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As the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit Nepal, governments at all levels were under pressure to make quick decisions to save lives. Perhaps local government representatives who are directly in contact with people day to day were under most pressure to help the infected and save terminally ill patients. While some mayors made tall promises and failed to deliver, others led from the front to fight the pandemic. ApEx talked to the heads of nine local bodies asking about their experience managing the crisis.      

Bidur Kumar Karki
Bardibas Municipality

When the second wave of Covid-19 infections hit Nepal and the supply of oxygen needed for treatment was scarce, Bardibas Municipality didn’t have any oxygen plants. As patient numbers began shooting up, the town faced another scarcity: that of trained human resources and medical equipment. 

But Mayor Bidur Kumar Karki didn’t give up hope. His team fought the pandemic making the most of available resources. Karki’s most effective program has been ‘Ghar Gharma Swasthakarmi’ through which a team of medical officers visited every house informing people about the disease. 

Free swab collection for Covid-19 testing at Bardibas Municipality

When the total positive cases hit 98, the city also enforced a tough lockdown--most citizens abided by it. Karki is thankful to every citizen of his city following prohibitory orders. Thanks to the measures, the number of Covid cases in the town has gone down significantly.

But that doesn’t mean the town should let its guard down, says Karki. “We need to prepare for another wave,” he says. “We realized that If we had a hall in every ward, we would have done much better,” Karki says. “So, our municipality has proposed a plan to construct multi-purpose halls in every ward in the coming fiscal year.” 

Bhim Neupane
Panauti Municipality 

Because of its proximity to Dhulikhel and Banepa hospitals, Panauti Municipality never felt the need to set up its own hospital. But this pandemic has taught them a lesson. 

“We will immediately build a hospital in our area,” says Mayor Bhim Neupane, whose team has worked relentlessly to help save lives at the local level.

He rues not getting any assistance from the provincial or central government. “Our municipality and citizens feel left out,” he says, due to the sheer negligence of the authorities who should be acting like our parents. Yet with the help of civil society and non-profits, we are doing our best, he adds.

Neupane and his team built an isolation center in the town so that patients could get basic treatment. Provisions were also made to rush terminally ill patients to Dhulikhel or Banepa. 

“We have enough isolation centers,” Neupane says with confidence as the municipality prepares to fight a possible new wave.

Dilip Kumar Agrawal
Rangeli Municipality

Rangeli municipality didn’t have money to fund its campaign against Covid-19 when the second wave struck. 

The city under Dilip Kumar Agrawal stopped all its development works and funneled the money to combating Covid-19. He faced a lot of criticism for making such a bold move.

“We can build roads later,” Agrawal says. “But right now we need to save people’s lives.” There was a small hospital in their district and a new emergency ward was being constructed when the first wave hit. Agrawal and his team turned that emergency building into a treatment center for infected patients. 

As they didn’t have enough doctors, the city hired more doctors from nearby districts. The municipality brought in oxygen cylinders and PCR test kits from all over the country. 

“Those pieces of equipment were expensive but we didn’t get a dime from the federal government throughout the second wave,” Agrawal says. Budget relocation is going to hurt the municipality’s development but the mayor sees no other option.

Khadga Bahadur Khatri
Kamalamai Municipality

For Kamalamai Municipality, the biggest difficulty was finding a place to isolate sick people. Lack of preparation hurt the town badly and it took time for everyone to come together and build a place for the patients to isolate themselves.

“Finding an appropriate place to set up an isolation center was difficult,” says Mayor Khadga Bahadur Khatri. He and his team allocated a budget for a proper place to keep the patients and a new hospital to treat Covid-19 patients was also built. In addition to the hospital, a total of 47 isolation centres have been set up across town.

Khadga Bahadur Khatri, mayor of Kamalamai Municipality, inquiring about the health of home-isolating people

Following the construction of the new hospital, the city has also installed an oxygen plant to overcome the problem of oxygen shortage. 

As only a small number of vaccine doses have been distributed by the federal government to outlying districts, Khatri has ensured that only eligible people get them. The pandemic’s situation has greatly improved in the municipality and Khatri is confident he and his team are better prepared for another wave.

Laxmi Narsing Bade Shrestha
Banepa Municipality

When the pandemic was at its peak in Banepa, says Mayor Laxmi Narsing Bade Shrestha, they didn’t receive any help from the federal government to manage the crisis.

