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 Until Bal Mandir (Nepal Children’s Organization) found Promise, an abandoned child with umbilical hernia, three months ago, no one had thought about breast-feeding babies of Bal Mandir in its 55-year-long history. Promise was found, deserted, in Imadol, Lalitpur by a local woman who took him to Patan Hospital immediately. He was around 20-day-old then.

 When Promise drank milk, it came right out of his nose. He kept getting fever, looked malnourished and he was not even three kilograms when he was two months, informs Bal Krishna Dangol, director of Bal Mandir. He adds, “When we discussed how we could improve his condition, breast-feeding came up as a potential solution as breast milk consists of all the nutrients a child needs. We thought this may also contribute to better physical and mental health of children here.”

 After the discussion on March 4 this year, Bal Mandir started its breast-feeding program under which 15 under-two children at the center in Kathmandu were to be breast-fed. “I consider it a child’s right,” says Dangol. There have since been problems.

'Nothing can substitute breast-milk, which increases child’s immunity and is easy to digest'

Pashupati Mahat, Senior psychologist

 “When I told my friend from Bhaktapur, he was shocked. ‘How can I send someone from my home to breast-feed someone else’s baby?’ he asked. He was concerned that women would feel shy and uncomfortable.” Dangol says that among Newars in particular there is a belief that if a small child touches another, even via the mother, then they will have the tendency to cry more, also known as ‘runchey lagney’. So some mothers don’t want to come. Others question why they should feed another child when they have their own. Some said transportation was a problem.

 “We are thinking of giving at least taxi fare and one full-meal to whoever comes to nourish the kids. A separate room has been set aside to ensure privacy,” informs Dangol. Only mother and child would be allowed in that room, which is equipped with all the necessary breastfeeding tools such as a portable gas heater, sanitizer, diapers, and a cot. The mother can bring her own child along if she so wishes.

 Right now, it has not been possible for Bal Mandir to feed breast milk to all the babies. Most of them still get Lactogen Formula-I and II.

 Dangol is now preparing a PowerPoint presentation for new mothers in other maternity centers and hospitals in order to convince them to breast-feed a child at Bal Mandir. Breast pumps may also be given to new mothers so that they can pump excess milk and store it for later use in Bal Mandir. “Ideally, we would have a new mother breast-feed a child here three times a week.”

 He expresses happiness that three such mothers have already been found. Anita Kumpakh, a mother of a 7-month-old, has been breast-feeding Promise at Bal Mandir since the start of the breastfeeding program. She shares, “My neighbors told me that my child might get sick if I breastfeed another child but I wanted to do it anyway. I am happy I can contribute to the healthy development of a child. My family has been supportive about it as well.”

 She usually visits Bal Mandir at around 12 pm and stays till 3 pm. She tries to go 2-3 times a week. “I have personally seen Promise grow healthier. When I started, he looked very frail.” She says that she would encourage other new mothers to follow suit.

 Pashupati Mahat, a senior psychologist who specializes in child and adolescent mental health, supports this program: “Mother’s milk is important not just for the physical development but also for the emotional wellbeing of a child.”

 Mahat claims that even when an alternate mother feeds a baby, the child feels attached to her. Studies show that this attachment in early years is critical and breastfeeding is one activity that helps with it. There are downsides if new mothers coming to Bal Mandir are in it only to make some money or get benefits. “Then they may feed in a hurry. The baby too gets irritated and starts crying and that can prove to be detrimental for the baby’s development.”

 Mahat adds that even though companies may claim their milk can substitute breast milk, it is not true. “Nothing can substitute breast-milk,” which increases child’s immunity and is easy to digest. “It has all the necessary nutrients a baby needs; plus, it is not contaminated”.

 Mahat says the alternate mother should spend with the baby at least three hours at a time, and at least three days a week. “Do it less frequently and the efficiency of the breast-feeding program may be compromised,” he cautions. If this program is successful in Kathmandu, Bal Mandir hopes to run it in all its 10 branches across Nepal.  

“When I was around 6, I remember going to Bagmati with a pot to fetch drinking water for our family. And I used to bathe here when I was 16. The water then was so clean!” reminisces Gopal Prasad Ghimire, 80, a resident of Bhaktapur. “Now, it is so disgusting I do not even want to touch it with my feet.”

