Batti Rana Magar's Struggle in Delhi and Creation of Opportunities in Nepal

Govinda Neupane

One fine day around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Devi Regmi, a friend of mine and I went to see a Nepali lady at Kotla, Mubarkpur in South Delhi. I had known Deviji for a few weeks only. Recently, my other friend Madan Parajuli had introduced me with him. After walking through the crowded market area and passing by the narrow lanes of Kotla, the jungle of new and old buildings, we entered into her residence which was literally a 10 * 12 feet room at the top floor of the four story building. She greeted us warmly. Her name is Batti Rana Magar. She has been staying in Delhi for the last 12 years. She works in a private company at Greater Kailash. Her husband is a driver but he seldom helped her, more particularly, during her initial days in Delhi.

When she started telling her story, she became a bit emotional. The life in her village was full of difficulties. She was not able to feed even her children. Her husband was working in Delhi and she thought to come here. When she came here, her husband did not support her. He even stayed somewhere else and was trying to send her back home. She resisted his attempt to send back home resolutely. Her children had to sleep on half of a torn Sari using as a bed and half as a blanket to cover their bodies in the night. Only a torn Sari was there to keep the children away of heat, cold and mosquitoes. She got a job in a company. From that job, she earned the money that was barely enough to meet the minimum survival needs. Slowly, things started to change. The first visible improvement was that she had bought some bedding materials for her children and a mosquito net too. This was her major achievement of that time.

The hostile social set up, too limited employment opportunities and feudal work culture together, create innumerable difficulties for rural working women in Nepal. The society has given prescriptions limiting options for them. Whereas in urban culture like that of the metropolis culture of Delhi, these limitations dilute and women feel freedom to work in the area of their choice and the availability of jobs in the market. As a result of her employment, after a few years of hard work, the situation started to improve. The children were enrolled in the schools. Her husband also started to stay with her, at least, for a couple of days in a month. He started to pay the school fees of the children from his earnings. Batti's elder and younger sons are studying in 12th and 6th grades respectively whereas her daughter is in 9th grade. They had some savings too. They invested the saving in buying a plot in Taratal in Bardia to construct a house. But the money for the construction of the house disappeared as they lend that money to some of their friends and relatives thinking that they will construct the house next year. Unfortunately, some of the borrowers got transfer to distant places and never showed interest to return the money back, some of them joined the Maoist movement and vanished and a few were in such a disparate economic condition that they could not make any return. In this way, they lost part of the hard earned money.

She has been managing the family's upward movement, though with difficulties and hardships. Answering my question that how she evaluates her past endeavors and how she feels about her achievements, she said that she is satisfied. Twelve years ago, her neighbors were not interested even to loan her 10 kilos of millet. Now she has her own assets base and there is no need to ask for their favor. Another reason of her satisfaction was that her children were getting education. The third reason was that, if she would be still in Nepal, perhaps, getting a job could not be possible. Here, she is working and she is happy with the work conditions. Her bitter remark was that the people of the poorest segment of the society in Nepal have to face all sorts of difficulties. She says that from that section those who have come to Delhi are at least have been working and getting some income to ensure their family's survival. She shared some of the bitter experiences regarding alcohol problem among Nepalese here in Delhi. They spend a sizable amount of their monthly earning in alcohol. Sometimes, they do indecent behaviors too, under the influence of alcohol and seldom pay back the money borrowed to buy a bottle. Those, who make irregular earnings, such as daily labors, are the most affected lot.

She was the first Nepali lady I ever met in Delhi who has been working hard for such a long time in a fairly independent way. She has a positive frame of mind too. She also created differences in the quality of lives of her family members and is satisfied with her achievements so far. She, perhaps, in her own sense of motivation, practice and terminology, challenged the prevailing norms in the traditional society of a village in Syanja. The entrepreneurship among women and the motivation and courage to come out of the prescribed conservative social codes are the qualities that may contribute to expand the prospects of women's advancement. This was one area where she behaved differently than many other women in her community. This was a break through, the start point of the process of her emancipation. In Delhi too, she accepted failures but rejected to succumb to and continued her struggle. She is still under tremendous pressure of work, the life is full of hardships and she is living with all sorts of uncertainties, but she has taken the charge of her life herself. This is a qualitative difference what she has attained. There is the need of such daring women workers who can say no to the moribund social prescription created by the dead crowd in the past and which has become a social code now. Only, by defying those social code and work norms, there is the possibility of emergence of the role models, whom others may follow. Also, there is a great need of documentation and communication of the struggles and achievements of such role models. Here, the writers, journalists (both who are in print and electronic media) and researchers can play a major role. Batti could be one such role model for many women workers.

