Country At The Crossroads

Nepal has been listed as one of the world’s least developed nations in the UNDP’s human development index 2001. Nepal’s basic human development indicators that include very low literacy, low life expectancy at birth, low daily calorie intake, high fertility, high infant mortality, and very low income are characteristics of a poor and underdeveloped country. Although several improvements are discernible in the trend, the current level of development lags far behind not only the developed countries of the West but also neighbouring countries like India and Sri Lanka. From all these facts, it is evident that in spite of the development efforts of the past five decades, Nepal has not been able to achieve the desired economic growth. Rather, even to maintain the present level of development, Nepal has become overwhelmingly dependent on donors. This shows that the nation is at a juncture where it has to choose between two distinct roads ahead. One is the path of devolution of the power to the peripheries and empowerment of the people for the development at the grassroots level. The bureaucrats and the professionals in Kathmandu might dread traversing the path that will ultimately spoil their party and wreak havoc to their self-indulgent ways. However, the other choice is to continue the effete system and wait for an apocalypse.

Manish Sharma
Dhobidhara, Kathmandu