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Thagi Kadara and his family – a resident of Khallajai, Laljhadi Rural Municipality-4, Kanchanpur, was compelled to take shelter at a neighbor's home for the past one week after a herd of wild elephants broke down his house. 

The rampaging tuskers also ate up grains stored inside his house. The Kadara family was forced to take shelter at a neighbor's house with remaining grains and clothes.

"We usually visit our house in the afternoon", he said, adding, "Every day we go to the neighbor's house before the evening to take shelter".

The Kadara family has abandoned staying at the home since a week back, fearing that the herd of elephants will come again and create havoc. "The elephant almost took our life, fortunately we escaped the tragic incident and survived", Thagi's wife said.

She narrated, "We came to know the rampage of the tuskers when they started demolishing the house wall at midnight. The entire house was fearfully shaken. We ran away carrying my ailing husband who had recently undergone abdominal surgery".

The herd of tuskers had eaten up eight sacks of paddy kept inside the house, she said, adding the mammoths also made the utensils useless. 

Like the Kadara family, the houses of Harilal Tamta and Raj Tamta, who take shelter in their neighbor's home, have also been destroyed by elephants.

The elephants ate the grain inside the house of both Tamta families. All three families who were rendered homeless after demolition are living in a worried state.

Raj Tamta said that the elephant rampage forced them to ask for food from others every day.

Chief of Laljhadi Sub-Division Forest Office, Karunakar Joshi said seven employees of the office, who had been working for a month after leaving the forest conservation work, had to join hands with local residents to chase away the rampaging tuskers.

"The elephants have destroyed sugarcane farming in ward 4", he shared. Besides creating public awareness to protect the general public from elephants, arrangement of lights on the roads, sirens and honking of tractors have also been carried out to prevent further human loss, he added.

According to him, the number of elephants including cubs in the nearby forests has reached 24.

The Department of Environment has urged the public not to burn the solid and plastic wastes after the rise in air pollution in several parts of the country, including the Kathmandu Valley. 

The Department urged one and all to avoid burning such wastes with the gradual rise in air pollution after the onset of winter.

Air pollution has increased in the Tarai region and the Kathmandu Valley for the past few weeks.

The Department informed that the main causes of air pollution were smoke emanating from industries, factories and vehicles, forest fires, open waste and burning of agricultural residues, smoke emanating from homes, and dust from roads and construction sites among others.

An air quality index between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 to 100 moderate, and 101 to 150 unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Likewise, 151 to 200 is considered unhealthy, 201 to 300 very unhealthy and 301 dangerous levels.

Noting that air pollution has a critical impact on human health, the Department has requested to take special precautions targeting children, the elderly and respiratory and heart patients and pregnant women as the most vulnerable to pollution impacts.

The Department has urged the concerned not to burn solid and plastic waste and agricultural residues, maintain vehicles regularly, use clean energy in industries and kitchens, and properly control smoke and dust emanating from roads and construction sites. The Department has been measuring air pollution through stations across the country.

Structural and systemic biases rooted in gender, caste, and class perpetuate injustice, disproportionately affecting women, informal workers, and LGBTIQA+ individuals. “In Nepal, around 80 percent of the workforce is in the informal sector, where women earn up to 40 percent less than men, while also bearing the dual burden of unpaid care work and labor exploitation. Without addressing these injustices, true gender equality and economic justice will remain unattainable,” said Sujeeta Mathema, Executive Director of ActionAid International Nepal (AAIN).

Globally, one in four women experience physical or sexual violence, affecting 736m individuals. In Nepal, 23 percent of women aged 15–49 have faced physical violence, and 7 percent have experienced sexual violence, according to the 2022 National Health Survey. During the fiscal year 2022–2023, 20,753 complaints related to violence against women and girls were filed. Between 2016 and 2023, Nepal registered 16,960 rape cases, including 2,507 in 2023/24—an average of seven rapes per day. These figures underscore the urgent need for systemic reforms to address gender-based violence. However, many cases remain unreported, leaving women, girls, and LGBTIQA+ individuals vulnerable. The UN Women’s ‘Gender Snapshot 2023’ warns that achieving gender equality at the current pace will take 300 years.  

