Children’s issues

The other day, the country observed International Children’s Rights Day by releasing children who were languishing in different jails along with parents serving sentences for sundry crimes. The government released the children with the worthy aim of rehabilitating them. It has at last paid heed to rights activists who had been raising their voice for a long time for the release of such children from jail. However, there are some questions that remain unanswered. How in practical terms is the government going to rehabilitate such children? Has it really prepared itself for the task? What measures has this government taken towards rehabilitation? Such children had neither been given any education, nor had the government arranged any educational programme that would have led them towards self-reliance. They have been living with adults who were directly or indirectly involved in criminal activity. Such children may not cope well with the rehabilitation environment the government has in mind for them. Their long and close association with parents inside jails may affect them mentally once they are separated. Such reservations aside, the move to set the children free from jail environments is of course good in itself.

Aside from this, the government has vowed to provide compulsory primary education to all children, irrespective of class and creed. But it has introduced no programme to educate the children of rural poor. It has likewise neither done anything to encourage children to attend school nor does it seem to realise the seriousness of the problem of school dropouts which has increased as a result of ineffective monitoring. Half the children who have joined schools in rural areas break off their studies as a result of poverty or lack of teachers. State-run schools especially in remote areas remain without either teachers or educational equipment, despite repeated demands by local inhabitants.

The government should not ignore children who have been deprived of compulsory primary education. Over six million children attend state run schools in this country. Half of them belong to families which cannot afford two square meals a day. The government has remained unaware of or uncaring about the provisions of existing law on children’s right to education. In fact, successive governments have failed to provide education to all or implement existing legal provisions concerning the rights of children. Every child has his or her right to education and the government cannot let this right suffer as a result of poor implementation. The district education officers who provide financial assistance to schools and educational material have never fulfilled their duties. It is high time the government realized the importance of education for all children and ensured their right to schooling. Besides, thousands of children die of preventable disease every year and this is a serious issue in itself. All these issues need to be raised now not just because of International Children’s Rights Day. They have acquired added urgency lately with the passage by parliament of the education amendment bill. The bill appears to be the latest in a gradual move away by the government from its responsibilities in sectors such as education and public health.

Coming to grips with health issues

By Ratnakar Adhikari

The long fought battle between Non- governmental organisations (NGOs) around the globe and the governments of the South on the one hand and the powerful multinational corporations (MNCs) manufacturing and marketing drugs on the other finally ended on 14 November in Doha as the acrimonious Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) drew to a close. The fight was about providing access to medicine to the ailing populations of developing countries suffering from deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, among others.

The resulting "Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health," which forms an integral part of the Ministerial Declaration, reads thus: "we agree that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health. Accordingly....we affirm that the Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of the WTO Members’ rights to protect public health and, in particular, to ensure medicines for all." (emphasis added).

It was the unfair provision on "patent" within the WTO Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement that was causing the major friction. One of the most contentious and hotly debated issues concerning patent was the length of the patent protection (which is 20 years from the date of
filing) and unfettered rights provided to patent holders without corresponding responsibilities. Abuse of monopoly power, which was inevitable, took place when giant MNCs started charging prohibitively high prices for their medicines even to the consumers of poorer countries in order to maximize their profits. As per the TRIPS Agreement, it is not only that the manufacturer of the drug gets its patent registered in a particular country, it has also to be granted what is typically known as "exclusive marketing rights" (EMR) to market the product in that country.

This provision resulted in two major problems. Firstly, no local company was allowed to produce generic or cheaper version of drugs locally without obtaining license from the company holding patent. And license fees were always kept very high to ensure that local manufacturers did not even dare produce cheaper drugs in the same market. Provisions of the so-called TRIPS Agreement were even interpreted by the developed countries to mean that even if the drugs were not ‘manufactured’ in a particular country, the government there did not have the power to allow domestic companies to manufacture generic versions, because, as per them, import is considered as ‘working’ of patent.

Secondly, due to EMR, the MNCs were able as well to control the marketing aspects of the drugs. As per this rule, the government could not import the same drugs from outside even if this was found to be cheaper. This logic conflicts not only with the trade liberalization goal of the WTO but also with the provision on quantitative restriction contained in the WTO Agreement. But since MNC interests were at stake, the WTO did not want to spill the beans.

