🅽epal is a beautiful country, rich in
natural resources and more importantly habitat of kindness people. Despite
being rich in natural resources Nepal is still muse as one of the poorest
country. Two quarter of population live under poverty line, on a margin of
collapse, lack of basic need services to citizens and there are many more where
its shows all needed characters to be name as poorest country. And similarly it
has all characters to a rich country. For example, Nepal is second richest
country in clean water, nation of beautiful scenarios, habitat of several
unique animals and birds, full of resources and many more. So with all these why
still Nepal is a poor country? Some of the likely reasons are geographical
position, political unbalance, incapable leaders, hierarchy social class,
corruption and very importantly our very own system which we are following for
centuries. And sadly the chances of getting out form poverty is almost null.
Nepal
start its development efforts in the 1950s. “The Nepal government aims to halve
the poverty rate from 42% in 1990 to 21% by 2015. During the 1990s.” (JICA) This is in sharp
contrast to other developing countries that began their nation building after
gaining independence from their colonial powers. The
political and administrative system of Nepal has not made those changes in
trade, investment, and related economic policies that would expedite economic
development and attract foreign capital. The government’s development programs,
which are funded by foreign aid, also have failed to respond directly to the
needs of rural people. Look at the small country Bhutan, geographically
also same and development program which are funded by foreign aid but the exploitation of agricultural and power resources,
and the country’s economy has been on a general upward trend since the late
20th century. Pushing much of the growth has been the Chhukha Hydel
hydroelectric power project (completed in 1987–88), which enabled the country
not only to provide for its own energy needs but also to export electricity to
India.
Nepal is a landlocked country; it is
surrounded by India at its three sides and the great Himalayan range is
situated at the remaining side at the north. Under the Himalayan range, the
land is mountainous, unsuitable for cultivation, and the other parts of the
land are not so much fertile. Only the southern part of the country is plain
fertile and easily cultivated. The status of infrastructures in Nepal has
almost not existing due to mountainous and rough terrains building road and
bridge is extremely difficult. And without proper infrastructure, the
improvement of the people’s life is frozen and difficult
to promote economic activity and deliver services. They are ecologically
fragile as well society
is not progressing and advancement of the nation is almost stopped. So,
geographical structure, the harsh terrains mean not only harder for people to
travel, build infrastructure and create business but also difficult to grow
enough crops and it makes things more difficult for Nepal in terms of financial
revenue. These regions are also physically
isolated.
Nepal is federal Democratic Republic
form of government, let us have a look over the history of Nepal. A monarchy
throughout most of its history, Nepal was ruled by the Shah dynasty of kings,
as long as they posed no threat to then monopoly of the ruling class over
political, social and economic resources. And, a decade-long Civil War
involving the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), followed by weeks of mass
protests by all major political parties, and that revolution get succeed free
from monarch. And, this decade-long civil war destroyed all the blossom of
Nepalese economy almost. After being free from long monarch our country has not
still gained political stability which is the main reason why our country is
poor.
Nepal has experience worst civil war
which lasted for nearly decade killing more than ten thousand people including
thousands of citizens. This was period where Nepal was facing worst crisis in a
history with extremely economic downfall, human rights abuses and scarcity of
needed resources for living., After years of war and destruction, it ended with
the Comprehensive Peace Accord signed on 21 November 2006
where it provide much more positive hope for people. Nonetheless even after ten
years Nepal is still on a same position as it was before. I totally agreed
there been significant improvements but in ten years there should be lot more
than it was. In present situation I can observe the increasing frustration from
the all the people and it saddened me why we are not finding the way to
improve.
According to the statistic, ‘80% of the populations are
relied on agriculture and only 20 % of land are cultivatable.’ Most of the
cultivable land are in villages or in remote area, far from city. Nobody cares
about them and the chances of bringing improvements their lives because the
staff of agriculture development are also not interested in agriculture. And
all agriculture developments are city centered as they are not interested in
agriculture. They do nothing and only on
paying staff. As Dor Bdr. Bista says, “Agricultural training institutes are
built yet not farmers not the ones who go there for training. People who have
no interest in the soil are the ones who gets degree in agricultural science.” (Macfarlane) The rapid and uncontrolled growing population
has put heavy pressure on cultivable land, it is the combination of growing
population and poor resources is enough for most of the problem, especially in
the Tarai region, where there are also many landless migrants from the hills.