These statistics challenge common remarks such as, “Things have changed,” “Women are empowered enough to handle the situation,” or “They now have ample access and opportunities.” The data clearly demonstrates that women remain unsafe in both private and public spaces, despite progress in some areas. Gender-based violence, wage inequality, and systemic discrimination persist, proving that true empowerment and safety for women have yet to be fully realized.  

For over 40 years, AAIN has championed gender equality, social justice, and poverty eradication. Focusing on feminist leadership, AAIN empowers women, youth, and informal workers to challenge systemic inequalities. Despite progress in legislation, entrenched patriarchal norms continue to undermine women’s leadership, fueling gender-based violence and exploitation. AAIN promotes collective action, enabling marginalized groups to lead the fight for equality. Its ‘Country Strategy Paper VI’ prioritizes reducing women’s workloads, fostering economic participation, addressing inequalities in the informal sector, and preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG). Through advocacy and social movements, AAIN drives systemic change to promote decent work, economic justice, and women’s empowerment.

Interview with Sujeeta Mathema, Executive Director, AAIN

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What are AAIN’s strengths in fighting against gender inequality? 

Any commitment requires an investment of time, money, energy, skills, capacities, and competencies. When AAIN declares its commitment to fighting all forms of gender inequality, it dedicates these resources with the hope of creating a society where justice prevails for all. Our youth and adolescent groups, activists, women’s groups, farmer collectives, child clubs, supporters, and staff firmly believe in the possibility of a just society and the achievement of gender equality. AAIN regards these individuals and groups as the organization’s true strength.  

We bring extensive experience working with people’s agencies, social movements, and communities living in poverty and exclusion. Our rich history includes impactful initiatives such as the Kamaiya bonded labor liberation movement, Dalit rights advocacy, support for slum and squatter communities’ rights to safe shelter, campaigns for informal workers’ rights, hunger campaigns, land rights movements, the Safe Cities campaign, the Anti-Child Marriage campaign, and the campaign against Chhaupadi. Additionally, we have played a pivotal role in building rural women’s organizations and establishing networks like the Women’s Rights Forum, which contributes to national campaigns for women’s rights.  

Currently, we operate in 19 districts, 30 local bodies, and 112 wards, working directly with women, girls, informal labor groups, and youth organizations. These empowered groups, equipped with skills and awareness, act as agents of change, challenging structural inequalities, unjust power dynamics, and gender-based violence. Grounded in people-led agendas and collective action, we critically engage with governments to advocate for progressive policies, focusing on strengthening local governance structures. Through these efforts, we have supported local governments in creating policies to protect labor rights and establish mechanisms for preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV).  

Our commitment extends to rooted campaigns that amplify the voices of marginalized communities through two major initiatives: the Decent Work Campaign and the Climate Justice and Gender Justice Campaign. These initiatives focus on shifting power, localizing decision-making, and ensuring accountability and transparency in governance. Together, we strive to drive systemic change and build a just and equitable society.

How does ActionAid engage with the global ‘16 Days of Activism’, and what is its commitment to gender equality?

ActionAid’s work is centered on women and girls, permeating every aspect of the organization. We believe in challenging, learning, unlearning, implementing, and campaigning for gender justice every day of the year. During the 16 Days of Activism, we amplify our voices further, foster greater solidarity, engage in orientation, unite more deeply, and ensure that unheard voices are finally heard. While activism should extend beyond these 16 days, this period serves as a powerful reminder of the impact we are making and the ongoing efforts required to achieve gender justice in all sectors.

AAIN supports the theme “Towards 30 Years of the Beijing Declaration: UNiTE to End Violence Against Women and Girls”, reaffirming its commitment to gender equality and women’s rights. As a feminist organization, AAIN is collaborating with women’s agencies, women-led organizations, movements, alliances, youth groups, and local partners to mark the 16 Days of Activism at local, national, and global levels. Across 19 districts and 30 local bodies, we unite against gender-based violence in workplaces, homes, and public spaces.

This collaborative effort reinforces our shared commitment to creating safe, equitable environments free from violence and discrimination.

How AAIN is working to end gender inequality and promoting economic justice in Nepal linking with VAW and the way forward?

