pakistan, India and Latin America. 

One note: in one of my questions today you’ll hear me refer to the results from Bangladesh as a 300% increase in mask wearing. In fact, the rise was three-fold, which I assumed was the same as 300% but is actually 200%. Now you know why I chose to study liberal arts after graduating high school….

Thank you for downloading this episode — we’d really like to hear what you thought of it, so once you’re done, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.

Resources

NORM website
Covid-19 Rapid Action Taskforce Nepal

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Unfortunately, Nepal’s universities do not, in general, enjoy good reputations. Politicization is a main reason for that. But a new institution, University of Nepal, plans to avoid that pitfall by establishing itself as a public university, governed by a board of trustees.

More importantly, says today’s guest and member of the development board, Dovan Rai, UoN will offer a liberal arts education. Graduates will be equipped to deal with a broad range of future challenges, not only those contained within their field of specialization.

To be located in Nawalparasi district, in south-central Nepal, UoN could be opening its doors as soon as two years from now.

You can let us know what you thought of our chat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. We’re Nepal Now or Nepal Now pod. You can also write to me directly at marty@martylogan.net.

If you’re not already subscribed to Nepal Now, why don’t you like, follow or favourite the show now wherever you’re listening to this. And if you think more people should hear the show, help spread the word by reviewing us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to Suraya Logan for helping with Nepal Now’s social media. My name is Marty Logan. I produced this show and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Resources
University of Nepal
Fundraising contact — bipin.adhikari@uon.edu.np

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Hi. This is Marty Logan. I wanted to let you know that I’m hosting a new podcast for IPS News. It’s calledStrive: Toward a more just, sustainable world. It’s about people everywhere who are taking action to address climate change, racism, inequality and many other challenges we all face today. One thing that I think makes Strive different is we’ll be discussing solutions, not just adding to your burden by detailing the problems. Our first episode looked at how civil society in South Asia is leading a Covid mask-up campaign. On the next one we hear how a community currency can invigorate poor communities in Kenya that are often sidelined by the national economy. Please, look for Strive on your podcast player, or click on the link in the notes to this episode. OK, on to Nepal Now:

From Oct 31st to Nov 12th this year the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, will meet in Glasgow, Scotland. The COP, which is short for the conference of the parties—basically the nearly 200 governments that have signed the UN climate change treaty—has been meeting since 1994 to try to agree on limiting the production of greenhouse gases that contribute to the global warming that results in climate change.

And still, after all those meetings, the best-case scenario for the eight Asian countries home to the Hindu-Kush Himalaya, including Nepal, is that one-third of the mountains’ glaciers will melt by the end of this century. The worst-case: 2/3 will disappear. This is not as simple as getting used to the absence of those massive rivers of ice: the glaciers are a key source of the water that nourishes 3 billion people, 1/3 of the world’s population, in Asia. And as we all know, water is essential for life.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, or ICIMOD, has been informing the world about the impacts of climate change on the Hindu-Kush Himalaya, or HKH, for years. And of the impact on the 240 million people who live in the mountains, and of those 3 billion who rely on them for water. Today we’re speaking with Nanki Kaur, Regional Programme Manager, Adaptation and Resilience Building, about ICIMOD’s campaign ahead of COP26. It makes the case that more attention, and resources, must go to fighting the impacts of climate change in the HKH.

If you enjoy what you heard, make sure that you follow, favourite or like Nepal Now on any podcast player so you don’t miss the next episode. We’re on Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts, and more. Between shows keep up with what we’re doing and chat with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: we’re Nepal Now or Nepal Now pod.

Thank you to Suraya Logan for her work on Nepal Now’s social media. I’m Marty Logan. I produced this episode and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Resources

#HKH2Glasgow Campaign

COP26

Strive podcast

Nepal Now social links

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Nepalis are online. Full stop. We can no longer say that Nepalis in cities are online, or that educated Nepalis are online. In a 2020 survey, 89% of Nepalis said that they used Facebook. 62% of the mobile phones that people carried around were smartphones, and the figure was growing. The Covid-19 pandemic has surely caused it to rise further. 

This has huge implications for many aspects of people’s lives. In this episode I talk about a number of those with Shubha Kayastha of Body & Data. Do people know who’s watching them when they’re online? Or who is able to watch them? Do they know what steps they can take to find out? Is Big Tech really trying to make it easier for you to protect your privacy online? What about the government?

We discuss how women, queer people and members of other marginalized groups are trolled and bullied. Hint: it’s got a lot to do with power distribution, and echoes what happens in the physical world. 

I really enjoyed this chat—it made me think about some pretty basic things in very different ways. I guess that’s why this episode is a bit longer than usual, but take the extra time if you can—it’s worth it. 

If you like what you heard, please give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. Or buy us a coffee, by clicking on the link under Resources. Keep up with the show between episodes on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. We’re Nepal Now or Nepal Now pod. You can send me your feedback, ideas or just say hi, at marty@martylogan.net. 

Thank you to Suraya Logan, for her work on the show’s social media. I’m Marty Logan. I produced this episode and will talk to you again soon. 

