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Around 30,000 new cancer diagnosis are made is Nepal every year—only a third of them get treated. According to the National Cancer Registry Program, the rest do not pursue treatment due to lack of finances, illiteracy and negligence. It is to get these untreat­ed people to seek timely treatment, and to raise general awareness on the disease, that the Annapurna Media Network (AMN) has been organizing a yearly cycle rally, ‘Ride for Life’, on the World Cancer Day on February 4. Lung cancer is the most common cancer in Nepal while incidents of cervical, breast and abdomen can­cers are also rising. A patient diag­nosed with cancer in the first stage has 95 percent chance of cure; with cure rates plummeting to 50 per­cent with a third-stage diagnosis. In the fourth stage, cure is nearly impossible. Raising aware­ness on this was one of the goals of the cycle rally.

The Chief of Army staff Rajendra Chhetri kicked off the fourth edition of the Ride for Life from the AMN head office in Tinkune, Kathmandu. Hundreds of cyclists took part, as the rally passed through Gausha­la, Chabahil, Maharajgung, Gonga­bu, Balaju, Sorakhutte, Lainchaur, Jamal, Ratnapark, Bhadrakali, Tri­pureshwor, Thapathali, Maitighar, Baneshwor, before converging at Tinkune again.

“We should all unite to fight can­cer and to give the message that it can be prevented if we are self-aware,” says Sushil Pant, the Chairman of Nepal Cancer Foun­dation, who was also participating in the cycle rally.

The names of the participants of the cycle rally went into a lucky draw. The bumper award of a 43-inch television went to Samim Paudel. Similarly, Rajendra Chhetri got the first prize (a mountain bike) while Sanubabu Thapa and Ratman Gurung together got the second prize (each a two-way Simrik Air­lines Kathmand-Pokhara ticket). Likewise, in third prize, seven lucky winners were given six-month sub­scription of Annapurna daily and Annapurna Sampurna magazine. APEX BUREAU

When Gaurika Singh set eight national swimming records in the 2014 Galaxy Cup, young Nepali competitive swimmers like me were left flabbergasted. We would have been lucky to break one or two records—and here was this 13-year-old completely rewriting our record books. Singh is an inspiration for my generation. But in many ways com­paring her achievement with the achievements of other young Nepali swimmers is also unfair. Singh lives in England, where she can train, morning and night, right through the year. Swimmers here in Nepal can barely train for six months a year, and even that training is sub-par. As a national level competitive swimmer, I have experienced these problems first-hand. And so have the rest of the 130 registered swimmers who take part in national games every year, along with countless others who never make it that far.

 To compete internationally, we need to be able to train in an Olym­pic-sized (50m-long) swimming pool. But the only Olympic-sized pool in Kathmandu, the one at Satdobato (there is another one in Birgunj), we have to share with the public for three hours every day. Moreover, the pool is not heated in winters.

Invariably, our hard work goes down the drain during this long winter slough. National swimming head coach Ongden Lama likes to compare young Nepali swimmers to frogs in a well: “They learn to jump high, only to come crashing back”.

 All heat

We don’t even get bare minimum facilities. For instance, the national team should have a gym workout before training in water. But the gym at the Satdobato pool is always under lock and key. Swimmers should also consume food within 30 minutes of training. But by the time we reach our homes from Sat­dobato, it is usually too late.

The National Swimming Asso­ciation (NSA) started providing post-training diet to swimmers after the 2016 South Asian Games. But the little that is provided goes to the 10 swimmers who participate in the SAG, most of whom, in any case, can train on their own, in the Lin­coln School’s heated pool (because they are students there) or abroad (because they live there). But the rest of us are barred from Lincoln, nor do we have the wherewithal to go abroad.

With the funds it gets from FINA, the global competitive swimming regulator, the NSA arranges for some star athletes to go abroad and train. But no one knows what happens to the association’s own funds, collect­ed via private sponsors and parents of young swimmers. Even simple tasks, such as maintenance of the old pool, is being carried out by the Chinese government, which built the Satdobato complex in the first place.

