#651 12 - 18 April 2013 20 pages Rs 50 NOW WITH KUNDA DIXIT The Seventies he percentage of index report for Nepal. corruption, political disarray, desperately poor people On Sunday, the Nepali and instability. Imagine how Tin Nepal has declined calendar starts a new decade much farther ahead we would from 65 per cent five years ago of the Seventies. In 10 years be by 2080 if only we had You can’t eat to nearly 40 per cent today. time, this Grade 4 student in a peace dividend, a more At this rate, the poverty rate Dadeldhura (pictured) will be 22 inclusive constitution, elections, elections in the country will fall by half and of voting age. and better accountability. by DAMBAR K SHRESTHA in 10 years. Poverty could be Nepal has made the page 15 eradicated in 20 years says the most dramatic progress in First the good news Oxford Poverty and Human development among the world’s Development Initiative in its low income countries. This by KUNDA DIXIT Too good to be ture new multidimensional poverty has happened despite war, page 16-17 Editorial, page 2 2 EDITORIAL 12 - 18 APRIL 2013 #651 TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE ating and defecation. Activities They need ideas and affordable solutions. so vital to our everyday lives, The taking of lives Last week we carried a story from Dadeldhura in far- Ebut which we take for granted. makes news, not western Nepal where mothers have seen the benefit of We don’t think about them much, so improved smokeless stoves that have become so popular, we turn over the pages with coverage Far-western metal workshops can’t manufacture the chulos fast region saving them of charpis or chulos. enough. The stoves cost Rs 400, but they can reduce a No one cares much whether this mother’s daily workload by more than half because they country grows enough food or not, 57.7% use half the fuel wood, cook twice as fast, and pots and whether farmers get proper prices for Mid-western pans don’t get as dirty. The women and children don’t their products, what happens when suffer chronic eye infection anymore and the incidence children don’t get enough calories at of pneumonia has dropped dramatically. a young age, or how Nepali mothers 59.1% There are many small-is-beautiful initiatives like these Western spend their entire lives gathering Region that have tested well at a local level and are in the process firewood and cooking for their families next to smoky of being replicated nationwide. stoves. 33.4% Central The Bhattarai government before The media doesn’t care much either about open Region it stepped down last month gave a Eastern defecation, hand-washing, diarrhoeal dehydration, National average target of 2017 to fit all four million Region separate toilets for girls in school. These subjects are too % households in Nepal with smoke- % 46.2 distasteful to write about, we hacks would rather focus 44.2 37.4% free stoves. That is also the year by on important subjects like the debate about whether or Multidimensional Poverty which time all of Nepal’s 75 districts not elections will be held in November. Headcount by Regions will hopefully be open-defecation Yet, these are matters of life or death for most Nepalis. free and all schools will have toilets. Eighty per cent of Nepali mothers (they are almost always Source: OPHI Even if these targets are not fully met, women) cook with biomass: firewood, straw or dung. In the impact on child survival and remote mountain villages, indoor smoke from the hearth The media isn’t really bothered much that the increasing lifespan of Nepalis will be huge. is a major killer of children. If it’s not acute respiratory government is now on a toilet-building spree and districts Nepal has made the most dramatic progress in all- infection and pneumonia, come summer children die are competing with each other to declare themselves round human development among the world’s low income from diarrhoeal dehydration or cholera because water open-defecation free. Already women in villages are countries. As our coverage on page 16-17 shows, this has sources are contaminated by open defecation. refusing to marry into families that don’t have toilets. happened despite war, corruption, political disarray, and On World Water Day on 22 March, we carried a story Catalysed by donors, water, hygiene and sanitation instability. Imagine how much more progress we’d have that pointed out the glaring fact that only 40 per cent of campaigns have now moved beyond being just an NGO made if we had an actual peace dividend, elections, and schools in Nepal had toilets and only one-fourth of those project. It is a social movement which doesn’t need better accountability and transparency. schools had