Senior citizens and services

Senior citizens and access to service infrastrures

The total population of elderly people in Nepal is 6.5 percent of total population which has significantly increased over the years. The Senior Citizens Acts 2063, Nepal defines the senior citizens (elderly population) as "people who are 60 years and above". These senior citizens should not only be seen as dependents, they can still be economically independent.

 

I interviewed large numbers of senior citizens of Kathmandu valley who belonged to excluded communities of Nepalese political power sharing structure. I saw blank faces when I inquired about their knowledge on the narratives of the political events during different their periods of their lives.  I made special effort to understand the feelings and understanding of political awareness of  large numbers of old men and women above the age of seventy in the capital city of Nepal. I was shocked to know the awareness level and academic background of these citizens of the capital of Nepal. When developed countries were engaged in developing the human resources along with the social issues for mobilizing their strengths for their countries in the past, Nepalese human resources and social issues remained very critical under total suppression and remained underdeveloped under the rulers with very poor vision.

 

Reading the history books about these rulers the narratives portrayed on the characters of these rulers/leaders are just the opposite of what the true facts are. No wonder Nepal which is a very resourceful country remained so underdeveloped even now  because the citizens were throughout ruled by wrong people. The senior citizens said during their childhood days their ancestors were frightened of allowing children for seeking education out of the house for the fear of being tortured for carrying books and pens openly in public before the year 1951. Only the ruling Ranas and their nobles' sons could attend the school. The Rana-British autocracy ended in 1951. Under the Rana-British rule, between 1846 and 1951, access to education was confined to the higher castes and few wealthier economic stratum of the population; the Ranas were opposed to giving education to the masses. General public, who also used to be under the influence of religious leaders , used to be frightened to express their wishes for getting access to such services and resources. In the early 1950s, the average literacy rate was 5 percent. Literacy among males was 10 percent, while female literacy was 1 percent. Only 1 child out of 100 children attended school in the capital city. Even after 1951 large population remained frightened of trying to attempt seeking services in education sector for several years. Ruler enjoyed easy way of ruling illiterate population. In the processes innocent citizens remained speechless throughout regarding making themselves aware of rights over important resources like water. shelter, information etc  for their livelihood. Around fifteenth century the vally was considered to be one of the most developed city of the world with excellent water, irrigation, sanitation infrastructure.

 

 

 

Most of the enlightened patriotism, genuine political local leaders of those days who had served local majorities and sacrificed for the nation  were punished in the past. Leaders of such category always remained special target. Innocent citizens lacked skill of analyzing the critical situations through the lenses of  multiple perspectives because they were illiterate and  lacked knowledge about political narratives and didn't understand the importance of taking ownership of the such important movements for their rights for social justice. They also didn't realize the importance of promoting those local role models who sacrificed their lives for them and the nation. Unfortunately those innocent and genuine role models  of the nation of the past faded away. The rulers made sure that their contributions are not recorded in the history of Nepal and in the minds of people. There were indirect rulers who made sure that the process continued. Most of these rulers had foreign backing. Their descendants have become even more powerful and are continuing such unhealthy practices. Under new trends it will be interesting to see the role of greedy, unethical people in the power structure of Nepal. These people exhibit dishonesty, exploitation, arrogance and shallow affect. They are shallow minded, charming, carefree, and aggressive and they lack empathy. They’re skilled at dealing with people and constantly look out only for themselves. They are practically immune to stress. So they’re able to stay calm in the midst of a crisis. They are fearless and they are skilled at influencing people specially the vulnerable groups. So often, they get promoted in power structure  despite the darker side to their personalities.

 

How can illiterate  excluded senior citizens of Nepal specially women folk contribute in this nation with limited resources including ZERO back ground in education during their childhood days ? Their ancestors were known for good knowledge about water infrastructure.  Innocent and hardworking communities also used to be repeatedly looted by the Rana rulers who were from minority group, punished and turned resource less. They were the most vulnerable groups with low awareness in the past and those who were aware had to turn speechless for the fear of being repeatedly looted and attacked. Their subsequent generations were always trained to remain speechless and remain at low profile in order to stay safe from the rulers.  There were genuine honest role model local popular leaders in the past who tried very hard sacrificing their lives to empower these communities and improve their livelihood. An enlightened patriotism was punished by the ruling Ranas backed by British regime as they felt threatened by it. As the Ranas were holding absolute power over the country and exploiting the resources mainly for their own benefit, the people they could trust were those who were exclusively loyal to them alone. Anyone with a concern for the society at large and to the future of the country had to be the enemy of the Ranas, so they singled out, punished, jailed and executed anyone who fought for people’s welfare on the pretext that it was high treason. These local role  models with popular leadership qualities  also later became special target of the political leaders of later generations who were specially from the community of so called highest cast and most privileged groups backed by foreign influence. Most of them had been also  influencing such vulnerable  communities in the name of religion and god fearing rituals.

 

 

  

The present youth force from those innocent and vulnerable communities have no information of who their local leaders were in the past who fought for their social justice and fundamental rights. Historians change history and give it new interpretations by collecting biased views. Events have happened and cannot be changed even God himself cannot change the past, but historians are supposed to look upon past events in history from different angles according to their convictions. Historians of Nepal are able to change history; that is to change the meaning of an event which occurred without changing the event itself. We need to look upon history in a more scientific way. For academicians of history department of Nepalese universities history is nothing but a mass social movements in which the events are only milestones. The researchers of Nepal are doing research based mostly on false data and false narratives of the past. True facts are erased and false facts are highlighted. We lose valuable information this way. This becomes very unfair for those honest leaders who gave life for this nation. Technology today has power to capture, analyze and provide reports derived through the lenses of different perspectives and universities also don't seem to be serious about exploiting such tools for deriving better narratives. No wonder students refuse to get enrolled in the history department of the universities of Nepal.