 Back in 1940s, he remembers walking all the way from Bhaktapur to Pashupati to worship at the temple and just hang out with his friends. “I came here once every two days,” he recalls. Vehicles were extremely rare at the time, and Ghimire would rush to the road to see if one zoomed by. On foot, it took him an hour to reach Pashupatinath temple. “I used to gather 4-5 friends and we used to start at 4 am from Bhaktapur. We would be home by 8 am. Now, I try to come here once a month.”

 Kancha Shrestha, 72, who is originally from Ramechhap, migrated to Kathmandu in 1960. “At that time we used to wash our clothes using cooked ash mixed with water and take bath using red clay on the banks of Bagmati. Soaps were not available. Our clothes were clay dyed if we wanted some color in our clothing,” he says, remembering the “simpler times”.

 But, in recent times, unregulated ground water extraction for industrial and domestic purposes, along with unchecked waste disposal along the river bank, has greatly polluted the water of Bagmati. It has become unfit for human use and inimical for the survival of aquatic plants and animals.

 But there have of late also been some laudable clean-up efforts. With the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), local community clubs around Pashupati area are making an effort to clean up the sacred river. ADB’s ‘Bagmati River Basin Improvement Project’ focuses on better water resources management at the Bagmati River Basin. According to an ADB report, projected improvements include “an upstream water storage dam system to increase the river flow in the dry season and riverbed oxygenation weirs”.

 The Department of Irrigation has initiated the construction of a 24-meter high dam in Dhap area of Shivapuri. This dam is being constructed at the headwater of the Nagmati River, a tributary of the Bagmati River, in the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

 One community club involved in clean-up efforts of Bagmati in order to restore its recreational and cultural importance is the Nawa Amarkanteshor Youth Club-Pashupati.

 Treasurer of the club, Pralhad Lama, 29, says he grew up in the Pashupati area. Now he is a resident of the area around Guhyeshwari temple, a kilometer east of the Pashupatinath temple. “It was so clean before. Forget octogenarians! Even I remember swimming, taking bath and washing clothes in Bagmati. Now, there is no water to swim, just sewage.”

 But Lama says the condition is improving, “at least here in the Pashupati area due to our weekly cleaning efforts.” Lama’s club is involved in cleaning up the stretch of the river around Pashupati. (Other such clubs have the responsibility to clean up other sections of the river.)

 He grieves that even though there are fines for polluting Bagmati, some people still sneak at night to dump their waste into the river. “We need to somehow stop those polluting the river. Only then will the river become cleaner,” he says.

“We are always thinking about preserving our history and our centuries-old art, but what about the artists today? What legacy are we going to leave behind?” These questions frequently occur to Sudeep Balla, 31, a 2D visual artist, who has been working as a full-time artist since 2014, the year he got his bachelor’s degree in arts.

“As an artist, it is important for me to balance my artistic and financial freedoms,” he says. Balla, who is passionate about doing graffiti, mural and street art, is currently busy designing a restaurant wall in Bhaktapur. His commissioned work has a fixed deadline, a fixed canvas and a fixed plan. He was involved in painting the famous mural of Labim Mall and in many other public artworks around Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

“For commissioned work, you mostly work on someone else’s ideas. And as much as I like art, I would rather spend my time on my own ideas. The problem with that is there is no deadline. You need rigorous discipline to finish a work that you do for yourself because it feels like ‘I have time. I will eventually do it.’ And yet, the work that I do for myself are the ones I value the most.” He says that is where he finds his artistic freedom.

Balla feels people are now more accepting of art in all its forms, and public interest and involvement has increased since he started out. “I do not even want respect but I should get to work the way I want and my art should find a space in this world.” He says his artist friends feel the same way.

Balla, a Bhaktapur native, wishes there was more investment too with greater interest. He says local people and municipality are not interested in financially supporting the kind of art he and some of his friends want to do in Bhaktapur. “We are our own support for now. In the time we spend finding investors for a project, we can finish a mural,” he says.

Balla is in a three-member group “Devotee” that want to improve the art scene of Bhaktapur. “If each of us contributes just Rs 5,000, we have Rs 15,000 already.” Because his art is aimed at somehow adding to the historic value of Bhaktapur, he doesn’t want financial investment to be an obstacle.

