Stand Up, Be Counted

AFTER months of preparatory work by the government and unprecedented interest among at least among the intelligentsia and civil society, the mammoth national exercise of counting the Nepalese is at the doorstep. Three weeks from now, Census-2001, the decennial task of updating the national population statistics commences. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the agency responsible for counting our heads, started from Monday the household listing task that is expected to be completed by May 28 which paves the way for the week-long actual counting of individuals by enumerators. In sheer magnitude of the exercise, there are very few other national exercises that rival census. Some 20,000 enumerators are being fielded during the week-long exercise beginning June 10 which is preceded by the present deployment of 5000 field supervisors going door-to-door to list households. The ten-year undertaking this time acquires a special significance compared to the last censuses by virtue of the fact that some 50 variables are included in the census. Detailed information on these variables will be incorporated into Census-2001. The bigger volume of information that is being sought promises to furnish a truer picture of this ethnic-cultural-linguistic mosaic that Nepal is.

One of the criticisms of the past censuses has been linked to the fact that they did not produce enough information on a number of areas that are essential for policy makers and programme implementators. That this round of census aims to rectify the past weak spots should indeed make happy all those who depend on the census data for research, policy formulation and programme development and so on. Thanks to no small measure to the interest-and and at times active lobbying for inclusion of certain variables-shown by various sections of the society in the upcoming census, this time the exercise has embraced a whole gamut of new parameters like-just to name a few-economic activities of women; marriage (single, multi and age at first marriage); situation of children below 16 years of age; physical facilities in houses like drinking water, electricity, fuel; situation of orphans and destitutes. All the important questions in the data sheet would, however, not mean much if many of the enumerators out in the field do not know their job well and are liable to make wrong entries and if the data are not compiled systematically. CBS must make sure that both in the field and at the data processing cells, the great task of census takes place in the right manner. Members of the general public, for their part, must stand up and be counted.

What Ails Health?

NEARLY three decades have elapsed since the Almaarta conference endorsed the ‘Health For All’ motto. Going by the achievements made so far in the health sector, the "Health For All’ motto has remained a distant dream for the developing countries. Despite the onerous effort of the World Health Organisation to attain the objectives of the Almaarta conference, the results are not too encouraging. One major factor for the failure to transform the motto into reality, is the emergence of a formidable disease like HIV/ AIDS. It would not be out of place here to state that the UN has raised a red alarm regarding the shortage of funds to fight the callous disease. Of the 10 billion US $ needed to fight AIDS, the UN has so far been able to receive only 2 billion dollars in the form of donations.

The resource crunch has been identified as a stumbling block for the underdeveloped countries to tackle the challenges of the health sector. Minister for Health Ram Krishna Tamrakar was candid enough to disclose the bitter reality at the 54th World Health Assembly being held in Geneva. Tamrakar said resource constraints have hit the health systems of developing countries with emerging and re-emerging of infectious and also non communicable diseases.

He also pointed at the sky rocketing health care costs, which has taken it beyond the reach of many. Like many countries around the world Nepal too is facing a daunting challenge of stopping the commercialisation of health services. Nepal, he said, is among the countries having the highest children and maternal mortality rates in the world. They can be reduced through safe motherhood practices and effective immunisation programmes.

Minister Tamrakar also participated at the meeting of the Health Ministers from the Non-aligned Movement countries to draft the resolution on behalf of the NAM countries. The resolution has called upon WHO to give continued support to the developing countries to meet the health needs of their people. Apart from looking into the health problems of the developing countries, the Assembly is expected to address issues like global strategy for infant and young children feeding, communicable diseases, tobacco control, strengthening health services delivery and smallpox eradication. The plan of action to be chalked out by the Assembly is bound to have a far reaching impact on the improvement of health facilities of the developing countries.