But that didn’t stop Shrestha from taking action. The municipality’s officials raised funds by diverting the money set aside for the people’s representatives’ allowances. Similarly, budgets for other activities were also diverted. Almost Rs 10.5 million has now been allocated for the health sector.

“A separate hospital for Covid-19 patients has been built,” Shrestha shares. “It has the resources we didn’t have six months ago. We weren’t prepared when the first wave hit. But now that we’ve seen how the worst consequences can be averted, I believe we’re a lot more prepared for action if another wave were to come.”

A group of experts and first-responders has been formed to coordinate efforts against the virus and prepare for future waves.

Nar Bahadur Thapa Magar
Ramechhap Municipality 

Managing quarantine centers for people coming from Kathmandu and other parts of the country was one of the biggest challenges Mayor Nar Bahadur Thapa Magar and his team faced during the second wave of Covid-19. In addition, conducting PCR tests and contact tracing were also difficult due to the shortage of test kits.

Ramechhap Municipality established an Emergency and Disaster Management Fund and designated a committee of experts to run it. Committee members included representatives of the municipality, head of police, CDO, civil society representatives and hospital officials. The committee set up isolation centers in different parts of the city and made provisions for antigen tests to isolate people infected with Covid-19.

When the city faced an oxygen shortage, Magar worked closely with the district hospital to secure supplies. 

Nirsal Sah
Malangwa Municipality 

When the second wave of Covid-19 infections emerged in Malangawa, the city was faced with an acute shortage of oxygen. 

It was then that Mayor Nirsal Sah understood the importance of setting up an oxygen plant at the municipality. The city has now awarded the contract to do so. 

“The oxygen plant that is being installed will come into operation soon,” says Sah, who is disappointed with the federal government for not supporting local officials to manage the Covid-19 crisis. 

But that hasn’t stopped Sah from proactively trying to save lives. Despite the challenges, the city has arranged oxygen and ventilators for the ill. It also has plans to build an isolation center by collaborating with neighboring municipalities. Plus, the mayor has plans to rope in more doctors, experts, and medical personnel to work in his area.

Sah is happy with the help and support from civil society, citizens, NGOs, and donors. “They come to the meeting with suggestions and innovative ideas,” he says.

Rita Kumari Mishra
Janakpurdham Sub-Metropolitan City

When the government enforced a lockdown last year to contain the spread of Covid-19, Deputy Mayor of Janakpurdham Rita Kumari Mishra and her team organized a campaign to make people aware of the effects of the disease and to encourage them to stay home. 

“In addition to running TV ads and radio programs, we opened isolation wards for the sick as soon as positive cases started coming in,” says Mishra.

When the case-load started growing, the municipality encouraged people to isolate themselves. In emergency cases, they were provided with oxygen cylinders and other necessities rather than having their family members going around searching for them.

Officials of Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City inspecting a local isolation center

“When someone tested positive, we shared medical experts and doctor’s phone numbers with them so that they could call them for guidance or information on their symptoms,” Mishra continues. “This quelled their paranoia and also created space in hospitals for patients who actually needed critical care.”

The local government has created a community to battle the virus. The community is divided into five teams, each visiting different wards and collecting information on which families have been infected, how many need assistance, what medical equipment they need and if they need to be shifted to isolation wards.

The second lockdown, however, hasn’t been as effective as the first one. “Daily wage earners are struggling to stay still as they have families to feed,” she shares. Most frontline and daily wage workers are using precautions to stay safe, so the municipality isn’t arguing with them, she adds.

Vaccine dissemination hasn’t been that good either. Frontline workers and a few older citizens have received the first dose but other than that, the majority is still at risk. The municipality is working to get more vaccines into the region so they can reopen again.

Vijay Kumar Sarawagi
Birgunj Metropolitan City

Birgunj is one of the biggest industrial and economic hubs of the country. This status became a curse for the city during the pandemic as it is home to the biggest border crossing between Nepal and India, the epicenter of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Mayor Sarawagi and his team had learned their lesson during the first wave. Lack of testing at the border had allowed infection to spread like wildfire in the city. This time, the city was determined to do something about it.

“We established help desks and health desks at all entry points,” Sarawagi says. The city conducted antigen tests on returnees mobilizing its own resources.

Neither the central government nor provincial authorities helped Birgunj Metropolitan City directly, Sarawagi complains. The government only assisted hospitals and the district administration office. 