There is a provision in the TRIPS Agreement, which allows a government to import cheaper versions of the same or similar drugs from outside the country if it has reason to believe that the monopoly of the manufacturer or marketer in the local market has exploited the consumers by charging high price. This exception is known as ‘parallel import’. But when the South African government introduced a measure to import anti-AIDS drugs at a cheaper price, notably from India, 39 pharmaceutical companies joined hands together to challenge the South African government to withdrawn the measure.

Similarly, there was (and still is) a provision in the TRIPS Agreement, which allows for providing ‘compulsory license’ to local companies to manufacturer low cost drugs if the patents do not satisfy the ‘working’ requirement. However, when the Brazilian government started implementing legislation which allowed the government to knock off the patent to provide license to the local manufacturer to produce anti-AIDS drugs at a cheaper price, the US government stood firmly behind the pharmaceutical MNC and dragged Brazil to the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO.

However, in both the above-mentioned cases, due to pressure from public interest non-governmental organisations from North to South, the complainants were forced to withdraw the cases. Since that time the NGOs started celebrating what they called ‘the victory of human need over corporate greed’. But they did not remain content with what they had achieved. They went ahead to create a tremendous impact during the TRIPS Review Meetings of the TRIPS Council held in June and September this year. They also lobbied the respective governments to ensure that public health concerns were put firmly on the agenda of the WTO Ministerial Conference. Finally, they achieved a major breakthrough in Doha. It is now time for monitoring the progress.

This achievement would not have been possible without the cooperation of the governments of Brazil, South Africa, India and Uganda, to name a few. One side issue that came up in the wake of the ongoing Anthrax scare in North America and Europe should not be overlooked either. Even the USA and Canada realized during the past six weeks the value of being able to knock off the patent in order to be able to produce cheap generic drugs. When they were in a desperate need to increase the supply of ‘Cipro’ (a drug known to cure Anthrax), they decided to set aside the patent owned by the German based multinational chemical company Bayer and started manufacturing generic versions of Cipro through local companies.

For good reason or bad they have finally come to grips with public health issues. Without this realisation, it would probably not have been possible for the NGOs and a few developing country governments to achieve success of this magnitude. The only losers are the global pharmaceutical companies. They are threatening to reduce their research and development expenses in the wake of the recent development. But that will never happen, because they still need to bring out new medicines in the market in order to survive in the market.

(The author is currently based in Bern, Switzerland)

Striking impression

By Birodh Pandey

This Tihar has left behind a striking impression on me. May be it did the same to you who like to sit with the family and let the nostalgic evening of Tihar shed joy and happiness in your home. But what if there is a loud explosion beside your door and you are supposed to bear the traumatic experience in the name of the festival? Bear with me. I was on the road after work and had to pause immediately to check the loud explosion that occurred right beside my bike. And guess what it was? It was the popular Tihar bomb? And the culprit? Small kids at the other end of the road in total excitement after accomplishing their mission.

At least an achievement for the nation. We will not run out of explosives architects in the near future and it must be more overwhelming news for the Maoists, who are masterminds in making all sorts of bombs, notably pipe and pressure cooker, that police fear. For the past few days I could not sleep as our Kathmanduites were busy rocketing the city. A few rockets did land onto the Veranda of my flat. Well I now have the impression of Rolpa and Jajarkot in Kathmandu. I felt that for a few days Kathmandu was a miniature of these two places.

And at the same time when heavy bombardment was in progress I submerged myself in thinking about the awesome life those people in the remote part of western Nepal have been forced to live. Imagine their bearing the loud explosions as if it was their inherited right? And our comrades narrate the successful stories of taking on near by settlements to prove that their power flourishes over the terrain.

When I went to New Road I saw women and children panicking under intimidation of another explosion just near by. I don’t think that Tihar occupies a special place for these loud bombs and rockets. I am also not totally against the firecrackers. What is bothering me is the intense noise. As far as I can remember we didn’t have rockets and bombs (with all sorts of merry names) even two decades ago. What existed were Chakra (the revolving one) and Anar (which ejects fountains of fire). These were less noisy and added colour to the lights festival. But most importantly Tihar is a special family festival solemnized among brothers and sisters. Any way the festival fever has ended and I had this remote opportunity to experience Rolpa, Rukum and Jajarkot here in the capital itself. Thanks to the dwellers of Kathmandu.