Resources

Body & Data

Buy Nepal Now a coffee

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Room to Read works with more than 4,400 high school-age girls in three districts in Nepal. During the Covid-19 lockdown from April to July 2020, 53% of those girls were unsure about returning to their school when it reopened. They were scared about the pandemic, their families were feeling the economic crunch, and they had already missed months of school in their final years of education so it would be easy to not return. 

The organization knew it had to react, says Salina Tamang, Girls Education Senior Programme Manager, in today’s episode. First, they connected with the girls via mobile phones, and then they turned to one of the oldest media—radio. Their first goal was to provide factual information about Covid to reassure the students and their families. Next they worked to rekindle the learning spark, again among both the girls and their families. In the end, 100 of the girls ended up getting married instead of returning to studies but thanks to last year’s experience, fewer girls are at risk today, and Room to Read is planning to incorporate radio into its permanent programming.

Resources

Room to Read Nepal

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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It’s monsoon season here in Nepal. And every time it pours rain, as it’s doing now, I start worrying about flooding. It can happen here in Kathmandu but usually the worst occurs in the southern Madhesh region, when swollen rivers spill over their banks and inundate villages, or in Nepal’s hill districts, when incessant rain dislodges fragile slopes and landslides demolish buildings and block roads. 

Climate change is reshaping the monsoon, resulting in greater numbers of extreme weather events, including more rainfall in shorter time spans. While we count the tragic victims of these events, we don’t often talk about the other health impacts of climate change. How will pregnant women or chronic disease patients go for health checkups when their road is blocked by mud? How many children will have to drink unsafe water when the usual source of clean water is submerged?

Today we’re speaking with Dibesh Karmacharya of the Centre for Molecular Dynamics Nepal. We discuss these short-term impacts of climate change-fuelled extreme weather as well as the so-called slow onset effects on health of warming temperatures. And there’s a bonus—Snow leopards and Bengal tigers also make their way into our talk. 

Resources

Study — Climate change and health vulnerability in Nepal: A systematic review of the literature since 2010

Centre for Molecular Dynamics Nepal

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Welcome to Nepal Now. My name is Marty Logan.

As we’re recording this, there is news that landslides and flooding have battered some of Nepal’s hill districts. Our hearts go out to the people who have suffered the loss of lives and their homes. This is a bad sign as the monsoon has just started and will continue for months.

Today’s episode is also about nature, and also concerns the people-environment link. A much more positive story, it is about Dev Narayan Mandal’s determination to stop the destruction of the forest that loomed over his childhood in the Madhesh region. And while that forest is healthier today, what is really remarkable is that the surrounding communities are also prospering, and that Mandal and his colleagues at the Mithila Wildlife Trust are receiving requests to branch out to other communities that depend on forests (pardon the pun). 

What also makes this story unique, I think, is that most nature news from southern Nepal focuses or the devastation caused by annual monsoon flooding, or on endangered tigers or one-horned rhinos. This is a story where local communities are the agents for positive change. 

If you enjoyed this episode make sure you like, follow or favourite the show on your usual podcast player: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Pocket Casts — you can find Nepal Now on all of them, and more. 

Stay in touch with us by following Nepal Now or Nepal Now Pod on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn (links below). You can write to me directly at marty@martylogan.net. 

Inspiration for today’s episode came from an article in a recent issue of Nepali Times newspaper. You can find a link below. 

Suraya Logan works on social media for Nepal Now. I’m Marty Logan. I produced this episode and I’ll talk to you again soon. 

Resources

Mithila Wildlife Trust

Nepali Times article about MWT

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

As you've likely heard, Nepal is in the throes of a second wave of Covid-19. This has raised fears that, just like during and after the lockdown of 2020, women will be using reproductive, maternal and child health services much less than usual, or as necessary. One result is likely to be more births taking place in risky home settings.

Today, we’re going on the road to visit two such homes. We set out to track what seemed to be a magic pill used to protect pregnant women, but the trip morphed into a quest to understand why more than 1,000 Nepali women a year continue dying during what should be one of the best experiences of their lives — childbirth.

Please let us know if you’d like to hear more episodes in this format. We are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as Nepal Now or Nepal Now Pod. You can also leave a voice message on our webpage — anchor.fm/nepalnow. If you’re really moved, you can leave a review of the show on Apple podcasts.

We’re posting photos from Chimling Village on our social media accounts. Please check them out.

We’d like to thank One Heart Worldwide for their cooperation, especially Surya Bhatta, for frankly sharing his passionate opinions on maternal health, and Babita Bindu, for leading the trip to Chimling Village and providing interpretation. We'd also like to thank Kutumba, for permission to use their song Pariwartan, or Change, which you're hearing now, in this episode. And to Suraya Logan, for her work on Nepal Now's social media.

I'm Marty Logan. I wrote and produced this episode and can be reached at marty@martylogan.net. I'll talk to you again soon.

(Listen to part 2 of this report)

Resources

Kutumba band's Facebok page

One Heart Worldwide 

Location of Chimling village, Mankha Municipality

Nepal's Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health Roadmap, 2020-2030

Assessment of Nepal's misoprostol programme

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

I just checked two popular online fundraising platforms and very quickly found more than 130 campaigns raising money for Covid-19 relief in Nepal. Nepalis and non-Nepalis alike are rallying to gather donations for oxygen, isolation centres, food and other daily needs, and much more to fight the devastating second wave, which is slowly seeping into villages. 

