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As is happening with the country’s other vital organizations, Nepal Police have also been in a constant quest to modernize themselves. The organization passed a significant milestone in this journey when they imported a DNA testing machine in 2014. DNA testing has since been handy, often playing a decisive role in either establishing guilt or clearing suspects in multiple criminal cases.

Nepal Police had its first success with DNA testing in a 1996 rape case against Rakesh Kumar Singh, an assistant sub-inspector of police (ASI). On June 8 that year, one Himali Gole of Dolakha district had charged Singh with raping her. Singh denied the charge. But a DNA test showed that the semen found in Gole’s petticoat came from ASI Singh. That helped the district court establish Singh’s guilt and to sentence him. The decision was later upheld by the Appellate Court where Singh had appealed. Another test that was performed upon the appeal also went against the accused.

Singh then went to the Supreme Court, which too upheld the lower courts’ decisions. It, however, mentioned the victim’s testimony and other circumstantial evidence as its basis for the verdict, not the DNA test. Maybe the court didn’t consider the test a credible evidence back then. One of the reasons behind this skepticism could have been that without a testing center of their own Nepal Police had to send the samples to India’s Kolkata for DNA testing.

The Central Police Forensic Science Laboratory (CPFSL) of Nepal Police started DNA testing in Kathmandu in 2015. It performed 85 tests in 2015/16, 137 in 2016/17, and 136 in 2017/18. In 2019/20, the number surged to 310.

“Due to a rise in the number of criminal cases and easier availability of technology, we conduct more DNA tests these days,” says Senior Superintendent of Police Rakesh Singh (not the Rakesh singh mentioned above), head of the
forensic lab.

Don’t trust CSI

“There is increased awareness about DNA testing. But people are still unaware that this is not an easy method to establish crimes, nor is it always credible,” Singh adds. “Maybe they think it’s easy because of the influence of movies and TV shows.”

Yet the contribution of DNA testing in establishing tricky crimes is hard to dispute. Take the case of Chameli and Rabin Khadka, in-laws by relation. They had an affair from which a baby girl was born. DNA testing established Rabin as the biological father of the girl and a great family dispute was settled.

Success in such cases develops public trust on DNA testing. Perhaps that is why it is gaining in popularity.

According to criminologist Madav Prasad Acharya, people have started trusting this test more and more and rely on it to give them justice, “although the recent increase in the number of DNA tests may also suggest an increase in the number of crimes.”

The number of criminal cases at the police forensic lab is increasing too. In 1997/98, the lab had to handle 707 cases. The numbers rose to 6,864 in 1998/99 and 7,435 in 1999/2000. In 2018/19, the number soared to 10,101, the highest till date.

But even as there are many cases DNA testing has successfully resolved, there are also more
tricky ones.

Exceptions and rules

One notable failure has been the unresolved 2018 rape-and-murder case of Nirmala Panta, where the DNA test inaccuracy derailed the whole investigation.

In sexual assault cases, it is difficult to get pure samples and keep them from contamination. While collecting vaginal swabs, victims’ epithelial matter may be mixed with that of the rapist(s), which hampers with the result accuracy. In Panta’s case, the prime suspect Dilip Singh Basnet thus remains free even though he has informally confessed to the crime. The National Human Rights Commission pointed out to big lapses in sample collection.

The misconception that DNA testing always works worries Acharya. “As a scientific method, it is effective in establishing facts. But not always,” he says. “DNA testing is complex and highly sensitive. As such, even a simple error can lead to a disastrouslywrong outcome.”

One such case is from Britain’s Manchester in 2011. A man named Adam Scott was accused of rape, and his DNA matched a sperm sample taken from the rape victim. Due to sampling contamination, the DNA wrongly matched with that of Scott. He was later cleared on the basis of other evidences that went in his favor.

“For the DNA test to be just and effective, special care needs to be taken in sample collection, its transport, and protection from contamination,” says SSP Singh.

Moreover, Nepal Police’s forensic lab has only four staff and is desperately short of skilled manpower for DNA testing. The test is also rather expensive, with even cheap ones costing around Rs 20,000. But according to SSP Singh, Nepal Police is getting progressively better at DNA testing and in ensuring that the results are mostly accurate.

In Soru Rural Municipality of Mugu district, women have multiple responsibilities. Most of the village men have gone to the proverbial ‘Kala Pahad’ (India) or other countries in search of jobs. So women here have to handle not just their families but other traditionally ‘male’ responsibilities as well.

Take construction. Women are working as construction workers in a number of local projects like the 1,100-meter irrigation canal from Majhgatta to Ekal Katiya of Soru-9, and another 1,100-meter canal from Bhuwane Khola to Naidhunga of Khatyang-2. Of the 484 laborers in the two projects, 330 are women.

“Men are out of the country. Even if they return, they won’t work as construction laborers,” says Gorikala Kami of Soru-9. “Development projects in the village are mostly in the hands of women these days.”

“This kind of out-of-home work gives us a unique outlet,” says Kami. “It pays as well.” The project office pays them through a bank, so women now have their own bank accounts. It helps them save money, and keeps them from being cheated by contractors, as happened when they used to get their wages in cash. The World Food Program is funding both the projects.

“As male members are away, many development projects in the village are unfinished,” says Ramdevi Yogi of Soru-9. “We women will finish what they started”. 

The scariest thing about the novel coronavirus is that any of you reading this may have it and yet be asymptomatic. Nepal has reported just a single case. Probably at least a few more are infected. In a coronavirus infection, the older you are, the more severe symptoms you are likely to show. Particularly vulnerable are the elderly with preexisting health conditions like heart and lung ailments. Thankfully, Nepal is a young country with an average age of 21.6 years. Just around four percent of the national population of around 30 million are over-65.

