Wednesday, September 20, 2006

(Youth, Media and Peace in Nepal)

Shanta Pokharel

Youth

Literally speaking youths can be defined as a transitional phase between the childhood and adulthood. But it is very difficult to determine with an element of precision and exactitude when one ends and other begins. In the West it is often customary to take the age bracket of 10 and 20 to be young people. According to the standard UN definitions, also used by ILO, the youth fall between the age group of 15–29. In Nepal the National Planning Commission has taken the chronology of the Adolescence (10–19), youth (15-24) and young (10 – 24) to be within the limits of 10 to 24. Data is also used from the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2001 and Nepal Adolescents and young Adult (NAYA) Survey, 2000. In many countries, there is difficulty in getting age specific data for the 15-24 years age groups. The major objective of this paper is to fill the existing void and provide information about youth in Nepal .

Adolescence has been defined by the World Health Organization as the period of life spanning the ages between 10-19 years, and youth as between 15-24 years. Young people are those between 10- 24 years of age. Adolescence is the second decade of life and it is a period of rapid development. Moreover, it is a time when growth is accelerated, major physical changes take place and differences between boys and girls are accentuated. Since about one third of the world's population are between the age of 10 and 24 with vast majority living in developing countries, they have not received specific attention in most population and health research programs.

The reproductive health need of adolescents was neglected in the existing health services in Nepal . According, there is a need to undertake research and collect information about adolescents and youth in Nepal to provide the health as well as young people friendly services in needy areas. The tenth plan has also addressed the importance of adolescents and youth especially in population management and health sectors.

During the past decade young people and their health needs have been the subject of greater attention worldwide. Especially, the issue of adolescent reproductive health received global attention after the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) 1994 since adolescence in a time of mental and psychological adjustment and it is a situation of being no longer a child, but not yet an adult either.

Nepal 's population has increased from 8 million in 1952/54 to 23 million in mid 2001. The addition of over 15 million people in less than five decades is due to the high population growth rate. Continuing high population growth will amount to Nepal 's population reaching 32 million by the year 2016 (MOPE, 1998) coupled with poor human development indicators such as low literacy, high infant mortality and low economic growth rates.

It is interesting to note that youth populations are more in dense populated districts and which have big cities such as Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kaski and Jhapa. It is argued that youth are opportunity oriented and they move for opportunity and this is also the case in Nepal that youth are mobile to urban centers in Nepal (CBS, 2003a: 336).

The urban-rural differential is also important from the policy point of view. The Table 3 presents the urban-rural differential. There is substantial difference in percent of adolescents living in urban and rural areas of Nepal . However, there are more youth people in urban than in rural areas. Youth people are concentrated in urban areas, which are the expected pattern since they are naturally opportunity seekers and high demanding and high aspiration groups. These groups move for opportunity, education and employment.

Education is known to be an important indicator of socioeconomic development. Table 4 shows 70 percent youth are literate in Nepal. It is also seen that more males are literate than their female counterparts. 81 percent males and 60 percent females are literate. Since more than one fifth of these groups are still illiterate. These groups are still illiterate. So these groups should be focused in any program and policies.

Among youth 50 percent have completed their primary education, however about 24 percent of young have been able to pass SLC examination. Likewise 43 percent and 14 percent youth have completed primary education and SLC respectively.

Marriage is not a biological event like birth or death, rather it is a social event that is determined by the society within which it occurs. (Aryal and Adhikary, 2003: 340). Young people are increasingly exposed to reproductive health risks such as unintended and early pregnancies, and complications from pregnancy and childbirth. The high incidence of marriage during young age causes higher rates of childbearing. 57 percent of youth and about three fourth of young people of Nepal are still single. About 11 percent adolescents had already married. Among married adolescents, youth and young people, the percentage of females is higher than males. In Nepal the legal age at marriage was 16 and 18 years respectively, with parents consent and without parental consent 18 and 21.