Leading the way is a group of people who, one year ago, were better known as victims of Covid-19: migrant workers from Nepal who were stranded in Persian Gulf countries when the first wave shut down international travel. Many were broke, crowded into single rooms or just sleeping on a floor in any empty space that had a roof. The Nepal Government was roundly criticized for doing too little to rescue this workforce, whose earnings sent home to their families has fuelled the country’s economy for decades. 

So it was great to read one week ago that 560 oxygen cylinders had arrived from Oman, purchased with money collected from Nepalis living and working in the Middle East. Today, we hear the story of that whirlwind fundraising effort, from the President of the Non-resident Nepali Association in Oman, Bikal Jha. 

Let us know what you thought of today’s chat via our social channels. We’re Nepal Now or Nepal Now Pod on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can email me at marty@martylogan.net. 

Don’t forget to like, follow or favourite the show on your usual podcast app — Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCasts, and the others, so you don’t miss the next episode. 

Thank you this week to Chandan Kumar Mandal, Anand Rai and Jasmine for helping to track down today’s guest. 

Suraya Logan works on social media for Nepal Now. I’m Marty Logan. I produced today’s show. Talk to you next time.

Resources

Organizations in Nepal providing Covid-19 relief

NRNA Oman

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

These are terrible, painful days for many people in Nepal, and so I hesitated to post this episode. But then I thought, in the midst of the devastation and death caused by Covid-19 it is important to hear something positive and, in this case, not something cheery just for the sake of diverting our attention, like cat videos on social media. 

Rather, in today’s episode we’re talking about a positive, rising trend: the number of Nepalis who are reaching greater heights, both real — like the women’s team that recently climbed Mt Annapurna — and metaphorically — like Chef Santosh Sah, who, with his unique Nepali dishes, wowed judges and the UK audience en route to the final of MasterChef Britain. 

Speaking to me is someone who knows first-hand the highs, and lows, of attaining a mighty goal — Shailee Basnet, who was one of a 10-woman team that summitted Mt Everest in 2008, a team that went on to reach the top of the tallest peaks on seven continents. Shailee will help me untangle why so many accomplishments seem to be, paradoxically, occurring during the pandemic. She will also explain her one-of-a-kind email signature. 

If you enjoy what you hear today, please leave a review of Nepal Now on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to like, follow or favourite the show on your usual podcast player so you don’t miss an episode. To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. You can reach me directly at marty@martylogan.net. 

Resources

Shailee Basnet's website

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Welcome to Nepal Now. I’m Marty Logan.

Today is Thursday, April 29th. A few hours ago we started a second lockdown here in the Kathmandu Valley in response to a frightening rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. I’ve read reports that the intensive care units of many hospitals are full and projections that the number of cases in Nepal is growing faster than in neighbouring India, which of course has been devastated in recent days. 

Lockdown here basically means that except for food shops and pharmacies — which open only for limited hours in the morning and evening — all but essential business stops. Last year, when the entire country locked down, here in Nepal’s capital within days we saw many people on the streets after they ran out of food. Governments provided some support but it was civil society that stepped up and set up kitchens on the streets to cook hot meals and assemble food packs for families. 

Kusum Tamang of Hiteri Foundation led one of the many, many efforts that sprang up in the capital and across the country. Today we’re talking to her about how her tiny organization managed to contribute so much during the lockdown and about some of the people they supported and continue working with. She also has some ideas to better prepare for the next emergency. 

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you also listen to our very first episode, from July 2020, Community to the Rescue — Again: Covid-19 in Nepal. 

Thank you for listening. If you haven’t already, you can like, follow or favourite the show wherever you hear your podcasts, so you don’t miss our next episode. We are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, where you can keep up with the show between episodes, ask us a question, or share an idea. You can always email me at marty@martylogan.net. 

Resources

Hiteri Foundation

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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In a country where mental health is often talked about in whispers — if it’s discussed at all — I was surprised, and happy, to recently see a photo of a new counselling room set up in a high school. It is one of two rooms established in schools in Melamchi, close to Kathmandu. 

Other rooms should be completed in coming months in Baglung District, says my guest on today’s episode, Ranjita Maharjan from Sambhavya Foundation. The three-year-old organization is already counselling students in 13 Nepali schools and aims to put a dedicated room in every school. A spike in mental health issues, and suicide, among Nepalis during the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated plans. 

“It’s about making students feel safe,” says Ranjita, “whether it’s a counselling room or a classroom or a playground.”

We would love to hear your feedback on this episode. It’s the first one we’ve recorded in a studio rather than online, so we hope you can hear an improvement. Thank you to Gobinada Khadka at the Community Information Network for making that happen, as well as to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters. 

Share your feedback with Nepal Now on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. You can write to me at marty@martylogan.net. Also, don’t forget to follow, like or favourite the show on any podcast app, including Google and Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Radio Public and Anchor. 

Resources

Sambhavya Foundation

Kathmandu Post report on suicide during lockdown

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Santosh Shah is a household name in Nepal after finishing runner-up on MasterChef. Sanjog Thakuri’s father was cooking the daily meals for his family decades ago, so it was natural for the son to grow up helping in the kitchen. But as a teenager, when he wanted to talk about cooking while his friends teased local girls he himself became a target for not being macho enough. 