Economic justice for women is essential to breaking the cycle of gender inequality. For generations, women have faced systemic barriers to wealth, inheritance, and resources. Ensuring equal economic rights for women is fundamental to building a more just society for future generations. At its core, economic justice is a matter of human rights, promoting fairness and equality. By providing women with the same economic opportunities as men, we create a more inclusive and equitable world. Simply put, economic justice for women is crucial for achieving gender equality, economic prosperity, and social stability.  

ActionAid International Nepal (AAIN) combats gender inequality and promotes economic justice by empowering marginalized women, girls, and informal workers. AAIN advocates for fair wages, social protection, and legal recognition in sectors like domestic work, agriculture, and construction. We have facilitated the formation of 43 labor groups, engaging over 2,013 individuals. Women worker activists have successfully filed cases against employers for unpaid wages, exploitation, and abuse in the informal sector. Through collective action and support from local police and government authorities, Rs 11,83,850 in unpaid wages has been recovered.

As we mark the 33rd Global 16 Days of Activism, we honor the informal women workers fighting for equality and workers’ rights. Achieving systemic change is essential to ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, and basic rights for all women, while addressing exploitation, wage discrimination, and workplace violence. True gender equality requires recognizing the rights of informal workers. Exploitation, wage discrimination, and violence in the workplace are unacceptable and must be confronted. Without recognizing the rights of informal workers, gender equality will remain unattainable.

Today, I urge the government to address the challenges faced by women in the informal sector, ensuring workplaces are free from discrimination and violence. Women and girls must be free from harm for true gender equality to be realized. The conversation on gender and economic justice is incomplete without addressing workforce inequalities. The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) underscores the importance of protecting the rights of informal workers. Since 2019, AAIN has led the Decent Work campaign, and we remain committed to this fight—led by informal workers themselves—to secure their rights and achieve these goals.

Recovering wages and mortgaging land

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Durga Tharu, a 55-year-old resident of Ramnagar, Badhaiyatal Rural Municipality-4, exemplifies resilience and leadership. Living with her extended family of eight, her life revolves around hard work and community involvement. While her sons work as masons and her daughters-in-law manage the farm, her husband labors as a manual worker.  

Her leadership came to the forefront when she addressed the issue of unpaid wages for workers building community structures in Badhaiyatal. The contractor had left for Kathmandu without paying Rs 2,38,000 owed to 21 workers, including her sons. Leading a group with the support of a social mobilizer from KMJS, Durga filed complaints with local authorities, bringing attention to the workers’ plight.  

Her advocacy continued in Jan 2023, when a subcontractor sent workers to Dailekh to construct a government hospital. Despite working for a month, the workers returned home unpaid, though they had been provided with food and lodging. She organized a meeting with the contractor at the ward office, where intense negotiations led to a commitment to pay the wages by 16 July 2024. Although the workers received safety gear, they chose not to pursue legal action, trusting the contractor’s promise.  

Tharu’s unwavering determination and leadership in fighting for fair wages and labor protections have made her a pillar of strength in her community. Her efforts demonstrate that one woman’s voice can challenge injustice, safeguard workers’ rights, and promote dignity and fairness for all. Tharu’s story is not just about recovering unpaid wages—it is a testament to standing up for what is right, championing dignity, and exemplifying true leadership in the face of exploitation.

Celebrating our achievements (2019-2024)

• Agency building: Youth group: 67, Women’s group: 135, Women’s farmers group: 116, Labor groups: 43, Adolescent group: 46, Child clubs: 251

• 40,000 people directly through awareness raising on VAWG, existing policies/laws, reporting mechanisms.
• Alternative models: 46 alternative models established to reduce women’s work burden like community childcare center, water tank, grinding mills.
• 3,000 informal laborers were organized and advocating for their rights.
• 179 child marriage stopped in leadership of Adolescent girls. 
• 1,251 cases were facilitated to register for access to justice.
• 7,000 women and girls mobilized to lead action against VAWG.
• 5,855: Service provider aware of referral pathways, OCMC, GESI policy.

Policy work 

• Rs 2,581,000 has been invested by LG for operating a community childcare center.
• GBV Referral guideline and pathways has been endorsed in six LG.

• GBV elimination fund procedure has been approved in six local levels.
• Anti child Marriage strategy approved in two local levels.
• Labour desk operation guideline and procedure approved in six local levels. 
• Four local levels has endorsed GESI policy

When I was a child, I would watch my maa flip roti on the hot pan with her bare hands

I would stand there, spatula in hand, stunned. ‘Doesn’t that burn your hands?’

