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After graduating in Social Work in 2015, I worked as a social worker at a juvenile correction home, where I had first-hand experience of working with 60-80 juveniles. A space for children in conflict with the law, a juvenile correction home strives for holistic development of children through education, vocational training and personality development. It also promotes physical and mental well-being through psychosocial counseling, recreational activities and individual care. Though there is ample space for social workers to engage, social work, an internationally recognized profession, is still a developing profession in Nepal. The government must give social work a boost by recognizing it as a profession. Social work forms a part of the juvenile justice system in Nepal also. This article will try to portray the dilemma that social workers face working in the juvenile justice system and recommend measures for improving the juvenile justice system.  The Act relating to Children 2075 BS (2018 AD) of Nepal mentions a role of social worker in the juvenile justice bench alongside a psychosocial counselor and district judge. This legislation provides a framework to design and implement child-focused programs that hold society and concerned stakeholders more accountable to children. Juvenile justice system considers children under 18 as not mature enough to decide what is right or wrong, so it requires separate law to treat children in conflict with the law. This system comprises separate sentencing guidelines, court structures, juvenile secure detention facilities, etc as the juveniles need special protection and support from adults to ensure their rights.  So, social workers have multiple roles ranging from problem-solving, interacting, negotiating and discussing issues facing a child. They play a crucial role to ensure the rights of children, including their safety, a healthy development and overall protection. Professional social workers can help reduce the incidence of abuse and neglect and support families to raise their children well. Unlike any other profession, a social worker also goes through tough times and faces ethical dilemmas in deciding what is good for the client in the juvenile justice system and particularly in a correction home. As a social worker, I have faced a number of dilemmas while working with juvenile offenders. They involve the choice between individual rights/welfare, and public welfare, equality and diversity, structural oppression, and the boundaries of professional roles. Poorly understood  Social work is poorly understood and does not have legal entities in other areas with the exception of the juvenile justice system in Nepal. Social workers do not have specialized positions for specific works in their domain. Hence, one cannot proudly introduce him/her as a “social worker’’ in any other areas as Nepal is yet to give the profession a wider legal recognition. General public does not know much about the position and roles of social workers in Nepal, which sets a gap between the juvenile and social workers. A powerless position A social worker’s involvement is necessary as early as possible from the time children come into contact with police into the court process. Social workers feel powerless not having any influence on the children’s voice from the time of prosecution, trial and hearing in the court. Social workers cannot directly intervene in case of child abuse, sexual abuse, children’s safety, and violence. It falls under legal jurisdiction, under the purview of the government. One of the pertinent issues facing social workers is the lack of support from local municipalities and government offices. In the government’s scheme of things, there seems to be no place for social workers. Involvement of a social worker in early stages of legal proceedings is crucial for understanding the background of the children in conflict with the law and preparing the social enquiry report to assist the judicial process in the best interest of the children and the wider community. In the child’s interest Juveniles come from diverse communities, geographical areas and family backgrounds. A social worker in Nepal has to work in different rural settings with vulnerable groups deprived of basic rights and living in poverty. Social work interventions need to be planned keeping diverse local cultures, indigenous practices and contexts in mind, given that the gravity of existing social problems can be different for different peoples.  In a nutshell, juveniles have every right to live with respect, dignity and with their rights protected. To achieve this end, a frontline social worker needs to be mobilized under a strict licensing system along with enabling social workers to intervene in cases, empowered by legal identity and professional regulations. On their part, social workers must collaborate with government entities for introducing relevant regulations and guidelines governing social work. The author holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Lincoln, UK