“When local people see the impact that art brings to the community, they come forward to support us,” says Balla. He says when they start a work in a community, the locals invariably say, “Why is this even necessary? You are coming into our space and changing the way it was.” But when their work is finished, the locals realize its true value and they become so happy that they often invite the artists to their homes.

Balla also cites vandalism as a major problem for artists. “There are people who write and carve randomly on public walls and trees. They may destroy my art as well,” Balla says. “We need to respect art. If there was no vandalism, there would be more space for art.”

Another problem with artists in Bhaktapur, Balla adds, is their lack of marketing knowhow. He says artists should learn to self-manage their Instagram and Facebook pages so as to increase the value of their art.

“Art of Bhaktapur is similar to apples of Mustang. Outside dealers go to Mustang, take the juicy apples and sell them where they are needed for profit. A similar thing is happening to artworks of Bhaktapur. There are many artists but with little knowledge of marketing,” Balla explains. He asserts it is increasingly important to know the value of your work and how to market it.

And where does he draw his inspiration from? “Our artworks can be traced back to our experiences in childhood. Similarly we learn from other artists.” Balla says he feels dissatisfied with his work if he cannot show on canvas what he has in mind.

“I did exhibitions in college. As a part of my course work, I used to spend up to six months working on ideas for my paintings and getting them on canvas.” In class, students were asked to figure why they were interested in doing a particular art, what form it would eventually take and which colors it would encompass.

“An artist is expected to explain the story behind each color and the reason for making the artwork that size.” He says some students cried during the learning process because of the sheer pressure. “But once you get the hang of things, you have artistic freedom. Nobody can question your work after that and even if they do, you will have answers”.

Even after 11 years of mar­riage and trying to conceive, Shakuntala Devi Kandel (36) and Basu Dev Kandel (44) from Dang district were childless. They visited Om Hospital in Kath­mandu and Lucknow Hospital in India for treatment but still couldn’t conceive. “I cried myself to sleep every night. The people in our com­munity gossiped about us as we were a childless couple, which was horrible. I was ready to die because I felt incomplete without a child,” says Shakuntala. Basu felt helpless too and was worried who would take care of them when the couple was old. It was then that they decid­ed to adopt a child.

“First, we considered Om Hospital but if we adopted from there, the mother would know who took her child and might later come looking for the child. So we went to Bal Mandir [Nepal Children’s Organiza­tion]. We had to wait for three years before we got the call,” reveals Basu. In those three years, he traveled from Dang to Kathmandu six times to ask if a child was available for adoption in Bal Mandir.

There, they met Subika for the first time on 13 Sept, 2015, when she was just 11 months. “As our daughter has tanned skin, I think she relates to me more as my skin tone matches hers. Her mother is fair-skinned,” jokes Basu. They are yet to tell their daughter she is adopted. But, adds Shakuntala, “we are not worried even if she comes to know from someone. Much like we accept her, we know our daughter will accept us too.”

"Most parents who adopt children from Bal Mandir cannot accept the truth that their children are adopted"

Bal Krishna Dangol, Director of Bal mandir

Not every story ends as happily, and adopting a child in Nepal is still tricky. The current adoption law only allows infertile couples who have been married for at least 10 years to adopt. “Before September 2018, couples who had been mar­ried for four years and were infertile could adopt. But advancement in technology forced a change. There are surrogates or test-tube babies now,” says Bal Krishna Dangol, director at Bal Mandir.

So, what if a couple adopts think­ing they cannot conceive but have their own children after using new technology, he asks? “Moreover, there are many parents wanting to adopt but only a small number of children available.”

Single Nepali infertile women can adopt but single men are not allowed to under any condition

Singular problem

Single Nepali infertile women can adopt but single men are not allowed to under any condition. When asked why, Dangol replies, “Women can’t bear children after a certain age. But men don’t face that kind of age barrier. There are single men who come looking to adopt but we have to turn them away.” But sin­gle women who are trying to adopt told APEX that due to changing adoption laws and unclear policies, they face great difficulty in different stages of adoption.

One such case is of a development officer from Kathmandu who fos­tered four brothers since their child­hood. “In 1999, there was a landslide in Dhading, which orphaned 12 kids. So with the intention of adopting one of them, I went to Bal Mandir,” she says.

