Conference Year: 2019

With signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord in November 2006, a decade long Maoist Insurgency ended and the management of arms and armies was one of the most contentious issues of Nepal’s Peace Process. Around six years of contests and discussions among the concerned stakeholders, the process of supervision, integration, and rehabilitation of the ex-combatants …

Revisiting Ex- Combatants: Past Assumptions and Present Realities Read More »

This paper looks into the mother tongue data at local and province levels and reviews the constitutional provision on additional official languages in terms of majority, preservation and promotion of languages, and effectiveness of implementation. Nepali, as the compulsory official language, is not discussed here. If the majority as “more than 50% of the population”, …

Additional Official Language Policy of Nepal: A Review Read More »

Nepali women’s autonomy, agency, and public participation have significantly increased in the last few decades, mainly due to, among many factors, egalitarian laws and men’s absence from home as a result of international labor migration. Yet the suffering of women, who belong to the poor and marginalized communities, has not decreased; For these women, suffering …

Autonomy, Gender, and Women’s Suffering in Nepal Read More »

Nepali women are exposed to several restrictions and discrimination in the name of social norms and traditions in Nepal. Menstrual practice is one of such tradition, chaupadi being the manifestation of such restrictions in its most severe form.  Following the menstrual tradition, women are forbidden from making physical contact with their family members, entering house …

The Untouchables: Prevalence of Sexual Relationship during Menstrual Period Read More »

At a time when Nepal was ruled by the Ranas and peoples’ rights were next to nonexistent, one woman from Eastern part of the country was bold enough to lead a coalition with people from various castes to urge the rulers to establish a nation based on equality. Her name was Yogmaya Neupane, who in …

Bold, Brahmin and Banned: Recovering History’s Unsung Rhetoric of a Revolutionary Woman of Nepal Read More »

Following the earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015, the government of Nepal decided taking the ‘blanket approach’ to aid distribution mechanism without conducting needs assessment of its vulnerable population with the concept that the extent of devastation was such that everyone needed assistance. Disasters affect vulnerable populations including people with disabilities disproportionately. Earthquakes maybe indiscriminate …

Indiscriminating Earthquake Discriminatory Aid: Effectiveness of Blanket Approach to Aid Distribution to People with Disabilities Read More »

Many scholars have advocated that disaster resilience of communities could contextualize how community members sustain themselves and recover from the destruction of the disaster. To substitute this statement, numerous empirical studies have been conducted to explore the determinants of disaster resilience that contribute to post-disaster recovery process. However, most existing works evaluated the post-disaster performances …

The Determinants of Disaster–Resilience in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal: An Assessment of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience in Nepal after 2015 Earthquake Read More »

This paper examines the transformation of marginality in the Badi community in Nepal after their association with prostitution became a matter of public policy and community controversies. The Badi, who are treated as Dalit, had served as entertainers for small rajas and landlords in the past, and became increasingly dependent on income from women’s sex …

Dealing with Marginality: Gender and Caste in Western Nepal Read More »

An ethnographic exploration of “mass hysteria” in Nepal troubles existing anthropological treatments of this form of affliction as gendered resistance. In Nepal, affected communities and girls dispute psychosocial counselors and anthropologists on conceptual grounds. These conflicts revolve around two distinct understandings of the subject of affliction. The subject of “mass hysteria” takes a liberal form …

Thinking with Ghosts: Bhut laagyo, Hysteria, and the Politics of Conceptualization Read More »

Engagement of peers or service users is increasingly emphasized in mental health clinical, education, and research activities[1]. This movement is pushed forward by a message of “Nothing about us without us.” One of the core means of engagement is via the sharing of recovery narratives, through which mental health service users present their personal history …

Recovery Narratives in Global Mental Health: Understanding the Benefits and Harms of Mental Health Service User’s Storytelling in Nepal Read More »