When a comprehensive philosophy of national interests starts to have gaps in public life domains, a nation starts embarking on the journey of failure. Any possible conflict of interest within ruling institutions exacerbates crises. Contemporary political discourse determines the course a nation is taking, the outcome in the form of success or failure. This opens another avenue of debate whether only the political system is the mother of all policies, as articulated by political leaders in Nepal. When Nepal has been witnessing complex phenomena, outside geographic territory and even in space, it will be worthwhile to explore, learn and apply the requirements of the present.  We have been witnessing threats in different aspects of our lives and this threatens national stability and our image in regional as well as global fora.  Should we witness the happenings or start taking actions is our choice and our choice will determine our future course. Revising the history of our nation and observing the world around us, it has become clear that we have been experiencing hostility in the form of coercive conflicts and aggressions, immature government and non-government policies, political espionage, and inappropriate interference in elections.  Terrorism has been a huge threat in various forms like physical violence and cyber-crime proliferation. Taking caution and presuming possible physical violence, aggression and eliminating such elements is what security forces should do. For instance, recently, we have experienced the sight of different threatening objects in public places and places of national interest. Various financial crimes, including stealing and extortion as well as harmful agendas, are sprouting with the use of cyber gateways.  We are witnessing how a pandemic can be a threat to not just a country but the whole world. For instance, Covid-19 has caused tragic deaths, widespread social and economic havoc, and mental health issues. In the past two years, the highly contagious strain has caused the closure of many small and big businesses temporarily or even permanently, resulting in huge losses. Travel, hospitality sectors and industries have been impacted disproportionately.  The cumulative effects of economic loss and rise in unemployment are likely to destabilize society. This pandemic is a reminder that the threat is ever present. Therefore, it is imperative to take measures for the protection of citizens.  When in need, we accepted aid in the form of vaccinations, technologies, oxygen plants and medicines, etc from different countries. Now, we should set up research facilities for the development and testing of vaccines, medicines, technologies and provide training to public health workers to deal with similar outbreaks.  Natural disasters also pose a big threat, with climate change exacerbating it further.  The (Gorkha) Earthquake in 2015, tornado in 2019 and the Melamchi flash flood (2021) were some of the disasters that took many lives, caused huge economic losses and left the citizens traumatized. Climate change causes irregular rain patterns and droughts, disrupting traditional agriculture practices and affecting the supply chain. Huge losses of lives and properties are the consequences of natural disasters aggravated by climate change. Choice is in our hands to explore methods and develop practices that can slow down climate change and mitigate its impacts. Transnational crimes are other sets of problems threatening our country. Human trafficking, illicit drug trafficking, business infiltrations, extortions, transfer of illegal weapons, and harmful ideologies are creating adverse situations in Nepal. A regional approach is a must to deal with these challenges.  Nepal faces a wide range of threats with implications for the entire region. The time has come to develop appropriate response strategies by giving our emergency response efforts due priority, identifying the loopholes and creating an atmosphere for peace, stability and safety on a regional basis.  The author is with the Ministry of Home Affairs 

Looked upon as a mystical Shangri-La and dubbed the "Little Tibet," the enchanting tiny enclave hidden within the folds of majestic mountains on the Tibetan Plateau, the 500-year-old capital of Mustang, "the Kingdom of Lo"–Lo Manthang–was off limits to foreigners until 1992. For old folks, Mustang was a fabled "himal pari ko desh," a land beyond the Himalayas. In 2018, I traveled to Lo Manthang (3,840m), Upper Mustang, on a 13-day cycling trip with three companions and turned my long-cherished dream into reality. It stood out hands down as the most memorable journey of my life—one of a kind. Among many other breathtaking landmarks, the mysterious 2,500-old Shija Jhong cave at Chosser village boggled our minds. Following a two-day respite and a thorough tour of the walled city of Lo Manthang, including its medieval gompas (monasteries) and the 14th-century Tashi Gephel Palace (undergoing renovation then), we wished to make our last day worth the effort by exploring a little farther the city. We set aside two destinations: the Korala border with China, some 28 km away, and the closer Chosser Jhong Cave. Our team captain, Khashing Rai, and I favored the historic cave; my other two mates, Shayeet and Diwas, were for the border. After a bit of bickering, we finally settled upon Jhong cave. After gorging on dal-bhat at the hotel, we dusted our bicycles, hopped