Today, Sanjog talks to boys and men about how much better their lives, and society as a whole, would be if they didn’t conform to the pressure to constantly be aggressive leaders, responsible for protecting the women and girls in their lives. Society is changing, he says, with women taking on larger roles, but it’s going too slowly. For example, Sanjog says in today’s episode, look at how some men are wielding toxic masculinity online, trolling and threatening women. 

What do you think: do you agree or disagree with Sanjog? Let us know. Nepal Now is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also write to me at marty@martylogan.net. Like, follow or favourite the show on your usual podcast player if you don’t want to miss the next episode. If you’re really keen, give us a review on Apple podcasts. 

Finally, honks, barks and shouts are all part of the recording from home experience here in Kathmandu. However, from the next episode you might have to say goodbye to that 'taste of the street'. Stay tuned.

Resources

Hami Daju Vai on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

Nepal Now social links

Facebook

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Twitter

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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How do Nepalis put up with this government; they’re too patient!is a statement I’ve repeated regularly in the 15 years that I’ve been linked to this country. In fact, in 1990 and 2006 the people had had enough and launched movements, or revolutions, that contributed to dramatic redesigns of the country: in 1990, the return to democracy and in 2006, the creation of a republic that included Maoist rebels who had just signed a ceasefire.

Earlier this year a third movement was born after the prime minister, mired in a major crisis within his own political party, shut down Parliament. Like its predecessors, this movement signalled its arrival with street protests but they were much smaller than the ones I remember from 2006, and this time — perhaps because of Covid-19 — revolution was not in the air in Kathmandu. In fact, I only knew about the birth of the movement when someone tweeted it.

But after speaking to today’s guest from Brihat Nagarik Andolan, Bhaskar Gautam, it seems right that this movement is not bringing hundreds of thousands of chanting, banner-waving Nepalis to the streets. Yes, the previous revolutions were monumental but somehow this movement’s aim to create a fully participatory democracy with all of Nepal’s citizens as equal partners seems a much higher goal, requiring not an explosion of people power but a sustained, unrelenting push against the weight of history.

Just a reminder that we’re still recording remotely, from home, so you may hear sounds of Kathmandu in the background, among them vehicle horns honking, dogs barking and vendors calling.

With that in mind, I’m slightly reluctant to ask for your feedback. Just kidding. As always, you can email me at marty@martylogan.net or share your thoughts via the Instagram, Facebook or Twitter accounts of Nepal Now. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to like, follow or favourite the show on Anchor, Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Building back better. The green recovery. Sustainable transformation. It seems I’ve been reading those phrases time and again during the past pandemic year. And sometimes I wonder if they’re just attempts to find a bright spot amid the devastation of Covid-19. Or are they a sincere recognition that something fundamental must change if we humans want to continue living life on this planet as we’ve known it till now?

I must admit that I’m scared for the future that my daughter and her friends will face, mainly because of almost daily images of climate catastrophes: melting glaciers, deadly cold snaps in places like Texas and bleak, brown Himalayan peaks that I can see from my home on a clear day.

But in positive moments I am heartened by reports of gigantic solar and wind farms replacing fossil fuel sources and the accelerating uptake of electric vehicles. That’s why I was happy to see a recent study about the positive and negative consequences of Covid-19 on Nepal’s quest to reach the global Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Today’s guest, Sijal Pokhrel, is one of nearly four dozen experts who did that work. Recalling our chat, I think her clarity and optimism encourage me maybe as much as the study results themselves.

If you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to like, follow or favourite Nepal Now. We’re on most of the major podcast players, including Spotify — which just became available here in Nepal. Stay updated with the show on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook; you can write to me at marty@martylogan.net.

Resources

Study: Covid-19 challenges and opportunities in Nepal

Nepal Now social links

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

When I first moved to Nepal 16 years ago every few years I would read a report in the daily newspaper about the road network reaching a remote village. The driver and passengers would have garlands of marigolds draped around their necks, red tika pressed to their foreheads, and a celebration would follow. The reason was simple: most people were confident that more roads would bring more development.

Today’s guest has first-hand knowledge of the road-building phenomenon. Phurwa Dhondup is a native of Dolpo district who has studied the building of a major road in Humla district. Both places are in the Karnali, Nepal’s least developed region, and its most remote.

Phurwa is a Ph.D. student in geography at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA. He does research on state-building and socio-environmental change in the Himalayan borderlands, and focuses on the intersections of Indigenous environmental governance, national and international conservation agendas, and infrastructure development in Dolpo.

Phurwa is quick to point out that he is not anti-road, and that building roads like the Hilsa-Simikot route in Humla will lead to structural transformation and positive benefits like easier access to health care. But he wants more people to go beyond the bad-road/good-road discourse to examine the process of road-building, specifically to identify the winners and losers and how their lives are changed.

If you enjoy this episode, please like, follow or subscribe to Nepal Now wherever you listen to podcasts. You can reach me at marty@martylogan.net and chat with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

One note: Phurwa uses the word bikas throughout our chat. It is the Nepali word for development.

Resources

Phurwa's paper — Challenging infrastructural orthodoxies: Political and economic geographies of a Himalayan road

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.

