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BP, in his Atmavritanta, rates the Kathmandu intellectuals very low. They are, according to him, 'making hue and cry over senseless issues, creating problems where there are none and hardly of any help for the cause.' He was talking about the Kathmandu society of the late forties. But his observation is as true today when it comes to what the neo-elites of the valley have to offer.

At a time when national politics has disappointed us badly, once again, how the intelligentsia has behaved should be of great concern. Caught in a pitiful yet laughable quagmire of power struggles and backstabbing, the course taken by our first parliament after the promulgation of the constitution is unfortunate. Hopes of stable government, connected to the future of 30 million people, have been washed away. But the intellectuals are either in deep slumber or deeply invested in the power equation already to even have an iota of critical and independent outlook.

Who is shaping opinions today in Nepal for the future? And, how are they behaving? These are important questions. Of course, times are different than in the forties, and the privilege that comes with access to even basic information about state and politics is no more exclusive to the intellectuals. But away from the cheap click-bait pop feeds in YouTube and social media, a large section of the society still looks up to the intelligentsia to make sense of things. And these elite Kathmandu intellectuals, sadly, are way off the mark when it comes to sensing the pulse of our society and identifying its real problems. Even the newer generation is already showing disappointing symptoms.

Recently, a young activist called leaders like KP Oli and Sher Bahadur Deuba lwade 'ल्वाँदे'. She wrote in her social media post: 'Who is a ल्वाँदे? The entitled mediocre men who take the space and power way bigger than their share. Ambition not fueled by purpose but unbounded greed. Their rise not powered by competence but a total lack of self-awareness. And they do rise, in a country such as Nepal, as our whole system of power has been mediocre, entitled men puffing up other mediocre entitled men. This lineup of clueless ल्वाँदेs would have looked hilarious had it not been so tragic and dangerous. Thus the need to identify these dangerous ल्वाँदेs.'

The language and the intonation suggests the mindset of a frustrated youth. But Dovan Rai is not just any frustrated youth from the streets. She is a PhD in Computer Science from the US, and is actively involved in public discourse, ironically, as a political expert.

Rai is a representative of a new breed of young and sad to say—'entitled'—youth in the public discourse who not only display a lack of understanding of the complex Nepali society and politics, but also have no penchant for learning about it. They do not want to learn about the layered power equations at different levels that form the superstructure of our society, nor do they even consider it important to travel their own nation, outside Kathmandu, to make sense of the politics at the top. They can simply make tall claims with a sense of entitlement that emanates from their 'western degree'. Craving for a sanitized 'meritocracy' of their own preference, rooted in their basic western orientation, they forget that to complain without a commitment to fight for the change that's needed in our society and politics, borders hypocrisy.

Anyone with a basic understanding of politics in our society would know that the politicians who have managed to rise in power are not stupid. But, by calling names that suggest that our society, and politics in general, rewards stupid people, youths like Rai can walk away with a sense of gratification without doing much to change the reality. The reality is grimmer. The politics is in control of shrewd manipulators who are not 'Lwade' or stupid, but masterminds of the political game. Accepting that they are what they are also adds an onus on the avant-garde youth of the society to build an army to fight against them. But such denial is the easier option that these privileged youths have fallen for.

The comfort of collective negligence, and easy complaining without a deep commitment to fight for justice is being taken as an easy route by many talented, privileged, and capable young intellectuals in Nepal. Sadly, the leaders who are at the forefront of the fight for establishing an alternative to the criminal gangs that are misruling the country today are equally naive. They believe a sense of entitled puritan moral pitch will be enough to wrestle power from these established politicians. What BP said about the Kathmandu of the forties still holds.

The Americans are the enemy, and their influence in the region must be minimized at any cost. This single logic guides China’s foreign policy under Xi Jinping. So even as the Chinese want to punish the Indians for daring to stand up to them on the border, they hold back. The fear is that a potent show of force could further solidify the already troublingly close US-India strategic ties. The same Chinese calculus may be at play in Nepal. China was unhappy that Prime Minister KP Oli was not doing enough to push the BRI projects, even as he embraced the American anti-China MCC compact. China promptly shut its two important border points with Nepal. 

But following the Biden administration’s recent efforts to alternately woo and warn the Nepali political class, the Chinese are having a rethink. PM Oli has just inaugurated the ‘China-Nepal Friendship Industrial Park’ in his home district of Jhapa. Meanwhile, a 10-billion-rupee contract for a diversion tunnel on Sunkoshi River has gone to the China Overseas Engineering Co. On China’s part, as the fear of ‘American encirclement’ grows, they have had to play nice and keep engaging and investing in the neighborhood. 

