Promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal 2015 has created further polarization in Nepalese politics. The protests organized by the Madhesi and indigenous Peoples against the constitution demonstrate that the long awaited constitution has fulfilled the political interests of the dominant ruling caste group, namely Bahun and Chhetri. Demands for immediate amendments corroborates the fact that the new constitution failed to be inclusive and failed to fulfill the political aspirations of the indigenous peoples. Drawing on Limbuwan's identity movement and particularly showcasing the  Limbuwan-oriented political parties' as well as organizations' protests against the new constitution this paper will seek to answer: a) why  Limbuwan, together with other provinces,  based on cultural and historical identity, could not be constitutionally ensured  or in other words why the constituent assembly could only promulgate the…

Nepal’s recently promulgated new Constitution has been highly contested. It has been rejected by historically excluded groups such as Madhesis, Janjatis, Tharus, and Dalits and the groups are currently demanding amendments in the Constitution in order to ensure more concrete provisions for their inclusion and representation in the state. Writing a new constitution through an elected body, Constituent Assembly, which could address the fundamental problems of various kinds of exclusion and inequality, was part of the peace agreement between the then government of Nepal and the insurgent Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists). Although, the peace process was formally ended, the question of addressing the questions of exclusion and inequality remains still highly contested. This paper examines the provisions of Nepal’s new Constitution in order to see how it has addressed…

Historically, assignment of mental health diagnoses has relied more on completion of top-down checklists of symptoms that are administered by trained health professionals.1 This approach may be problematic due to its limitations on the fact that they are developed in different settings and lacks the local touch. Community-based detection approaches that provide agency to patients and community members may be a viable alternative to the standard biomedical approach. Highlighting this, we developed a culturally contextualized, picture based narrative instrument called the Community Informant Detection Tool (CIDT) for the detection of five common mental health problems in Nepal – epilepsy, alcoholism, depression, psychosis and behavioral disorder. This study describes the stepwise development of the tool. First, a draft tool consisting of narrative descriptions of each 5 disorder using symptom descriptions grounded…

Adolescent aspiration models influence people's behavior choices and exposure to risk and protective factors, which influence adult mental health1. There have been various public health and clinical studies that are aimed at improving these models to try to change behavior and decrease risk factors with the ultimate aim of improving psychological wellbeing2. The objective of this study was to identify adolescent aspiration models in a high-risk, rural Nepali setting to identify potential areas of intervention to improve adolescent mental health. The study used well-established social sciences elicitation techniques to understand the cultural pathway for adult life course(3,4). Life Trajectory Interviews (LTI) were conducted among adolescents aged 15-19 years, their parents and teachers (n=20). Qualitative analysis of the interviews formed the basis for identification of items for a card sorting activity. Card…

There is long history of using social sciences theory and methods in the fields of health and development to examine a range of public health issues in Nepal. Anthropologists have used interdisciplinary approaches to make public health interventions more culturally relevant in community settings[1-3]. However, there is a lack of systematic approaches to identify and address barriers to development and uptake of community-based mental health and psychosocial programs [4]. This formative study aims to qualitatively identify resources, challenges, and potential barriers to development and implementation of culturally adapted community-based mental health programs in accordance with the mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) for persons with severe mental disorders and epilepsy. Focus group discussions (n=9) and key informant interviews (n=26) were conducted in the community including key policy makers, health workers,…

There is long history of using social sciences theory and methods in the fields of health and development to examine a range of public health issues in Nepal. Anthropologists have used interdisciplinary approaches to make public health interventions more culturally relevant in community settings[1-3]. However, there is a lack of systematic approaches to identify and address barriers to development and uptake of community-based mental health and psychosocial programs [4]. This formative study aims to qualitatively identify resources, challenges, and potential barriers to development and implementation of culturally adapted community-based mental health programs in accordance with the mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) for persons with severe mental disorders and epilepsy. Focus group discussions (n=9) and key informant interviews (n=26) were conducted in the community including key policy makers, health workers,…

In Nepal, as in other developing countries, migration has been considered a powerful factor for social change. The construction industry and contemporary investments in infrastructure are potentially acting as powerful pull factors for internal labor migration, including for more specialized construction labor throughout the year –the share of the construction industry in non-agricultural wage employment in Nepal has grown from 30% during 1995/96 to 37% during 2010/11 This paper will present findings of research on the urbanization-migration nexus with the construction industry as a proxy for urbanization in Kathmandu, Nepal.  It examines how investments in urban construction and its concurrent demand for labour is giving rise to new and varied temporal forms of migration.The study is based on 83 in-depth interviews conducted with people working in the construction industry, mainly…

Migration in both its internal and international dimensions is not a new phenomenon. However, there has been an exponential growth in the scale of migration in the last few decades and it has directly impacted lives and livelihoods of people all across Nepal, directly as well as indirectly. There is a lacuna of scholarly work on how migration implicates social life. Burgeoning studies on migration and community forestry have tended to focus on how male migration has provided a ‘window of opportunity’ for women in forest governance. However studies on migration, gender and agriculture, suggest that the higher work burden resulting from male migration is disempowering for women because they lack the capacity to undertake the new responsibilities imposed on them and pushes them further into the sphere of unpaid…

Nepal has witnessed the out-migration of health personnel, especially doctors and nurses to the countries of the Global North. A few studies have explored the out migration of health workers from Nepal but little is known about the actual numbers of health workers leaving the country, the policies governing such movement and the consequent impact of the migration of this section of skilled population. The major destination countries for the migration of nursing professionals include United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia. Since Nepal stands as one of the 57 countries listed by the WHO facing critical shortages of health workers, the current outflows is likely to exacerbate the negative impacts already visible in terms of the effectiveness and quality of health service delivery. The paper will be based…

This paper suggests that the principle of autochthony widely practiced by most Nepalis works not categorically but contextually and compels them to practice belonging dynamically, often resulting in multiple identity-making. Based on field research about Himalayan mountaineering and Sherpa semi-migratory lives, this paper explores the mode of dynamic practices of belonging, practices that have allowed a group of Sherpas from Walung, northeastern Nepal, to go through the drastic changes of their lives induced by modernization, transnationalization and sanskritization in the country. Sherpa’s monopoly of the mountaineering industry solidifies ever more along the Himalayan chain, fitting the ethnic group into a niche at the triple nexus: surveillance of the nation state, opposition to other ethnic and caste groups, and compunction of international counterparts. The key to this propping themselves relies on…