Thus, even if the global pandemic touches Nepal again, most of the sufferers here will fully recover. Yet that is cold comfort. First, we have inadequate test kits and a potentially large number of asymptomatic young carriers of the virus. In that case, they could pass on the infection to the more vulnerable elder members in their homes and communities. With our under-funded and over-stretched healthcare system, complications among the elderly may then explode. It is telling that in places with good healthcare systems novel coronavirus fatality rate is around 0.5 percent, compared to around 3.4 in places with bad ones.  

It is vital to test all those who show even some symptoms of novel coronavirus quickly. But that is not enough. Over the past week or so, China and South Korea, the two Asian hotspots of coronavirus, have been able to cut the number of new infections drastically through a rigorous tracing and prompt isolation of all those who have come in contact with proven coronavirus carriers. The results have been drastic: the number of daily new cases in China has plummeted from 3,500 in late January to under 24 (as we went to press). 

This gives us hope that even if the virus reenters Nepal, it can be contained. But only if the country can strictly adhere to the rules that have worked elsewhere. Our ability to contain the virus depends on the ease of availability of protective masks and sanitizers. On whether we can build enough isolation units in our hospitals, on whether temperature checking at all our public buildings can be made mandatory. Other effective measures include shutting down schools and cinema halls, limiting the use of public transport, and minimizing hospital visits. 

This is no time to panic though. The government should discourage hoarding of essential commodities like medicines, LP gas and daily edibles through the assurance of their continued and timely supply. It’s all too easy to become selfish in times of crisis. Citizens may only need a gentle nudge to their conscience to behave more magnanimously. But after the WHO has declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a ‘global pandemic’, Nepal will do well to brace for the worst. Again, it will be dangerous to bank too much on the low number of reported infections. 

As a precaution over coronavirus, which has already spread to over 100 countries around the world, most political parties in Nepal have suspended their large-scale gatherings. And on time; but the parties need to do more. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Nepal, along with other South Asian countries, is at high risk.

The ruling Nepal Communist Party has suspended all meetings and gatherings aimed at strengthening its organizational structure. The main opposition Nepali Congress too has canceled activities in the run-up to its General Convention. Smaller parties have acted similarly. But are our political parties doing anything substantive to proactively mitigate the corona scare?

With their nation-wide bodies, they can certainly contribute. “Political parties have organizations from the center to grass-roots level,” says political analyst Bhojraj Pokharel. “They have the biggest and widest networks of all entities in the country. So they can definitely help raise awareness about the virus.”

Political cadres can also reach far-flung areas with low presence of traditional or social media and discuss precautionary measures with the people.

Two months after the COVID-19 outbreak in next-door China and after the spotting of the first and only coronavirus case in Nepal thus far, our parties are yet to carry out any substantive awareness drive. (Of course, they claim otherwise.) Instead, major parties—ruling NCP and opposition NC—seem busy in internal power plays. In the parliament, lawmakers have raised questions about government preparations in tackling a possible outbreak. The parliament is also discussing a motion related to the coronavirus. Moreover, the political parties have posted some preventive measures against coronavirus in their social media. But there is as yet no public engagement.

“Political parties should constantly talk about safety measures with the people. But the top-down hierarchical nature of our parties hinders with this kind of public activism,” says Devraj Dahal, another political analyst.

“At the same time, there should be coordination among government agencies and ministries. For instance, the Ministry of Home Affairs is now issuing statements on coronavirus, which is not the right approach,” Dahal adds.

Political leaders and cadres can take to the streets, they can talk to the people, and they can give out the right information, which is not happening at the moment. A crisis can in fact be an opportunity for political parties to show their presence.

But it seems even people are unaware of the role of political parties during a crisis. They believe handling a crisis is solely the government’s duty. But it is worth asking: If parties can mobilize thousands of cadres during election campaigns, why can’t they do so to raise awareness against a potentially deadly disease?

Representatives of political parties reject the allegation that they have done nothing substantive on coronavirus. “We have already instructed party rank and file to launch door-to-door campaign to inform people about preventive measures,” says Nepali Congress Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma. He claims Congress was the first party in Nepal to prepare a coronavirus video and disseminate it over social media. Besides, Congress youth wing Nepal Tarun Dal is monitoring the market to check the artificial shortage of daily commodities.

Similarly, ruling NCP leaders say they have already issued a circular to their sister organizations and grassroots level cadres to help raise awareness. Party General Secretary Bishnu Poudel says they have instructed their cadres to go to every household with preventive measures against coronavirus. “They have been instructed to work in coordination with people’s representatives, civil society leaders and local media,” Poudel claims.

The Sajha Party has launched its own ‘Sajha Namaste Campaign’ urging people not to shake hands and to do a ‘Namaste’ instead. “We have prepared a video on corona incorporating the views of health experts and we are disseminating it through social media,” says the party’s Prakash Chandra Pariyar. Besides such messages on social media, the party, however, is yet to instruct its members to undertake a door-to-door campaign. But Pariyar claims Sajha fully understands the priority right now is “to inform people about preventive measures”.

Even though these parties claim to have deployed their cadres as well as their sister and youth wings against the virus, their workers are seldom seen in the field knocking on people’s doors.

If they are willing, the political parties can help in other ways as well. First, party cadres can identify any weakness on part of the government agencies and put pressure on them to correct them immediately. “Then, in case of an outbreak, they can coordinate with concerned agencies to provide medical care to the people,” according to Pokharel, the political analyst.

“Best of all would be for all the political parties to join hands to tackle the common challenge,” Pokharel says. Instead, in Nepal, the tendency is to go it alone to prove your loyalty to the people—even (or especially) in times of crisis.