Nearly 200 countries, Nepal included, are scheduled to meet in Scotland in November to discuss how to respond to climate change. One of the items on the agenda will be how much money wealthier countries will commit to transferring to so-called developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to ‘green’ their own economies.

Notably, rich countries haven’t come anywhere close to meeting their $100-billion-dollar pledge for 2020, an amount that they promised to provide yearly until 2025. An estimate from Oxfam tallies the dollars delivered in 2017-18 at, at most, $22 billion, as you’ll hear in today’s episode with Raju Pandit Chhetri of Prakriti Resources Centre.

The clock is ticking. On February 7th a glacier collapsed in the Indian Himalaya sending a devastating torrent of ice, water and mud downstream, where it flattened settlements, ploughed through roads and bridges, nearly destroyed two dams, and killed at least 26 people. Nearly 200 more are still missing. The exact cause of the event is being probed but one theory points to a high-altitude lake that burst its banks. This is known as a glacial lake outburst flood, or GLOF. Last September a report warned that 47 such GLOFs were at risk of occurring in the Himalaya, including 21 in Nepal.

Such climate disasters are costly. Each time a GLOF, flood or landslide happens, it is governments that must rescue and resettle those displaced, and rebuild infrastructure, spending precious resources that should be invested in health, education or other key development sectors. Which makes it more important than ever that wealthy countries deliver the resources that they promise.

Despite the existential challenge posed by climate change, Raju Pandit Chhetri is optimistic that rich and poor countries can cooperate to respond more effectively.

If you enjoy this episode, please like, follow or subscribe to Nepal Now. We’d also appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts. You can email me at marty@martylogan.net and chat with the show on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Resources

Prakriti Resources Centre (PRC)

Nepal Now social links

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Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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Advocates for women were excited last year when they heard that changes were coming to Nepal’s rape law, which has long been criticized as ineffective. On this show we spoke to youth activists who had met with the attorney general and other lawmakers and were energized and excited by the process. But when the ordinance containing the revisions was signed by the president, not all of the rumoured improvements were there. Left out was removal of the statute of limitations that says a rape charge must be filed within one year and broadening of the scope of victims of rape to include men, boys and persons of other genders.

So what happened? My reading and discussion afterwards led me to believe that entrenched women’s groups had been defending their turf: they didn’t want the focus to turn from women as the only possible victims of rape, and risk losing attention and resources for their work. But as today’s conversation with Anita Thapalia from the Legal Aid and Consultancy Centre reveals, it was more complex than that.

If you enjoy this episode, don’t forget to follow, like or favourite Nepal Now on your usual podcast platform. You’ll find us on Google, Spotify and Apple podcasts, and many more. You can learn more about the show on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where you can follow us for updates. I’m at marty@martylogan.net if you’d like to send me an email.

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Legal Aid and Consultancy Centre (LACC)

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To its credit the Nepali media has written regularly about successive governments’ lack of action on transitional justice since the Comprehensive Peace Accord was signed in 2006. Reporting has focused on the legal framework, which in 2015 Nepal’s Supreme Court ruled must be revised because it granted amnesty for the most serious crimes of the conflict. In the civil war, from 1996 to 2006, the state and Maoists combined to kill 17,000 Nepalis, torturing and disappearing thousands more. 

But somehow we in the media have overlooked the other strands of transitional justice. These include perpetrators revealing the truth of their crimes and the state providing reparations to support victims and their families to survive the losses they suffered. In fact, victims have said clearly and consistently post-conflict that their priorities are knowing the truth and getting support for their livelihoods; prosecutions rank a distant third. 

I was pleased to learn more about this in today’s conversation with Pooja Pant from the project Memory, Truth and Justice. In recent years the project has worked with victims’ groups to record recollections from around 200 victims and members of their families. 

Other work has been quietly going on in the 14 long years since the peace agreement was signed: monuments, parks and infrastructure like communal water taps have been created in communities and days of mourning have been declared in the names of conflict victims. As you’ll hear from Pooja, the first generation of fighters for memory, truth and justice are slowly stepping aside but their successors are prepared to dedicate themselves for the long term. It looks like justice, in its many forms, will not be forgotten in Nepal.

(Apologies for the audio quality in some places — it’s the price we pay for recording online.)

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The Memory, Truth and Justice Project

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I’ve followed human rights issues for much of my career. I even worked for the UN human rights office in Nepal soon after the civil war ended in the mid-2000s. Back then, Nepal’s own human rights commission was quite insular, focused on overcoming the huge challenges around the conflict using the few resources it had available in a sometimes hostile environment.

I left Nepal for 6 years and when I returned in 2016 I was surprised to see that the commission had a much louder voice, at least on social media. It belonged to Mohna Ansari, one of the NHRC’s commissioners and its Spokesperson. On Twitter Ansari, Nepal’s first female Muslim lawyer, did much more than post institutional updates. She used her voice to swiftly call out human rights abuses and other injustices, and to call on the police, government and other institutions to play their roles effectively.

The six-year tenure of Ansari and the other NHRC commissioners ended in October, so I thought it would be a good time to hear her assessment of the team’s work in a period when the government was mostly dismissive — and at times highly critical — of the commission.

