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The people in the Tharu community, mostly from Dang to Kanchanpur in west Nepal, are observing Maghi, the greatest festival of the community.  The Tharu community observes this festival with much fanfare and gaiety for five consecutive days. Maghi festival is celebrated as the New Year by sharing sweet dishes and performing cultural dance and selecting community leaders known as Bhalmansa. The Sakhiya dance performed with the tune of madal (hand drum) is popular among Tharu community people of all ages for centuries, which demonstrates the costumes, traditions and folk culture of Tharu, Man Bahadur Chaudhary, a leader of Tharu community from Kailari of Kailali district said. Each and every household is preparing for the celebration of Maghi festival here, according to Chaudhary. Chaudhary is also a Bhalmansa, a leader of the Tharu community who decides the key issues at the community. Celebration of the Maghi festival is not likely to be a personal decision by going beyond the decision of Bhalmansa. The people should manage meat, especially pork, a day before Maghi festival while the women remain busy cooking local dishes including Jaad and Dhikri. Dhamar and Dumru dances are also equally popular in the Tharu community in this festival. Married women visit their maternal home to reunite with their parents, brothers and relatives to celebrate the Maghi festival. Furthermore, selection of Bhalmansa is equally crucial in the village during the Maghi festival. The tradition of Bhalmansa carries a great significance since the post has to carry some vital responsibilities in the community. The people here pick Bhalmansa unopposed if an agreement was forged but election and lottery draw are also exercised. Similarly, a community postman known as Chirkiya, and Guruwa to serve as a community health worker are also selected who perform their jobs under the leadership of Bhalmansa. In general, these leaders oversee the overall tasks of the community including protection of the village, development works, irrigation, drinking water supplies, power supplies and other issues that could surface in the community. Defiance of the orders of Bhalmansa is considered as violation of social norms in the Tharu community and every individual should abide by the directive of Bhalmansa since this helps maintain discipline and collectivism in the community.

Former skipper of Nepal national cricket team, Sandeep Lamichhane, who was arrested on the charge of raping a minor girl, has been released from jail after posting a bail of Rs 2 million. Saroj Krishna Ghimire, lawmaker of Lamichhane, confirmed the release of the former national cricket team captain. The Patan High Court on Thursday ordered the concerned authority to release Lamichhane. A joint bench of Justi Dhruva Raj Nanda and Ramesh Dhakal today granted Lamichhane the bail. He has been barred from leaving Nepal. A 17-year-old girl had filed a rape complaint against Lamichhane at the Metropolitan Police Circle, Gaushala when he was abroad to play Caribbean Premier League (CPL) from Jamaica Tallawahs. According to the complaint, Lamichhane had allegedly taken the girl to various places in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur on August 21 and raped her in a hotel room the same night.  

A Royal Bengal tiger and a rhino were found dead in the Chitwan National Park. The male tiger aged around 15 years was found dead on Wednesday at the Narayani river bank of Champa Salghari area in Amaltari, and the rhino aged about five years at Sauraha area, said the CNP information officer Ganesh Prasad Tiwari. This is the first death of a tiger so far in the current fiscal year, 2022/23. It died a natural death, he said, adding that the rhino died when a tiger attacked it. With this, eight rhinos have died so far in the current FY.

Nepali media need to invest in the capacity building of reports to improve their coverage of human rights and inclusion issues and embrace human rights approaches while reporting elections by identifying tools and measures that support the promotion of free, fair and participatory elections. These are the needs highlighted by a study on the media coverage of elections from human rights perspectives, carried out by Media Action Nepal (MAN) with support from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), launched on Tuesday. Launching the report, Minister of the Government of Nepal Damodar Bhandari highlighted the need to see issues of the society that the state does not see and to bring them to prominence and national attention. He also noted the quantitative and qualitative growth Nepali media had made over the past few decades but worried that that growth had not been reflected in the media’s content. "Nepali media may be getting tangled in surficial issues and not bringing forth the deep analysis required. The Government of Nepal stands with the media for its development," he added. Speaking during the event, Laxman Datt Pant, Chairperson of Media Action Nepal called these findings thought-provoking and hoped that this study would encourage media owners and practitioners to introduce an effective in-house strategy for promoting issues of human rights and inclusion through their content. "This study is very important and relevant as it sheds light on newsroom awareness vis-a-vis issues of human rights and inclusion, particularly around the time of elections and also because it recommends an action plan for newsroom practitioners to follow to advance human rights and inclusion through their reporting," Pant added. Bandana Rana, CEDAW Committee Member lamented that the media used sexist language and portrayed women in a stereotypical way. Women candidates were also presented as weak, emotional and indecisive during elections and in the aftermath, women family members were blamed for their husbands’ or sons’ decisions. President of eth Federation Nepali Journalists Bipul Pokhrel praised Media Action Nepal for producing reference materials for educating journalists and also for holding a mirror to journalism, He also showed just how wide an impact media content could have at all levels of the society so noted the need for the press to be accountable and fact-based. The study has made these recommendations based on its finding that only 1.9 percent of the news reports produced by Nepali newspapers and online portals during the time of last November’s federal and provincial elections covered human rights and inclusion issues. It looked at 7,459 news stories published in 20 media outlets (10 newspapers and 10 online news portals; three broadsheets and three portals from the Kathmandu Valley and seven broadsheets and seven portals from the provinces) over a period of 16 days (eight days before the election day, the polling day November 20 and seven days after the elections) and found that only 142 covered issues of human rights and inclusion. MAN believes this is a woefully low number considering that Nepal is a party to several international human rights instruments and the constitution of the country also expresses commitment to the principles of human rights and inclusion. Furthermore, out of the 142 stories, 30 stories (21.13 percent) were related to women rights, 21  (14.79 percent) to social justice, 18 (12.68 percent) to education and health, 17 (11.97 percent) to youth employment and empowerment, 12 (8.45 percent) to the rights of people with disabilities, eight (5.63 percent) to the rights of farmers, one (0.70 percent) each on the rights of child and right to food, 10 stories (7.04 percent) to poverty alleviation, seven (4.93 percent) to the rights of senior citizens and 12 (8.45 percent) were related to the rights of minorities. Corroborating concerns from LGBTIQ+ and Dalits that their voices do not find space in the media, only two news stories (1.41 percent) were on the rights of sexual and gender minorities and three (2.11 percent) on the rights of Dalits. Surprisingly, none of the media outlets produced stories on good governance, an issue considered vital to voters during elections.