It’s a tricky balance. Even six months ago, most Chinese were unaware of their country’s checkered dealings with India. But then the border conflict spiraled to a level the Chinese state could not keep under wraps. So it belatedly acknowledged the killing of five PLA soldiers in last year’s clash near the Pangong Lake, and posthumously awarded them gallantry medals. This prompted a rabid anti-India reaction on Chinese social media, with most Chinese apparently in favor of teaching India a harsh lesson. 

Even in Nepal, China wanted to punish the Oli government. But when the American State Department strongly urged Kathmandu not to forcibly return Tibetan refugees and the US Congress voted to increase support for Tibetans, China had to recalculate. The US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry started visiting individual Nepali leaders to appraise them on new American priorities. The Chinese were doubly spooked. 

Thankfully for the Chinese, the Indians realize the cost of completely alienating its big neighbor to please a distant friend. (And this is exactly the case with Nepal too.) There has always been a strong anti-US lobby in India which fears giving a strong external actor like the US greater sway in its traditional backyard, not when China is already usurping the old Indian strategic space. The Modi government moreover fears the nationalist backlash should India suffer big reverses in a conflict with China. Hence there is a level of mutual readiness to de-escalate the border crisis. 

India and China are both struggling to calibrate their relations with the US. And they have relatively stable governments, which is far from the case in Nepal. As Oli’s PM chair appeared shaky, foreign powers here were already jockeying for influence. Nepal is under increasing American pressure not to act tough on the Tibetans—and the Chinese want precisely the opposite. The Indians too have outlined the ‘red lines’ Nepal cannot cross while dealing with foreign powers.  

At the end of the day, Nepal has no option but to heed the concerns of its two giant neighbors, even at the cost of alienating the US. But then Nepal diversified away from the two giant neighbors precisely to escape being swallowed up by one or the other. So, again, a difficult balancing act. Yet right now it’s hard to see Kathmandu accommodating American concerns over Chinese ones. 

A new draft rule requiring all Nepali women under 40 years to get written consent from their family and local government office for travelling abroad is so absurd that when I first learned about it, I was convinced it was fake news.

Then protestors poured onto the streets. Domestic and international mainstream media began reporting on it. The whole thing felt like a bad dream, but it was totally real!

The draft rules were so outlandish and extraordinarily absurd that it even led The Guardian, a leading British daily, to insert the word “ridiculous” in the headline for the story. Clearly, even the editors couldn’t hold back on judging Nepal’s draft rule despite violating their own norms for reporting the news neutrally.

Immigration officials have been quick to respond that these rules are only a draft, and, if enacted, would apply only to vulnerable women.

Where do such absurd and outrageous rules, even if just a draft, come from? The story in this story isn’t just in the ridiculousness of the draft rules but the darker realities lurking below them.

Long before, women travelling abroad were routinely subjected to humiliating questions about why and with whom they were travelling, or how they could afford to do so. Things were already ‘ridiculous’ a long time ago. The draft rules, if enacted, will make the informal formal, plus a whole lot more draconian.

Through the proposed rules, the government was attempting to respond to Nepal’s human trafficking crisis. The National Human Rights Commission estimated that in 2018 approximately 35,000 people, which included 15,000 women and 5,000 girls, were trafficked primarily for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labor and organ removal.

Although human traffickers typically target girls and women from rural areas with limited economic opportunities, recent studies indicate that it has now spread to all districts. A few years ago, only half the districts appeared to have been affected.

Human trafficking isn’t limited to females. In Nepal’s case, male and transnational labor are an equally large group of trafficking victims, exacerbated in part by the rigid rules for outbound labor and the absence of safeguards.   

The 2020 trafficking report by the United States found that Nepal had made significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. It had, for instance, recently ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons and previously the UN Anti-Trafficking-in-Persons Bureau Protocol. But Nepal still needs to do significantly more on building its institutional, legal, and law-enforcement capabilities to profile trafficking, enhance prevention, prosecution, and protection. Nepal remains far from meeting the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.      

Many Nepali non-governmental organizations work alongside the government, supplementing efforts on prevention, identification, rescue, and prosecution, in addition to providing victims with shelter and reintegration support. Working out of makeshift tin sheds in border crossings, often without adequate financial support, the commitment of these NGOs is an example of civil participation in the national effort to end human trafficking.