 

Senior citizens who belong to such communities today repent on such unfortunate loss of historical evidences. Those senior citizens who are still alive now  cannot express in writing and some of them are still very frightened to express in public also.  They have become now a significant part of the population and with family care becoming weak.

 

 

 

As of 1 January 2018, the population of Nepal was estimated to be 29,362,095 people. More than 9% of Nepal's population is 60 or over as per the data available. There is strong evidence that older persons suffer disproportionately from disasters even in developed countries. Nepal ranks at number 30 in Disaster Risk and Age Index, which assesses the disaster risk faced by older people in 190 countries as per the report of one of the INGOs of Nepal. I was terrified to observe the plight of senior citizens while serving in during 2015 earthquake relief operation. Older people bear the initial brunt of disasters often because they cannot flee. This is compounded by the lack of essential medications for older people, such as those to treat diabetes etc, being available after disasters. And the mental fall-out from disasters is huge. These senior citizens should formulate a disaster response model that is equipped to rush in quickly to reach out, not only to older people, but also to the wider community. At times of large scale disasters such localized practical model provides rapid relief in the form of food, clothing and shelter. The institutional community memory from such vulnerable groups should be maintained for future planning.

 

Nepal is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, with annual floods and landslides, periodic drought and epidemics, and a high level of seismic activity. In addition, Nepal has recently emerged from a decade-long insurgency, and the potential for increases in criminal violence and localized insecurity persists. The vulnerability of Nepal’s citizens to disasters and conflict is exacerbated by poverty, unplanned urbanization, and substandard construction techniques. Both local and international stakeholders should work to enhance Nepal’s ability to prevent, mitigate, and respond to disasters and  to address the needs of vulnerable populations through programs that improve preparedness for and response to natural disasters.

 

 

A case of earthquake occurred in April, 2015 is reported as one of the environmental hazards visited by nature which proved disastrous causing massive loss of lives and properties to the vulnerable regions. It can be taken as a lesson to mitigate massive loss of lives and properties selecting isostatically proper land structure and constructing safe settlements for habitat in Nepalese context. It proved devastating and miserable causing extensive damage historic monuments, buildings, temples, roads and nearly 10000 deaths and thousands of injuries and the neighboring territories. Early calculations by international experts suggest that magnitude-7.8 earthquake is probably not big enough to rupture all the way to the surface, so there is still likely to be more strain stored, and we should probably expect another big earthquake to the west and south of this one in the coming decades. We need  help to increase the understanding of the importance of disaster risk reduction measures by mainstreaming them into government planning and budgets, increasing private sector engagement, enhancing the ability of the media to cover all aspects of disasters, and increasing people’s understanding of risks and how to protect themselves against hazards. Trainings on preparedness about earthquake, seismically  suitable structure  and human capacity development for scientifically proper settlements will support to minimize potential loss because neither it is predictable nor controllable.

 

 

 

 

Homes of widowed and elderly women have largely been overlooked in the rebuilding process. Those responsible are not showing enough will to address the issues and prioritize the most vulnerable populations. “We have to work step by step to ensure that no one is left out in the rebuilding process,” said Netra Prasad Subedi, an official with Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority, the government agency responsible for overseeing the rebuild. But setting processes and a deadline likely won’t help women in rural areas who have limited support to navigate the process of applying for funds. They often lack the skills needed to rebuild on their own in areas where construction labor is scarce. The situation of single women, who have very limited or no support at all in rebuilding, is even worse. Various report on surveys of earthquake-hit communities in Nepal found women were less likely than men to have started or completed reconstruction, less likely to be equipped with the skills to rebuild, and less likely to say they understand the complicated funding process, which requires government-approved housing designs and inspections before additional funding can be released.

 

 

The Nepal earthquake of 25 April, 2015 has taught a great lessons to understand the impact factors leading to the exclusion of older people and persons with disabilities from humanitarian action, barriers to their inclusion, and the extent to which their skills and knowledge were utilized to promote inclusive humanitarian action and, using this understanding, to formulate a set of recommendations for promoting inclusion. Unfortunately the present senior citizens from excluded communities who have rich painful field experiences  are uneducated and are unable to participate with authority in such important programs and hence loosing valuable information of historical importance for maintaining affected community institutional memory. The community institutional memory of vulnerable groups needs to made visible  with integrated approach with THINK TANKs of the same community, however, there is no government policy to provide resourceful environment for such think tanks to grow in this nation.  Water is thge recourse of the nation. National water policy draft has been created lacking perspectives from concerned stakeholders. The ownership has to be taken by such affected senior citizens and their youth force for such challenging task.

 

There were various reports on the study of the impact of this earthquake of 25 April, 2015, to understand the impact factors leading to the exclusion of older people and persons with disabilities from humanitarian action, barriers to their inclusion, and the extent to which their skills and knowledge were utilised to promote inclusive humanitarian action and, using this understanding, to formulate a set of recommendations for promoting inclusion. These recommendations were used to sensitise the broader humanitarian community to the need for inclusive disaster risk management practices in future emergency responses which pay attention to factors such as gender, age, disability and ethnicity, and build upon the capacities of older people and persons with disabilities.