The youth population is the most sensitive group in Nepal and can even be volatile and aggressive when they are unemployed. The Nepali youth today are prone to anti-systemic views, which has emanated from socio-economic grievances, lack of good governance, and radical and even subversive political indoctrination. The working of the multi-party system during the last decade further questioned the ability of our political leaders to plan, to administer and to progress. All this in totality further alienated our youth population from the present political process. The current negative growth in the Nepali economy with the closer of many of her factories and the sinking of her tourist industry to its lowest ebb has had a significant impact in the employment of the youth in the formal and the informal sector.

Millions of unemployed rural youth clog the cities and yet millions more have fled abroad ( India, Gulf countries, East Asia, Europe and the USA) in search of jobs. But it has become a national disaster after the Iraq incidence when 12 innocent Nepalese youth were killed on August 31,2004 in Iraq. Nepalese people had to bear a five days curfew and massive infrastructures destruction in Nepal due to the spontaneous nationwide agitation against the Iraq incidence. People set fire on hundreds of manpower companies in Kathmandu and shouted against the government (Pokharel, 2004: 104).

The Nepali youths did play an important role in the anti-Rana movement in the first half of the twentieth century, which did burst into the revolution of 1950. In 1979-80 (2036 B. S.) student's movement brought referendum in Nepal and people of Nepal became more conscious. In 1990 (2046 B. S.), youth of Nepal played a major role to through out autocratic Panchayat and contributed to bring multiparty system in Nepal.

Media

When it is simply said 'media' that strikes in our mind that it must be a newspaper, a television, a radio or anything that pleases our eyes or fills our ears with news and information. Literally, media can be defined as simple as 'means of communicating news and information to the public such as radio, television or a newspaper'. Media has become most powerful part of our lives in today's complex world. It is the 'media' that informs and provides an informed view of the world. No other institution in the world can do it. Governments have too large stake to provide the necessary objectivity, and individuals lack the resources. So, is it in the developed nations or developing nations media is placed on the top rank to run the country successfully. Thomas Jefferson once said he would choose newspapers without a government over a government without newspapers. He believed that we could not have one without the other, and with that in mind, we all firmly believe that it must be a top priority to every government – "freedom to press". In fact, in Nepal it is treated as 4 th important part of the nation on which people hold on their hopes.

The invention of a printing machine by John Gutenberg made possible the dissemination of ideas wider and faster than ever before. The press soon emerged as a powerful tool much dreaded by people in power and a useful instrument strengthening the hands of those who opposed state monopoly on the free flow of ideas into society. National media have grown in stature into global media making it possible to penetrate their messages simultaneously to every nook and corner of the world. The global media emanation from developed countries wield tremendous power and enjoy unchallenged position vis-à-vis the media of developing nations, which are at the receiving end (Pokhrel, 2001: 81-82).

The 21 st century is widely known as the age of information and communication. Many countries have more are moving towards obtaining similar success Nepal lags far behind. This is the ground reality. The existing problem can be addressed by, among others, the following measures. The media industry has attracted heavy money while the 1980's saw a flood of newspapers, the 1990's augured in the real money. It is from the 1980's that the all-in-one editor cum publisher individuals-run newspaper expanded to the editor and associates with the publisher at times being a group or an individual not necessarily the editor. The Nepalese media is in transition and continues to struggle to define its role in multi-party democracy. It remains effectively under the control of either the government or political parties.

In conventional parlance, the current era in history generally characterized as one of globalization, technological revolution and democratization. In all three of these areas media and communication play a central, perhaps even a defining role. Economic and cultural globalization arguably would be impossible without a global commercial media system to promote global markets and to encourage consumer values. Prior to the eighties and nineties, national media systems were typified by domestically owned radio, television and newspaper industries. There were major import markets for films, TV shows music and books, and these markets tended to be dominated by U.S. based firms.

The importance of the global media system to the formation of expansion of global and regional markets for goods and services often sold by the largest multinational corporations. The emerging global media system also has significant cultural and political implications, specifically with regard to political democracy, imperialism, and the nature of socialist resistance in the coming years.