While analyzing her story of struggles, hard work and achievements, I thought that creation of more opportunities at home could channel productive energy to change the socio-economic life of people. By changing the feudal assets base and production relations, expansion of service activities and networks, making education and skills and health delivery services effective and implementation of large infrastructural projects in areas of road and transport, electricity and horticulture may create a new scenario which could provide sound foundation for a new Nepal. Therefore, the focus should be on the creation of common assets, human wellbeing, jobs and wealth which might provide platform for hundreds of thousands of Batti Rana Magars to blossom. The author can be reached at:

govin <govinda_neupane@yahoo.com>

Software Quality: No more an Oxymoron

Anup Banskota, Assistant professor(Department of Computer Science) Kathmandu University

Software Development has always been a fascinating walk of life and it has proven to be one of the most challenging and result oriented discipline. More and more youths are embarking on this comparatively new field due to the lucrative opportunities and various government and non-government organizations are formulating and executing policies and action plans for that matter. The seriousness of government in the software development is marked by the construction of Information Technology Parks as well. Now the moot question arise: Are we really geared up towards the establishment of software development culture? Does developing and deploying software in larger quantity qualify to be a software-savvy nation? Have we tried to incorporate and inculcate the international software giants to be our partner in this sector? If yes, then have we tried to sense their need? I really doubt we are positive in the above mentioned queries.

It is really a tragedy that ICT-stakeholders of our country are always vaunting about the drastic raise in employment with the establishment of software-park and the participation of international software giants and they are not raising the fundamental issues as to why we are not having the huge influx of such giants so far. Information Technology park is not a silver-bullet per se. Its scope is to provide the adequate physical infrastructure towards the high quality development process of software systems. Now there is a key-word "quality" and due to the lack of software quality, international software giants don't bother to invest. What worries me more is that ICT-stakeholders are seriously oblivious towards the root cause of the problem: The hype of Information Technology Park and the activities related therewith may face the lowest possible bathos.

Few days back, I got an opportunity to discuss with the Software Executive of Matsusita Electricals( a Japan based company having international brand like Panasonic) in the light of software outsourcing in Nepal. They were enthusiastic about such proposals and became equally disappointed when they came to know that there is not a single software house in Nepal having international software standards(very recently, I came to know that Hi-Tech Valley became the first company acquiring ISO standard in software quality). Being a Software Quality enthusiastic, I consulted with few software houses to discuss about their plans to achieve international software standards, but my effort went in vain: None of the software houses were practicing any methodology to achieve software standards.

Software standards are marked by the certification like ISO9001:2000, CMMI (capability maturity model integrated), 6-Alpha and SPICE . India and China are considered as most successful nations having highest revenue generation by software development because they are having the highest number of certified software houses. One may wonder with the fact that more than 50% of the software companies of entire world having the cult software standards are located only in India. This very fact has been overlooked by our soi-disant policy makers and they keep on insisting that since we are located in between two such countries, we are bound to get such opportunities. Merely requesting big foreign software houses to establish their setup doesn't work, even if it works, they will be retreating from their decisions due to the below par standard. Achieving Software standards isn't a matter of days or months: it is a continuous process and may take even couple or more years to appraise such certification (provided that software houses are strictly following well defined software processes).

We can no more afford to be ignorant about such fundamental issues and this is the high time to raise such practices at this juncture. But having said that, there are few constraints in the rigorous implementation of software quality. The graduates of universities are not being exposed on software quality. As of now, Nepalese institutions are not providing adequate courses on it. Even if it is there, the knowledge on quality must be imparted by those who are equally involved in software industry as well as in academics and this scenario is pretty grim in our context.

Another major hindrance in achieving quality certification is that we don’t have local experts to assess and modify the software processes of Companies so that they comply with the notion of international standards. In the case, when a software house becomes enthusiastic about quality metrics, it has to hire the consultant from abroad which may not be cost-effective. Again, the standardization process in itself is an expensive process. Most of the Nepalese software houses are in fledging state and they may not be in the position to invest hefty amount in such practices. Another major hurdle in such practice is due to the lack of such understanding at the level of decision makers and their corresponding advisors.

Is it an incurable pain? Certainly not, as we have different measures to mitigate such problems. The first and foremost step should be to infuse the knowledge of software quality at the corresponding level. For this, university must adjust the course not only on software development, but also on software quality. The concept of Industry-Institute-Interface must be practiced rigorously so as to impart quality education. The donor agencies involved in the software realm must address this issue and inculcate the government and organizations like Computer Association of Nepal to exercise on it. Government also must concentrate on investing its resources on the seminars/workshops for software quality. We are already having sufficient number of IT professionals and what we need at this moment is quality, not quantity.

PS:: In the issue of 15th April, 2004, "The New Indian Express" raised the security issue in the context of Indian and foreign investment at proposed IT-park located at Banepa Municipality, Kavre. The couple of explosions done by Maoist insurgents in the vicinity of IT-park may jeopardize its fate if the security issue is not addressed at the earliest.