Said one parent of a budding swimmer: “We had time and again contributed for the construction of a heated pool, to no avail”. The parent did not want to be named fearing that NSA officials, angry with her critical comment, would bar her child from future competitions.

When I asked him about the miss­ing NSA funds, Ashok Bajracharya, the president of the association, hedged: “The private sector is only just starting to see swimming as a lucrative investment. This stands us in good stead for the future”.

Signs of hope

Thankfully, after years of pleading and pressure from parents as well as swimmers, the construction of the heated pool has finally begun, with 80 percent contribution coming from the government and 20 per­cent from the NSA. Why the abrupt change of heart? Because the coun­try is again hosting the South Asian Games in March 2019. Moreover, the association needs to show FINA something tangible for all the funds it gets. Some old problems, such as leakage in the Satdobato pool, are suddenly being solved now.

Whether this is a mark of real change in the way competitive swim­ming is governed in Nepal or a blip on the NSA radar remains to be seen. Fingers crossed. 

No visitor to Kathmandu’s Thamel or Pokhara’s Lakeside this past tourist season (from September to November) could have failed to notice unusually big crowds of foreign visitors compared to the same time in previous years. The year 2017 was indeed a high-water mark for Nepali tourism as a record number of foreign tour­ists came calling. The Department of Immigration data shows a total of 940,693 tourists visited Nepal in 2017, easily surpassing the previous record of 803,092 in 2012. If we fac­tor in tourist arrivals by various land routes, the 2017 figure will easily cross one million, according to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).

There has in fact been a steady uptick in the number of foreign tour­ists since the low of 2015, when, due to the earthquakes and the border blockade, just 538,970 of them vis­ited Nepal.

The top-five tourist-contribut­ing countries in 2017 were: India (160,832), China (104,664), the US (79,146), the UK (51,058) and Sri Lanka (45,361).

The tourism board deserves some credit. It has in recent times made a concerted effort to promote Nepal abroad. In April 2017 it signed up to promotion schemes with the BBC, Trip Advisor and Reuters. The board also initiated online and TV promo­tional campaigns in different parts of the world. Nepal, for instance, participated in the 21st East Med­iterranean International Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT) in Istanbul, allowing the country to showcase its tourist attractions in the Middle East for the first time.

Another successful promotional campaign was the first-of-its-kind ‘International Photography Compe­tition on Nepal’ held in the Chinese city of Chengdu in December, 2017. At least 600,000 Chinese and for­eign tourists visited the exhibit of photos related to tourism, art and culture of Nepal.

“We have been rigorous in pro­moting Nepal abroad following the 2015 earthquakes,” says Sunil Shar­ma, officiating director, PR and pub­licist branch of the NTB. “Not just the NTB, tourism entrepreneurs, other responsible government bod­ies, our industries, each became an unofficial brand ambassador for the country”. Brand Nepal also got a fillip when the country was voted the second ‘Best Travel Destination’ in ‘Adventure Travel’ category of the 2017 National Geographic Travelers Award.

Nepal relies heavily on tourism. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2017 tourism accounted for 7.5 percent of Nepal’s GDP, and the country was ranked 37th, among the 185 coun­tries surveyed on tourism’s direct contribution to GDP. In 2017 tourism supported 427,000 jobs in Nepal.

The mood among hoteliers is upbeat. “We had 81 percent room occupancy in 2016,” said Phurba Sherpa, Director, sales and market­ing for Hotel Shangri-la. “In 2017, occupancy went up to 87 percent and in the first quarter of 2018 we are already expecting 91 percent of occupancy.”

Yet there are skeptics who argue that new tourist numbers should be put into perspective. For instance, according to the Hotel Associa­tion of Nepal, overall hotel room occupancy in 2017 was just 60 per­cent, the same as in 2016. This is because more and more hotels are being opened, says Binayak Shah, the association’s general secretary. “We currently have the capacity to accommodate 1.6 million tourists but only around 1 million came at the peak of 2017. The supply far outstrips demand.”

