Nepal and Kathmandu
Behind their facade of rugged cheerfulness and straight-backed self-respect, the people of Nepal are some of the poorest in the world. Their per capita income in 2006 averaged a mere US$ 330 p.a., less than one US$ a day, way below the United Nations 'poverty line.'
The population of 23 million will double by 2030, yet the primary industries of agriculture and forestry, which support 80% of the people, cannot keep pace with demand. The 'food deficit' is widening yearly.
The incidence of disease is appallingly high, life expectancy depressingly low. Nepal is one of the few countries in the world where men (55) are expected to outlive women (54), a statistic which reflects the secondary status of women. Only 19% of women are literate, compared to 54% men. Women eat last in the family home.
The Nepali economy
is stagnating, leadership is self-serving and resources misdirected.
Though foreign experts and aid abound, their effectiveness is muted.
Some improvements in child mortality and adult literacy have alleviated
some symptoms, but 'poverty' remains the biggest problem and casts a
giant shadow over Nepal's spectacular beauty.
Poverty is at its most insidious in the rural areas. In an age of
tourism and TV (though only 5 sets per '000 pop. for the locals), it is
little wonder the
people are shifting to the major towns and cities.
Kathmandu (pop.
700,000) is the political, economic, cultural and spiritual
capital of Nepal and it is the belief of any Nepali that if they want to
get
ahead that is where they must be.
Kathmandu, and its surrounding fertile Valley, is constantly growing as
the 'hill people' flood in to find their fortune. One and a half million
people
now cram the Valley and its urban sprawls and help make Kathmandu a most
polluted of cities.
Beggars and hawkers, tempo drivers and factory workers, a swirling mass
of humanity using every kind of vehicle known to man, swarm through the
capital, through its narrow, twisting, teeming alleys and streets,
through a haze of smog.
Life is cheap and life is tough and abandoned children and children
seeking salvation from rural deprivation are left to fend for themselves
on the streets of one of the world's poorest cities.
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Map of Nepal Nepal
Facts |