The relationship of the global media system to the question of imperialism is complex. The third world nations developed plans for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) to address their concerns that Western domination over journalism and culture made it virtually impossible for newly independent nations to escape colonial status. Similar concerns about U.S. media domination were heard across Europe . The NWICO campaign was part of a broader struggle at that time by Third World nations to address formally the global economic inequality that was seen as a legacy of imperialism. Global journalism is dominated by Western news services, which regard existing capitalism, the United States , its allies, and their motives in the most charitable manner imaginable.

How can the present Nepali press be rescued from the pulls and pressures of unwanted kind? In which way can be press be made a watchdog with mouth to bark and teeth to bite those who are corrupt and corrupting the society? Who takes the responsibility for the lapses and mistakes attributed to the press? These are some of the questions that need to be dealt with in a cool dispassionate style by the members of the press themselves. It is mainly the publishers/owners who should take the blame, firstly for recruiting unqualified reporters and editors and then secondly for placing them under pressure to backtrack from their professional obligations.

After all, there is nothing to teach at a school of journalism, "said great American journalist Walter Lippmann of the last century, "What a journalist needs is an education it seems to be contradictory statement. But it is not. The message in it is that while journalism is mainly learning–by-doing progression, but it requires education, especially to those willing to make a career as journalists. After all, journalists are educators using the pages of newspapers.

From a media perspective, the use of this freedom would seem especially relevant in analyzing the Nepali crisis and suggesting a role for the media. The Nepali media has contributed a fair share to the public exposure and awareness of the flaws in governance over the past decade. The media must continue to safeguard the interest of the mass. The call for freedom of press should become a distinctive organizing principle of every Nepali who believes in democracy even when feudal components continue to suppress the voice of minorities and downtrodden in Nepal . Communication media should aim to empower a plurality of citizens. A reversal of liberty of press will certainly hurt the democratic sentiment and may lead to social, political and religious unrest. The subject of media and democracy must forever remain open and controversial. Journalists sat on the laps of different political parties ignoring their professional ethics. The media houses were run by non-professional and used such publication houses as a milking cow. For there personal benefit media persons were hiding some news and exaggerating some.

There has been much progress in women's participation in media channels, particularly in the electronic media, with the democratic change of 1990 and since opening up of the sector to the private sector, women constituted 12.3 percent in 1991 and 12.9 percent of media personnel in 1991. Women's participation as a media worker has increased significantly in 2002 as reflected in the table below. There has been a substantial progress in the media coverage of women's issues.

Most of them use women for promoting consumer products, thus propagating the capitalist image of women merely as consumers and reinforcing gender subordination in a new form. Women's issues are trivialized. Media should have an adequate sensitivity to reject advertisements degrading women.

The role of women in Nepali media is insignificance due to the small participation. The nation needs to equal participation of women in national media. So many print and electronic media are efficiently run by women in the present world but in Nepal only 20 percent women are engaged in this sector. If the opportunities are given to Nepali women they are able to conduct this job.

There is no doubt that women's representation in the media should be encouraged not just with the objective of greater gender equality but of addressing the gender bias in media. The debate on gender issues is limited to a small group that has benefited the most from such a debate. As such, it has created several vested interests. This could in the long run related women empowerment efforts and gender equality (Aditya, 1996).

At a time when efforts are underway to uplift women all over the world - the international conference in Beijing is one indication – the impact and effect of the media on women's life in Nepal cannot be ignored. Though the message on women's position and their rights reaches the people via media, their main role and image of women, apparent in the contents of the contemporary Nepalese media.

The number of newspapers during the period of the first two decades (1960–1980) fluctuated between 27 to 84, while state sector media organizations flourished. During the period of 1980 to 1990, control on the registration of newspapers was relaxed resulting in a five-fold increase of newspapers, but the restrictions still persisted. The private sector media had to struggle for survival by compromising their stakes with the authorities in power.