But Sarawagi is satisfied with the help the city got from the civil society, district administration, police, doctors, and everyone involved. The mayor is now lobbying with the government to provide vaccines to his citizens.

“The only way to save lives is to vaccinate people,” he concludes.

Birth: 1967, Patan
Death: 5 June 2021, Pulchowk

Raj Kumar Shakya’s family had been into traditional artwork ever since the latter days of the Malla dynasty (13th-18th century). 

The eldest son in the family, Shakya was already into the family profession by the time he was seven. Despite starting so early, Shakya was comfortable working with older artists and taking on large-scale projects. They taught him valuable lessons on perseverance and patience, which in turn would serve him well throughout his career.

By the time he was in his early 20s, Shakya, who embraced repousse (metalwork that involves hammering into relief from the reverse side), had begun working on independent projects. He improved on traditional techniques with the help of modern and scientific methods.  

Shakya was one of only a handful of Nepali sculptors to follow this dying technique, which requires precision and patience to accomplish grand-scale projects. He would eventually be known, not just in Nepal, but around the world for his grand repousse works. Some even compare him to Arniko, the artist who introduced Nepali architecture in China.

Shakya was best known for the 155 ft tall repousse statue of Guru Padhmasambhava, revered by the Bhutanese as the ‘Second Buddha’, who spread the teachings of the Buddha all over the country.  He was commissioned in 2010. The masterpiece fusion work of contemporary and traditional art took almost two years just to sketch. Made of 70,000 kg of copper weighing about 300 tons, Bhutan revealed the repousse statue to the world in 2014.

Shakya also played an instrumental role in showcasing Nepali repousse work on the global stage. His works include the 12 ft tall mask of Shwet Bhairav, 76 feet tall Swayambhu Stupa for the World Expo in Germany 2000, 40 ft tall Tibetan Stupa at Kapan Monastery, 100 ft towering Swayambhu for the Nepal Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo 2010, and a 50 ft tall Little Buddha at Lumbini.

Shakya had recently been working on a 72-ft tall Bhairav mask. Unfortunately, the masterpiece has been orphaned as he passed away from covid-related complications at the age of 54. He is survived by a wife and two sons.

Between May 11-15, Nepal reported 43,910 Covid positive cases and 997 deaths. Most people died because of lack of access to health facilities such as oxygen, beds, ICUs, and ventilators. 

Despite this, authorities claim the country has enough beds and other medical infrastructure, and that the situation is fully under control.

But when renowned private hospitals stopped admitting new patients due to acute shortage of oxygen and other medical infrastructure, the government started panicking.

On May 13, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) issued a circular to private hospitals across the country ordering them to prepare 100 beds each for Covid-19 patients and build their own oxygen plant within 15 days. The ministry said the government would help hospitals procure necessary materials.

During the meeting of Covid Crisis Management Center (CCMC) on May 16, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli looked calmer and more composed than usual. It was a surprise for everyone to see him realize his mistakes. Oli confessed he hadn’t thought coronavirus would affect the country so much—contradicting his previous claims that Nepalis had a strong immune system and could fight the virus.

Soon after the release of the ministry circular, the Association of Private Health Institution Nepal (APHIN) published a press note stating that it was impossible to install an oxygen plant at any private hospital within 15 days. Even though the Cabinet had decided to waive custom duties on materials required to install oxygen plants, private hospitals flatly rejected the offer.

Basant Chaudhary, president of APHIN says, “Neither is there an easy access to the international market nor do the hospitals have enough budget for oxygen plants in this crisis. It is not possible [to install oxygen plants in 15 days].”

According to the MoHP, of the 185 private hospitals with over 100 beds, only 26 have oxygen plants. Among the 26, half of the plants don’t work, and the remaining half only works partially. 

Nepal has received empty cylinders from abroad but getting oxygen to fill those cylinders remains a challenge. Almost every big government hospital has an oxygen plant but only a few of them work properly. 

Oxygen factories on their own cannot fulfill the daily needs of all hospitals. As of now, there are eight oxygen factories in Kathmandu with the overall capacity of refilling almost 7,000 standard cylinders per day—which meets only half of the demand. Oxygen cylinders come in various sizes but seven-cubic-meters is the standard one.

