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BOOK REVIEW |
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BOOK REVIEW |
Poverty Perspectives Krishna Bahadur Kunwar
dissects Nepal's poverty alleviation efforts and offers prescriptions By A CORRESPONDENT Poverty is a widely debated issue in contemporary Nepalese society. From local policy makers to foreign consultants, there are flocks of people who have spent decades trying to improve the economic status of a large segment of the population. Since Nepalese poverty has been defined through various themes and theories, there is no scarcity of books. Krishna Bahadur Kunwar brings a new perspective to debate in "The Himalayan Poverty: A Threat To The World," drawing from his long experience in the sector. He explains various phenomena of poverty and its consequences in rural life. Having served in the banking sector for more than three decades, Kunwar has seen many effects of poverty on rural society. During his tenure, he spent more than two decades in different parts of the country under various positions in the Agriculture Development Bank. During this period, Kunwar encountered many challenges in implementing programs targeting the rural poor. In essence, this is what the book all about. While serving as a board member of Nepal Tea Development Corporation, Cottage and Small Industries Development Board, Alternative Energy Promotion Center, Herbs Production and Processing Company, Kunwar has seen lacunae in the poverty alleviation programs. "In my long service period of nearly three decades as an employee of rural-based financial institution, I found the molecules of development not disbursed in the few rural remote villages," said Kunwar. "During the tenure, I took opportunity of getting stationed from east to west and south to north of Nepal at policy to implementation level and directly involved with local people and government authorities and official." In his book, Kunwar deals with the constraints, challenges and other different aspects of poverty and its consequences in Nepalese society. In the first chapter, Kunwar presents the present scenario of desperation of the rural population. Explaining his own arguments and experiences, Kunwar cites many books and plans implemented in the country in defining the terms and general phenomenon of poverty. Kunwar has his own vision for poverty alleviation. He stresses, among other things, the need for creating more jobs and implementing plans and programs to improve the agriculture sector. Although poverty alleviation remains the country's sole development objective, the number of people living below the poverty line continues to grow. Recent statistics show that more than 40 percent of the population are still living under the absolute poverty line. Despite the implementation of rural development programs, and a host of other development exercises, the country has been unable to bring down the level of poverty.
Kunwar argues that effective implementation of programs depends upon the capability and commitment of the various stakeholders working in the various parts of the country. In the early 1980s, the Small Farmer Development Program (SFDP) was regarded as the main mantra for poverty alleviation, when the government pumped in huge amounts of money in the rural areas though the Agriculture Development Bank. With the early backing of the World Bank and other donor countries, the SFDP was regarded as the best participatory model of rural development. The phase of integrated rural development programs was another model for poverty alleviation. Kunwar has gone through all the programs and plans implemented in the last three decades and has described the way of life and various phases of their implementation. As an official directly involved in many aspects of policy implementation, Kunwar's book gives special insights into the poverty alleviation programs of the last four decades. The Himalayan Poverty |
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