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The Civil Aviation Authority has formed a committee to recommend possible actions against airliners charging passengers exorbitantly citing the Covid-19 pandemic and various restrictions on mobility.

The five-member committee, led by Director-General Rajan Pokharel, was formed to look into prevailing legal provisions to take action against such airlines as the law against profiteering and black marketing was found to lack teeth in such matters.

“After we receive a report from the committee, we can decide the course of action against airlines that are fleecing passengers,” says an official at the authority requesting anonymity.

Following the emergence of the second wave of Covid-19 infections in Nepal and India, international airlines have considerably reduced the frequency of flights to the region. With passengers competing for limited seats, the airlines have hiked fares on almost all routes, says Sudhir Upadhyaya, general secretary at Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents.

Although prevailing laws outlaw profiteering on domestic routes, they can’t be used against international airlines, the official says, adding that the committee may recommend new laws to deal with the issue. International flights tickets are booked on the concerned airlines’ global ticketing system—this means passengers from all over the world compete for a seat on the plane.

According to passengers and ticketing agents, a return ticket to Australia could be bought for around Rs 80,000 until a few months ago. But the fare has now gone up to over Rs 120,000. Fares have also been increased for tickets to the Gulf, US, and Europe. Migrant workers spend more than a month of their salary to buy a ticket home or return to work. Students going abroad have also been affected as they face a tight deadline to join their universities.

Says Pokharel, “As of now, we don’t have concrete laws against profiteering in the airline business.”

The issue of exorbitant ticket prices has been a topic of discussion among officials from CAAN, the city police, and even the Ministry of Home Affairs. All the agencies have received complaints about expensive international flight tickets. “We will write to the Home Ministry on the committee’s recommendations when we finalize the report,” says Pokharel. 

Twenty-three people have so far filed complaints against various airlines for overcharging. The committee, which will also look at the complaints, has been busy discussing the issue with airline operators, ticketing agents, experts, and foreign employment recruitment agencies.

Critics argue that it might be too late until the committee prepares its recommendations and new laws are formulated. Until then,  Nepali passengers will have to continue shelling out a lot of money for international travel.

Twenty years ago, home science was an optional subject in the SLC syllabus. In my all-girls school, however, it was compulsory. We were taught to cook, sew petticoats and baby dresses, and knit socks and sweaters. Some of us wanted to study accounts while others wished for computer classes. But our principal insisted on home science because [in the future, when you were married and had children] “would you rush to the tailors’ and ask her to sew on a loose button on your husband’s shirt as he got ready for work?”

I’m married to a man who irons our clothes, cleans the bathroom and peels water-soaked almonds for breakfast in the morning and does many other chores that are traditionally and perhaps still considered a ‘woman’s job’. I’ve been berated by quite a few relatives for ‘allowing’ my husband to do these things around the house. I’ve also explicitly been told I’m not a ‘good’ wife. My house-help suggests that maybe she or I should set the table for lunch instead of dai. She rushes with the placemats if he hasn’t gotten around to it already. Men shouldn’t do these things, she tells me.

“The moment you are born, you are slotted into these boxes that determine what you can and can’t do, and how you should and shouldn’t be based on your gender. Our social setting and programming promote disparity from very early on,” says human rights activist Sabitra Dhakal.  

And indeed, women have always been conditioned to be a certain way and to live their lives in accordance to someone else’s—as a daughter, a wife, and a mother. Their roles in relation to others take precedence over who they are as individuals. Dhakal says women have a society-assigned identity. Society, she says, has long determined what is and isn’t accepted of women and a slight deviation is enough to warrant name calling and slut shaming.

Take for instance all the uproar over Priyanka Karki’s Instagram post where she is seen happily flaunting her baby bump. From calling her photos obscene to blaming her for polluting young minds, there’s no line that’s not been crossed. Thankfully, and more power to her, the actor says none of it has affected her. But what right did we have to violate her personal space in the first place? In a society where the neighbors will openly ask a newly-married couple when they are planning to have a baby, why is it unacceptable for a woman to want to document the various stages of it?

