17 Years Of SAARC
Significant Achievements

By Chiranjibi Paudyal

SOUTH Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) has completed 17 years making significant achievements to accelerate the process of regional cooperation in an effective manner. Established in 1985 with a view to raising the living standards of the people of the region through united efforts. SAARC, the youngest regional grouping of the globe has made significant achievements to formalise the regional process. Its attempt to free over 40 percent poverty stricken population of the world, from sorrow and agony seems to be encouraging.

Difficult

To achieve the goal of SAARC is very difficult as the region houses over 23 percent population of the world and around 40 percent people live under the poverty line or in a difficult economic condition. Despite the rich natural resources and the glorious past of rich ancient civilization, the countries of the region have engulfed into the mire of poverty as well as many other problems. Major problems of the region are related to the economic, social, environmental, terrorism and others. However, there is the prospects of prosperity if the natural resources and human resources are properly utilised. This is the region of eastern civilisation, land of peace and learning from where the Buddha spread the message of world peace. Gandhi taught the principle of non-violence, the ancient sage spread the message of peace and spiritualism and the ancient Hindu religion sprung. The Islam flourished from the region and the region is unique in various aspects.

Despite having a glorious past and high prospect for development, the region has plunged into the depth of problems for the last few years. There is conflict, violence and murder and there is the environment of distrust among the people and the countries of the region. The most striking issue of the region is poverty. Over 500 million people of the region are compelled to live a very miserable life with an income of less than one dollar a day. This has created other problems including the conflict, violence and murder. To address the difficulties of the people, the SAARC has forwarded many programmes including the poverty alleviation programme in the member nations with the co-operation of the United Nations Development Programme and other donor agencies. Though the programme proved to be very successful, its impact could not give any concrete achievement to the people due to its limited implementation, lack of resources and expertise. Involvement of the local people in the selection and implementation of the project was very fruitful. But it could not involve many people so its impact remains limited only to a handful of population.

Most of the countries of the region have been facing the problem of violence and murder. Continued conflict has compelled the nations to stop their development efforts and mobilise the resources towards conflict resolution. The Maoists insurgency of Nepal, Tamil Tigers separatist movement of Sri Lanka, violence and murder campaign of various separatist groups in India, fundamentalist Islamic organisations terrorist activities in Pakistan have created serious problems in the region. Bangladesh, and Bhutan are also not exception to such difficulties. Indo- Pak tension is another hurdle standing in the regional process. The existing bilateral problem has halted the regional cooperation. Indo-Pak tension, Bhutanese refugee issue, Tamil Tiger and separatist movements are some of the examples of such bilateral problems.

Most of the problems of the region are interrelated and cannot be resolved in isolation. The insurgency, the separatist movement, the conflict and violence cannot be resolved with the efforts of a single country due to the open border and common cultural and social background of the countries. In view of this, the SAARC countries agreed to fight jointly to defeat the menace of terrorism, enemy of the civilised world. Despite the adoption of convention on terrorism, the member countries have not been able to unitedly launch a programme to root out terrorism from the region. There is the need of united efforts of all the countries of the region. Trafficking of women and girls, drug trafficking and HIV / AIDS are also inter-related to the member countries of the region. These problems will certainly be very serious in the coming days if effective programmes are not implemented in time.

Despite so many problems and differences among the member nations of the region, the SAARC has made remarkable progress during the last 17 years. Keeping in view the problems including the high percentage of poverty, terrorism that has already claimed thousands of lives and other problems, the progress made by the region is noteworthy. The SAARC has given a strong message of the necessity of the regional grouping. It has been able to convince the people of the region and outside that the regional co-operation is a must if the economic cooperation is to forward for the well-being of the people of the region as envisaged in the SAARC charter.