 

According to international researchers only part of the pressure was released in this  earthquake as older faults appear to have interfered how they slipped. They have warned a section of the material on the fault remained locked in place and will continue to build up more material as India continues to collide into Nepal. They have anaysed  if this part of the fault ruptures, then it could devastate Katmandu – perhaps even within the next couple of decades. Nepal needs to encourage collaborative research program between local and international researchers for continous works making sure stakeholders are well prepared for when it does happen.'

 

 

Governmental agencies should build the capacity of humanitarian agencies and civil society organizations in addressing the inclusion issues of older people and persons with disabilities. There is a need to shift from an awareness-centric approach to a capacity building-centric approach to boost the confidence of older people and persons with disabilities. There are intellectual senior citizens  in Nepal who can be mobilized to work in these areas. In addition, to specifically increase the confidence of older people, agencies should advocate for the property rights of older people and bring about policy changes.

 

 

Senior citizens of Nepal should network with international humanitarian agencies who are engaged in supporting  the development of guidelines, tools and techniques for old-age and disability mainstreaming and inclusive development. They should be Nepali context-specific, short, and coherent and address the needs and gaps of older people and persons with disabilities.

 

The mainstreaming of age and disability issues in development plans and programs not only fulfils the human rights of older people and persons with disabilities but also makes it easy to leverage resources and reduce multiple barriers. Agencies should work together to amend existing laws, policies, and strategies as required to reduce barriers. Governmental and humanitarian agencies should strengthen the capacity of various concerned stakeholders for mainstreaming age and disability into development. Furthermore, they should mobilize “age and disability task forces” to strengthen the mainstreaming agenda and promote the greater inclusion of target groups in DRR and future emergency responses.

 

There should be interest groups who will play catalyst role in bridging governmental and humanitarian agencies who should advocate for mainstreaming age and disability into disaster preparedness efforts, particularly in the context of the government-initiated comprehensive disaster management program. Humanitarian agencies should advocate to collaborate with governmental agencies at different levels to increase the inclusion of older people and persons with disabilities in disaster risk reduction and disaster response.

 

Nepal's insurance penetration rate  is two times lower than India's  and four times lower than China's. Only five per cent of people in a population of about 28 million in Nepal have life insurance. There was more insurance carried by the tourists and expat community out there than all the Nepalese combined. The companies had  relaxed norms owing to the natural disaster, after the orders from the Nepal Insurance Regulatory Authority so that the claim amount could be disbursed at the earliest. 

 

 

There are forty registered Insurance companies in Nepal. Technology adoption is very important if citizens want fair services against their deposits. The court services should be automated fully so that financial and insurance fraud cases  can made visible to the citizens. 

 

The mainstream aid provided during the humanitarian response was often neither adequate nor relevant to older people and persons with disabilities. Social Welfare Council, of Nepal which is a body for regulating the non governmental sectors (NGOs) reports more than fifty thousand NGOs registered which are supposed to improve the quality of life of the disadvantaged groups and develop healthy civic society that are essential to our still-nascent democracy. Disaster response and recovery requires a coordinated effort between various public, private, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  Crisis management is a critical organizational function that involves planning and dynamic incident response to situations as they unfold, often in unpredictable ways. The cascading effects of an unfolding crisis can undermine a country’s ability to operate effectively and may result in serious harm to its people, structures, assets and reputation. The advent of a plethora of social media tools has changed the landscape of crisis management considerably over recent years with possibilities for social action now becoming realities. With readily available software tools such as online discussion platforms and news aggregators, disaster handling institutions can now disseminate, acquire and analyze information more efficiently and comprehensively. While social media has the ability to prevent a crisis from spiraling out of control, institutions cannot ignore its ability to aggravate an unfolding crisis situation. During critical times of earthquake disasters most of these older generation people of capital of Nepal remained blank while trying to seek emergency services because of the lack of literacy and knowledge about social media. NGOs are playing major roles in both disaster relief and hu- manitarian assistance. Senior citizens could function together with IT professionals and professional NGOs. 

 

The psycho-social counseling and efforts to promote shelter reconstruction and livelihood recovery for older people and persons with disabilities are still the dire needs for them to live a life with dignity. Humanitarian responders had lot of resources constraints and have not been able to focus on livelihood recovery among older people and persons with senior citizens and disabilities to help them pull through the impact of earthquake. Kathmandu based newspapers have not sufficiently covered news stories in relation to complex problems faced by  of senior citizens during critical moments of disaster. Most of the senior citizens during disaster relied on family, friends and neighbors for life saving information and some through local FM stations during rescue phase.  Revival of social sectors such as health, education and livelihood and rebuilding physical infrastructures is still necessary to support in livelihood recovery for senior citizens. Their right to live with dignity and meeting basic and specific needs should be honored. The municipalities of Nepal should rethink and strengthen their concerned department to create resources for such disaster preparedness. Legal rights for elderly people have still not been defined well in the current law under the constitution of Nepal making them most vulnerable during disaster. 

 

The current disaster had learning lessons on implementing the Program for Emergency Response training. . Many stakeholders were mobilized to train Nepali instructors on collapsed structure search and rescue, medical first responder basics, and hospital preparedness for emergencies. Training on community action for disaster response and incident command system operation was also provided.

Nepal is a pioneer in community radio in South Asia. However, few community radio stations were advised to develop any necessary measures to withstand an earthquake.

