बन्दिपुर यात्रा २०६९ "Go Bandipur" Elated Moments

Pakistan Diary "पाकिस्तान-डायरी"

It was a wonderful time spent in Pakistan. अझ पनि पाकिस्तानमा बिताएका ति क्षणहरु सम्झदा रमाइलो लाग्छ

पकिस्तान !!! आज पनि एउटा बम पड्कियो- ३० जना मारिए !  यस्तै सबै घटनाहरु सुन्दा मलाई भित्र भित्र डर लाग्थ्यो / पटक पटक मेरो जोस माथि बादल गर्जिन्त्यो, तर फेरी सोच्थे . इस्लामाबाद . त राजधानी पो हो त ! तेहा त अन्त जस्तो नहोला ! जे भएपनि इस्लामाबाद त देशको अरु ठाउँ भन्दा सुरक्षित् त पक्कै होला ! तेस्पछी म मा डर भन्दा पनि उमङ्ग र जोस को संचार हुन्थ्य्यो ! म उठ्थे र आफैलाई भन्थे “नो प्रोब्लेम ! मर्नबाट डराइन्ना ,पाकिस्तान त जसरि पनि जनैपर्छ ! “ .आज म तपाईहरुलाई यस्तै पाकिस्तान यात्राका अधभुत घटनाहरु सुनौन चाहन्छु:

I was really excited to saw my name among the applicants accepted for participation in second south Asianyouth Conference. SAYC was bringing together & uniting the youth of South Asian Region for a peaceful, strong and developed Region. It was born when a group of South Asian youth came together at the 5th World Youth Congress in Turkey. They felt the deep connection of shared culture and history between them. Hence, the need for a space where young leaders converge, discuss and collaborate led to Blue Ribbon Movement organizing the 1st conference in Bangalore. This year, the conference moved to Pakistan.

My lust for second SAYC was tremendous. In particular, I was excited to meet with people from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Shri Lanka whom I had not met before. I was excited to room around the streets of Pakistan, talk and hear from Pakistani people whom I had heard were the humble and gentle people dwelling in lap of Mt. K2 Godwin. I was always interest to learn about Islam and their people. I had some kind of understanding of it while I was living in Mrs. Khatun’s house while I was staying in Damauli, Tanahun.

Though conference was in November, I was restless from the first when I heard about it in August. I was determined to participate in the conference but all my friends and family were a bit frightened to hear about my participation. I thought Pakistan could not be such a violent place, that I should not be there. Any place, any time while you leaving or traveling could get insecure, you can got die at any moment-its your luck. So I thought why shouldn't I try Pakistan? This bizarre thought was my inspiration that led me to Pakistan.

I was there in Pakistan Representing PHM-NSC-students coalition for people’s health movement in Nepal. I was there to talk about peace, harmony and brotherhood-a bit different topic than my daily business. This was a really new learning experience for me in the theme of peace, education and sustainable development that I was listing all over the conference. I listened delightful speech from some high caliber people from Pakistan- one of the speaker was Mrs. Hina Rabbani Khar; First Lady Foreign Minister in Pakistan. She was beautiful in looking, brilliant in talking. The interaction with her was the best of my memories in Pakistan. I was totally amazed to see Mr. Ankit Babu Adhikari-my fellow mate from Nepal singing such a beautiful Urdu song. He was a real icon in the conference. In fourth day of conference, we went for city cleaning. I think the place was somewhere in middle of Islamabad. I played Cricket there, the Pakistani kids were really good at bowling. Their amazing smile is similar of my brothers of South Asia. I thought we all are similar, nearer and dearer so why we need to play politics with each other-why couldn't we uproot boundaries and establish peace and brotherhood. I really enjoyed all days of conference, but the last day of conference was awesome. We traveled to the Pakistan Monument, and a hillside for city view ,and in evening gathered in Park China Center. The musical performance by Pakistani Kawali Singers were amazing. I was really frightened to see the way they were singing. The singers were stretching their chick’s apart and singing out beautiful Kawali songs praising Mola “God” in a beautiful way. I was so much delighted to hear it for the first time.