In our chat, we talked about her work at the NHRC and Nepal’s Women’s Commission. We also discussed her family’s modest roots in Nepalgunj, in Nepal’s southwest,  the challenges of working as a high-profile public figure who is also a minority, and the roles of the international community and civil society in safeguarding human rights in Nepal. 

By the way, this is our last episode of 2020. Although the year was a bust it did see the birth of this podcast, so it wasn’t a complete disaster. Thank you to everyone who supported the idea and its execution, including all of the guests who have generously given their time, and to you, for listening.

(Apologies for the audio quality in some places — it’s the price we pay for recording online.)

Resources

Mohna Ansari, Twitter

National Human Rights Commission, Nepal

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‘The rapist is you’. On October 10th a group of about 20 young women dressed in black took over a street in Kathmandu pointed straight ahead accusingly, and performed the anti-rape song ‘A rapist in your path’. The ‘flash mob’ was protesting what feels like an epidemic of rape in the country. In recent months it seems that every week the media is reporting another violent incident, often against adolescent girls, too often ending in murder. 

‘Ajhai kati sahane?’ (How much more must we endure?) is the movement’s name. As we mark the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, you’ll hear in this episode that what got the (almost all) young women onto the street was the growing chorus of voices screaming, via hashtag, — ‘Hang the rapist’. Movement members Sagoon Bhetwal and Sasmit Pokharel told me that their group of activists disagrees with that diagnosis, arguing that Nepalis need to confront a rape culture, not punish individuals to death. 

Ajahi kati sahane? is not taking credit for the government announcement two weeks ago that it plans to increase prison sentence for rape, and punish those who try to settle accusations outside of the justice system. But it considers the pledge a success, and plans to monitor the government to ensure the changes do really happen.

(Apologies for the audio quality in some places — it’s the price we pay for recording online.)

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Kathmandu Post article about the flash mob and Ajhai kati sahane

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In 2019, 19-year-old girls in Nepal were the third shortest in the world, found a recent study by the journal The Lancet that ranked 200 countries. 

That’s not simply a genetic thing: ‘Nepalis are short’. A third of adolescent boys and girls in Nepal — 1.8 million — are stunted, or too short for their age. Others are too thin for their age, or wasted. These various forms of undernutrition contribute to 25,000 child deaths in Nepal each year, or 52 per cent of child deaths, more than any other cause, says UNICEF. The impacts of these various types of malnutrition can last life-long. Stunted children do less well at school and are less productive as adults. They are also more likely to suffer from diet-related non-communicable diseases later in life, such as diabetes and chronic heart disease.

In 2019, three days before 1,200 nutrition experts from around the world met at the Scaling Up Nutrition conference in Kathmandu, a new initiative was launched to fight malnutrition in Nepal. But Baliyo Nepal soon became controversial when it was revealed that the organization was created by the Chaudhary Group, makers of Wai Wai instant noodles, widely recognized as junk food. Though the company denied that one of Baliyo Nepal’s plans was to fortify Wai Wai noodles to make them more healthy, a prominent advisor, nutritionist Aruna Uprety, quit the project days later. 

Today, Baliyo Nepal — ‘baliyo’ meaning mighty or strong — is forging ahead with a pilot project in Lumbini Province. Covid-19 has slowed its plans to launch a ‘baliyo’  basket of nutrition-rich foods, CEO Atul Upadhyay tells us in this episode. He also addresses the criticism that the non-profit company’s focus on engaging the private sector to fight malnutrition is misdirected. 

Resources

Baliyo Nepal website

UNICEF Nepal

The Lancet article on height of the world's children

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This is a shortened version of our episode with filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar, from Season 1. It was a great interview but, admittedly, quite long. We hope this 'bonus' episode will make Deepak's words more accessible to potential listeners.Important: we did retain the original New York City background sirens :-). The original introduction follows below. 

Deepak Rauniyar still feels queasy when he remembers the racism he faced growing up in Udaypur district in eastern Nepal. As one of few dark-skinned kids in the community, whose mother tongue was not Nepali, he was taunted by children and singled out for beatings by his headmaster. But as a college student looking for part-time work he soon discovered that journalism gave him the power to uncover the discrimination that pervaded life in the southern Madhesh region. He later honed those skills travelling the country writing radio dramas for BBC Media Action.

In 2010 Deepak and his wife, actress and filmmaker Asha Magarati, decided it was time to start telling stories from their own point of view,  with film as their medium.

Today, Deepak and Aasha live in New York City and are finalizing the script of their next project, tentatively called The Sky is Mine. It tells the story of a fair-skinned female police officer assigned to the Madhesh in the midst of communal tensions that would soon ignite. Like all their movies, this one is inspired by personal experience, explains Deepak, adding that telling the couple’s most personal story yet can be a frightening prospect.

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Deepak Rauniyar's website, with links to his films

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Rukshana Kapali is a firebrand. At 21 she is leading efforts to change Nepal’s laws so they include transgender men and women, and spearheading work to develop terminology in Nepali, and Nepal bhasa (or Newa language), that is inclusive of people who identify anywhere along the gender spectrum. She has led campaigns to protect lands of Kathmandu Valley’s Indigenous Newa people and has joined heritage activists to ensure that an ancient, sacred pond in the centre of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu was rebuilt following traditional designs. 