into our saddles, and hit the dirt road to Chosser (3,916m), some 19km away. It took us over an hour to arrive at Chosser—clusters of adobe houses scattered around a close-knit community. The wind that escalated into a full-blown gale made our pedaling an ordeal. We left our bikes at the village square tea shop and hiked to the cave. The landscape of Mustang never ceased to baffle us right from day one. On the way to the cave, the weird rock formations in phenomenal sizes and shapes in the bare, parched, dusty, wind-ravaged, and arid terrain gave us the impression of having landed on a different planet—so other-worldly. For all that, the charm the rugged environs held for us was mystifying. As we advanced toward our destination, November’s biting wind seemed bent upon brutally lashing us. The chill seemed to cut through the layers of our thermal wear and windbreakers to our bones. Small wonder Mustang earns the notoriety of diurnal gale force gust with speeds outstripping 40 knots. You won't believe it! At the wind-torn Nyi La pass (4,020m), the highest point en route to Lo Manthang, the wind threatened to sweep my bike off a cliff. Following a 45-minute walk in that stark wilderness with no such things as greenery and habitation, we arrived at Jhong cave that towered above us—defined against the clear indigo sky. All four of us froze to the ground as we watched the massive rock formation in all its glory—the spectacle as much for the eyes as for the mind. The near vertical face of the craggy cliff held pockmarks, which we soon figured were gaping holes, presumably serving as crude windows for a light source. Awestruck, we set foot on the monumental Shija Jhong Cave, just one among over 10,000 human-made caves that pepper the cliffs of Mustang, near-impossible to access. A concrete flight of steps led to the cave's entrance. Next, we had to climb narrow wooden ladders to the upper stories. Each landing opened into passages and multiple chambers. The ladders kept going up to a soaring fifth story. As the rickety ladder shook and wobbled, I stomached my fear and climbed to the fifth floor. Exceeding 40 chambers, some needed access through narrow tunnel-like entrances and stooping too; we negotiated past them cautiously, as there were gaping pits too. One false step, and you would take a fall to the lower story. Several chambers had crude tanks and bins hued into the walls, probably to store water and grain; others appeared like sleeping quarters. Several chambers held ceilings blackened by soot; they must have served as kitchens. How on earth those middle-era people, against all odds, dug caves into sheer rock faces is nothing short of an enigma yet unraveled. Undeniably, the Jhong cave is a living testimony to the phenomenon that the ancient people of Lo lived in caves for millennia. Nearly every chamber had a gaping opening that opened to a stunning view of the rugged wind-sculpted landscape and the Chosser valley in the distance. With no head for heights, it gave me the creeps, even peering from the fifth floor's hole. The presence of thousands of human-made sky caves chiseled into Mustang's near vertical sedimentary cliffs substantiates that cave civilization was inseparable from its past. "People still live in some caves around Garphu and Chosser," said Wangchhen Lowa, the owner of the Mystique Hotel in Lo Manthang. Besides being used as living quarters, archaeologists speculate people used the cave shelters for diverse purposes, from burial grounds for the deceased to meditation chambers for the monks, a refuge from enemy aggression, storing grains, and battle lookout posts. Caves such as the Luri and Tashi Kabum house mural paintings—believe it or not—even mummified human remains and stupas. Today, the Jhong cave and the rest of the sky caves remain a Chinese puzzle for the stumped archaeologists, inviting many hypotheses. As it is, those dark caves of Mustang, to this day, remain shrouded in profound mystery and intrigue. [email protected]

Not just a buzzword. The ceaseless penchant for geopolitics in the world of foreign policy analysis appears mediocre. An addiction, precisely, when it comes to probing Nepal-India ties. And, when such probes become so instant and swift, one’s hasty haven in the geopolitical scrutiny doesn’t appear thick, convincing, and credible. After all, geopolitics is never the foundation of any bilateral ties. It’s only an interpretation having a long militarist and colonial tradition. When a state’s physical proximity is intertwined with the larger political chronicles, a fashioned narrative is sketchily developed, dismissing the larger component of cultural homogeneity and civilizational affinities, in the pursuit of the interest of lobbyists, interest groups, and power elites. In reality, people and their mobility in the porous and interdependent borderlands are the foundation of the Nepal-India ties. But, understanding and appreciating their everyday experiences aptly seeks anthropological and sociological approaches. It means an armed-chaired geopolitician needs to get rid of xeroxing media narratives and his own temperament and instead get into the field, which demands more time and energy. At times, money too. Because without field visits and observations, one’s