Most newspapers continued their publication despite damage to their buildings, but distribution was halted so their reporting was not getting out to many people

 

The media in Nepal has been instrumental in keeping people connected and updated about the recent magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit the country on Saturday April 25.

Social media

Social media has also been a powerful tool in ensuring communication, as foreigners and reporters already in Nepal were able to inform the world via Facebook and Twitter. The impact of social media in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake is merely a drop in the ocean, but it’s better than nothing. System was used to crowdsource data and visualise incidents which enables real-time response from relief agencies

 

 Older men and women may be unable to access essential items due to mobility problems.

Older people bear the initial brunt of disasters as they are unable to flee. The physical decline that comes with ageing, including poor mobility and hearing, will mean older people are extremely vulnerable. Especially if they are caring for small children or live alone.

We were working with other organizations to ensure their distributions are age-friendly and appropriate for older people.

We are also looking into the most practical and effective way of ensuring older people can access the healthcare they need for chronic diseases and other health conditions. Health agencies confirm that there is a lack of prioritisation of treatment for chronic diseases in the aftermath of the earthquake, even though these conditions affect most older people.

We are attending cluster meetings on health and nutrition, food security, protection and shelter to advocate for older people to be included in the overall humanitarian response. At the moment, we are seeing that older people and people with disabilities are not being mentioned.

 

Hospitals throughout Nepal were flooded with patients, with thousands in need of care for acute injuries specially older people. There are very complicated fractures and not enough medical personnel to actually handle them. Often in these situations there were more amputations than actually needed. That’s really sad and means longer-term rehabilitation. 

 

Due to the changing family structure, the senior citizens in the family are feeling insecure as the joint family is opting for nuclear family. On the other hand, there is no legal provision for obliging the children who have taken the property as the co-share from the parents for the compulsory care-taking of the parents. It is a legitimate demand raised by the senior citizens that as there is a legal provision for the right of the children on the property earned by the parents; similar legal provision is needed for obliging the children to take care of their parents. Once this provision gets room in the new rule of law, any one, whoever, enjoys the co-share of the paternal property is obliged to take care of the aged parents. Therefore, a constitutional provision is needed to be made for ensuring adequate care and nursing of parents or anyone else from whom they have claim over the property. People are surprised why government couldn't legalize the will system which would made issues simpler for senior citizens to handle.

 

Many benefit programs are based on laws and rules that are hard to understand. It is important for them to have a general idea of what their legal rights are and how they can be exercised. There is no place for listening to the voice of the senior citizen. The voice demanding the formation of senior citizen commission has been raised from the aged people frequently. The senior citizens feel strongly that  if they had been included in the in the legal framework drafting team of the constitution framing phase the facility, preservation, and dignity expected by them would be granted appropriately.

At least, a separate desk is needed immediately, under the women, children and social welfare ministry for pouring out the pains and complaints of the senior citizens.

 

 

These senior citizens spent most of their life during productive period in the rituals which are based on folk lores, myths, spiritual practices and religion. Nepal has amazing rituals in practice like Kumari pratha, chaupadi pratha, Deukee pratha, Bal Bibaha, child marriage, polyandry marriage system etc. Instead of promoting programs on empowering women, these people who ruled citizens indirectly seem to have engaged vulnerable innocent citizens more on GOD fearing rituals rather than providing access to education. These citizens were terrified of going to hell. It was much worse than any horror movie, or any other source of fear and hence they followed the indirect ruler's ( most of them under the influence of religious leaders)  unscientific rituals and practices. No wonder I see blank expressions on the faces of senior citizens from such communities. Some citizens whose natural bend to intellectualism was discouraged and stunted, because it didn't not fit with the practice of blind faith. Such people were systematically eliminated from the hearts of such excluded communities. The print media dominated by upper class also were biased on such personalities and their contributions have also not been reflected in the text books of history departments. These people hence lacked role models for future generations. No wonder I see blank expressions on the faces of senior citizens from such communities.

 

 

 

General mass didn’t have access to newspapers then. Every information was censored. These senior citizens never maintained valuable historical data and most of them are still not aware of the importance of such valuable information. The current youth force are blind on true facts of contributions made by honest visionary leaders of the past whose records on contributions have been deleted from the historical documents of Nepal. No wonder students stopped getting enrolled in the history department of Nepalese universities because text books and books written by so called leaders of this nation are not based on true facts of the past.

 

Now citizens have access to education, however, spending high cost for low quality academics. Youth from excluded communities from low income group have no option but to use the hard earned savings of the elderly people of the family to pay the high cost of the education. Most of these graduates are spending time in frustration because either they are under employed or unemployed because of poor quality education. When these elderly people need money for medical care these younger siblings can't pay back brining conflict in the family.  I see blank faces on the graduates of such category of  communities like I see blank faces on their elderly citizens.

 

I went through education system which delivered quality and was affordable to general mass in India at IIT Kanpur. For more details please see

 

http://www.timilayamithapa.com/blogs/view/44.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…/Indian_Institutes_of_Technology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Institutes_of_National_Importance

 

Government of India after independence (1947) then didn't even have enough budget to initiate academic institutes of national importance, yet they took bold step in collaborating with renowned international  institutions  and managed creating international standard academic institutions under resources constrained environment. I have witnessed how such academic institutions have helped India create senior citizen  THINK TANKS  to drive the nation reaping the benefit of true quality education. No wonder there is such a huge gap on intellectual levels of THINK TANKs of Nepal and India.