“Then, I met these four children. The youngest was 14 months and the eldest was 9 years old then. If I had adopted just one child, there was no telling where the other three brothers would end up and I did not want to separate them”. So she decided to adopt all of them by going against the Bal Mandir policy at the time which allowed for the adop­tion of only two children, and of different sexes. “Also, one could not choose whom to adopt. I’d already decided I wanted to adopt them particularly because they belonged to my ethnic group.”

The foster mother was 37 at the time and had to prove she was infer­tile, which she was not. Additionally, she was told that her husband’s agreement was mandatory but then she was unmarried. “I still am. It’s a choice I have made. It took months of convincing to finally let me bring the boys home. I was not allowed to adopt them, only to be their foster parent. I wanted to give the boys a good environment so I was okay with it.”

When she went to finish paper­work, she was asked who she had come with. “My father of 78 had accompanied me. So I was not allowed to sign the paper.” When asked why, she replies, “Because I am a woman. As a male figure was present, my father was asked to sign even though he had no means of a regular income. I was tired by that time, so I allowed it.” Curi­ously, while her father became the children’s foster parent she became their sister.

Even though she is providing for them, she cannot claim anything legally such as medical insurance that her job would provide her chil­dren. The boys have already got­ten citizenship under their parents’ name as she had preserved their parents’ citizenship certificates.

Chosen by heart

She says even the people who are infertile should be allowed to adopt. “In our society once you get married, you are expected to procreate. So there is the belief that you adopt only when you cannot procreate. And adoption is usually done secretly”. She says allowing people to adopt even if they are fer­tile would reduce the stigma. “Those who adopt should be proud of what they did.”

Another couple that has fostered a child for the past seven years is Bhushan Tuladhar and Shriju Prad­han. They are now trying to adopt the child legally. It is through their relatives that they adopted Siddharth, who is 10 now. He is related to their family but both his parents passed away when he was little. “We saw a child in need and decided to help. Once he came and lived with us, we felt so close that we have now thought about going ahead with adopting him legally. Hopefully we won’t face many prob­lems,” says Pradhan.

The couple has two daughters. They consulted their elder daugh­ter before bringing Siddharth in the house and she was excited. Their younger daughter was only a year old then. “The law tells us to share property with our three children, which is as it should be. All my children should get a share,” she says. “We cannot go around telling everyone that he is our foster child. When we meet someone and introduce him as our child, sometimes people point that he does not look like either of us, right in front of him which can be hurtful. Even when one says such things to a biological child, it can cause psy­chological harm. I wish people were more thoughtful!”

Dangol says that most parents who adopt children from Bal Mandir cannot accept the truth that their children are adopted. So they shy away from the topic. But Dangol says this is not something to be hidden because these children are actually “chosen by their heart”.

The unique thing about the year old Nepal Housing Reconstruction Project (NHRP), supported by the government of India, is that it ensures women’s involvement at every level, staring from policy making to construction. The project, implemented by UNDP, has been supporting post-quake rebuilding in Gorkha district. This International Women’s Day, we bring you some stories of the women involved in rebuilding in Gorkha. 

Sita Devi Bhattarai (38), local trained mobile mason, Palungtar

“My family is unique because I work outside from 10-5 and my husband stays home taking care of our sons and tending to a farm. Sometimes I am so tired I cannot wake up early to prepare breakfast. My husband doesn’t say anything and prepares breakfast himself. My sons, 14 and 11, also surprise me sometimes by cooking dinner when I reach home late.”

Bimala Kumari Shrestha (35), beneficiary, Palungtar

 “I was in a dilemma whether to give back the first installment of Rs 50,000 that I had taken to build the house. My husband is away in India and I have to take care of my children and the livestock. There is so much to do to build a house: carry building materials, hire people, get the map passed. But once I decided I’ll do it, things started falling into place!”

Sukmaya B.K (60), beneficiary, Gorkha Municipality

“I used to work as a mason when I was young but as I grew old, I could not carry building materials so I left my job. I used to miss working. Even though I have three sons and a daughter, not one of them live with me. So I started rebuilding my house on my own a year and a half ago. I thought I would not be able to do it, but I did it.” 