Less than 10 years ago Rukshana was a bullied, confused student furtively surfing the Net in cyber cafes trying to understand why she knew she was a girl but living in a boy’s body. “I spent a lot of money on Facebook back then,” she says. 

Today, Rukshana leads the community of young Queer activists in Nepal fighting to get their rights recognized in law and also calling for recognition from the established LGBTQI community. Unsurprisingly, she is also embarking on a law career. 

On today’s episode we’ll hear more from Rukshana about the very eventful and influential journey that she is taking. 

Resources

Rukshana's blog

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I liked Mithila painting the very first time that I saw it. The bright colours and village scenes amid lush jungles and bountiful nature really appealed to me, although nostalgically I now realize. 

So I was shocked the first time I saw paintings done by today’s guest. Although they  featured the same vibrant colours and verdant backdrops, one example showed two women kissing under a tree and another depicted a woman standing and bleeding profusely during her period. But my shock soon wore off and I started wondering who was creating these very modern scenes using the traditional art form. 

Mithila painting has been practised, as a part of Mithila culture, for thousands of years by women in the region straddling Nepal’s southern border with India. Traditionally women created it on the walls and floors of their homes, often to mark a religious event. But in recent decades it has also become a commercial art form, painted to be sold. At the same time, the tradition of mothers passing on Mithila painting skills is dying out, says today’s guest, Sapana Sanjeevani. 

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Sapana's paintings on:

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Anyone who lives in Nepal knows about caste and untouchability — the social rules that slot people into rigid groups from which they can rarely escape. At the bottom of the caste hierarchy are the Dalits, previously known as untouchables. 

Anyone living in Nepal would be aware of the deadly, violent crimes committed against Dalits, almost always with no legal consequences. (Since I recorded this episode at least two Dalit girls have been raped and murdered.) But as you will hear in my introduction, the incident reports from the Nepal Monitor provide a sense of the daily indignities and violence that Dalit people face in this country. 

In recent months, parallel with the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been a surge in efforts to ensure that Dalit lives also matter. Today we’re talking with Pradip Pariyar, Executive Chairperson of the Samata Foundation, an organization that works to ensure the rights of Dalits in this country. 

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Samata Foundation

Nepal Monitor

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I’ve been following the work of Chandan Kumar Mandal carefully during the pandemic. He’s the labour reporter with the Kathmandu Post and has been writing daily about the millions of migrant labourers who leave their families in Nepal — often for years at a time — to work in neighbouring India or overseas. Many of them have undergone horrendous experiences since Covid-19 flipped the world upside down earlier this year, and many remain stuck in some sort of nightmarish limbo between home and family and their working country. 

But it was a Tweet that Chandan posted in June that really caught my eye. Since then, he’s been on my list of people who I wanted to speak with, and last week I caught up with him on his day off from reporting. We started our chat talking about labour migration but the conversation ranges much further, to include being a reporter in the time of Covid-19, his start in journalism, growing up in Nepal’s Madhesh region and, of course, that Tweet. 

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Kathmandu Post

The Tweet

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5 to 6 million Nepalis live outside of Nepal today, excluding India and other South Asian countries. That’s according to the non-resident Nepali association. Nepal’s total population is 28 million.  

Many emigrants leave for a specific period of time, to either work or study, but others embark for what they hope will be a better life in countries including Australia, the US and the UK. It’s normal that some of those emigres return home at some time in their lives, often with the dream of building a house, retiring and enjoying their final years among family and friends. But in recent years it seems that more and more people are returning sooner, some to be with family but many to set up businesses and help give the economy a kickstart. 

However, I have never — in my two decades’ connection with Nepal — heard of someone coming back to this country to enter politics. Until I spoke to Karma Tamang. 

Resources

https://www.nepalfarkaun.org/

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As a developing country Nepal has few resources to devote to climate change. But as of late last year it has started to receive money from something called the Green Climate Fund to both reduce its own emissions and adapt to climate change. So far $73 million has been earmarked from the Fund for two projects. But who decides how that money is spent? 

Today we’re talking with Tunga Rai from the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, or NEFIN. He thinks that climate change projects need to do a better job of incorporating the indigenous perspective. As usual, we recorded our conversation remotely so you might hear some strange squawks or notice delays — along with the occasional barking dog. 

By the way, after recording this interview I came across this document from the OECD showing that wealthy countries are far behind on their pledge to raise $100 billion for developing countries' climate change actions. The deadline is 2020. 

If you have any thoughts about this episode, connect with Nepal Now on social media or write to me. I’m at marty@martylogan.net. 

Resources

NEFIN Climate Change Partnership Programme

Green Climate Fund

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I obviously don’t know if it’s harder to be a woman in Nepal than in other places, but often it seems like it must be. 

Around 1,200 women here die each year giving birth, many from a simple post-delivery haemorrhage. (The fact that no one seems to know the exact number speaks volumes about the importance officialdom places on the issue). Tens of thousands of other women endure the condition known as uterine prolapse — where the uterus descends towards or through the vagina, the result of, among other reasons, child brides giving birth when their bodies are still not fully developed or of mothers returning to hard, physical labour too soon after giving birth. 