Durga Karki, advocate and author of the book Kumari Prasnaharu, says women have to face multiple barriers and limitations in life. The same conditions, she adds, don’t extend to men. Our culture today that controls, questions and ridicules women at every turn, is a result of years of unfairness and dominance. It’s going to take a lot of work, on a national level, for this to change, she adds.

The discourse on social media, on equality and empowerment, are important but it has to lead to actual laws and rights in favor of women if we are to ever hope for our societal structure to change. Conversations, though important, can only do so much, says Karki who believes our political climate and space also need to be welcoming of women in power. The government should lead by example and be liberal in its ideology of women and their rights.

But our society’s attitude towards women boils down to lack of respect and the unwillingness to give women any personal space, says journalist Anjali Subedi. This society, she says, also has a strict code of conduct for women and anything outside of it is unfathomable and unacceptable.

Worse, women aren’t women’s biggest cheerleaders. It’s the lack of a circle of support that makes it difficult for women to break free from the hegemony of men. Dhakal adds many are often quick to make statements like “I’m not that kind of a woman” while talking about themselves, which undermines women in general.

Rumi Rajbhandari, founder of Astitwa, a non-profit that works to rehabilitate victims of burn violence, says strong and independent women are still not appreciated. It can’t stomach a Priyanka Karki. It prefers its women meek and subservient. Anything else is an anomaly that needs to be put in place. This, she adds, is because the basis of a patriarchal society is oppression and women who don’t allow for it—who speak up, who go against the rules—are seen as threats.

Advocate Grishma Bista says women need to be more vocal and express themselves, unburdened by what the society might think or say. A mind-your-own-business attitude is what women need to have, she says. However, that’s easier said than done.

Rajbhandari says it’s only possible if and when women get strong family support. The problem right now, says Rajbhandari, is that women are told to keep quiet, let things go and not to ascertain their rights in order to maintain peace at home. The cost of this compromise is often women’s mental wellbeing, dignity and sense of self. But, let’s be honest here, when have we ever cared?  

“My mother always blames me for any misunderstanding between me and my husband. She tells me I must have done something wrong,” says Rajbhandari. This kind of mindset that puts men on a pedestal is what gives them more power and makes women vulnerable to all kinds of hardships and violence—physical, mental, and emotional.

My parents have been my biggest support system and I find that it gives me the confidence to stand up for myself. The knowledge that I’m not alone, that I might be contradicted in private but will be vehemently supported in public empowers me more than anything else. For a woman to grow and thrive, I believe, there must be people rallying behind her no matter what.

“If not family, then the support could come in the form of other women. A major setback in our society is that all too often women drag women down. I call them the gatekeepers of patriarchy. That needs to stop,” concludes Dhakal. 

While Nepalis going for work abroad fall into the 18 to 40-year-old category, most of them are in their prime in terms of age. All workers who go abroad need to go through a mandatory health screening before their departure. They also need to go through a health check after reaching the destination country.

Despite this, the number of Nepalis losing their lives abroad has more than doubled in the past year alone. Just this week the mortal remains of three workers and the bodies of 24 others were repatriated from Malaysia.                                                  

According to the Foreign Employment Board, 1,242 people lost their lives working abroad in the fiscal year 2020/21. This means that during the year, three Nepalis died every day while working abroad. According to the board, 674 people had died in the previous year. In the past 13 years, 9,424 Nepalis have died working abroad.

The figures represent the tip of an iceberg, as the board does not maintain records on Nepalis who die while working without a permit. According to anecdotal evidence, on average two undocumented workers die every day.

In most cases, the cause of death is never ascertained as the body is sent without a proper postmortem. Workers say that most deaths are attributed to heart attack, suicide, road accident, illness, and workplace accidents.

Labor expert Ganesh Gurung says it is the responsibility of the state to make sure that proper post mortems are carried out to ascertain the cause of death.

