Nepal Human Development Report 2004, launched Wednesday in Kathmandu, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has called for radical social and political changes in the country in order to address deep problems facing the country.
“This report clearly shows that Nepal is in deep crisis. However, the situation is not hopeless and things can be reversed dramatically by placing empowerment at the center of the country’s development and reform agenda,” said Sriram Pande, lead author of the Nepal HDR 2004.
UN Resident Representative in Nepal, Matthew Kahane, said the Report calls for dramatic reforms in a difficult time for the country. “At the heart of the report is the idea that all citizens, including the poorest and most vulnerable, must be part of the development agenda if Nepal is to reach its fullest economic and social potential,” he said.
The report examines the country through the lens of Human Empowerment Index (HEI) based on its three fundamental components: economic, political and socio-cultural. “Human development over the years in Nepal has not taken place fast enough to defuse conflict, said the report.
“Nepal’s Human Development Index (HDI), which measures life expectancy, literacy and per capita income, is lower than all the South Asian nations except Pakistan,” the report said.
The ‘hard-hitting reform agenda’ proposed by the report include organizing public hearings in the appointment of positions in constitutional bodies, to make separate commissions on women, dalit and indigenous people full-fledged constitutional entities, undertake electoral reforms and de-politicise civil service, among others.
Similarly, the report has also called for removing discriminatory laws and practices that exist in the country’s Civil Code, redistribution of land to encourage rural populations to commercialise agriculture and expand equitable education and health care.
The report has also called for ensuring a minimum wage and social security fro informal workers both within and outside agriculture and to guarantee fair representation of women, dalits and indigenous people at the parliament and local levels.
Basic education must be made compulsory and more aggressive programmes should be implemented to end child labour, the report said. The report has noted that Nepal witnessed numerous economic reforms and improved living standards with the restoration of a multi-party democracy in 1990. “ (But) people’s needs have gone unfulfilled, institutions have weakened, and policies have failed to reach the poor.
Leaving vast segments of the population outside mainstream development,” the report added. nepalnews.com by Dec 15 04