By mid-March 2004, the number of newspapers registered in various districts of Nepal was 3,723 compared to 3,440 during the same period of 2003. Distribution of these publications, by languages, was 2,583 in Nepali, 318 English, 624 Nepali/English, 12 Hindi, 23 Newari, 9 Maithili, 2 Bhojpuri, 2 Sanskrit, 1 Urdu, 1 Tibetan, 2 Tharu, and 146 other languages (MOF, 2004: 168). Infrastructure building work for a communication village, at Tilganga Kathmandu has been completed. Department of Information Press Council, and Nepal Journalists Association are located in this village.

Peace

Since Nepal has been helping the UN to establish peace in various parts of the world, it is the responsibility of the UN to help Nepal acquire peace by resolving conflict. As Nepal is one of the members of the UN, it is natural for it to try to save a member country from becoming a failed state. The Nepalese media have, in fact accepted the UN's role in peace building by highly appreciating the appeal of the General Secretary of the UN Nepal wants to take advantage from the rich experience of the UN in peace keeping.

The mission of Nepalese media at this critical juncture is to stop militarization and encourage dialogue, consensus and national reconciliation. It should be realized that durable peace could be established only if the society can be transformed through forward looking reforms instead of going in for retrogression and status quo. Peace in absolute term, therefore, is not feasible. It should always be linked with freedom, equality, justice and democracy. Journalists should stand firmly to say 'No' to the cult of violence. There should not be dictation of weapons; reasoning must prevail. We can enjoy freedom of press only in peaceful and democratic atmosphere. Free press should stand as a defender of peace and democracy (Shrestha, 2004).

The Nepalese people want peace and settlement of the armed conflict through social –economic transformation. They want to build peace instead of the culture of guns. In this process, media can play vital role, because an aware and vibrant journalism can multiply the strength of the peace campaign (ICG, 2003).

In the context of present- day Nepal , the only mission of journalists is to create favorable people's opinion for a durable peace by helping bring about cease-fire and effecting a social transformation through dialogue and consensus. It is to create people's pressure against the option of military solution. The preamble of the constitution of the UNESCO stipulates: "Since wars begin in the minds of people, the defenses of peace must be constructed." The journalists, therefore, must nurture the culture of peace based on humanitarian laws and human rights instead of glorification of war.

Conflicts tend to be resolved by agreement, negotiations, comprise and social contract but durable peace can be achieved only if it is based on democratic principles and values. Hence, confidence-building measures can serve as a first step towards the declaration of cease-fire. Coordination of the behavior of all forces is essential to reach the common goal of democratic peace and strengthen cooperation among them through the formulation of common policies. Conflict can be regulated by cooperative means if peace-building strategies are employed to prevent and resolve the crisis. Negotiation should proceed with the goals rather than tinkering with the means, such as roundtable dialogue, constituent assembly.

Conclusion

When the Maoist insurgency started in 1996, Maoists did not have their army. They started out with small fighting groups of five or six people, armed with very primitive weapons – some single shot rifles and Khukuri. Over the first five years, the guerrillas built up their fighting capacity by carrying out guerrilla action against police and army post. They were able to capture weapons from government forces and step by step build up larger fighting units – from squads to platoons, and then later brigades and companies. At present media exposed their three divisions, nine brigades and 29 battalions. Among them most of the guerrillas are youth and about 30 percent are women. From the very beginning, the Maoist conceived of their insurgency as a protected war that goes through stages – from the strategic defensive, to strategic equilibrium, and now since August 31, 2004 to the strategic offensive.

The key actors of the Nepalese politics have been in a great dilemma as to how to resolve this conflict. This is obvious in the strategic and policy confusions of the five major parliamentary parties were in agitation before a few days against retrogression and at least four of them still in streets. The current situation of conflict has remained a major dilemma to the major key political actors of the country.

This has worried the common people and the civic society, which are creating popular pressure for the cease-fire and peace negotiation. The lust for power and the culture of violence cannot be challenged until an effective peace movement is built at the people's level. The youth and media people should play a role of vanguard in this peace movement. Establishing an all party interim government and assurance for constitutional assembly is present necessity of Nepal .