I really enjoyed the company with Pakistani, Indian, Afghani ,Sri Lankan , Maldivian and my Nepali all who were fabulous, humble and gentle. I am really impressed with the hospitality shown by Pakistani people towards me. I am happy they treated me well while I was travelling, visiting the city center, and when I was about to be lost in Islamabad while travelling in cab for a rendezvous with Nepali Ambassador for Pakistan.

The most pressing thing that I learnt from Pakistan is that it’s pretty safe place and has plenty of places one should visit in life time. The people are humble, streets were clean and wide and the food was amazing.  I think I will visit it again.

A picture of Girls’ Health in Nepal

A picture of Girls’ Health  in Nepal

Nepal; a developing country has been doing a lot of progress in meeting health care needs of population and the millennium development goals. But despite the vigorous effort and lot of expenditure of money from national and international sources, the adolescent and youth health status in Nepal is undoubtedly poor. It is a common fact that youth and adolescent health status especially that of girls is mostly ignored in front of huge problems of maternal and neonatal health problems in developing country.

That is a typical picture of girl’s population in Nepal. Girls Population in Nepal consist 49% of the total child population. The Literacy rate among the girls is 42.8% as compared to 65% in the boys. In Nepal, primary school going girls is 74% compared to 86% with the boys. The child marriage practices is rampant in Nepal, 21% of total marriages in Nepal is held with girls below 16 years and 7% of child marriages are held with children below 10 years; 41% of girls give birth to a child before the age of 19.

Girls bear the heaviest burden of work in home, most of the household chores and child rearing activities are the responsibility of girls. Girls aged between 10-14 works double as compared to boys in the same age group. In Nepal, 26 lakh (10 lakh=1 million) children are working in different fields of labor. Among this, 56% are reported to be girls.
Girls trafficking form Nepal to different adjacent cities of India and even in the cities of country has been growing especially from rural districts of Nepal. Girls are trafficked for different purposes including sex trade, domestic work, and marriage, carpet weaving and for forced beggary. About 20% (i.e. 40,000) of the total trafficked women for sex trade are girls below 16 years. Around 12,000 girl children are trafficked in a year. Almost 60% of survivors of child sex abuse and rape are girls below 18 years. Most of them are abused either at home, educational institution, work place or any given place. They are insecure in all these places.
Living standard survey of Nepal has revealed that 31% of Nepalese population is below the poverty line. The burden of poverty is especially heavier in girls and women. Malnutrition in Nepal is 56.2% in which the state of girls is more vulnerable than boys. Biologically boys are vulnerable to diseases but because of the societal behavior, girls tend to be vulnerable. Because of decade long conflicts and associated problems of poverty and ignorance, the problem of street children is growing especially in cities and towns. Out of total 5000 street children in Nepal around 5% are girls.

The stereotypical male roles and patriarchal societal structure, discrimination of girls is rampant in every sector of society including education, economy, health care and work wage. Women and girls are regarded as "untouchable during menstrual period. In some parts of far western Nepal, they are not even allowed to stay inside home and forced to stay outside, mostly in the cattle house. Despite legal prohibition, sexual exploitation of girls in the form of traditional and religious customs, such as Deuki, Badi, Jhuma still exists in Nepal.
Armed Conflict In past 12 years, 475 children have died due to internal armed conflict. Among them 139 are girls. In the course of armed conflict many incidences of sexual abuse of girls has been made public. Similarly, many children including girls have been displaced to city areas and are involved in exploitative labor sectors.

After the peace process, the consequent interim constitution of Nepal has been drafted with health right of people as fundamental rights. The free health care services have become a boon for the poor and needy proportion of population to enjoy the health rights. Among them girls has benefited a lot, but still because of the structure of health setting and lack of skill in health care providers in providing health care services, girls feel shy and uncomfortable in reaching and getting to health services. so there has to be serious exercise in policy, organizational and functional level to make the health care services girls friendly and society; conducive to women’s health in all sense.

References

 UNICEF

Central Bureau of Statistics 

CWIN National Recourse Centre