She would always laugh. ‘It used to, but I don’t feel it anymore.’

Now I wonder how many hot pans

She has encountered in her life,

And how much she has endured.

When did she realize it no longer hurt? Or is that something one decides one day?

I question if I will ever be half the woman she is, or if I will always rely on the spatula. 

Was I meant to endure the heat of hot pans?

Reetika Yadav

Grade XII

Pentagon International College

“Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind …”

This line from Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ captures the brutal reality of war. It compels one to ask: what is war? The answer may vary from one person to the next. For some, it may be destructive, but for others it means surviving through treacherous conditions. This sentiment resonates with the theme in Victor E Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ by Victor E Frankl, which sheds light to the horrors of Nazi concentration camps during World War II and a man’s pursuit to find meaning amid it all.

The book is written from Frankl’s perspective as he spent three years in Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps. The book provides insight into the power of hope during dark times. Frankl tells us that many people died from the lack of hope, rather than starvation. 

This book is divided into two major parts. The first details the harrowing experiences in a concentration camp, presenting the unimaginable hardship faced by the prisoners. The second part tells readers about the idea of logotherapy. It focuses on the man’s search for meaning, with three main motives: the creation of work, the experiencing of something, and most poignantly suffering itself. Through his book, Frankl primarily points out that suffering can be a great tool for growth and finding opportunities. 

As I turned each page, my heart ached. The description of hardship, starvation, despair and suicide is harrowing. Yet amid all the sufferings, Frankl conveys a deeper purpose: to endure everything with undiminished hope and love. 

Frankl introduces a moment of emotional connection through the description of his wife, ‘Her look was more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise,” a mesmerizing description that allows readers to explore the deep form of purity of the love between the author and his beloved. The calm blue cover of his mind recalls memories of her, clinging to the gossamer threads of the echoing memories. Although he knew nothing of her during his time in the camp, Frankl shares the idea of love that transcends distance, portraying love as strong as death. 

In another moving passage, Frankl describes the prisoners’ fleeting encounter with nature while being transferred from Auschwitz to the Bavarian camp. During the journey, they see the sun setting in the distance. This is when they realize, if only for the briefest of moments, how beautiful the world is (and can be), a beauty that they had long been denied. 

The art of living in the concentration camp was vastly different for the writer, as he presents the vision that suffering is the main reason for existence — without it, there is no motive. There is some sort of freedom in suffering, Frankl argues. He declares that in the bleakest of conditions, it is untainted hope that gives a person the power to endure, to survive.    

“Live as if you were living for the second time and have acted as strongly the first time as you are about to act now.” This line serves as a daily reminder for me to approach life with a great purpose. Life lies where the suffering is; without suffering, life holds no meaning. 

Frankl’s philosophy has profoundly shifted my perspective on life. It inspired me to live my life with intention, knowing that finding meaning and moving forward in the face of hardship is crucial. In the face of life’s inevitable challenges, Frankl’s work offers a beacon of hope, proving that resilience and the search for meaning can transform even the harshest realities into profound opportunities for growth.

Prakriti Thapa

BA IInd Year

St Xavier’s College, Maitighar

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 13.03 points to close at 2,667.40 points on Sunday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 1. 76 points to close at 471. 20 points.

A total of 15,270,197-unit shares of 322 companies were traded for Rs 7. 72 billion.

Meanwhile, Three Star Hydropower Limited (TSHL) the top gainers today with its price surging by 9. 91 percent. Likewise, Century Debenture 2088 (CCBD88) was the top loser with its price dropped by 7. 75 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 4. 24 trillion.

Businessman Umesh Shrestha has been appointed as the treasurer of the Nepali Congress.

President Sher Bahadur Deuba appointed Shrestha as the treasurer of the party in accordance with Article 21 (4) of the statute of the Congress, Chief Secretary Krishna Prasad Paudel informed.  He is also a former minister.

Shrestha had become a candidate from Chitwan-2 in the 2022 elections. But was defeated to Rastriya Swantantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) in the domestic market on Sunday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the gold is being traded at Rs 167,200 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 165,500 per tola on Friday.

Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 20 per tola. The price of silver is fixed at Rs 1,960 per tola today.