Nepal Now

Send us Fan Mail

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

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

Today is the first episode in our new series, Nepal Then and Now, 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

Nepal Now social links

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Nepal Now social links

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Nepal Now social links

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Nepal Now social links

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

(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

Nepal Now social links

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.

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

Show your love by sending this episode to someone who you think might be interested or by sharing it on social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Music by audionautix.com.

Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.