The SAARC has made a lot of progress in infrastructure development. Efforts have also been made to make organisational contact with similar regional groupings. Though the bilateral disputes are not entertained in the SAARC forum, it has been very fruitful to lessen the disputes during the meeting of the SAARC leaders. The SAARC summit sideline meetings held between the leaders of India and Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka and Nepal and Bhutan have helped a lot to lessen the problems. Progress has also been made in poverty alleviation. South Asian Free Trade Arrangement, simplification of the visa procedures among the SAARC countries, promotion of the intra regional trade, regular exchange of ideas and information among the professionals of the region and the regular exchange of visits of the officials and people in various forums inside the region and outside have helped to further integrate the SAARC process. The common voice in many international and regional forums and the common approach for the entry in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are also some of the important achievements of the SAARC.

It is quite difficult to imagine the region without the existence of the regional grouping especially after the nuclear test by the two member states: India and Pakistan. The two nuclear power of the region are the important members of the region and the regional forum has to some extent helped reduce the tension in the region. There may not be enough progress and achievements during a short span of time in a region with so many problems but it is the fact that the region has done a lot within a short period.

Commitment

SAARC is the hope of over one fifth of the total population of the world. It is quite impossible to seek the solution of all the problems of the region in a short period of time. It is also not good to be pessimistic about the achievements made through the SAARC grouping. A lot of achievements have been made through this forum. Foundation has been laid and the time has come to forward programmes jointly to accelerate the economic pace of the member countries and raise the living standard of the people and resolve the problems through strong political will. Commitments have been made in the past and now this is the time to give momentum to materialise the commitments and make the region prosperous. Concrete efforts should be made to transform South Asia into a peaceful, conflict free and prosperous region.

How Juneli Became Sex Worker
A Life Full Of Agony

By Bishnu Chimeki

JUNELI Khadka (name changed), who was raped by her landlord's son before she reached her puberty, was forced to choose the profession of commercial sex worker at a tender age. In order to sustain her life, Juneli who is hardly 14/15 years old has traveled from Birgunj to Krishnanagar to Pokhara to Kathmandu.

No Identity

After she escaped from her landlord's house in Kathmandu in 2002, she has been living at Narayangarh for the past three months with an elderly lady who is involved in the same profession. Juneli has no remembrance of her parents and she does not even know her real age. Juneli was born in Hetauda and her father died when she was three years old and her mother married another man one year after. She found this out later from someone else.

According to Juneli, she believed that she belonged to the house she was working in. But, she found it strange that evferyone else did not work and she was the only one to work and face abuse. She also wanted to sit back, play around and study without doing any work. Later she came to know through the person who had brought her there for work that she was only working at the place.

She has no idea how she is related to this man. He used to come from time to time to the place that she worked and tell her that he was his brother and father whatever she wanted to call him. According to him, he had found her crying in the streets and had brought her here out of pity. He used to bring biscuits and chocolates and would advise her to work well whenever he came. Later, Juneli came to find out through the landlord that the man used to come to collect her salary. One day the landlord told him that he would give the salary to Juneli herself and since then for the past two years he has not been seen. Juneli has no idea where the man disappeared. Juneli started suspecting the man who had shown affection for her since he stopped coming after he did not get her salary.

Although the landlord told the man that he would give the salary to Juneli herself, she did not get any money from her landlord. She had asked the landlady for a hundred rupees once but the landlady snapped back that she had to take care of Juneli's marriage and the salary would not even cover that.
When we tried to question her why she left the house forsaking her salary to join such a profession in the streets, she just cried. A dressed up Juneli had ventured out to the market in search of clients since early morning, but she had not had anything to eat till 12 noon. When we gave her thirty rupees to eat something, she started opening up but she was quite fearful that her landlady might find out about her whereabouts.

According to her, three years back both the landlord and the landlady had gone out to attend a marriage. They had one son and a daughter. The son used to attend college in the morning and the daughter used to go in the afternoon. One day the son asked her to bring water to his room after his sister had left. Then when she entered, he held her, locked the door and raped her. After it was done, he bathed her and gave her chocolates and warned her not to tell anyone. That same day the landlord's daughter called up to say that she was spending the night at a friend's place. The two of them were alone at home and the son again told her not to tell anyone and even helped her prepare the dinner. After that day, the son started showing much affection towards her and brought her many things to eat. Juneli started accepting whatever he asked for and he even told her that one day they would go to a temple and get married. After some time, the son had an accident and died. After this incident, Juneli did not like to stay there and one day while she was out with her landlady, she was able to escape.