On the other hand, says Tek Mahat, the CEO of Trekking Agen­cies’ Association of Nepal, hotel occupancy gives only partial picture of tourist interest, as it does not fac­tor in the tremendous growth in vil­lage tourism and home-stay option. “We have for instance been trying to connect tourists with people of Annapurna and Everest regions. Tourists value this opportunity to get to know Nepalis and their habits up close,” says Mahat.

Nepal has the potential to wel­come even more tourists. After all, “a tourist who comes to trek in Nepal won’t get the same experience anywhere else in the world,” says Sharma of NTB.

With its ‘Tourism Vision 2020’ Nepal plans to bring two million tourists by 2020. But delays in con­struction of vital tourism-supporting infrastructures like the second inter­national airport in Nijgadh, Bara and the regional international airport in Pokhara make the task difficult. Nepal’s only international airport is crowded and mismanaged. The condition of the roads and highways is no better. Nepal has a lot going for it, say tourism entrepreneurs, but it would be dangerous to relax, as the competition for foreign tourists in South Asia is stiff.

The India-bound men of Karnali at the Jamunah border of Banke district | Photo by Govinda Prasad Devkota

When what they cultivated proved too little to feed his family even for three months a year, the 12-year-old Harilal Kami decided to leave his village in Jumla district for Kalapahad (‘Black Mountain’) in search of work. Kalapahad is an informal local term for India, historically used to hint of the despair attached to having to leave your country, via an arduous route through the ‘black mountains’. That was nearly 60 years ago. Kami is now 71, back in Nepal, and finally seeking citizenship papers. “I wanted to be a certified Nepali citizen before I died,” says Kami.

Likewise, it has been three decades since Laxmi Prasad Devkota, 60, of Kartikswami municipality in Jumla started going to India in search of work. “Who would have given a good job to an uneducated person like me?” he asks. “To go to Gulf countries, I didn’t know their language. Nor did I have the money for it. I then decided to go to India.”

India is the chief source of jobs for men (and, increasingly, women) from the Karnali zone, a region comprised of five big but sparsely-populated mid-western districts of Dolpa, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot and Mugu. (The zone now falls in Province 6 of the new federal setup.)

In recent times, the people of Karnali have also started going to other countries for jobs, but India remains the prime destination for these mostly uneducated workers. The soil of Karnali is not fertile; the region cannot even grow enough to feed itself.

Often, with little to eat at home, whole families migrate to India. The region now has reliable road networks, which has helped with their daily lives. But Karnali’s imports still far outstrips exports, decimating the local economy and leading to more and more out-migration.

Among those headed to India, again, are 44-year-old Rajkali Damai and her 49-year-old husband Prem Damai of Tatopani rural municipality. Both had first left for India with their parents when they were very young. The two got married in India and had three children there. They were happily settled.

But they were forced to return to Nepal after they started getting into trouble with the Indian authorities over their lack of any identifying documents. “We came to Nepal after four days of travel just to get our citizenship,” says Prem Damai, “If there were employment opportunities at home, we would not have had to go to India to start with.”

According to the 2011 national census, the population of Karnali is 388,000. It should not be difficult to find gainful employment to such a small population.

In fact, every year, the central government spends Rs 70 million specifically to create jobs in Karnali. But the money sent with the express purpose of giving all the youths of Karnali at least 100 days of employment a year is invariably pocketed by powerful political leaders and contractors, locals complain.

“Even to build local roads, the contractors hire dozers. They don’t need manual laborers like me,” says Devkota of Jumla.

Nor are NGOs, whose hoarding boards adorn every other household in Karnali, doing much. The irony is not lost on the locals that most of these NGOs have ‘creating local jobs’ as their main goal.

So few able-bodied men and women remain in Karnali that, often, should someone fall sick there is no one to take them to hospital, and should that person die, nor are there enough folks to carry the dead body to cremation-site.