“I heard the ministry withdrew the circular and redirected that the process of installing an oxygen plant start within 15 days,” says an official of Sumeru Hospital. Yet, the ministry has not officially said as much. He added that installing an oxygen plant requires electricity management, skilled human resources, enough space, and many other resources. “Even for check clearance, the bank takes almost a week, so a 15 day-period is impractical.”

The ministry has not clarified the capacity of the oxygen plant it wants in the hospitals. In this matter, the official atSumeru Hospital says, “We also don’t know.” He guesses that the MoHP may have directed the building of plants according to the needs of respective hospitals. Sumeru Hospital consumes around 150 standard oxygen cylinders every 24 hours.

There seemed to be much confusion between hospitals and the ministry regarding the capacity of oxygen plants. (ApEx tried to contact ministry officials but neither the spokesperson nor the joint spokesperson was available.)

On May 15, Nepal Korea Friendship Municipality Hospital at Bhaktapur, the community hospital affiliated with Madhyapur Thimi municipality, successfully installed an oxygen plant. Chairperson of the hospital management committee and Mayor Madan Sundar Shrestha says, “After a restless six months, we started the air-based oxygen plant today.” It cost almost seven million rupees.

In the past one decade Nepal has significantly progressed in the internet and communication sector. While 10.21 million Nepalis have access to the internet, almost a million use e-banking facilities.

But Nepalis are yet to realize the internet’s full potential. Be it gamers, students or any other professionals, they have at some point in time come across content that they desperately need, but is behind a paywall. Nepali banks, until now, didn’t issue cards that could be used to make international online payments.   

During the Covid-19 lockdown, most people had no other option but to do their work online, and this required subscription-based services. But it was not possible to pay for those services with a card issued by your own bank. 

The problem has now been resolved, at least to an extent. Nepal Rastra Bank has now made it possible for Nepali banks to provide prepaid dollar cards to customers for online transactions.

The central bank now allows ‘A’ class commercial and ‘B’ class development banks to provide the service. 

“Although we received a lot of inquiries, the second wave of Covid-19 has affected card-issuance,” says Binay Regmi, deputy head of Digital Banking at Machhapuchchhre Bank. 

NRB has limited the use of the dollar card to buy goods and services worth a maximum of $500 annually. Any individual or firm can easily get a dollar card if they have a PAN and an up-to-date KYC at the respective bank. 

“It can only be used for international online transactions whereas cash advances and manual retail transactions are restricted,” says Bisal Subedi, associate at Standard Chartered Bank.

Different banks have branded their cards with different names. For instance, Sunrise calls its card E-card, Siddhartha eCom Card, Prabhu 500 Card, Nabil iCard and Kumari $eCom Card. 

“The application process is similar to what you have to do while applying for an ATM card,” says 20-year-old Ashwin Rimal, who is happy to use the card to pay his university fees. 

Krishna Subedi, corporate communications head at Nabil Bank, clarifies that banks don’t charge extra for the prepaid dollar cards. “There are no extra fees. It’s a regular card cost of around Rs. 1,000 for a four-year period.”

The new service has  benefitted e-commerce and IT companies. Manish Khadka, who works as an accountant for a private company, shares, “Dollar cards have made it easier for me to buy domain and software.” He now wants banks to allow customers to load the card using e-banking.

Subedi of Standard Chartered informs that people can now purchase subscriptions of global OTT platforms such as Netflix and Spotify with a click. “This service will increase the reach of Nepalis to online markets such as Alibaba and Amazon.”

Pawan Lama from Gokarneshwor, Kathmandu, is a retail businessman who uses a dollar card to advertise his business on social media. He says, “Something is better than nothing. But I think NRB should have set the ceiling a bit higher.”.

The central bank has issued some regulations for the management of dollar cards. The banks have to provide details of monthly transactions to the Foreign Exchange Management Department. They also have to provide card and transaction details to respective customers, when asked. Those using two or more dollar cards will be punished under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (2019). 

On May 10, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli claimed from the rostrum of the House of Representatives, “Out of 27,000 hospital beds in Nepal, 16,000 belongs to the government hospitals. And only 8,000 beds in government-run hospitals are occupied.”

On the same day, the Ministry of Health and Population, in its daily briefing, disclosed that 139 people had died of Covid-19 while 9,127 tested positive for the disease in the past 24 hours, contradicting the prime minister.

The Covid-19 contagion in Nepal is going from bad to worse. In this situation, many people have taken up commendable personal initiatives, largely in order to fill the vacuum left by the government’s inaction. ApEx talked to four such enterprising youths.