Krishna Maya B.K (28), trained mason, Gorkha Municipality

 “Even though my husband and I do same work from 8-6, I get paid Rs 700 a day whereas he gets Rs 800. Maybe because he is a man. It’s okay, I manage. I wake up at 5:30 am, cook food, get my two children ready for school, work here, and then head home to prepare dinner.”

Bishnu Maya Naharchi (67), beneficiary, Palungtar

 “My daughter and two sons left me. They do not keep in touch. I took the initiative to build the house under NHRP and my neighbors helped me too. I hope I can spend my days sunbathing in my house when it is done.”

Chandra Maya Srimal (35), trained mason, Gorkha-Kaflebhanjyang

“In the nine years that I worked as a mason, it never occurred to me that I could make more money by learning how to lay bricks. I had only seen men do that job in Gorkha so I never questioned the norm. But now it’s been two months that I learnt how to lay bricks and I earn Rs 1,000 a day compared to Rs 750 I used to earn.”

Kushma Thapa, architect, Gorkha Municipality

“Some people in Gorkha look confused when I tell them I am an architect. They question my knowledge. Construction is a male-dominated business. When someone enters our office, I am the first person they are supposed to meet. I sit near the front door but people usually bypass me to talk to other males in the office. But I am glad to see more female presence in the business in the past four years that I have worked as an architect.”

Tikamaya B.K (57), beneficiary, Gorkha Municipality

 “After my husband passed away last year, construction of our house stopped. Neighbors commented we couldn’t finish construction but I told them that I would do whatever I could to build my house. Even though my son and I don’t have any stable income source, I believe money is not enough to build a house. The courage to start doing it is as important. So I took the leadership and our house is done.”

Bina Kumari Shrestha, Deputy Mayor, Gorkha Municipality

 “As most men in Gorkha left for foreign employment, women’s participation is high in reconstruction. Under NHRP, men and women are getting equal wages for same work. I think our society needs to change its perception on women’s potential. Women here are doing construction work from morning to evening and going home to cook food and take care of their family. For women to move ahead, women need to support each other.”

Shanta Adhikari (32), beneficiary, Palungtar

 “My husband went to Dubai five years ago, leaving behind three little children and my mother. He was unreachable by phone after a year. In the 2015 earthquake, after our house was destroyed, I took my home apart stone by stone. I then arranged for us to live in a small tin house. I do whatever work I find. On days when we had nothing to eat, I borrowed money. But now I am involved in the construction of my own house, which is nearly done. All my children attend school. Life is good”

On February 14 at around 6 pm, Base Camp, an outdoor bar and restaurant in Arun Thapa Chowk, Jhamsikhel, was buzzing with a young crowd. ‘Single ready to mingle—a speed date event’ was taking place and I was excited to take part. I have never met potential partners using dating apps like Tin­der and Tantan, which are gaining in popularity in Kathmandu and Pokhara, because I do not want to just look at a photo and a descrip­tion of a man and decide whether to meet him or not. Speed dating, on the other hand, was an idea I found interesting in that it gives you an opportunity to meet scores of single people in one spot within a short period.

Organized by a youth-cen­tered souvenir shop called Little Things, the speed date event allowed me to meet 20 men in less than two hours. (I would talk for five minutes with one man and immediately with anoth­er for the next five minutes, and so on until I talked with all 20). We couldn’t reveal our last name during the event, but after it was over, we could give a card with contact details to people we found interesting.

“These kinds of events now are popular among the youth because it is an easier and cheaper way to find people to date,” Chaitanya Mishra, sociologist 

When I reached the venue, I saw groups of people talking and laughing. There were a few who had come alone and looked nervous; they were sitting in a corner with a drink. We were all assigned a num­ber. I got number ‘7’ and a man in his late 20s came and sat beside me. “So how do we do this?” he said with a nervous laughter.

I giggled and told him I had no experience with speed dat­ing. Later I found out none of the men had been to a speed date before. The concept is still new to Kathmandu and many aren’t famil­iar with it. When I told my parents about it, they were confused. But after I explained it to them, they found it interesting.

The conversation with the first man I met started off with where we live, what our hobbies are, how long we have been single and why we decided to come to the event. He said that a friend of his had just come back from the US and wanted to take part. And he had cajoled him into registering too.