The author can be reached at anup@ku.edu.np

The Role of UN Mediation in Resolution of Violent Conflict in Nepal

Professor Soorya Lal Amatya

The violent conflict was initiated by CPN Maoists in 1996 since their 40 point demands were not paid attention by the then government of three party alliance led by Nepali Congress (NC). The demands included the social, economic and political grievances of the down trodden people. Some of the earlier activities of CPN Maoists, like banning gambling, hard drinking, movements against suppression of the rural women, exploitation of the dalits and indigenous ethnic people were very appreciated by the rural masses. In due course of time, CPN Maoists were successful in creating strong holds in three districts of Rukum, Rolpa and Salyan of Rapti Zone in Mid – Western Development Region. Now they control extensive rural areas of the country and have even set up the peoples’ government in many districts of the country. The violent clashes occurring on almost daily basis between the CPN Maoists and the government security forces in different parts of the country. The security situation even in the urban areas getting further deteriorated. The bomb blastings have become of regular phenomenon even in the Kathmandu Valley. The people do not have the feeling of security while they move from one place to another.

The two rounds of peace talk between the government and the CPN Maoists have failed miserably in the past. Now there has been the serious political conflict between the palace and the parliamentary parties. The Deuba’s government was dissolved on 4th October 2002. HM the King first appointed Mr. Lokendra Bahadur Chand as Prime Minister and his cabinet consisted of a number of political figures and the independent personalities. But the government failed badly in a process of peace talk with the CPN Maoists and the Chand’s government tendered resignation. After few days Mr. Surya Bahadur Thapa was appointed Prime Minister and he formed the seven member cabinet. All the ministers were his henchmen from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party. He was given the specified mandates of forming all party government, initiating peace talk with the CPN Maoists and of holding a national election. His government too failed in fulfilling the mandate of forming all party government, but made an honest effort in the third phase of the second round of peace talk. Unfortunately the treacherous encounter of Maoists’ with unified security forces happened at Doramba village in Ramechhap district during the peace talk. The CPN Maoists immediately decided to discontinue peace talk and resumed the violent movement against the government security forces.

Thus, there have been complete failure of two rounds of peace talk between the CPN Maoists and the government. The Civil Societies also had made substantial contributions in the process of peace talk. The facilitators had also made vigourous efforts in the peace talk. It has been almost one year since the break down of last peace talk between the CPN Maoists and the government. Now there is a serious crisis of confidence between the CPN Maoists and the government. In such situation, an independent international agency like UN could play a vital role in facilitating the peace talk between the government and the CPN Maoists. The CPN Maoists have at a number of times expressed their acceptance for UN mediation. The Secretary General of UN, Mr. Kofi Anana also had indicated its willingness to support if the government of Nepal decides to invite officially for peace mediation. Mr. Kul Chandra Gautam, UN Assistant Secretary General had visited Nepal a number of times in this context. I understand that an UN official has been deputed to monitor the violent conflict in Nepal. But the government of Nepal seems to be reluctant in responding to such propositions. The foreign minister had in the past indicated the government’s rejection to such proposition for peaceful mediation.

It is surprising to note here that even the leading political parliamentary parties have not yet officially indicated their views in this context. The senior leaders of NC and UML have expressed their views in printed medias that the country does not require foreign mediation for peaceful settlement of the violent conflict. It is generally assumed that some foreign powers do not favour the UN mediation for peaceful settlement in Nepal. The UN Mediation for peaceful settlement is quite essential because of the following reasons.

First, there is a serious crisis of confidence between the government and the CPN Maoists. The two rounds of peace talk failed miserably. The government has been blaming the CPN Maoists in breaking down the peace talk while the CPN Maoists has categorically stated that the government security forces had sabotaged the peace talk. Second, the multi – party democratic system has been derailed after the dissolution of the elected Prime Minister Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba and his cabinet on 4th October 2002. Obviously, there has been serious conflict between the parliamentary parties and the palace. Peaceful street protests of the five party alliance and NC Democratic Party have been organized on daily basis. The professional organizations, human rights organizations, trade unions, students organizations and even civil servant organizations have already shown their solidarity with the street protests of the political parties.

Third, the Nepalese facilitators for peace negotiation could not be effective because of their functions were not well specified and they did not had the authority to monitor the maintenance of peace. Fourth, for creating congenial normal and peaceful condition required for the national and local level elections in the country, the CPN Maoists will have to make safe deposition of their weapons to neutral custodians for certain specified period so that national election could be held in a peaceful and safe environment. The UN agency and ICRC have rendered very remarkable contributions as safe custodians in many parts of the world. Fifth, with the completion of national and local elections, the country will require substantial financial and technical supports in reconstruction of the damaged infrastructures, dwellings, government buildings, schools

and other structures. The UN can mobilize the required financial resources for reconstruction and development programmes.

Keeping in view of the above mentioned reasonings, it can be well concluded that UN’s role will be of considerable significance for mediation between the CPN Maoists and the government in Nepal.

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