Battling Poverty

THE United Nations is a viable development partner for Nepal. Without its support, launching of various development programmes and reaping benefits from them would always prove to be an uphill task. Under the umbrella of UN, there are many line agencies that have been working to address a host of development issues related with health, education, manpower development and industrialisation in Nepal. The country has been grappling with different challenges in the form of poverty, illiteracy, hunger and disease over the years. Being a mountainous country with a poor transportation network and the dearth of resources, Nepal's development history has experienced many ups and down ever since the country opened its doors to foreign investment fifty years back. The myriad anomalies that have stood in the path of development are self-created rather than emanating from outside intervention. Ever since the country embarked on to planned development with the launching of the first five-year plan in the early sixties the number of those under the poverty line has decreased considerably. But still official statistics reveals that nearly forty two percent of the people are living under the poverty line. Battling poverty has been the major thrust of Nepal's development endeavours. The government has aimed at bringing down the number of those under the poverty line from the existing 42 per cent to 32 per cent during the tenth five- year plan. This would require an all out effort from all sectors. Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand speaking at the 57 th anniversary of the establishment of UN said the other day that addressing the issues of poverty, the main reason of destabilisation was the main task of the government to end conflict which causes deprivation and desperation. The Prime Minister also launched an extensive UN Development Assistance Framework 2002/2006 (UNDAF). Now that the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), has been empowered no time should be spared in bringing to book the corrupt civil servants who have in many aspects hindered the development of the nation. The government at this crucial juncture must also heed the offer made by the UN resident coordinator in Nepal to mediate talks with the Maoists rebels who have been waging an armed struggle and have been dismantling the development infrastructure. Given that all the possible avenues of mediation and dialogue are well utilized and the bureaucracy is strengthened, poverty could be reduced considerably. This would in turn have a positive impact in the overall development scenario of the nation.

Essential Doses

SOME expectations among the public that with the Ministry of Health now being handled by a renowned doctor things will improve in the health sector, were only natural. Most Nepalese have had to suffer from the unavailability of even the most basic primary health care. There are hospitals without doctors and sufficient medicines in many parts of Nepal. Many health posts are often manned by peons, because doctors refuse to be posted in remote areas. While such is the health scenario in most rural parts of Nepal, urban places like Kathmandu have seen an explosion of health services. Private nursing homes and hospitals have popped up around most of the main streets of Kathmandu, for instance. Similar is the case in other urban centers of the country. The growth of the private health sector unfortunately has been unregulated. Doctors charge exorbitant fees, over-prescribe, over-diagnose, even kill patients through carelessness and get away with it all. The governmental regulatory mechanism has been woefully inadequate to stop malpractices in the health sector.
If the plan unveiled by the new Health Minister Dr. Upendra Devkota on Thursday is seriously implemented, a lot of the mismanagement and unprofessional conduct seen among the medical practitioners and institutions could be reined in. Announcing an 18-point policies and programmes of the health sector to the media, Dr. Devkota said the government would begin their implementation by the end of the current fiscal year. Prominent among the policies is the one that seeks to put in place a Social Health Insurance that would make health facilities more accessible to the low-income bracket people. The government's central, regional and zonal hospitals will implement this scheme. The categorisation of the standards of private hospitals, clinics and nursing homes along with their service charges is another priority. The private health sector facilities would now have to disclose the services they provide and the charge of those services through brochures. Doctors in the government health service would need to take permission from the government before working in the private sector. The Health Ministry would, it was assured by the minister, seriously take any complaint against government and non-government health centers through regular public hearing. The ministry will check overuse of antibiotics, over-investigation and over-prescription. All these promised steps sound like much-needed dosage of medicines to revive the health of Nepal's health sector. These promised, essential doses should be administered without delay to reach at least the basic health services to the poor, arrest crass commercialisation of the health sector, and curb the unethical tendencies of medical practitioners.