It didn’t take me long to realize I was having almost the same con­versation with each guy. But a few did manage to add some spice to our conversation. One guy, as soon as I sat beside him, said, “Let’s play a game. I am going to tell you three statements, one of which is a lie. You win if you can say which!” I lost but it was fun. As I looked around, I could see the participants laughing loudly, playing blinking games, some eager to impress and some having very awkward interactions.

Most women in the event were writers and most men engineers. Many men told me they were introverts and found it difficult to approach a woman and ask her out, so this event was a good opportunity for them. “Where do you find singles anyway? I do not have the time to go around ask­ing people if they are sin­gle. One of my friends told me that I w o u l d have to wait until s u m m e r when cou­ples usual­ly break up, because in winter, they need a part­ner to cuddle! I was not able to find a woman I liked, and here I am meeting many. It’s convenient,” was how a man responded when I asked him why he was taking part.

Abha Dhital, the organizer of the event and co-founder of Lit­tle Things, says she organized it because many singles who visited her shop requested her to do so. “We had been toying with the idea for a while but did not know what to expect. We are pleasantly surprised that it created a buzz. As many as 114 people registered.”

There were two time slots: 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm, and 56 people participated in total. The participa­tion cost was Rs 500 per person. Dhital says since the Valentine’s Day event was so successful, she is think­ing of organizing such events on a regular basis.

This was my first experience with speed dating and I am glad I went. Even though it was quite tiring to talk to 20 men continuously and I did not find anyone who I want to see romantically again, I met some great people who I would like to meet again.

Chaitanya Mishra, a professor of sociology at Tribhuvan University, says that the changing dating sce­nario in Kathmandu is a result of young adults becoming increasingly more individualistic and trying to assert more freedom. “These kinds of events are now popular among the youth because it is an easier and cheaper way to find people to date,” says Mishra.

 “It’s hard to pronounce it right, try ‘Puwa-quaa’. Well, ‘pua’ means Himalayan Giant Nettle (allo) and ‘qua’ means attire. It comes from the language of the indigenous mountain people who first produced the cloth from allo,” says Prashant Budhathoki, who started Puaqua with Manoj Pun, Shree Ram Ghimire and Sub­odh Dhakal.

Himalayan nettle is finer, stron­ger and more elastic than linen and is naturally found in the wild. Budhathoki had seen Nepal’s imports balloon and at the back of his mind, he was always thinking “What can Nepal export?” Then he met Manoj Pun, who was already working on nettle wear. After a con­versation with him, Puaqua came into being two years ago. They claim to be the first Nepali company to make fashionable and wearable high-quality nettle-wear mixed with fine fabric.

Pun belongs to the Magar com­munity that has traditionally used many allo products. He says, “The generation of my grandparents, who are from a hilly region, know a lot about nettle. When they returned from jungles with skin allergy, they used to scrub allo to soothe.” There are other benefits to using allo, according to the founders. “Wear­ing allo is a good way to reduce blood pressure, easing headaches. Additionally, its natural hollow fiber provides natural insulation.” Puaqua founders assure that their clothes are warm in winter and cool in summer.

Puaqua wants the youth to be environmentally conscious and to create jobs for high-altitude communities

“We buy allo from commu­nities in high altitude places like Rolpa, Dadeldhura and Rukum. The collected raw material is taken to Korea for processing. We tried to process it in Nepal first, then in India and China, but we could not get a fine result,” reveals Budhathoki while showing some Puaqua wearable products that are 70 percent organic cotton and 30 percent allo. They make bags, jogger pants, trousers, shirts and scarves. “The more allo is mixed, the harsher the texture of the clothes becomes. So we are still contemplating whether to increase its percent in our products.”

He says more Nepali companies are not in this business because of high risk in it. “People question us: Goods made from only nettle are easily available in Thamel, so why make wearable goods out of it? And with their high prices, will they actu­ally sell? Well, we took the risk and we are still working on identifying our target customers to sustain this business,” says Pun.

Puaqua is trying to tap into the US and Australian markets. Meanwhile, the price of their products affect sales in Nepal. A Puaqua scarf costs Rs 1,800, a shirt Rs 5,300, a pair of pants Rs 5,500, a backpack Rs 6,500 and a tote bag Rs 5,500. Some Nepalis ask why they have to pay so much if these products are really made in Nepal.