“That the death rate among healthy workers is high means that we need to ascertain the risk carefully,” says Bhattarai, another labor expert.

Four years ago, after the Supreme Court ordered the government to find out why Nepalis were dying in numbers abroad, the government had formed a committee to look into the issue. However, the committee couldn’t come up with a clear conclusion.

Bhattarai, says that workers are also to blame for some of the deaths abroad. He says that there is a growing tendency among workers to refuse to take part in orientation related to their work, which might be precarious at times.

Recruiting agents want workers to leave as soon as possible after they secure a job for them. The workers are also in a hurry and don’t get adequate information about the climate, lifestyle, and laws of the destination country.

Some Nepalis die in their sleep due to the tendency to work in temperatures over 55 degrees during the day and sleep in the cold of an AC at night.

According to Bhattarai, another cause of death is stress. "Family members in Nepal pressure the workers to send money home," he says. "The pressure to make money has led to an increase in the number of deaths due to poor health care."

Labor experts say that the onus is on the government to sign bilateral agreements with host countries to ensure the safety of workers. "Concrete steps about the problem can only be taken at the highest level of government," said Bhattarai. "The embassy alone can’t do much."

The board, meanwhile, says it plans to teach workers about workplace safety, stress management, and health security before they depart for work.

Deputy Secretary Deenbandhu Subedi, says that training will be organized from this fiscal year. But experts question the effectiveness of such training without high-level bilateral agreements between the government and the host country.

Around mid-May this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States eased its mask-wearing guidelines. Those who were fully vaccinated didn’t have to wear masks anymore when in company of other fully-vaccinated people. Most Nepalis, living in Nepal, took off their masks after receiving the second dose of vaccine because “America said you could”.

But medical and public health experts ApEx spoke to unanimously insist that Nepalis must wear masks and wear them properly—not under the chin, below the nose, or dangling by their ear—at least until 70 percent of the population is vaccinated. Currently, the rate stands at less than four and nine percent for double and single dose vaccination respectively. Wearing a mask, thus, isn’t an option. It’s mandatory.

What we also need to understand is that America, where masks aren’t compulsory in outdoor settings, has high vaccination rates and their vaccines have higher efficacy—Pfizer (95 percent) and Moderna (94.1 percent)—than the ones we have received in Nepal (Covishield at 70 percent, VeroCell at 50 to 79 percent and Johnson & Johnson at 66.3 percent).

Dr Binjwala Shrestha of the Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), says we can’t be careless because Covid-19 cases are on the rise. The figures of daily new infections we hear of are a result of undertesting and underreporting. The data also doesn’t include the results of rapid antigen tests, many of which are positive. The actual figure is much higher, says Dr Shrestha, and you never know who is infected. Masks, she adds, remain the first-line of defense against this deadly virus.

The coronavirus, according to dental surgeon Dr Neil Pande, is 600 times smaller than the width of a hair strand, which makes it highly transmissible. Dr Pande, from the start of the pandemic, has been trying to raise awareness on the importance of proper masking and ventilation to control the spread. Unfortunately, no one is listening and people, he says, are appallingly careless, more so now that the lockdown has been eased and gatherings and celebrations seem to be in full swing.

“The most basic thing we can do is wear a mask, even if and especially if you are vaccinated because you could still be transmitting the virus,” says Dr Pande. Many people seem to have the very concept of vaccine wrong. They think being vaccinated means you are shielded against the virus. But the virus can enter your system and you can infect other people. What it won’t be able to do is replicate and lead to disease and its potential complications. 

Vaccination no excuse

But that doesn’t mean vaccinated people are safe. Not yet, say experts. Dr Bidesh Bista, pulmonologist, Civil Service Hospital of Nepal, says there have been cases of vaccinated individuals getting infected and developing pneumonia. The common perception that if you have been vaccinated, you won’t have severe complications even if you are infected isn’t necessarily true. There have been many cases, worldwide, of people dying of covid complications even after receiving both the vaccine doses.

Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson, Ministry of Health and Population, says we can break the chain of infection and be safe only if everybody takes the required precautions. Nepalis, he says, seem to be in a hurry to take off their masks when in fact, now, more than ever, is when everyone needs to be vigilant.

“People look at what’s happening in America, they saw packed Euro Cup stadiums and think they are safe here as well, that the coronavirus threat has been mitigated. That’s not true,” says Dr Adhikari. Our circumstances, he says, are different. We have our own conditions and limitations and our actions should reflect that.

Dr Navindra Raj Bista, assistant professor, Anesthesia and Critical Care, TUTH agrees with Dr Adhikari and adds that our social culture puts us at grave risk. As horrifying as it may sound, our society has never been keen on hygiene. Regular hand washing isn’t an ingrained habit and consciously doing so takes effort—that not a lot of people are inclined to make. Spitting on the sidewalk from steps of stores and while walking and on the road out of buses and cars is also common. The condition of our public transport too ensures close contact among people, making virus transmission easy and likely.

With so much stacked against us, it would be a sin not to do the least we can to keep ourselves safe. Dr Shrestha believes we are committing a social crime of sorts every time we choose to go out without a mask or lower it because “our ears hurt”. Various studies have shown that masks can reduce the risk of infection by 95 percent (when everyone is masked and practicing social distancing measures). 

‘Vaccines are here’

On the streets of Pulchowk and Sanepa in Lalitpur, ApEx questioned several people who weren’t wearing a mask. With mocking smiles and often rolling their eyes, they asked why they should wear one when “the vaccines are already here”. Other responses were “Are masks of any use?”, “You are wearing one, why should I?”, and “We don’t think we have to anymore.”

Some, like Dr Shrestha said, claimed their ears hurt and that masks were suffocating. Others said they simply didn’t feel like wearing one. The people questioned had either not received the second dose of the vaccine or hadn’t been vaccinated at all. When requested for a quick photo, accompanied by the whipping out of a cell phone, every one of them pulled up their masks or fished one out of their pockets.

It basically boils down to people’s attitude, says Dr Shrestha. The ones who are vaccinated think they are safe and are reckless. The fact that they could still transmit the virus and endanger the lives of those around them isn’t of much concern to them. Lack of awareness isn’t the problem here. Rather, it’s the absence of integrity and accountability. Educated people and those belonging to the upper echelons of the society too have a couldn’t-care-less mindset.

Even those who are wearing masks are doing it all wrong. From loosely fitted masks and just covering the mouth to using disposable masks for days and stuffing them in our pockets, we simply aren’t taking it as seriously as we ought to.

Dr Pande stresses the need to wear a properly fitted mask—one that feels snug around the chin and nose, to ensure it is clean, and not to pull it down to the chin and then back up again. Dr Adhikari says a lot of people are wearing the same surgical mask for days on end when a disposable mask should only be worn for four to five hours and then replaced. Dr Bista adds the focus should be on wearing a mask the right way.

Imminent third wave

Experts agree that the best option is a tightly fitted surgical mask but a three-layered cloth mask works as well. N95 masks, they say, are good but not necessary and neither is doubling up if your mask fits well.

“The whole idea of wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask is so that air doesn’t leak out and you aren’t taking in unfiltered air,” says Dr Bista. A properly worn mask, he adds, won’t fog your glasses either. If that’s been happening then you aren’t putting the mask on correctly. Dr Pande, on the other hand, shares a trick to check if your mask is protective as it should be: Simply hold it up to sunlight. If light filters through, the mask isn’t good enough.

Experts believe the pre-pandemic lifestyle we seem to be following now makes a third wave imminent in Nepal. We have all witnessed the medical catastrophe Covid-19 can bring about—the second wave had us running from hospital to hospital in search of an ICU bed and buying oxygen cylinders in the black market—and the scenario is likely to repeat unless we change our ways. A good place to start would be wearing a mask and doing so properly, irrespective of our vaccination status.