Essay on Country Report of Nepal

Nepal is a secular state where majority of them are Hindu population resides. It has the unique landscape and biodiversity. This country is known for multi-cultural and multi-lingual, where there are more than 100 ethnic people live and speak more than 120 language. Nepal is divided into three main geographical regions- Himalayas, the Hills and the Terai (a plain land). In the last three years, Nepal was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and a 7.3 magnitude aftershock in April 2015. Over 9,000 people were killed, over 22,000 were injured and hundreds of thousands were made homeless.

The World Bank has declared the damage of $7 billion with the total reconstruction needs of $6 billion. Nepal’s political leaders promised the fast-track the drafting of a new construction and complete the peace process that had made in 2006. Nepal’s present political history has been formed by recurring many occurrences of mass mobilization and anti-regime contention. Nepal is a Hindu-majority nation surrounded by India and China. Land is the main source of income.

Nepal not just only have breathtaking mountains or have beautiful nature. It has different culture. Nepal is known for rich culture. People of Nepal keeps their culture and traditions close to their heart. Some of them are Mahashivaratri, thousands of yogis at Shiv temples of Nepal gather to celebrate. The Shiv temples are decorated with lights and devotees deserve the whole day fasting and worship god at night. The second, Holi- color festival, it is the most vibrant festivals which celebrated full of colors each year. Third, Buddha Jayanti, it is a national festival celebrated with immense grandeur and magnificence. Lord Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal so people visit places like Boudhanath, Lumbini. Fourth, Dashain, one of the biggest festivals of Nepal, it is observed for 15 days. This day is for the victory of Goddess Durga over the devil. All the schools and offices are closed, and it is a great time to spend quality time with family. Fifth, Tihar, this is the second biggest festivals. This festival is known as the shining festival of Nepal or festival of lights. Tihar is worshiped for Goddess Laxmi with vigor and enthusiasm.

People decorate their house with lights, flower and make colorful Rangoli Nepal has an area of 147,181 square miles. It is surrounded by India in east, west and south and China, Tibet in the north. Nepal has tremendous geographic diversity and it is divided into three regions: Terai, Hilly and Himalayan. Roughly, 75% of the country is covered by mountains. Terai is also spelled as Tarai and is a low land region where Indian border begins. Hilly is a mountain region which does not contain snow. The region begins at Mahabharat Range. There is a buffer between languages and culture in Terai and Hilly. There are Himal is a mountain region which contains snow. Nepal is blessed with monsoon climate. It is cold and dry during winter and hot, stormy and rainy during summer. It is the country with rich natural beauty and resources. It is the highly diverse and rich geography, culture and religions. There are eight out of ten world’s highest mountains, Mt. Everest being the top.

Nepal has been divided into five development regions, 14 zones and 75 districts Nepal is an agriculturally based country, 65% of people rely on agriculture in Nepal. People speak different languages, in fact National Census of 2011 listed 123 Nepalese language spoken as a mother tongue and the official language is Nepali. Nepal was declared as a secular country in 2006. People in Nepal practiced Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism, Sikhism. The majority are either Hindu or Buddhist. Customs and traditions differ from one city to another. Nepalese do not eat beef because Hindus worship cow. That being said, cow is the national animal of Nepal. Nepalese believe that cow dung is the pure for cleansing purposes. During mensuration women were considered impure and they were not allowed in the house until fourth day only after the purification bath. Although Nepal is a landlocked country, the people from foreign countries visit here. Nepal’s literacy rate is 65% and many schools.

Since the creation of modern Nepal in the late 18th century, it has linked with the religion, language and culture of the upper caste (Hindu), especially Brahmins also known as Bahun who dominates the political, judiciary, media, civil service and all other public life. This was changed after the Panchayat system in 1991. Furthermore, law, order, public life was taken away by the Maoist insurgency as well as the Royal Nepali Army. After several years of crisis, the peace began from 2006, slowly and helped strengthen the state’s monopoly on the use of force in many parts of the country. Though the legitimacy of the state’s overall sovereignty within its international borders the nature of power structures, geographical and political has been debating for the post conflict period. Rather making the legitimate democratic country, the politics have now become main threat to the monopoly state. Nepal’s political parties are negotiating whether to hold local election which has not taken place since 1995.

Nepal’s judicial system suffers from numerous problems like lack of citizen awareness about judicial process and delays. The Supreme Court suffers from many functional deficits and remains unreachable to the majority of the Nepalese due to insufficient geographical dispersal and scarce resources with in the system. Due to pending cases, delays in implementation of court decisions, is causing lack of transparency and political interferences and highly corruptions. A lack of effective legal consequences has been an obstacle in ensuring the rule of law and the protection of human rights. Corruption in Nepal is unlikely to be changed in politics and business. There is frequent news about the corruption scandal including funds, but political parties are continuously doing it. Some businesses are adapted and learned to work through the system and made some profit from it. There has been a lack of political commitment to foster systematic investigation. Nepal’s political parties suffer from the lack of democratic structures and norms in many ways.