She did not have a penny when she ran away. She only had some dresses belonging to the landlady. She hitchhiked on a truck to Birgunj because she wanted to get as far away as possible and in Birgunj the truck driver again raped her. She was helpless because she had nothing with her. The next day she got off at Narayangarh in the same truck. The driver gave her hundred rupees and she felt real thrilled and forgot her pain momentarily.

She got off the truck but she had no idea why she got off because Naryangarh was a new place for her. She was standing on the street without any aim when a truck came by and the driver asked her if she wanted to go. She thought it was the same truck and she got in after which she reached Pokhara. She met one lady in Pokhara and both of them came to Narayangarh and started living together.

although Juneli felt at peace right after leaving the landlord's home, she is now finding her new life painful and torturous. But she has nowhere to go. She does not want to return back to the old house and she seems more frightened of the landlord's family finding her than of the society
Juneli has been able to feed herself through the profession but she has not been able to save anything for her future. She usually does not get the total amount that is bargained. She charges from rupees fifty upto rupees thousand but upto now she has not received more than rupees five hundred. Some of the clients do not give any money.

Suffer

How long will Juneli, who never had the love of her parents or of anyone else and who was cheated by someone she trusted, suffer in the long run? She wants to satisfy her childhood whims but she does not have the means or the resources. Yesterday, she was a prisoner of a family and today she is a prisoner of the society. It is yet to be seen how the society, which did not care about her past, will look into her future.

There's Light, No Doubt

By PNK

POSSIBILITY. Probability. Uncertainty. And so on is what we're going through at the moment. In a way life's topsy-turvy. On the other hand, there are reasons and indications that something's going out to be better. It's all a mixture of the tragic and the comedy. Life is something difficult to understand, after all.

Like they say that the future is uncertain but possibilities exist and then comes the case of prediction. Like they have with making projections of the economy of the country all that has been seen and experienced. But that they may turn out to be true or not is left to gauge in the future. A person's life comes to an end one day but when no one really predict that. The astrologers or palm gazers say there's a lot to glean to predict the future of the particular individual concerned. There's a mixture of doubt and the probability.

Who knew that the democracy ushered in 1990 could see so much high-handed ways of some of the political leaders. The aspirations of the people, with the multi-party polity in existence, were never fulfilled to the extent desired. There may be political leaders that much development and the development of the infrastructures were put in place. It may be true to some extent. However, development is something that takes place with the passage of time as a working clock does.
The days are bad. It is winter time yet the sunny days show rays of hope. The cold mornings give way to the warm days. Isn't that a delight to the spirit? Yes, it is. Herein, comes the pangs that the people and the country are going through. Never had there been such uncertainties as it is now. To cite an example, the educational strike that has been called certainly is bitter in taste. The reason is that the educated people alone can develop the country the way it should. All for the benefit of the people in general themselves.

Whatever the hopes, there is still time to moot over it. Shouting foul all the time leads to nowhere. It is constructive criticism that counts. A problem to be solved needs positive solutions. A lack of burning the midnight oil in time does lead to the aggravation of the problem in question.

In a democracy there is always a clash of ideas and opinions but that doesn't necessitate a spate of violence and the smooth functioning of every sector whether economic or otherwise. This is where the political parties and their leaders have to make their presence felt. The leaders are those on whom the mass look upon for the welfare of all. Rhetoric is necessary when the right path has to be shown. Despite it's vital role, just a gathering of crowds alone is not enough. The content has to be in line with what the people want. Talks on how to meet the basic needs is one thing that must make its presence. We Nepalese are poor, after all. It has been such all the way. The hopes rest on skilled hands that will be the outcome of an educated population. So, it's best not to tamper with the educational sector. The political leaders, instead of focussing their attention only on the chair, should see that the smooth functioning of the educational sector materialises. It's not plans and programmes but the implementation factor that counts. This is, hopefully, realised by every responsible citizen in the country.