As in other countries, women in Nepal are bearing a heavier burden than usual during the COVID-19 pandemic, including caring for out-of-school children and homebound husbands. Family planning, already a challenge in a patriarchal society, has become more difficult as health facilities run out of supplies. Fearful of catching the coronavirus or unable to find transportation, one-half of pregnant women are shunning health facilities, skipping vital pre- and post-birth appointments. 

Despite this negative outlook, our guests on this episode did have some ideas for making life better for Nepal’s women. Pallavi Payal is a researcher and activist on women’s rights, with a focus on Nepal’s southern Madhesh, or Tarai, region. Samita Pradhan is Team Leader of the Women's Reproductive Rights Programme at the Centre for Agro-Ecology and Development. 

By the way, our next episode will the last in this first series by Nepal Now. Check out our social media to have a say on which topic we’ll be discussing. As always, you can like or follow the podcast on the usual players, including Apple and Google podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or email me at marty@martylogan.net. 

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Deepak Rauniyar still feels queasy when he remembers the racism he faced growing up in Udaypur district in eastern Nepal. As one of few dark-skinned kids in the community, whose mother tongue was not Nepali, he was taunted by children and singled out for beatings by his headmaster. But as a college student looking for part-time work he soon discovered that journalism gave him the power to uncover the discrimination that pervaded life in the southern Madhesh region. He later honed those skills travelling the country writing radio dramas for BBC Media Action.

In 2010 Deepak and his wife, actress and filmmaker Asha Magarati, decided it was time to start telling stories from their own point of view,  with film as their medium.

Today, Deepak and Aasha live in New York City and are finalizing the script of their next project, tentatively called The Sky is Mine. It tells the story of a fair-skinned female police officer assigned to the Madhesh in the midst of communal tensions that would soon ignite. Like all their movies, this one is inspired by personal experience, explains Deepak, adding that telling the couple’s most personal story yet can be a frightening prospect.

Resources

Deepak Rauniyar's website, with links to his films

Nepal Now social links

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According to one of today’s guests, 1 in 5 working age Nepalis is overseas for employment at any one time. In 2019, the earnings sent home by these workers, known as remittances, totalled about $US8 billion, or 25% of Nepal’s gross domestic product, the economic value of its  output. 

COVID-19 hammered labour migration, and the lives of many Nepalis. Some remain stuck in countries far from home, jobless after being cast aside when local economies tanked and the Nepal government refused to let them fly home. Others walked or hitched rides, and were stuck in crude quarantine camps on Nepal’s border with India after the country locked down on March 24th. Those are just a few examples.

Yet even now, tens of thousands of Nepalis are preparing to leave their families and country, often for years at a time, to chase their dream of working abroad. 

Today we’re going to try and make sense of all of this with Bijaya Rai Shrestha, Founder and Chairperson of the Returnee Women Migrant Workers Group and Ramesh Sunam, an assistant professor at Waseda University in Tokyo and author of the just published book, The Remittance Village. 

Apologies in advance for any strange sounds: this was recorded remotely and Ramesh was in far-away Tokyo. Also, a note for those not familiar with Nepal – both Bijaya and Ramesh refer to each other as Bijaya-ji and Ramesh-ji, an honorific similar to saying Mr or Miss in English.  

Resources

Shuvayatra app for migrant workers (in Nepali) 

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There’s no doubt that today COVID-19 is the main issue in Nepal and in most parts of the world, so I decided when I started planning this podcast that it would be the subject of the first episode. But I also knew that I didn’t want to discuss the daily news — case numbers, quarantine centres, equipment shortages, government mismanagement, etc.

Instead, because this podcast is all about examining issues in Nepal with an eye to doing things differently and contributing to change, I wanted to focus on something far more positive: how Nepalis have rallied to help one another during this crisis, a response that started even before the government announced the lockdown on 24 March.

I was very fortunate to be joined by NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati (Facebook, Instagram). Nayantara is doing very interesting creative work in Kathmandu that stretches conventional boundaries of visual storytelling, research, pedagogy, and collective action. In 2007, she co-founded photo.circle, a platform that facilitates learning, exhibition making, and publishing opportunities for Nepali photographers. She is also the co-founder of  Nepal Picture Library and co-founder and Festival Director of Photo Kathmandu, an international event that takes place in Kathmandu every two years.

Resources

-  Report on humanitarian aid by Overseas Development Institute

-  Related ODI report: Aid in Nepal following 2017 floods

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COVID-19 arrived in Nepal at the end of January, 2000, but it was really only in May when it hit, as tens of thousands of migrant workers started arriving home from neighbouring India. As in many other countries, rich and poor, the pandemic has accentuated Nepal’s fault lines, including its health system, inequality and poor governance. And just as in other countries, the time seems ripe to question the direction that Nepal was taking.

That’s where this podcast comes in — to ask, Can things be done differently to build a better Nepal?

We’ll examine issues like migration and employment, agriculture, discrimination, and the environment through the eyes of people who see differently than those who have dominated debates, and power, in Nepal for decades. Many of our guests will be younger people who are living and working in unique ways. Together we will attempt to identify concrete steps to moving forward and achieving a better country.

Hosted by Marty Logan.

Special thanks to Nikunja Nepal.

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Music: amaretto needs ice ... by urmymuse (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/57996 Ft: Apoxode

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Music by audionautix.com.

Thank you to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal and Himal Media for use of their studios.