The property rights and the regulations of property has been violated due to absence of good governance. Maoist party agreed in the principle to return all the property mostly land but haven’t done so in majority cases. As mentioned before, Nepal is one of the poorest countries and due to poverty, many lacks the proper documentation for their land entitles and are ill-equipped to manipulate through local courts and administration and they are insecure about the property rights. Although in the constitution since 2006 has declared the equal rights for legal provision in terms of property and inheritance for women, they are unable to make any decisions. Private companies are permitted and protected, yet the real problem for setting up private or industrial company is not registration but the political interference in daily basis once the firms starts. Nepal has a good history in terms of education, health, drinking water, telecommunication, road construction and power generation with international partners. But they still need to improve the coordination of earthquake reconstruction money as well as development to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Though Nepal receives a significant amount of international assistance, due to weak governance and corruptions, all the amounts affects the term strategic development and impact the economy. The government of Nepal has tried to present the country as a reliable partner over the past few years its reputation is continuously deteriorating due to lack of political commitments and growing conflicts between the parties.

The currency of Nepal (NPR) is pinned with Indian Rupee (INR) at a rate of 1.6 to 1.0, where the policy makers and international organization like IMF insist in macroeconomic stability. The value NPR varies with the INR and is enfeeble against US dollar. Foreign exchange is not freely available but is improving from an early 2015. According to World Bank data, due to earthquake and trade relation disruption, inflation has spiked to over 14 % by mid-February 2016 rising 6% points in just four months from min-October 2015. This was the highest inflation level since 2009 FY. According to IMF, earthquake made a major shock to Nepal’s economy and they suffered short-run revenue especially in agriculture and tourism sector.

Nepal has faced two major earthquakes in 2015. Nepal, with its unique geographical position and complex ecology, it is one of the main countries to experience negative effects of climate change. Nepal is one of the poorest countries that is listed in the world with per capita GNI of about $740 and per capita GDP of $690.40 (2014). Around 30.35% of Nepal’s population lived below the poverty line and additional 4% of the population had been pushed into the poverty line due to earthquake. Socioeconomic inequalities in Nepal is on the basis od ethnicity, language, caste, sex, region. This hierarchies continue to restrict the access to political influence and economic opportunities of many groups. Nepal was ranked 110th among 144 countries in the Global Gender Gap 2016. India is the single source of foreign investment in Nepal. FDI inflows into Nepal is very low, GDP of less than 1% and FDI inflows are the lowest among their comparators. Nepal continues to suffer from a trade deficit of more than $5 billion on Fiscal Year 2013 which is largely funded through remittance income.

Market based competition in Nepal is complicated and there is both formal and informal aspect to this. There are only two state monopolies i.e. electricity and petroleum products. Selling Nepalese currency is very difficult and requires letters for credit. Due to lack of governance and effective institutions market forces of Nepal has led to ineffective operations. Price hikes and shortages for basic necessities are very often and no one seems to be responsible for this. Nepal recognized the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2004 as the first Least Developed Country. Nepal is also a of two regional trade frame works, the South Asia Trade Area (SAFTA) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). The prime minister Baburam Bhattarai (2011-2013) made an effort to attract foreign investment but due to political back ground of the leading party it wasn’t effective. Nepal has several investment friendly laws and regulations in place for instance the operation of foreign banks, repatriation of profits and currency exchange. Nepal’s banking and financial sector suffers some structural problems, for instance, the central bank’s limited supervision and weak supervision and implementation of capital requirements, weak incentives for improving and motivating corporate field, accountability and transparency in banking system and high proportions of nonperforming loans. In the other hand, the Nonperforming assets (NPA) is still a long way for being satisfactory. Nepal holds local district elections in three periods, May, June and September and provincial and national parliament election in November and December. Nepal has been a state of political crisis for decades, but the crisis hasn’t improved instead it has reached new level.

Nepal received its first women in powerful position as they do not have equal status as men does. There is still double standard while claiming citizenship. The adult literacy rate for female is just 49 percent, about 30% of women are reported to be a victim of sexual and gender-based violence. On the side note, abortion was legalized in 2002 and still the study found that nearly 60% of all abortions that were done secretively, thereby increasing the death of women. In 1962, a law was passed making the caste discrimination illegal and all caste to be treated equally. However, the caste discrimination is continuing, and it is deeply rooted in the society. For instance, Dalits are the lower caste and they still face discrimination, they are not allowed to enter temples, touch food at common gathering, use the public taps or drink water. They are beaten by upper caste if they do so. Moreover, Nepal also has the economic inequality in terms of income and opportunity between lower and higher caste. In Nepal, women are treated as second class citizen because of gender inequality. This happens more in village areas, domestic violence including physical and psychological torture especially done by men to take control over wife and bad rituals like chhaupadi pratha, dowry system etc. are making women’s life miserable. This system only victimizes women as people think they are not capable of doing anything. They lack the love, care and dignity for their daughters and think daughters are the burden for the families. Some girls also become the victim of girl trafficking as brokers lure innocent girls in different ways like good jobs, food, nice clothes, sending them to foreign land and unknowingly they find themselves in the illegal work.