But Nepal’s civil society must also do more to deepen its engagement in reducing both internal and transnational human trafficking.

At its core, human trafficking emerges from the failure to provide Nepali men and women adequate and meaningful economic opportunities. While government policy and intervention are critical to addressing these challenges, there is an important role for civilian society in building and mobilizing the pressure for change.

The failure to provide opportunities, particularly for vulnerable communities, to the extent that it forces or tricks someone into being trafficked, is more a statement about our social failure than the government’s. Our economy thrives solely, and only, because we force millions of our men and women to sell their labor—and often their bodies—overseas: could there be any bigger national shame?

The “ridiculous” tragedy in the draft rules is that it unfairly requires written consent for overseas travel only from women. The real tragedy was that it didn’t require that from all Nepalis. It should have asked all Nepalis—men, women, old, young, everyone—to have written consent from families and local government for overseas travel.

As civil society we must all do more to acknowledge the deepening crisis of human trafficking. Absurd rules are not the answer. A meaning answer will only come when each one of us feels a direct sense of responsibility every time a Nepali becomes a victim of human trafficking.  

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Imagine a quiet village setting. Homesteads made of earthen tiles, bamboo walls caked over with mud, a few affluent homes of baked bricks. It is morning, almost lunchtime, women in the houses are cooking: some using fuelwood, some using dry dung, and some using liquid petroleum gas.

The younger women, the new brides of the village are abuzz, they have a thing planned for today, a place to get to. No, it’s not a religious ceremony, it’s not a festival or a party that brings them together. They have actions that need taking. They have been training, they have been starting businesses and 80 brides of the community are in the process of a big venture—they are planning a cooperative.

There is energy among these young women of the village today. They finish their work and with the blessings of the family elders, they bid farewell to everyone and they stream out of their houses to meet each other.

Six months ago, they and their families joined the FCDO-supported Sahaj program. There were discussions regarding what women can do, how they can help each other, how young people can be taken care of and how they can contribute to their families.

Fathers-in-law, mothers-in-law, husbands and wives, sisters-in-law and the whole family took part in sessions where traditional practices, both positive and negative were discussed, ideas on how to improve the lives of women were generated, tolerance and acceptance, better interrelationships, improved health and sanitation, and income generation were discussed.

After much back and forth, training was held: 92 percent of the women who died during maternity did not make cash incomes, according to recent study by MIRA. And there was consensus that young women had to be more in control of their lives.

They and their families learned about gender rights, potential for violence, how to break the cycle of dependency, and they learned how to make money! Everyone learned business and transactional basics, some trained in tailoring, running ration shops and food stalls, some chose to learn goats, cow or buffalo farming.

This knowledge and their comradery made them confident. The 80 young brides built a network that spanned Siraha and Saptari. They identified need and trained under the local municipality. They sought and received the support of their family and communities, they arranged access to security and phone lines and identified who they could turn to for help within and without their families.

Their fathers-in-law, mothers-in-law, husbands and other member of the family joined them and helped improve their conditions, helped them seek solutions, achieve income generation. Some went back to school, and they achieved a right to self-determination. They took a step beyond and are themselves supporting each other.

The meeting has started, the young women are full of questions. One young bride has a tailoring shop, other brides go to her to get their sewing done. So is the kurta finished, the blouse has a slight problem on the shoulders… sure, everything will be taken care of as soon as possible! Another just started a grocery store, what is the price of a half-liter packet of oil, does she have rice flakes chiura? “Ok, you are offering a much better price, I am coming over to get some stuff.” To the young woman who has a buffalo, “A family celebration is coming up, do you have yogurt?”

Then comes the serious stuff. There is a need to save money. If a collective can be up and running, they can pool together all the monies and then give out loans at decent interest rates so the brides can themselves generate capital to establish and improve their businesses and help those that are in the danger of failing.

Problems are addressed, need for counseling for a specific family, greater learning of gender rights, a husband who is insensitive, a mother-in-law who is supportive, are brought up and solutions arrived at.

Then after the main discussions are over, the facilitator smiles goodbyes, but wait! There is talk of another family where a marriage is taking place. A new bride is coming into the community. The women have ideas on how to welcome her, bring her into their fold, support her in her new community, make sure that her family gives her justice and care.

There is a different feel in the villages now, a coming together of the new and the established. There are actions to take, goals to achieve. There is greater justice for women, especially young women who have left all that they have known to enter a different home, a different family, and a different community. The 80 brides who came into the village wearing bright yellow saris of weddings shine like 80 new suns filled with hope.