The urinal wall--virtually every alley has one. Public urination seems to
be the only option for the city’s countless rickshaw drivers, porters, day
laborers and homeless. To pee or not to pee is a question that a lot of
Nepalis have to ask themselves while in public places. I have read
numerous letters in the newspapers disparaging this practice, but with a
dearth of public restrooms--most of which you would not want to come near
or which have the audacity to request a fee--there seems to be no end in
sight to this practice. In much the same vein as rubbish collection and
disposal, Nepalis throw up their hands in frustration and do not know how
to address such issues. Many walls have hastily constructed signs asking
people not to use the wall in question as a urinal, but this seems to have
little effect in addressing the issue. As a case in point, the tall brick
wall surrounding the British Embassy has security cameras and a sign
forbidding the posting of bills, yet it is a favorite dumping station for
rickshaw pullers...
The United Nations and other international NGOs are now threatening to pull
their staff out of Nepal due to the ongoing Maoist situation. Although
this may be a ploy to bring this heavily development dependent country’s
politicians back to the negotiations table, it is a troubling trend in a
nagging crisis that will not go away. Outside of Kathmandu, in particular,
the situation continues to wreak havoc on the country’s education (the
closure of schools), transportation, telecommunications and other
infrastructure.
On a brighter note, I had an opportunity to visit the Dalit Welfare
Organization last week. Both an advocacy and needs-based organization, DWO
conducts radio, print and TV campaigns aimed at awareness-raising regarding
the conditions under which the country’s dalit population must live (20% of
the Nepal’s total population). Other services include everything from
education and health to skills training and income-generation programs.
Putting into practice that it is impossible to empower those outside of
your organization without first empowering those within, DWO is staffed and
includes a board made up entirely of dalits. A positive step in the right
direction, but even dalits themselves acknowledge that members of other
castes--particularly those at the top--must also be included in the
movement and work toward breaking down barriers accordingly.
Approximately 52% of Nepal’s population is under the age of 18. Child
labor is omnipresent--how much of it is forced and what dictates obligation
is difficult to discern. Certainly, there are stories and documentation of
children being sold into labor in addition to the trafficking of young
girls to India for prostitution, but at the average shop and/or restaurant,
many children take part in the family business as a necessity of
sustenance. In the countryside it is not unusual for children to begin
working at age around age six with chores and fieldwork. Whether children
attend school or not is mostly at the discretion of their parents.
Government (public) schools are for the most part free with the exception
of some expenses, but some families cannot even afford a few hundred rupees
a year for school fees. Some--perhaps most--government schools set aside a
small number of placements for children of families too poor to afford any
sort of school fee. Teachers at public schools also face difficulties
because of budgets which lack the funds to adequately pay their teachers.
At one such school in Manamaiju, teachers were working their sixth straight
month without a salary...