Nepal Now: On the Move
We're talking with the people migrating from, to, and within this Himalayan country located between China and India. You'll hear from a wide range of Nepali men and women who have chosen to leave the country for better work or education opportunities. Their stories will help you understand what drives people — in Nepal and worldwide — to mortgage their property or borrow huge sums of money to go abroad, often leaving their loved ones behind.
Despite many predictions, migration from Nepal has not slowed in recent years, except briefly during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. About 1 million Nepalis leave every year to work at jobs outside the country. Tens of thousands go abroad to study. Far fewer return to Nepal to settle. The money ('remittances') that workers send home to their families accounts for 25% of the country's GDP, but migration impacts Nepal in many other ways. We'll be learning from migrants, experts and others about the many cultural, social, economic and political impacts of migration.
Your host is Marty Logan, a Canadian journalist who has lived in Nepal's capital Kathmandu off and on since 2005. Marty started the show in 2020 as Nepal Now.
Nepal Now: On the Move
Maximize mask wearing
Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. This is what I’m talking and reading about these days when the subject is Covid-19. I’ve had my jab, and so has my wife, but my daughter, who’s under 18, has not, because Nepal hasn’t offered them to that age group yet, but she still has to go to school this week to take exams. My parents in Canada, who are over 80, have had two jabs, and now they’re talking about a booster shot. And on it goes.
But here in Nepal only 20% of people are fully vaccinated and 22% partly vaccinated. More doses are reportedly on the way, and this week’s news that neighbouring India will start exporting vaccines in October is encouraging, but it’s going to be months, at least, before the population approaches a vaccination rate where we can start to relax.
In the meantime, masks are the answer. Today we’re speaking with Preeti Adhikary of the NORMmask project. You may have heard about its work in Bangladesh, where it was launched in 2020. The project is now also rolling out in Pakistan, India and Latin America.
One note: in one of my questions today you’ll hear me refer to the results from Bangladesh as a 300% increase in mask wearing. In fact, the rise was three-fold, which I assumed was the same as 300% but is actually 200%. Now you know why I chose to study liberal arts after graduating high school….
Thank you for downloading this episode — we’d really like to hear what you thought of it, so once you’re done, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
Resources
NORM website
Covid-19 Rapid Action Taskforce Nepal
Nepal Now social links
Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.
Music: amaretto needs ice ... by urmymuse (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/57996 Ft: Apoxode
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Music by audionautix.com.
Thank you to PEI in Bankhundole and Himal Media in Patan Dhoka for the use of their studio.
Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.
