Life in Nepal
Nepal is a beautiful country, perhaps best known in the West for its extraordinary Himalayan mountains. Less well-known are the difficulties faced by this nation. It has been a democracy for only 10 years, confronts massive economic issues, and is home to a population that lives in real poverty in the cities, the lowlands, the middle hills, and the more remote mountain regions.
Nepal is located among the southern slopes of the Himalayan Mountains in South Central Asia. It is bound by China (and the area formerly known as Tibet) to the north, and India to the east, west and south. The country is divided into three main topographical regions: the high mountains of the main Himalayan Range, which include Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse and Mt. Makalu; Kathmandu Valley which is a circular basin enclosed by tertiary ranges known as the Siwalik Hills, and the Terrai, which is a narrow flat belt of alluvial land that extends along the southern border with India.
Its major cities are Kathmandu, the capital, with a population of nearly 1 million (including nearby cities of Bhaktapur and Lalitpur), Biratnagar in the Southeast, and Pokhara in the central part of the country. 39% of Nepal is forested, 15% is under pasture, and 17% is cultivated.
Nepal’s climate ranges from subtropical summers with mild winters in the southern lowlands, to an alpine climate with cool summers as well as severe winters in the mountains. Infrastructural development in Nepal, starting with road and bridge-building, is made difficult or impossible by the steepness of the topography in combination with the severity of the monsoon. Many roads in Nepal are obstructed for significant periods of each year due to landslides during the June—October monsoon. This makes travel about the country, and delivery of goods and services, a serious challenge.
The People: Ethnic Groups, Language, and Religon
The official language in Nepal is Nepali, though over 20 different distinct languages are spoken. English is widely understood in cities and larger towns. The population is divided into two broad ethnic groups. One is the Indo-Nepalese, which includes the Pahari, Newar, Tharu and the Indians of the Terrai, all of whom account for nearly 80% of the population. The other group includes the Tibeto-Nepalese, including the Tamang, Rai, Limbu, Bhote (ethnic Tibetan), Sunwar, Magar and Gurung. The Tibeto-Nepalese are related racially and culturally to the Tibetans, though only the “Bhotes” speak the Tibetan language or one of its dialects. The ISIS Foundation projects include communities belonging to each of these groups, and specifically target those of lower castes, or ethnic minorities (such as ethnic Tibetans) whose access to services such as education and health care are limited.
There are nearly 25 million Nepali people, distributed about the country at around 132 persons per square kilometre. Over 90% of Nepalese people live in rural areas.
The official religion of the Kingdom is Hinduism, which accounts for nearly 90% of the population, while the remainder is Buddhist or Muslim.
Nepal’s Political Climate
Long a Hindu monarchy, ruled for centuries by members of the Royal Shah and Rana families, Nepal ratified its first constitution in 1990, and since that time has been trying to rule itself democratically with a multi-party parliamentary system. Majority rule has alternated in the past 11 years between the two most powerful parties, Nepali Congress, and the United Marxist-Leninists. The press, which is said to be limited in some respects by the government, has recently focused on the predominance of high caste Hindus in Parliament, and they have strongly criticised what they see to be an unacceptable level of Government corruption. Representation of the Buddhist Newars, low caste individuals, and ethnic minorities has been steadily dropping since democracy was legalized in 1990. ‘Brain drain’ from top government posts, due in part to low pay, is a serious problem which is widely acknowledged among educated Nepalis.
Perhaps as a reaction to these issues, and certainly to the very difficult living conditions faced by the majority of rural Nepalis, a Maoist insurrection has been brewing in Nepal since 1995. To date several thousand people have been killed in this armed resistance movement, which calls for the abolition of the monarchy and communal property, and the rewriting of the Constitution. In the last few years, the movement has gained much momentum, to the extent that most of Western Nepal and parts of Eastern Nepal are known to be under the control of the rebels. In more recent times, the Maoists have made inroads in Kathmandu Valley, setting off bombs, extorting businesses, non-government organizations and the general populace, and shutting down schools.
In February 2005, the Nepali King fired the Government, and took over the country. He is in charge of the military and in this capacity, he has the power to do so. Since that time, Nepal has been in political chaos, and only time will tell whether the civil war will bring Nepali politics to its senses, or or will bring Nepal down.
Health and Education in Nepal
Nepal has government systems of education and health care that struggle to provide education and health services to people in remote regions. Resources are limited, and the systems used to distribute those resources often struggle to keep up with demand. Health posts and schools in rural areas are often non-functioning or severely under-functioning, unless supported by non-government organisations. The reasons for this are varied, but are due in part to the sheer difficulty in reaching and supplying the many communities that are in remote areas not accessible by roads. In addition, many educated Nepali people, including teachers, doctors and nurses, come from, and have been educated in, urban areas. They are reluctant to relocate their families to remote areas due to the difficulty of life there, the low quality of schooling, and the general lack of facilities for them and their families. Formal education is a privilege not widely shared: over 40% of people aged 25 and over have no formal schooling, and the literate population aged 15 and over is 63% for men and a mere 28% for women.
Humla District
We have been working in Nepal since 1998, focusing largely on health and education projects in Humla, a remote district in the North Western corner of Nepal. Humla borders Tibet, and as such has many villages that are Buddhist and inhabited by ethnic Tibetans. Lower down in the region, there are numerous villages which are primarily inhabited by Hindus.
Life for the Humli people is extremely challenging. There are no roads into the District, and the main town of Simikot is only accessible by foot or by small plane. The growing season is short and is bracketed by a long and fairly severe, cold and snowy winter. Villagers are perennially affected by food shortages, and people survive the winters only with the assistance of the government rice provision program. There is little or no cash economy in Humla, and people live largely by subsistence farming in extraordinarily difficult terrain. Because families are so focused on food production, children can rarely be spared to go to school, and days to walk to remote health clinics cannot be afforded. Public health and sanitation in this area is largely unknown, and water and latrine projects have only recently been introduced and are not yet widely distributed.
Very few children are immunised against common diseases, and polio cases are not unusual. Homes are poorly ventilated and are heated by open kitchen fires, which are extremely smoky and inefficient. These fires are the root cause of the high incidence of respiratory infections and disease, and wood-gathering trips that require women to walk more than 6 hours a day in some seasons of the year. These communities desperately need our assistance.