Some of the girls of my hostel of IIT K, India used to invite Hisila and I to spend time with their families during short holidays when it was not feasible to go back to Kathmandu. During those visits, I used to observe the aged grandmothers of my friends, some of them in the mid-eighties, reading the “Times of India” and other magazines. I used to get shocked to see the level of education of grandmas in India during those days. Suddenly, the educational gap in Nepal created by Rana’s  regime became so apparent to me. During my holiday back home I began exploring the education back ground of grand aunts and  other senior citizens of the capital of Nepal.  Instead of telling me about their academic back ground they told me horror story of getting tortured while moving out of the house wearing even good clothes. An enlightened patriotism was punished by the ruling Ranas as they felt threatened by it. As the Ranas were holding absolute power over the country and exploiting the resources mainly for their own benefit, the people they could trust were those who were exclusively loyal to them alone. Anyone with a concern for the society at large and to the future of the country had to be the enemy of the Ranas, so they singled out, punished, jailed and executed anyone who fought for people’s welfare on the pretext that it was high treason.

 

Nepal has third largest source of water in the world .  Sustainable development of water resources can significantly contribute to poverty alleviation and economic growth. Recognizing the need for comprehensive management and development of water resources for realizing optimal benefit, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal (HMGN) started formulating Water Resources Strategy (WRS) in 1996, and approved it in January 2002. The goal defined by the strategy is to improve the living standard of Nepalese people in a sustainable manner.

Long term vision, goal and the basic principles of the policy has been spelt out. The policies and strategies have made the objectives of water use and propose clear. Intensive discussion is still lacking about new National water policy of Nepal with different stakeholders raising questions and showing implications of the National Water Resources Policy in the changed context.

Government need to make transparent arrangements for water sharing, based on evidence and scientific analysis, among various users for the achievement of maximum benefits from water resources in terms of drinking water, irrigation, agriculture and animal husbandry, hydropower, industrial uses, recreation and land navigation, and religious, cultural and environmental use. The water resources shall be developed and managed as per the integrated water resource management principles, by comprehensively considering each basis in its entirety. Concerned basins will have water transfer for the maximum economic, social and environmental benefits.

The National Water Resources Policy needs intensive discussion as Nepal’s water resources also relate to the international treaties, as well as upstream and downstream benefits,

There is a need of the policy at a time when even the constitution is yet to be settled, with debates on the number of states and their boundaries still raging. They argued that there will be disputes over the upper and lower riparian rights in the use of water when the constitution gets implemented.

 

Regulators need to design ways to utilize water resources and ensures the development and management of related infrastructure in view of maximizing benefits and settling the conflicts.

 

 

If there is no measurements how can there be equity delivery of water?? When it comes to adopting technology Nepal government is very slow in such important decision making.  A smart meter is an electronic device that records consumption of electric energy and communicates the information to the electricity supplier for monitoring and billing. Smart meters typically record energy hourly or more frequently, and report at least daily. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system. Such an advanced metering infrastructure differs from automatic meter reading in that it enables two-way communication between the meter and the supplier. People are talking about equity in water distribution however decision makers don't seem to be concerned with measuring and charging volume consumption effectively adopting technology.
I have witnessed large numbers of senior citizens specially women who have difficulty collecting water from tankers among large groups during dry seasons. In Kathmandu valley. I had even approved proposal for smart meters and  SCADA system for measurements and control mechanisms eight years ago while i was in KUKL board. The system procurement still has not been materialized even now.

Similarly, more than twenty percent people are far from getting access to drinking water. There is a huge gap between the genuine needs of water and the real water available in the country for tapping.

 

The Constitution of Nepal has listed watershed, rivers and water resources under the jurisdiction of center, provincial and district levels. The constitution has also guaranteed safe drinking and sanitation as the fundamental rights.

 

Even though the stock of water resources overall is seen to be in abundance in Nepal, the resources have not been made available in the appropriate quantity where and when they are needed. It is certain that the pressure on this important resource will increase in the coming years due to the likely scarcity of water caused by the ever increasing population and climate change

The broad objectives covers short-, medium- and long-term action plans for the water resources sector, including investments and human resource development. 

Nepal could have generated large numbers of experts in water and energy management in the world long time ago. Why the government of Nepal is still not investing adequately in education sector for good economic return? The unversities are running Mater's degree and Ph D degree prgrams without adequate resources. The Industry academia linkage is poor. 

 

Nepal has yet to provide enough water for drinking, irrigation and power generation, but many controversial myths pepper the discussion of the country's water resources. A longstanding myth puts Nepal at the top slot among hydropower rich countries in the world, only next to Brazil.  In truth, Nepal is importing over 400 MW of electricity from India to end its long hours of load shedding. The country generates just over 700 MW.

International agencies like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Government
of Sweden (SIDA), the Government of Germany (BMZ), Duke Energy Corporation and the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC (collectively, the “Founding Partners”) combined resources to create the “Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development” (PAEGC) initiative. The objective of PAEGC is to support new and sustainable approaches to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy solutions to increase agriculture productivity and/or value for farmers and agribusinesses in developing countries and emerging regions that lack access to reliable, affordable clean energy

Another myth makes Nepal noted for its riches in water resources. The reality, however, is that a large swathe of agricultural land relies on the erratic monsoon rains for irrigation, with only 20 percent of the land benefitting from a regular irrigation facility.

 

With the growing population, water demand has grown for religious and cultural purposes as well. The diversion of water for irrigation and hydropower has affected the rituals in the lower riparian belts. 