understanding of Nepal-India relations may remain away from reality. Or else, it would be a pool of overstretched secondary details sans any novel perspective. It’s not only because of the resurrection of geopolitical accounts, globally, in the wake of the Russian-Ukraine crisis that geopolitics has been the dominant discourse in analyzing Nepal-India ties. Instead, it has become a ritual in the context of Nepal-India relations. Not surprisingly, the early geopolitical chronicles encompassing the post-1950 Nepal-India relations were weightily swayed by the spread of American strategic thoughts during the Cold War period. After the Cold War geopolitics was popularized in South Asia by American political scientists including Leo E Rose, the concept of “balancing” lured the Nepali foreign policymakers, and the west-educated Indian leaders were also not upset by the idea of Indian “influence” in the region. As such, the geopolitical narratives evolved in the bilateral ties that have always cherished their civilizational linkages. Despite the longevity of the civilizational ties and durability of connected histories, the sense of beguilement among the foreign policy practitioners/analysts/experts for the geopolitical elucidation has done more damage than benefits to the bilateral ties. Actually, it's where the ordeals commence. Why geopolitically burdened?   Both our foreign policy imaginations and the foreign policy rhetoric are cripplingly laden with geopolitical thoughts. One of the popular geopolitical narratives on Nepal-India relations is the critique of the continuity of the colonial hangover in India’s policy toward Nepal. Such narratives are framed by treading on discourses of the imperialist geopolitics propounded by Ratzel, Mahan, and Mackinder. Nehru’s Himalayan Frontier Policy is sloppily cited—without understanding the actual context—in disparaging India’s foreign policy behavior. While imperialist geopolitics was triggered by the project of state expansionism, Nehru’s frontier policy was influenced by the Cold War geopolitics globally popularized by George Kennan, Kissinger, and other American and Soviet military leaders. The China factor has further wrought our geopolitical elucidations. Nepal’s diplomatic relations with China and the opening of the Kodari Highway—the first land route connecting Nepal with China—are unequivocally understood from the cold war geopolitics. But, with China’s increasing presence in South Asia through BRI projects, the lens of a new old order geopolitics is being embraced, which is once again an American discourse, primarily publicized by Fukuyama, Gorbachev, Huntington, Bush, and now Biden. Nepal’s collective imagination vis-à-vis its geographical location between India and China has fueled geopolitical chronicles. King Prithvi Narayan Shah popularized it in the 18th century with the “yam” metaphor, in the tradition of imperialist geopolitics, and the subsequent generations glossed the same militaristic approach to Nepal’s geography. Relentless geopolitical interpretations of the events and episodes that have taken place between Nepal and India divulge the same. Episodic geopolitical interpretations After identifying the reasons why geopolitics stands at the top, it's germane to survey the evolution of the geopolitical analysis of Nepal-India ties, and to do that let's examine a few episodes starting from the 1950 AD. The geopolitical reading of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Nepal and India in 1950 signals the militaristic discourse of national security, which keeps on informing Kathmandu that the provisions of the treaty are restrictive. Although an epistemic community named the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) was constituted in 2016, comprising members from Nepal and India, to analyze the relevance of the treaty in the present context and float recommendations accordingly, the EPG’s report is yet to be made public. With the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1951, buffer became a catchword in the geopolitical chronicles. While the 1962 Sino-Indian War heightened the importance of balancing strategies for Nepal, the series of Indo-Pak conflicts further deepened the principle of the sphere of influence and the search for comfortable alliances in the region and beyond. The emergence of Bangladesh and the annexation of Sikkim in the 70s reinvented the narratives of threat and reproduced the discourses of state sovereignty and survival. The Zone of Peace proposal introduced by King Birendra was itself a coping strategy in the context of the fall of Sikkim. The 1989 crisis over the renegotiation of trade and transit between Nepal and India was the upshot of the conflict between Nepal’s hedging strategy and India’s sphere of influence policy. India’s twin-pillar approach in the 1990s accommodated King and the political parties in Nepal. While the global war on terror shaped Nepal-India ties through the array of new geopolitics with transnational problems, India’s interest in Nepal’s water was also not free from geopolitical problems. While the increasing role of China in Nepal and South Asia is often narrated through the lens of power and discourse, the political change that Nepal underwent in 2006 is often