Anamika Nehuray

A resident of Bhaktapur, Nehuray is an MBA in finance who runs a startup that imports various merchandise and sells them local markets.

Nehuray, 25 says she loves people’s company. “I get inspired by those around me,” she says.

During the first lockdown in Kathmandu valley, Nehuray one day received a call, asking whether she would like to volunteer with Covid Connect Nepal. A couple of her friends had initiated the digital platform to connect healthcare seekers and providers. She jumped at the opportunity. “I like helping people,” she says.

During the first wave of Covid-19 in Nepal, everyone learnt of the limited government capacity to deal with the crisis. At that time, she had wanted to help people in distress, but because she didn’t have a team to work with, she couldn’t do much on her own. 

Nehuray is now the co-lead of the data team at Covid Connect. Her team of almost 55 members prepares the list of hospitals (province-wise) and the services they provide. The dataset is updated every three hours.

“We often get requests for oxygen and other necessities from hospitals and stores,” Nehuray says, adding that the condition has worsened to an extent that those who were earlier offering help now need help themselves.

Nehuray says she feels proud to be a member of a hardworking and service-oriented team. But given the scale of the crisis, their effort is still not enough. She hence appeals to every Nepali citizen to come out and together fight this common enemy.

Dibyesh Giri

The 39-year-old owner of an IT company has a master’s degree from Pune University. These days, he is busy coordinating with a team of volunteers from Samartha Nepal—a non-profitable organization that conducts free medical checkup camps.

Giri completed high school in his hometown Janakpur and like others, grew up with the dream of becoming a doctor or an engineer.

Right after his graduation, the government and Maoist insurgents signed the Comprehensive Peace. Giri soon returned to Nepal, leaving his job with a multinational company in India.

His team started Plasma Connect back in late 2020 to verify and compile information on convalescent plasma, which is used to tread gravely ill Covid-19 patients, in one place. “Being an IT enthusiast, I tried to match and connect donors and receivers via our website,” Giri says, adding that his initiation has helped more than 300 people so far.

Besides Plasma Connect, he is working on another platform, Nepal Covid Support, which manages every kind of Covid-19 logistics in one place, where “our dedicated volunteers collect and verify data before providing it to the public.”

“In this period of crisis, Covid-19 related resources should be well verified, updated, and filtered—and fast—to save precious time,” Giri says. “Every second counts.” 

Sudikshya Ghimire

“Wherever I do, I need to do it to the best of my ability,” says a 21-year-old BA second year student Sudikshya Ghimire who hails from Tansen, Palpa.

She has recently been working as a frontline worker in Covid Connect Nepal. Every help request or offer passes through her as the team has designated her private number as a hotline. Patients or relatives directly connect with her and she verifies, locates, and filters the first layer of the database. “Their pain and problems are my own,” Ghimire says.

At this point, all her callers sound helpless and neither she nor her team can help them enough, however hard they work. There have been challenges: “Some patients have died while their relatives were asking me over the phone to arrange medical logistics.”

Ghimire expresses frustration at the government’s clumsiness. “They are not doing a thing and because of that, people are dying for want of basic health assistance.”

Saurav Thapa Shrestha

After working at a youth empowerment organization, Saurav Thapa Shrestha, 24, had learned how to effectively work in a team. The graphic designer now looks after the social media and design part of Plasma Connect. 

Shrestha had been following clinical trials and research on plasma therapy abroad. After finding that plasma therapy was also being used in Nepal to treat Covid patients, he joined forces with his friends to form an alliance to connect people in need of convalescent plasma with those willing to donate it. These days, he is busy collecting verified contact details of ambulances so that people do not have to waste valuable time looking for them.

Shrestha says he was interested in volunteering since his childhood. “In class 10, I had proposed and initiated a social club in my school,” Shrestha explains. The club collected funds to support needy students in his school. 

Birth: 6 June 1938, Sindhupalchok
Death: 6 May 2021, Kathmandu 

A Nepali singer gets an invitation from the organizers of the Filmfare Awards in India. He performs a couple of Hindi and Nepali songs and is greeted with resounding applause. The jury members are so mesmerized that they give him the title ‘The Golden Voice of Nepal’.

That title would remain with legendary singer and musician Prem Dhoj Pradhan, one of the most popular performers in Nepali and Nepal Bhasa music in the past five decades. 