 

What are the real costs and benefits of SPIS compared with other technologies? What rules, regulations and policies are needed to manage the risks and realize the potential of such systems? What are viable business models? How can smallholders benefit? How can the risk of groundwater depletion be addressed effectively? How can SPIS help to empower women and promote gender equity? What types of capacity development programmes are needed to support farmers, extension workers, local private sectors and others? What are the opportunities for knowledge exchange and technology transfer?

 

Nevertheless, there are also challenges with the uptake and use of SPIS. It finds that access to finance, especially for small-scale farmers, as well as the accessibility of good quality products and services remains an issue in Nepal. Further capacity development activities are needed to ensure to users have a basic understanding of set-up and functions of the system, and can take care of the daily operation and maintenance.

 

It is important to  better understand the potential of solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) for developing countries. There should be experience sharing sessions among  representatives from different countries sharing  knowledge of solar pumping technologies, covering large to small-scale systems in tropical to arid climate zones, for vegetable gardens, orchards and livestock watering, using surface and groundwater.

Agriculture in Nepal has long been based on subsistence farming, particularly in the hilly regions where peasants derive their living from fragmented plots of land cultivated in difficult conditions. Government programs to introduce irrigation facilities and fertilizers have proved inadequate, their delivery hampered by the mountainous terrain. Population increases and environmental degradation have ensured that the minimal gains in agricultural production, owing more to the extension of arable land than to improvements in farming practices, have been cancelled out. Once an exporter of rice, Nepal now has a food deficit.

Over 80 percent of the population is involved in agriculture, which constitutes 41 percent of GDP. The seasonal nature of farming leads to widespread underemployment, but programs to grow cash crops and encourage cottage industries have had some success over the years. Two-sevenths of the total land is cultivated, of which 1.5 million hectares produced 3.7 million metric tons of the staple crop of rice in 1999. We need to get the data of 2018.

 

 

Many industries running in Nepal are based on agriculture. Such industries are dependent on the raw materials that come from agriculture sector. The examples are sugar industry from sugarcane, jute industry from jute, cotton factory from cotton, leather industry from animal skin, tea factory from tea leaves, etc.

 

There is so little investment in public education by Nepal government even now. The present crisis of Nepal could have been avoided if we had policy makers with better academic back ground with richer experiences in the past. There is a serious need to engage different stakeholders all over the country for re- thinking !

 

 

 

His Majesty the king of Bhutan Jigmey Namgyal Wangchuk was corona-ted as the 5th King of Bhutan in 2008. A month after the coronation, he made education and health services completely free for his subjects through out the kingdom. In Bhutan no one pays for education and health services. He increased the salaries of the teachers which is more than the bureaucrats. In front of teachers, he never sits on his throne, instead he sits on a normal chair. But he offers higher chair to teachers. In royal functions , there are always few seats reserved for teachers. The teachers in Bhutan are required to pay the minimum tax. The main purpose of displaying immense respect to teachers are to encourage better education system in the kingdom. Due to his consistent effort, after ten years, the education system of Bhutan is one of the best in the world. The world doesn't need powerful kings and leaders equipped with nuclear bombs, but the world needs wise kings and leaders, who put efforts to make improvement in the lives of people.

 

The first Dean of Institute of Engineering (IOE), Pulchowk  Mr. Kul Ratna Tuladhar, told ( 1979) me that there were top level international academic institutions in the world who wanted to create world standard Engineering institute like IITs of  India in Nepal in order to generate world standard technical man power in the region. That offer was rejected by Royal palace (king Mahendra) saying " if the citizens of Nepal get  access to such high standard education the life span of Royal regime will be reduced". What a news I had to hear after returning from IIT K? He told me that,  I being an alumni of IIT K,  should pursue in continuing the effort to initiate quality education in Nepal.

 

How about effort of leaders of Nepal in "quality education" at affordable cost? When will they learn lessons from regional countries? The pension of teachers retiring from public institutions have been abolished making situation worst for the teachers who are already paid low salary. How can citizens expect quality education from government when the teachers have low remunerations? Nepal seems to be dominated by education mafias running private  academic institutions who are also seen occupying key positions in government academic regulatory positions. They  are also responsible for not brining out right policies for "quality education" in public institutions at affordable rate. The descendants of the type of people who were ruling indirectly in the past then are still seem to be active even now.

 

While many institutions are trying to empower the vulnerable excluded groups have been quick to jump on board the ‘sustainability bandwagon’ little appears to have been done to consider the role of, and effect on, the HR  function and institutional leadership. The world today has more knowledge than ever before, but not everyone can benefit from it. Globally, countries have made major strides in increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrollment rates in schools, and basic literacy skills have improved tremendously.

 

 

Quality education is the foundation of sustainable development, and therefore of the Sustainable Development Goals. This requires serious investments from all concerned stakeholders.  As a policy intervention, education is a force multiplier which enables self-reliance, boosts economic growth by enhancing skills, and improves people’s lives by opening up opportunities for better livelihoods. In fact, the institutions in Nepal have still not taken this issue seriously and have tended to treat sustainability and HR in silo. How are HR functions defining and enacting institutional sustainability in Nepalese context?

 

Seniors citizens retired from academic institutions with the help of youth can play  crucial role in resolving above burning issue. "I don't see retiring," one of them says. "What do you do? Why would you retire as long as you can walk or talk or even contribute to nation building using wealth of experiences gained in life? Government and communities can utilize the strengths. I think it slows you down in life if not in action. As long as you are able to do things, keep doing them. I do different things. It helps mentally and physically. It adds to your life. I actually love people, and in my heart, I love entertaining," says one of my friends. 