scrutinized by foregrounding India’s policy of the promotion of democracy in the neighborhood. The Indo-Nepal crisis of 2015 over the promulgation of the Constitution in Nepal was the outcome of the “geopolitics from above,” but ended with the “geopolitics from below”. Geopolitics from above refers to the tension between the power elites in Nepal and India over the issue of the promulgation of the constitution in Nepal, whereas geopolitics from below referred to the role of the people, civil societies, and public intellectuals in ending that conflict. While Chinese President Xi strategized Nepal’s geography during his 2019 visit by pledging to make Nepal a land-linked state, the 2020 map fiascos between Nepal and India triggered claims and counterclaims in the narratives set by military-bureaucratic intellectuals and the dissemination of their thoughts in the social, political and foreign policy spheres of both the countries. New Delhi’s geopolitical reading of China in Nepal offers a way of relating local and regional dynamics to the global system as a whole. Chinese engagement in Nepal is enframed through a variety of dramas, and conflicts, and within a grand strategic perspective of containing the rise of China. But the geopolitical interpretation of the US in Nepal offers the account of strategic convergence between India and the US regarding China. But, until the interests of New Delhi and Washington hadn’t converged over containing the rise of China, India earlier perceived the US’ offer of arms assistance to Nepal in combating terrorism as a threat to India’s security concerns. Militaristic tradition The prevalence and primacy of unceasing geopolitical interpretations in the aforementioned situations make us wonder about the likely alternative narratives. There are accounts of mobility, migration, and matrimonial relations. But they are also hauled into the geopolitical perspective and placed in the popular template of the militarist tradition of state formation and state-making. The representation of Nepal as a “yam” between two “boulders” is in itself a misrepresentation made from the prism of militaristic tradition that disavows the connected histories with both the boulders. In principle, the military’s discourse of “national security” and the “social security” discourses braced by critical thinkers don’t converge.  But, in the Nepali context, endorsing the militaristic tradition of geopolitics has become a daily routine in the realms of statecraft, diplomacy, and foreign policy. When diplomatic briefings are done and foreign policy analyses are manufactured by upholding geopolitical reckonings, a stark divergence in a country’s foreign policy priorities, agendas, approaches, and behavior is inescapable. Thus, in that sense, mere geopolitical interpretation of events, episodes, and instances has done more damage to Nepal-India ties and more benefits to the military-bureaucratic intellectuals in both countries.  After all, geopolitical knowledge is constructed from positions and locations of political, economic, and cultural power and privilege. It focuses more on the action of the power elites and the discourses articulated by them to fulfill their interests. Spawning a suspicious worldview, the (re)generation of doubts is at its heart, and above all, the interests of the political elites supersede the interests of the people. In the name of geopolitical inquiry, the ‘China scare’ has further inflated the discipline of security studies and the codes of containment. After all, the geopolitical readings of the experts and think tanks only endorse a regime’s interest. No surprise that the practice of statecraft has long enjoyed producing its own intellectuals in fulfilling its interests and ambitions. When unbending conservatives and chauvinists are endured in the process of foreign policy making, the geopolitical analysis of any episodes is reduced to the militaristic approach.  Wrapping up The multidimensionality of Nepal-India ties cannot be fully grasped by recurrently espousing the geopolitical lens, which is not an objective and scientific form of knowledge. After all, it is about the knotty operation of discourse and power. While the dearth of alternative narratives in foreign policy interpretation and analysis is perceptible in the existing public discourses, media narratives, and deliberations in the parliaments of both countries, the diffusion of geopolitical readings into the social realms has generated a sense of doubt and suspicions toward each other. Before our worldview turns entirely suspicious and hostile, an anti-geopolitical reading of Nepal-India ties could be initiated, which not only questions the material (ie, economic and military) power of states and resists the narratives of (mis)representation imposed by the political elites, but may also contribute in keeping the multidimensionality intact by dwelling largely on the work and livelihood strategies of Nepalis in India and Indians in Nepal, pilgrimages made in both the countries, the aesthetic of the matrimonial relations, people crossing borders for health, education, and post-death rituals. Bhattarai is the author of the book, “Nepal between China and India: Difficulty of being Neutral” published by Palgrave Macmillan