Deuba’s missed opportunity

By Shyam KC

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been in office for near four months now but everyone will rue the fact that he has missed one of the biggest ever opportunities to right the long felt need to do something about corruption. There is a perception among the people from the very top to the very humble that those who came to power or were near power after 1990 amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. Prime Minister Deuba was asked by the ruling Nepali Congress Central Committee in its meeting on August 24 this year to institute a probe and take action against those found to have amassed wealth in a wrongful manner after the restoration of democracy in 1990. One would have thought that any prime minister given such a wide ranging mandate by his party would not have waited even a second to carry forward what is essentially an anti-corruption drive.

The co-relation between the perceived widespread corruption and the Maoist insurgency is not lost on anyone. The deprived people whether in neglected west and far west Nepal or in the more affluent urban areas including the capital used to have (past tense here is deliberate) a marked sympathy for the Maoists, not because of their ideological beliefs but because of the perception that the Maoists are more fair minded and could provide a better deal than the crop of present day mainstream leaders, whether they belong to the left, right or the centre.

Corruption can and does take many forms. A sense of dissatisfaction with the establishment, whichever party runs it, prevails among the common people. They see the leaders favouring those close to them personally, those belonging to their party, or those who "contribute" the most to their personal or party – in that order - coffers. Those who have no one near the power base – which means the vast majority of Nepalese – or those who cannot make any "contributions" to political leaders or officials or even to political parties are left to watch helplessly as others grab and gain opportunities that should have been rightfully theirs. The people are frustrated and it is not difficult to see why they fall prey to the illusion that the Maoists would right all these wrongs.

The 26 August Nepali Congress central committee decision was a godsend opportunity to Prime Minister Deuba to try to bring down corruption in high places to the minimum and ultimately eradicate the social evil. This was the opportunity for him and the ruling party to try to convince the people that the rule of law applies to each and every citizen equally. The people who have seen our top leaders become rich overnight and build palatial residences in the capital ask how they were able to earn so much money and to do so within so short a time.

They also wonder if the income tax laws do not apply to them. They ask why there is no monitoring mechanism to deter corruption. There may be no corruption involved in all this. Those who built houses in the capital could have sold off ancestral property back home in the districts. The intention here is not to underestimate the ability of "talented" leaders to earn enough to build houses, pay taxes on their income and buy real estate in the capital, but the fact is that most of them were too busy waging a lifelong war against the evil Panchayat system so that the people could taste the fruits of democracy to be really able to earn the kind of money that would have enabled them to build houses and whiz around in the capital in luxury cars. This, of course, does not take into account the possibility that some of them might have won some "jackpot" or the other in one lottery or the other.

So they must have had to sell off parental property to acquire what they did. That’s fine, of course, but this hardly makes any dent in the perception among the people. That is why a real and credible probe into post-1990 leaders is needed. This would have cleared the mis-conception among the people as to how the leaders acquired so much wealth overnight. Prime Minister Deuba would have done our leaders and our country a world of good if he had instituted a probe as asked for by the ruling party central committee. For surely this would have cleared all those who held high office from the time of interim prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai to that of the present prime minister.

The second stint of Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister had begun on an auspicious note with the long burning issue of Maoist insurgency being brought to the table. Almost as if to pre-empt the Maoist grievances, Deuba also brought about the land reforms programme despite opposition from within his own party. The much needed reforms for the low castes were initiated. All these augured well for the nation even if the land reforms were a bit backward looking and opposed by landed gentry in the Terai and the low caste reforms have yet to be backed up by legal measures and supplemented by social awareness. The latter to be brought about not by the government but by social reformers and workers. The talks with the Maoists would have been held anyway much before August this year, but for the 13 month interlude of Koirala as prime minister.

This writer had the feeling that the talks could have been held during KP Bhattarai’s prime ministership if Koirala had not usurped the office and prolonged the Maoist insurgency resulting in needless loss of life. (Koirala is at it again.) The Maoists were appearing to be genuinely inclined towards talks even then. But what Deuba did miss and should make up for soon is the employment scheme that he initiated in his first stint as prime minister but was later dropped by successive prime ministers. Thousands of youths might not have had to be swayed the wrong way by the Maoist illusion if, apart from some other issues, adequate attention had been paid to this vital aspect in our fight against poverty.

But above all else, Deuba’s refusal, whether voluntary or coerced, not to institute an anti-corruption probe against the post-1990 leaders and top government officials will go down as his biggest failure as it would have addressed the most burning problem of the day – corruption.