 

There are not adequate amount of programs for elderly people mostly due of lack of networking and budget to run the program. It is very important that the policies should meet the need of elderly people. Otherwise the condition of elderly population is going to be very miserable in near future. Young graduates  and other concerned stakeholders can bring difference on these senior citizens by encouraging them to be on social media for experience sharing, down loading from their brains the institutional memories of their past experiences which carries such valuable unrecorded historical  information (specially from excluded communities) and becoming part of THINK TANKs of Nepal in policy interventions. As senior citizens age the information (national property) residing in their brains too will fade away.

 

Senior citizens can blog about how life was when they were growing up or how things have changed during their lifetime due to unscientifically designed policies in the country. Large percentage of senior citizens of Nepal doesn't have formal education, however, they have huge wealth of experiential leanings which should be shared with current youth for empowering them. Doubtlessly, it will be great support for the country’s development if we could regularly use their (educated or uneducated) experience, knowledge, skill and education. They can network online and offer advices and mentoring to younger people and students and they can start Facebook pages to talk to others their age. From online meetings seniors can plan offline meetups and networking events with like minded people and people their age. They have amazing stories and brilliant ideas. Through social media they can share all that good stuff with others. 

They can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, email etc  They can read ebooks, articles and blog posts, find song lyrics and find out what their favorite entertainers are up to. They can play games, either by themselves or with family and friends. Social media is a remarkable tool for keeping in touch, especially for seniors who keep in touch with kids, grandkids, and sometimes even great grandkids, but it’s more than just family. Seniors are finding their college roommates etc.  Grandparents are friends with college-aged grandkids and keeping up with their accomplishments. To say social media has revolutionized the way families connect is an understatement.

 

 

Google could help senior citizens of Nepal by providing good reliable translation system which will help them in creating better livelihood. We need to empower them so that they can also be an integral part of the participatory framework in the economic development of the nation. The current quality of English to Nepali and Nepali to  English translation system designed by Google is poor and hence large population of Nepal are not using this system. Government of Nepal could have helped in improving this translation by providing huge wealth of data, however, I don't see such initiation so far. We need to engage senior communities also who could contribute in improving flow of data to the translation engine so that both urban rural communities can have access to important valuable information from world to understand in local language to improve their livelihood. Senior citizens can be engaged in helping translate available local materials and feed to Google translate.

 

We need good quality signal services from the telecom operators to make programs for development works effective. According to the latest figures these are 6 telecom network operators in Nepal where NTC being the first mobile network operator in Nepal. Rolling out 4G projects in rural areas could open up lot of socio- economic development in urban and rural areas. The present performance of private operators, state owned operator  and government regulating agencies is poor blocking all the opportunities for growth of the citizens. Entire population of Nepal should take ownership of forming communities for raising voice on this sensitive issue. Senior citizens and present youth force should take leadership in this movement in improve the situation for leapfrogging in knowledge deliveries to the rural poor and urban poor societies.

 

The mission of NTA (Nepal Telecom Authority )  is to create the optimum conditions for the development of telecommunications sector in Nepal by serving the public interest in terms of quality, choice and value for money; healthy competition among service providers and the nation in its drive for socio-economic advancement through efficient private sector participation.

Technology becomes obsolete fast and adoption of new trends becomes necessary to be in trac with global trends. Users of new technology has to grow in order to encourage larger volume users to make the system cost effective. NTA should be very alert on these issues, develop necessary strategies and Human Capital accordingly.

 

5G is the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications. It succeeds the 4 G (LTE/WiMax), 3 G (UMTS) and 2 G (GSM) systems. 5G performance targets include high data rate, reduced latency, energy saving, cost reduction, higher system capacity and massive device connectivity. The impact of mobile on our lives will be accelerated with the arrival of 5G in a few years. Wireless connectivity will go from something we experience through personal devices, to an integrated infrastructure of buildings, transport and utilities, providing unprecedented benefits for citizens, businesses and cities alike. This ubiquitous connectivity will help make energy grids more resilient, slash unproductive commutes and free up time in our over-stretched public services. Nowadays, at least two billion people are experiencing a complete lack of wireless cellular network coverage. These users live in rural areas and low-income regions, where network operators are not keen to invest, mainly due to high Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational Expenditure (OpEx) costs, as well as the scarcity of electricity from the grid. 5G-nodes are powered by solar panels and batteries. 

 

Early efforts to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) into the economy should focus on developing policies to support spectrum management for wireless and broadband services, licensing arrangements, and deployment of the most efficient technologies available. 

 

Nepal lacks input from regulator experts to drive the communication services. Regulation needs to be constantly reviewed and flexible enough to cope with a fast-changing world,  agencies too often regulate for the “here and now”, rather than the future. We deal with current political and practical problems, but at the same time we should be thinking about the future and trying to ensure that our regulatory frameworks are capable of responding to the bigger issues that may arise down the track. With the myriad of potential social, economic and environmental influences, combined with constant change in technology, industry practices, communications and innovations, it is clear there are challenges to setting deregulation frameworks beyond a current, reactionary approach

 

 