So what differentiates Puaqua products from other products made from allo? “The craftsmanship, the Korean processing and above all the high quality,” says Budhathoki. Costs are higher still when they have to export and so they sell their clothes at around Rs 11,000 apiece in the US and Australia. “So far the response has been good from our international clients, proba­bly because these are people who are very conscious about the envi­ronment.” Keeping this in mind, Puaqua is also thinking of exporting to Nordic countries.

“Clothes made from natural fiber are expensive. In the alleys of New Road, one can find clothes-hats made from unnatural and non-degradable fibers like nylon and polyester. So many of these end up in Bagmati River and they will not degrade. So we also wanted to make clothes that are fully bio-degradable,” says Pun. Puaqua wants the youth to be envi­ronmentally conscious and to create jobs for high-altitude communities, especially women who do looming and weaving.

You can find their products at Music Art Gallery Café at Jham­sikhel, and Babarmahal Revisited.

Shristi Pahari and Nabina Subedi came up with the idea of a period subscription box, a monthly care package for females, in 2017 as they were studying in India to become chartered accountants. When they returned to Nepal in November 2017 after a five-year stay in Delhi, they became busy with their jobs and could not find any time for this business. So they both quit their jobs in October 2018. Since then, they have been investing their time and energy in their venture ‘The She Thing’, which has already delivered around 120 menstrual kits in Kathmandu. This is the first period box delivery service in Nepal.

 “There is a subscription model for many things in the world such as newspapers. But for something that women have to deal with every month, there isn’t any in Nepal,” Subedi says. Business has been steady; they sold around 20 boxes in the first month. Pahari says, “We are not focusing on making profits for now. We are not even expecting a stable income for the next two years. We first want to build a loyal customer base. We know it will take at least two years for our business to become stable.”

They say that the main challenge for this business in Nepal is the lack of menstrual hygiene awareness and the unavailability of some menstrual hygiene products. “Here, women try to get through their period with Rs 100. People question why they should pay several times for this box (read on). Menstruation means pads in Nepal. But it is more than that. Proper menstrual hygiene products are equally essential,” says Subedi. Pahari adds, “There is a chapter on menstruation in Grade 8 in Nepal, but nowadays many girls start getting their periods from Grade 6 or 7. In our society, menstruation is still a taboo subject. We want to make a girl’s experience of getting her first period to be as comfortable as possible.”

The two women rue the absence in Nepal of even basic menstrual hygiene items—such as a pee-buddy (which allows women to stand and pee), pain relief patches (which relieve pain from period cramps), period panties (which help block leakage), and instant period stain removers. They import most of these items from India, paying high taxes and transportation costs, to include them in their period box.

Because of this, the box might seem expensive to some. A normal box for a normal period flow is priced at Rs 650, a heavy box for a heavy flow at Rs 1,199 and a “red fairy” box for a girl’s first period at Rs 2,500. The items in the boxes are divided into five categories—sanitary napkins, surprise gifts, menstrual hygiene items, snacks and chocolates, and health and beauty. Moreover, the theme for each month is different. “For January, it was ‘New beginning’ and for February, it is ‘Valentine’. Basic items remain the same, but we include surprises every month,” says Pahari.

Asked if they have thought about including tampons or menstrual cups in the box, Pahari says, “We probably won’t include menstrual cups in our box, since the idea of a box is mostly based on providing sanitary pads every month. But we may sell the cups separately.”

 Their target customers are women such as college students and professionals “who don’t have time to pamper themselves during their period days”, according to Pahari. But as many as 30 percent of their customers are men. “Our first customer was a man who bought a box for his wife. We don’t have many regular subscribers now, just around 10, maybe because periods can be irregular, but we do have quite a few repeat customers,” says Subedi. “We keep a note of the expected period date of women and deliver the box a few days ahead. On average, we send a parcel or two every day. And we also do immediate deliveries.”

 Pahari says they faced a problem in categorizing their business while registering their company. “We could not find the category ‘Sanitary napkins’ or anything menstruation- related while applying for a Permanent Account Number (PAN). We were suggested that we register under cosmetics, which we did.”

 They don’t have a store yet. They operate out of a room they’ve recently rented and they get business queries on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Their long-term goal is to manufacture in Nepal all menstrual hygiene items in the box.