While we are drafting a new constitution, we must not forget the plight of millions of Nepalis who are living below the poverty line

By Kamala Sarup

Nepal is at the crossroads—politically as well as socio-economically. It is time Nepalis come forward to write their destiny themselves.

Nepal is one of the poorest economies in the world and its governing forces, have failed to bring about their promises to the Nepali people. We cannot eradicate Nepal’s poverty if level of corruption is high.

Poverty in our country is the result of centuries-old discrimination and exclusion. The decade-old violence has only made the matter worse.

As we know poverty and bad governance are inter-related to each other. We must improve governance if we want to eradicate poverty. It also means that those in the government be made accountable to people.
The issue is not only about increasing economic growth. It’s the government providing essential socio-economic services for the people. But, where will the money come from? A progressive tax system must be in place so that those who can afford should pay more.

Economy and peace no more are two separate issues. We need to work on both. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, described poverty as the most serious human rights violation confronting the world. “Poverty continues to be the most serious, invidious and widespread human rights violation that we must confront.

For it is poverty and underdevelopment both in cause and effect that exacerbate abuse, neglect and discrimination, denying millions the enjoyment of their civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, and ultimately their right to development”. She said.

In fact, economic development policy can satisfy both the rich and poor because there are lots of goods and services which the rich and poor can share. There are lots of different investments from which the rich and poor can choose.

In an article published in February 2002, noted development economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, states that extreme poverty of the bottom billion people is shocking, morally intolerable, and dangerous – a breeding ground of disease, terrorism, and violence. Yet with the richest countries richer than ever before, and with much of the developing world already escaping from the horrors of extreme poverty, the balance has shifted in favor of ending global poverty. Rich countries could enable the poorest of the poor to escape from misery by providing just a tiny fraction of their yearly national income – or, indeed, of their military spending – to overcome the crises of hunger, education, and disease. That aid, combined with the market-based economic growth, could end extreme poverty.

Two years later, Sachs wrote that “What we learned is easily summarized. For every major problem – hunger, illiteracy, malnutrition, malaria, AIDS, drought, and so forth – there are practical solutions that are proven and affordable. These investments, in turn, would strengthen the private sector and economic growth. Yet they require global partnership between the rich and poor countries of the world. Most importantly, the world’s richest countries need to do much more to help the poorest countries, make use of modern science and technology to solve these great problems.”

According to Sachs, once basic health, agricultural, and connectivity conditions are met, poor will be able to both use aid and investment more effectively and generate higher incomes off native resources. “A situation where hundreds of millions of people, utterly impoverished, who have no income, don’t grow enough food to take to the market, who aren’t credit worthy, whose countries are bankrupt, their populations are growing, they’re mining the soil of nutrients, and the World Bank and IMF for twenty years are saying, ‘Balance your budgets, squeeze yourself, tighten your belts,’ as if they had belts, and markets will solve this problem,” he added.

As we know poverty and bad governance are inter-related to each other. We must improve governance if we want to eradicate poverty. It also means that those in the government be made accountable to people. For this, democracy, free media and people’s participation in the decision making is must.

As Nepal is moving towards drafting a new constitution to ensure equal right to all the citizens, we must not forget the plight of millions of our sisters and brothers who are destined to live under the shadow of poverty. It is the fundamental right of every Nepali to live a life of dignity and we must work all to ensure that we are able to eradicate poverty in the country within our life time.

(Journalist and story writer Kamala Sarup writes on peace, gender and development issues and can be reached at [email protected])

(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to [email protected] )