Commitment Needed

THE country report made public the other day by UNDP Team in Nepal is of much importance for the government, planners, policy makers, development partners and stakeholders at this period of time when ‘the country is not yet on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals as targeted by the world leaders during the Millennium Summit in September 2000’. The report, which the UNDP claims is the first such country report that has been produced nationwide by the UN Team to bridge the MDGs with the particular country’s development challenges, again comes at a time when the 10th Five-Year Plan is in the offing and the coming year’s fiscal budget is underway. The well addressed report not only reminds the governmental and non-governmental development agencies about the MDGs, it also points out the shortcomings and challenges ahead. The millennium development goals are more relevant in Nepal’s context because the goals set by the Summit 2000 address all the problems that we face. As mentioned in the MDGs, Nepal suffers from extreme form of poverty, fails to provide primary education to all the children, the concept of gender equality fails when it comes to safe motherhood and child and maternal mortality rate and fails again when it comes to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS and other epidemics. But, as underlined by UNDP resident representative in Nepal Henning Karcher, it is almost impossible to know whether poverty reduction and human programmes and policies are producing the desired results or not without monitoring, without tracking the progress of quantifiable indicators such as income poverty, literacy rates, non-enrollment in primary education and maternal mortality rates. Without such information acquired, strategies cannot be evaluated and programmes cannot be made to materialize. The document is the first progress report for Nepal on the status of attainment of the MDGs.

However, it is discouraging to note that the report is pessimistic about halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in the country by 2015. Currently, there are 38 per cent of Nepalese who are supposed to be living below the poverty line. To reduce the number to 21 per cent by 2015 is definitely an uphill task on the part of the government. But it is not impossible. If we are committed and continue to do our jobs honestly, with the support from donor agencies and international development partners the country can make changes. The power to shape the future of Nepal, as said by Dr. Karcher, lies in our hands.

Uproot Dowry System

THE people of Janakpurdham, as per a news item carried by this daily the other day, have started an aggressive campaign against the dowry system that they claimed have become a scourge to the city of great religious importance. That the dowry system has indeed become a social and economic burden on some Nepalese communities hardly needs any reiteration here. So much so that in some communities, the prevalence of the dowry system has not only reduced some families to destitutes but, worse still, sowed the seeds of social anomalies within their midst. More worrying to note is that all this is more pronounced in families with daughters of marriageable age. For, in the dowry system very much ingrained in certain communities in Nepal, the parents of would-be brides have to not only shoulder a considerable portion of the expenses incurred during marriage ceremonies and functions but they also have to bestow expensive gifts—in cash and kind—on their daughters’ would-be husbands. This, in turn, has given rise to such excruciating situations wherein some parents of the would-be bridegrooms don’t even hesitate to drive hard bargains with the parents brides concerning dowries even when the ceremonies to solemnise the marriages are taking place in the brides’ homes. Failure on the part of the would-be brides’ parents to agree to the last minute bargains put forth by the would-be grooms’ parents could put the former into an agonising social and economic dilemma. For one, it could even prompt the parents of the would-be grooms to call off the marriage ceremonies. As and when this ever happens, then the would-be brides and their parents would be socially ostracised by their communities. On the other hand, if the would-be brides’ parents were to concede to the last minute demands for exorbitant gifts by the would-be grooms’ parents, then it could throw them into bottomless debts. It is for these reasons that the dowry system has been termed as a scourge by the communities where the dowry system has a strong grip and hold.

No one seems to know as to when, why and how the dowry system gained currency. Going by the social and economic aberrations that it is creating in some communities, the time has arrived for all to work unitedly to uproot this system from the fabric of the Nepalese society.