separate facilities for girl students. Only one- money as much as a change in mindset and awareness But you won’t hear much about this in the third of the population washed hands after defecation about how little it takes to save lives. When communities media because the taking of lives makes news, not and only 14 per cent of them with soap. are empowered, they don’t need a donor-funded project. saving them. ON THE WEB www.nepalitimes.com OF NEPAL’S YOUTH BULGE HIV positive students was Punarbal ‘CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT THEM’ It will take another 20 or 30 years for Shikshya Sadan in Sitapaila chok What are Rahul Gandhi’s THE the current group of 60 plus politicians (‘Born positive’, Sunil Neupane, #650). performance records and what are O WEEK to be phased out (through old age) It was established in 2007 to provide his qualifi cations other than being and for young Nepalis to fi nally take educational services to children Sonia’s son (‘Can’t live without them’, What do you want to happen in Nepal charge (‘Nepal’s youth bulge’, Trishna infected and affected by HIV and later Ajaz Ashraf, #650)? Just because his in 2070 BS ? Rana, #650). Unfortunately, those who integrated other non infected children congress party men do not have the are in their 20s and 30s today will be to minimise discrimination. courage to question him, there is no 50 plus by that time and the same Sunila Baniya reason why the Indian people should Samir Pradhan: I want a new constitution cycle will repeat. Therefore what we not question him . to be drafted KOLOR KTM Suman Regmi: Nothing what we want will need is not a few young leaders here Manoj Bhandari happen, we can only expect political game and there, but a complete overhaul of One aspect not touched upon by While Kolor Kathmandu is Sharad Duwal: I don’t expect the political the system. this article is that smokeless chulos are undoubtedly producing excellent Dynasties are not just an affl iction scene to improve, apart from that let PB instrumental in reducing burn injuries, work why does the team see political in South Asia. The Americans have everything good happen here a major cause of death in Nepal. In slogans as fi lth that needs to be Bush senior and junior and the North Simanta Lamichhane: Free and fair elections Excellent analysis. We do really the 1980s, Nepal Paediatrics Society cleaned up (‘Koloring Kathmandu’, Koreans their three Kims: Kim Jong- Sanju Shrestha: Nepal’s overall have strength in numbers. But I carried out a survey in Bhumisthan of Tsering Dolker Gurung, #650)? Are un, Kim Jong-il, and Kim II-sung. development be accelerated by double worry about the thousands already Dhading district and found out that burn they not a form of art and expression Sunny conscripted by the parties who rear injuries were extremely common and too? And why is Kolor Kathmandu any BRICS WITHOUT MORTAR @ruptse: People having courage to stand their ugly heads during bandas and an extrapolation of the results to the better than political slogans? I hope up for themselves and not as political on campuses and universities playing entire country revealed that 1.2 million that street art in Kathmandu remains There is a lot of wishful thinking in stooges. Oh and no load shedding politics. burn injuries occurred every year. Of for all and does not become sanitised Joseph S Nye’s arguments (‘BRICS @sardogsnepal: Lasting peace, new ‘Young maanche’ the 1,110 households in Bhumisthan, and NGO-ised. without mortar’, #650). ‘Disparate and smart generation of young politicians, 237 accepted installation of smokeless James countries’ as he calls them, can security for our weak industry and many more women in politics IT IS ROCKET SCIENCE chulos. In these households there was organise themselves successfully @anilbhattarai: Sajha buses ply Thank you Kunda Dixit for a very a reduction of over 70 per cent in the It’s an irony that some street around a strong enough common Kathmandu streets uplifting article on improved cooking incidence of burns and scalds. artists take money from embassies goal - look no further than NATO stoves (‘It is Rocket science’, #650). Narayan Bahadur Thapa and NGOs and create these and EU for that. You could argue the I would like to congratulate all those development murals. It’s just sad. French have even less in common involved in making this simple yet OVERFLYING EVEREST AGAIN @arpan_shrestha with the Americans and there is far tremendously effective technology Commemorating the 1933 fl yover more cultural and political acrimony available to poor families. Of course, Sagarmatha was okay, but linking it with SETTING THE RIGHT FIELD between them than China and Brazil.