Nepal is
basically composed of rural villages (over 80%), the problems of high rate
illiteracy, non-enrolment to school and high school dropout are felt here. “The
adult literacy rate (15 years or older) increased from 25.6% in 1992 to 40.4%
in 2001, but this rate is still the worst among the South Asian countries.” (JICA) Education enables
people to develop all of their attributes and skills to achieve their potential
as human beings and members of society. In the words of the UNESCO Report,
(1996) “Education is the heart of both personal and community development; its
mission is to enable each of us, without exception, to develop all our talents
to the full and to realize our creative potential, including responsibility for
our own lives and achievements of our personal aims.” (UNESCO) It was only Education which
helps to save our culture and fulfill our basic needs. But, due to poverty Poor families are often obliged to send their children
to work (helping
their parents in farming, or looking after cattle)
rather than to school, perpetuating the cycle of poverty. About one quarter of
children in Nepal are engaged in some kind of family or wage labor. Education is undoubtly one of the most
important factors of nation building, nobody needs to repeat that here again,
and yet, it is so disturbing that the education system of Nepal is still
lingering on such a dire situation.
Other main thread is hierarchy, or cast system. Hierarchy is
a system in which people are put High social rank and low social rank,
according to their importance or cast. we can consider caste system as one of
the factors that have given rise to hierarchy in Nepal. Cast system in Nepal Based on words from Prithvi Narayan Shah
dynasty, ‘there are 4 Varnas (main groups) and 36 castes in Nepal.’ Slowly this cast system becomes a hierarchal social class
according to families’ hereditary line
including their wealth, power, influence, occupation, ethnicity, education
and name you will be placed into a group within society. And that will
determine your future job, income, education, lifestyle, social standing and
influence including that of your children too. So,
Members of the lowest caste are the most disadvantaged group. Social
discrimination plays a significant role in keeping people poor and marginalized
in rural Nepal. Although, discrimination on the grounds of caste and social
class has been officially illegal in the Nepal since 1962 but is still common.
Almost all the Nepalese are in hurry to get results of the
work they do too quick. They want easy money, easy reputation. On the long run
this has crippled nation and has problem of corruption. According to the
corruption perceptions Index (CPI) 2015, “Nepal is third most corrupt country
in South Asia after Afghanistan and Bangladesh, and fifteenth most corrupt
globally on the basis of source.” (Chalise) It is recognized as
one of the chief causes of Nepal’s underdevelopment. “The Nepali bureaucracy,
politician, and the business sector are most seriously affected by, and
inextricably involved in corruption. This is really a great challenge to the
campaign of modern Nepal. The businesspersons, the politicians, government
officials, so called academicians and even consumers are responsible for this.” (Subedi) It
is a misuse of authority as a result of consideration of personal gain and very common, has different manifestations, and is
practiced at all levels of society.
We lack a proper leader with vision
and courage who can lead our country. No matter how many of the leaders are in
Nepal, they all have the same disease and the disease has no cure. All the
political parties in Nepal are just playing game of amateur politics because
our leaders greedy, selfish inept, power-hungry, money-grabber and so on. Our
political parties could not solve their own issues with each other so they
hamper the work. Our leaders want power,
position and wealth without responsibility, nobody cares about the nation. They
are good only for delivering speeches, promises are made but never fulfilled
it. Absence of a world class leader which can lead a country is the major one,
but it totally lacks. If the nation is run by such leaders, the continuous
downfall of the nation is almost guaranteed.
We must bear responsibility of the
situation in both good and bad situation and the public of Nepal. It has no
exception that the publics who are to blame for whatever situation we are now
in Nepal. We can say our government is bad, inefficient and shamefully corrupted,
but forget that we allowed them to setup the government to ruled. we can say
our leaders are corrupted, liar and useless, it is also the public who elected
them as well; we can blame many things, find many excuses for shortcoming, but
at the end, it is us the public who let this happen to our country, did nothing
to stop them and watch them as a spectator while the others plundered the
nation to the skeleton. Therefore, at the end, it is ultimately our fault that
we waited for so long, did nothing and put our nation into such a shameful
situation. We all Nepali are acting as blind. All in all, it is our fault, it is
our nation and we must rectify our mistakes for the sake of ourselves, for the
sake of our nation.