Retired lawyers and legal scholars can help to formulate information policies that will produce an information society that we would actually like to live in. The Internet has generated considerable interest not only among the millions ofpeople who use it every day, but also among legal policy makers. The law of the Internet is still in the process of evolving. While ever more legal rules are being applied, adapted, and adopted to govern activities occurring via the Internet, there is every reason to expect that additional legal rules will need to be formulated (and reformulated) as technology advances to enable previously unimaginable activities, including new business models for producing and distributing products and services. People with appropriate capabilities have to be deputed at the decision making places. The decision makers have to think strategically. Planning functions have to be strong function also. This is a complex area and Nepal need to build a strategy for building human capital in the sector. Information may be the principal commodity of an information economy in an information age, but policymakers need to realize that information is not just a commodity. It is also an essential input to innovation, knowledge creation, education, and social and political discourse. If information is commodified too much, these social values may be impaired. Policymakers need to realize that the information policies they adopt now in relation to the Internet will have profound effects on the information society that will result from these actions. Research work needed so that what gets decided at the legislator level and benefits to the system  are seen at ground level. Baseline data is important. Generation of information and sharing of information is important too. Habit of making everything transparent is important too. Then economic regulation of assets and industry will bring system in track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the possible users groups who could contribute to volume consumption of such services are youth and senior citizens. Although our seniors consistently have lower rates of technology adoption than the general public, this group is more digitally connected than ever. In fact, some groups of seniors – such as those who are younger, more affluent and more highly educated – report owning and using various technologies at rates similar to adults under the age of 65.

 

Still, there remains a notable digital divide between younger and older people. And many seniors who are older, less affluent or with lower levels of educational attainment continue to have a distant relationship with digital technology. Youth from marginalized group who need to upgrade their knowledge and skills could take advantage from new current trends and also could play an important role in helping older generation in technology adoption.

Under the Rana-British rule, between 1846 and 1951 the Ranas were opposed to giving education to the masses. General public, who also used to be under the influence of religious leaders , used to be frightened to express their wishes for getting access to such services and resources. Ruler enjoyed easy way of ruling illiterate population. Most of the enlightened patriotism, genuine political local leaders of those days who had served local majorities and sacrificed for the nation  were punished in the past. Leaders of such category always remained special target however now are have Cloud computing and HR solutions to capture every detail activities to observe analyze visually. Such practices are continuing even now however decision makers are inhibiting implementation of such technological solutions for improving the governance.  Now people can analyze the critical situations through the lenses of  multiple perspectives because people are more literate and  have knowledge about political narratives and are willing to take  ownership of analyzing important movements of past for the rights for social justice. Current senior citizens ( above 70 years)  have all the past information in the brains and not in papers. These people are passing away slowly with all those valuable historical information in their brains. Some are now recording and publishing details of those innocent and genuine role models  of the nation of the past. People are slowly understanding the  cleverly designed old strategies. The descendants of the past crooks have become even more powerful now and are continuing such unhealthy practices. Under new trends it will be interesting to see the role of greedy, unethical people in the power structure of Nepal. These people exhibit dishonesty, exploitation, arrogance and shallow affect. They are shallow minded, charming, carefree, and aggressive and they lack empathy. They’re skilled at dealing with people and constantly look out only for themselves. They are fearless and they are skilled at influencing people specially the vulnerable groups. So often, they get promoted in power structure  despite the darker side to their personalities.  They have captured all the key positions right from local bodies, federal sates and the central government. There are some percentages from other communities trained by them to follow their behavior patterns. If citizens hire experts to analyze the history and deteriorating current situation citizens will get a clear picture about which community have been damaging this nation all throughout. General population have expressed serious concern over this issue. How can Nepal grow quality of human capital under the leadership of above people who are driving  nation holding the key positions in the power structure? Now we have technology which can capture behaviors of such people in real time and which can give visuals of analytics in real time.

 

Nepal must upgrade its infrastructure and improve the quality of human capital if it is to achieve sustainable economic growth and reap the full benefits from its ambitious reform agenda for creating prosperous Nepal. 

 

Nepal remained so far poor because of poor quality human resources (leaders) driving the governance system in the past and now. There is acute shortage of THINK TANKs to inform citizens on the correct narratives of political developments in the country. Current senior citizens ( above 70s) are aware of this, however, are speechless. They have well-learnt mind, after life long leanings from bitter experiences under fake leaders, will always have more questions than answers. Those questions have historical values and THINK TANKs should capture those valuable information before they fade away from this earth. Smart mobiles can be used and smart youth force can be engaged to collect huge wealth of such valuable information from the brains of those experienced senior citizens through extensive interactions. The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

 

 Road and polution

The literacy rate of majority of senior citizens of Nepal are so poor that they lack capacities to express their concerns over critical issues of Nepal.
Citizens are inhaling poisonous toxic materials through the dust in the road. Stakeholders like representatives from concerned decision makers, traffic police personnel, transport associations, shopkeepers, vehicle owners and people on the road should come together and take commitment from political leaders for improving the pollution the road. Engineering program should cover courses on social responsibilities. Road engineers should feel ashamed about poor quality work.
The respiratory system was found to be the most affected system in the human body. Lead, platinum-group elements (platinum, rhodium, and bohrium), aluminum, zinc, vanadium, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were the components of road dust. Health practitioners say that if the amount of dust overwhelms the macrophages, dust particles coat the inner walls of the airways without causing scarring, but only producing mild damage, or maybe none at all. Some particles dissolve in the bloodstream. The blood then carries the substance around the body where it may affect the brain, kidneys and other organs.

 

 

written by

Timila Yami Thapa

https://www.facebook.com/PROFtimilayami/

 

and 

 

http://www.timilayamithapa.com/blogs/view/44.html