Born to a mother who had recorded a couple of songs on Radio Nepal, Pradhan was drawn to music from an early age. Although his parents were separated, and he lived with his father, he regularly visited his mother. There, he used to learn to sing as well as play instruments such as tabla and harmonium. Pradhan got more time to hone his skills after completing his SLC, as he moved in with his mother.

Soon, he would emulate his mother in recording a song at Radio Nepal. In 1955, he recorded ‘Yo Nepali Sir Uchali’—his first-ever. Mother and son would talk about music all the time, and it was this conversation that led Pradhan to toy with the idea of a song that would go on to define his entire musical career. “A guy is being followed by an unknown girl every day near the turning of the road…” his mother had narrated to him. Pradhan then came up with the words ‘Ghumtima Na Aau Hai’.

A single child born to Ratna Dhoj Pradhan and Pran Devi Tamrakar, Pradhan and his family had to face emotional turbulence due to divisions within the Newa community. While the Pradhans were considered members of the high caste, the Tamrakars were looked down upon. His father was forced to tie the knot a second time when Pradhan was just six months old. But that didn’t stop Pradhan from following his destiny. 

In 1966, famed Bollywood composer Jaidev came to Nepal to arrange music for the Nepali movie Maitighar. It was then that Jaidev was enchanted by Pradhan’s voice. The voice of this aspiring Nepali singer needed some fine-tuning and Jaidev wanted to help the young singer do that in Bombay. Pradhan went to Bombay and lived there for a month to learn music. Again, in 1970, Pradhan traveled alone to India and stayed there for a year to learn about arrangement.

Apart from Jaidev, Ustad Ganesh Lal Shrestha also played an instrumental role in his musical career. Shrestha agreed to train him for 15 months. In 1954, he had a dream in which he was singing with the ustad. Pradhan later approached him to accept him as a disciple. 

In 1965, a group of American artists performed at Tudikhel and, for the first time, he saw an artist play guitar and sing at the same time. And the rest is history. Pradhan started various trends in the Nepali music industry; his guitar and vocals would become the most iconic of them all.

He was also the first musician to organize a solo concert—he did so to build a house for his mother. For three consecutive nights, Pradhan, aided by singers such as Tara Devi and Nati Kaji, entertained the guests. 

Swar Samrat Narayan Gopal and Pradhan were friends from a young age and were together almost for a decade between 1950 and 1960. The two used to go to the cinema together—at that time the only way to listen to new songs and memorize them was to watch movies.

In his decades-long career, Pradhan gifted his fans dozens of hits like ‘Para laijau phool haru’, ‘Namana laaj yesari’, ‘Goreto tyo gaun ko’ and ‘Rajamati kumani’.

A few days ago, he was admitted to the hospital after reporting fever and chest pain. He was said to be ‘out of danger’, but a heart attack on May 6 took his life at the age of 83. Pradhan is survived by a wife and two sons—Prasanna and Kabir.

The government of Finland provides a ‘Finnish Baby Box’ to every pregnant woman. The box contains all the required materials for infants and new mothers. Rewati Gurung, a 37-year-old social researcher, learnt about this scheme in 2016 and felt that someone had to start proving such boxes in Nepal as well.

Toying with the idea of doing it herself, Gurung tried to find out the best materials, including maternity garments, to be included in the box, if it were to be given to Nepali mothers.

It was time for the documentary-maker, who has visited different parts of Nepal while working with various organizations, to draw from her experience. Her objective was to not repeat the mistakes made by various other brands: “Some Nepali brands even lie to their customers and present false claims in their advertisements.”

Three years later, in 2019, Gurung launched the Nepali version of the Finnish Baby Box—she called it Kokroma. (Kokro in Nepali refers a traditional cradle made up of bamboo).

“I was worried about how the product would fare in the market,” said Gurung. But her confidence grew as supporters, friends, mentors, and co-workers encouraged her to continue. “Apart from earning money, I always work to leave a meaningful impact on the society,” Gurung tells ApEX.

Looking for opportunities amid the pandemic,
we started making masks for children

Launching the business from scratch was not easy. She started looking for clothes weaved in Nepal without using chemicals. Being a health-conscious mother, she previously had weaved kokro and tori ko sirani (pillow made of mustard seeds) for her child just the way it was done traditionally to ensure that the baby’s head assumes a proper round shape.