According to John H. Merryman, “a legal system is an operating set of legal institution, procedure and rules”. Nepalese legal system is over two thousand years old. The system has started to establish new concept via different sub-systems, the impact by Hindu legal system is minimized and it has become more hybrid in the last sixty years. Since 2007 B.C., the concepts of rule of law, fundamental rights, etc., has been introduced into the legal system. The legal and political history of Nepal’s legal system is divided into early history, post-unification era, dissemination of the Muluki Ain, Later development, after period of 1951, after the period of 1990 and modern trend. There are a lot of changes made in the recent times. The parliament of Nepal has declared Nepal as a secular and democratic republican state. There were seven constitutions in the history of Nepal. The constitution declared Nepal as an independent, indivisible, secular, equality and non-discrimination country. Furthermore, the Delegated Legislation are made by Ministry of Council and Ministers, Public Bodies or Corporations, Local Bodies, Judges, Government Departments and Legislature and the whole delegated legislature is controlled by Consultation, Recommendation or Approval and Publication.

The Supreme Court is the highest court of the country, which hears appeal from the lower courts and the independence of the judiciary is supposed to be endured by the law. Nepal’s new constitution has now created a constitutional bench within the Supreme Court but yet it has not been established. Due to corruption, the court system suffers from systematic deficits and remains inaccessible to the majority people in Nepal. A lack of effective legal consequences has been and is still a serious grievance to ensure the rule of law and protection of human rights. In Nepal, corruption is like a belief in political as well as businesses. Funds, money of publics are taken at all level of government. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Though, the businesses are trying to adapt and learn to work through the system and still making the profit.

There are many economic achievements after the movement as well. Nepal started it’s time-centered development plans. Many opportunities have opened for foreign investments. Poverty has decreased Nepal is still not self-enough in production and processing. The governments looking after the economic growth and employment. Nepal exports very few and cheap goods and services to other countries and import more goods. If Nepal can bring more foreign currencies it can boost its economic status at a large extent. Tourist are attracted towards our arts, culture, traditions, historic sites, monuments and many other things which helps them preserve arts and culture. Nepal is a beautiful place and it can easily be developed but the people are not misusing and taking advantage or ignore the nature. Nepal has so many beautiful places which are god gifted. If Nepal can bring more tourist, then Nepal would be on top. Tourism helps to develop the physical infrastructures of the country. With the help of tourism, Nepal would become famous in the world for its natural beauty. There will be more demand for Nepalese product in the market place all over the world.

However, the tourism industry is very important for developing countries like Nepal nut there are some problem created by tourism like increasing pollution, especially when they go trekking, they take foods, tents, cans, plastics along with them and throw it there which increase the pollution. But Nepal is making change on this, they are putting garbage box all over the places. Progress has been made in utilizing natural resources, tourism and hydroelectricity. With 8/10 mountain peaks and Nepal has 83,000 MW of theoretical and 42,133 MW of technically and financially viable hydroelectric potential. The import and export trade balance has improved since 2002 with growth of garment and carpet industries. In the year of 2000-2002, export was greater than 15% than imports of 5.5%, being a trade deficit to 5%. Recently, the EU is the largest buyer of ready-made garments, fruits (apples, pears and many more) and vegetables like salad, tomatoes, potatoes, rice, etc. from Nepal. The weather also influences the economic growth. Strong export performances, including earnings from tourism and external aid have helped improve the balance of payments and increase international reserves.

To conclude, Nepal has made great achievements through unique programs. However, Nepal is a fragile state, politically, economically and socially. To maximize the likelihood of sustained and ultimately independent progress in Nepal, development partners must make some changes. Nepal is a beautiful country and can do much better work. As the political process goes forward, politicians, policymakers should work for public and for international development. Nepal has a high-spirited media with daily, weekly and monthly prints in the national language as well as English and several other ethnic and regional languages. There are incredible reports about the activists. The constitution provides full protection for civil and political rights about economic, social and cultural rights. The democratic institutions exist at the national level although they are unstable because of the perpetual political controversy. Moreover, Nepal’s political parties are divided into groups based on caste, religion. The studies show that the level of trust and the strength in Nepal are not available. Overall, the situation of Nepal is volatile, and it is improving but slowly. In fact, the economic growth and improvements in human development is real. And many other countries depend upon Nepal. Nepal is a secular and independent country. Nepal not just only have breathtaking mountains or have beautiful nature. It has different culture. Nepal is known for rich culture.

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