She even traced the source of raw textile production. This led her to various prisons, where male inmates weave clothes for prison use. Gurung encouraged them, provided new machines and explained to them how learning skills could help them in the long run.

She was highly motivated by the positive response from jailers and officers while working with the prisoners. “It was challenging, but I never thought government officers could be so accessible, helpful and friendly,” said Gurung.

Moreover, she employed women for further sewing and tailoring. She picked domestic migrant women who came to Kathmandu to provide quality education to their children. Gurung handles the technical parts and designs products.

The production process begins with the designers creating sketches and choosing color combinations. Then, the same samples are woven by the workers in the prisons. This again goes back to the designers who customize the size and the designs. The final cutting and stitching is completed by the women before it makes its way to the market.

A startup that began with an investment of Rs 200,000, Kokroma now exports to Switzerland, Belgium, and the UK. Gurung is soon opening an outlet in Bouddha. But for now, she sells from her website, Facebook, and Instagram. Various other outlets also sell her products.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown imposed to contain it have created new challenges for the company. But kudos to the Gurung and her team; the company has so far taken the challenges head-on. “Looking for opportunities in the midst of the pandemic, we started making masks for children,” says Gurung, who has also started customizing masks for companies.

“We have gained a decent recognition. In the coming days, certainly, we will make it huge,” says Gurung.

“I prefer to call myself a politician,” says Samaira Shrestha who was recently selected as a central committee member of the Bibeksheel Sajha Party. There, she leads the Indreni department, a cell especially dedicated to the LGBTIQ+ community, the first such section in a Nepali political party.

Shrestha, 22, a transwoman, has always dreamt of working for her community. She feels lucky to have her family’s “100 percent support” for her chosen sexual orientation. “But despite the family support I faced considerable challenges outside my home,” she says, recalling her days at school where she was bullied and harassed by teachers and colleagues alike. Things were no better in her home community.

“My family does not place any kind of restrictions on me,” she says, citing the reason for her active community participation these days. By profession, Shrestha is a model and a theater artist but now she is more into political and social activities.

Shrestha says her political involvement was not preordained even though her parents and grandparents always encouraged her to play an active part in the society. “It is hard dealing with our straight-patriarchal community yet I am determined to make a mark in it,” she says. For one, Shrestha wants more political and community leaders to emerge from the LGBTIQ+ community.

When nearly the whole world was under lockdowns, there came a major turning point in Shrestha’s life. She underwent a gender reassignment surgery and was on complete bed rest. Shortly, she started a YouTube channel to communicate and overcome her introverted nature. At that time, she heard about a woman in a Covid-19 quarantine facility being raped by a police constable in Sarlahi. “It surprised me that my friends took this incident as normal,” says Shrestha. Considering the social and emotional toll on the woman victim, “the government was completely incompetent to do her justice.”

In the meantime she also saw on social media posts about the “Enough is Enough” protests, partly organized against the government’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic. She decided to join the nonviolent resistance, including by going on a hunger strike. “In those nine days of hunger strike, my whole outlook on life changed,” says Shrestha.

A pet lover, Shrestha slept with street dogs and homeless kids during her stay at Basantapur in course of the strike “At least I had a blanket with me. But what about the people who are forever homeless?” she questions.

In Basantapur, many people, mostly youths, visited her regularly and lent her strong support. “It was such a beautiful exchange of positivity,” Shrestha describes the anti-government protest. “I was lucky to be a part of the strike that helped create social consciousness among the youth.”

The social activist believes it is the responsibility of citizens to hold their government accountable. “In a democracy like Nepal, we the people are the kingmakers and it’s upon us to keep the government honest,” she says. “If you love your country, what you cannot do is turn away from politics saying it is a dirty game.”

Compared to the past, today’s youths, Shrestha reckons, are more concerned about their country’s fate. But she also worries a lot about members of the LGBTIQ+ community in Nepal who lack awareness, basic rights and education. They also face considerable mental and physical traumas. Also, the state treats them like strangers as same-sex marriage is yet to be officially recognized in Nepal. Moreover, even though she identifies as a woman, Shrestha still has a citizenship that categorizes her as a male.

People advocate for the better treatment of the LGBTIQ+ community but real acceptance is still rare. Shrestha hopes everyone was a little more empathetic to the members of the community and allowed them to live the way they want to.