It’s June 21, 2024, and you’re reading Off the Record.
I’m Pranaya Rana and in this newsletter, we’ll stop, take a deep breath, and dive into one singular issue that defined the past week.
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Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. We have a very special newsletter for you this week. Today, we have Alina Pandey, a researcher at Pad2Go Nepal and an undergraduate law student, presenting the first guest post in this newsletter. She provides an abridged history of the queer movement in Nepal and the Nepal government’s plans to pursue ‘pink tourism’. Scroll down to the deep dive if you’d like to get right into that and if you’d like to contribute deep dives to this newsletter, please do not hesitate to shoot me an email!
But first, a quick shoutout to my new paid supporters — Peter C Wing and Naresh Koirala. A very heartfelt thank you to both of you for supporting me and my work.
Now without further ado, let’s take a look at what’s been making the news.
NGO-sponsored breakfast irks parliamentarians
On Sunday morning, the federal Parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance Committee was supposed to discuss planned amendments to the existing civil code. However, when Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane arrived at the meeting, he discovered a much more lavish breakfast spread than the usual tea and biscuits. Upon asking, Lamichhane was informed that the National Forum for Parliamentarians on Population and Development, a non-governmental organization (NGO), had provided the breakfast. Upset that an NGO was so closely involved in the law-making process, Lamichhane left and the meeting was adjourned.
This incident has now sparked a debate among parliamentarians and civil society about the role of NGOs in the law-making process and whether they should be allowed to attend such consultations and influence the laws and policies that will be enacted. As I’m sure Home Minister Lamichhane is certainly aware, NGOs have long been closely affiliated with policy-making in Nepal, for good or for bad. This collaboration has been in place since the early 90s when Nepal transitioned back to a multi-party democracy from an authoritarian monarchy. Local and international NGOs, UN agencies, and donor countries have assisted Nepal’s policy-making and even its constitution writing by offering expert input, public surveys, and sponsored trips to other countries to study their laws and policies. So Sunday’s incident was nothing out of the ordinary; in fact, it’s been routine for a long time now, especially since the peace process began in 2006.
However, there is a deep-seated suspicion among the Nepali public when it comes to NGOs. A significant proportion of the population believes that NGOs are only interested in getting more grants and enriching employees rather than actually engaging in social, cultural, and political change. There’s some truth to this perception. NGO jobs often pay significantly better than any other kind of private sector job of the same level. It doesn’t help when NGOs organize meetings, discussions, and consultations in fancy hotels in the Capital, spending millions of rupees that could’ve been utilized otherwise. The public’s suspicion is further abetted by the fact that most NGO chiefs seem to ride around in very fancy vehicles that cost millions and have lifestyles akin to that of the rich and famous.
This is not to say that NGOs are all bad. Many NGOs do great work on the ground, affecting behavioral change and providing opportunities to the marginalized. They’ve also been crucial in policy-making as most lawmakers do not have access to resources that would help them make informed decisions. NGOs and donors provide these resources so lawmakers can do their jobs better. In fact, one could argue that NGOs have been instrumental in many of Nepal’s recent achievements, like reducing infant and maternal mortality, promoting girls’ education, and even protecting Nepal’s community forests. Many of the government’s national action plans for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals are supported by I/NGOs, donors, and UN agencies; without their involvement, these goals would be nigh impossible to achieve.
There is, however, certainly debate necessary on the roles and responsibilities of NGOs. Not all of them are doing good work and not all of them are enriching themselves. Labeling all NGOs as donor-funded leeches who only seek to advance the agendas of their donors would be a mistake, as would blindly accepting all NGOs as good samaritans who only work for the good of others. There is a fine line to tread here, as any crackdown on NGOs could be seen as an attempt to stifle civil space so it is necessary to draft explicit guidelines and policies that would guide how and where NGOs function. Perhaps it would also be a good idea to empower the Social Welfare Council, the government body that oversees NGOs, with actual relevant leadership rather than a political appointee who will do what the party that appointed them asks them to.
In Sunday’s case, Lamichhane left the meeting in a huff but perhaps it would be better if he worked with Parliament and his ministry to draft rules and guidelines on how NGOs can engage with parliamentarians. It would be a mistake to freeze out all NGOs from parliamentary processes but it would help to have proper guidelines.
Nepal crashes out of the World Cup
On June 10, disgraced cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane arrived in the West Indies to join the Nepal national cricket team for its final two matches in the group stages against South Africa and Bangladesh. Lamichhane, who was accused of rape and recently acquitted by the Patan High Court, had been denied a visa by the United States. He was thus unable to play in any of Nepal’s games in the US, but he was inducted into the squad at the last moment to help out in the West Indies. For context, the United States and the West Indies are jointly hosting the 2024 T20 Cricket World Cup. And for further context, the West Indies is not one country but a confederation of 13 Caribbean island nations.
Lamichhane’s inclusion left a sour taste for many Nepali cricket fans, myself included, as his acquittal is still seen as a miscarriage of justice. Nevertheless, his supporters and the Cricket Association of Nepal felt that he was essential to the team and his inclusion would help Nepal win more games. They were wrong. Nepal won no games, with or without Lamichhane, and crashed out of the World Cup fairly early. The closest game was against South Africa, where Nepal lost by just 1 run. Bangladesh, however, handily defeated Nepal by 21 runs.
The matches clearly show that the Nepali team needs more training and experience. Our players bowl well but their fielding and batting leave a lot to be desired, especially the latter. I don’t know whether it is pressure or inexperience but our top fielders drop easy catches and our top batsmen crash out with just a handful of runs. And all this widespread rhetoric about how Nepal the scrappy underdog held its own against major teams is starting to feel a bit condescending. Nepal didn’t compete at the World Cup out of pity. The team qualified and deserved a spot. Their performance should be judged fairly and objectively without infantilizing them. Certainly, Nepal is a very young team and this is only our second World Cup, but it was obvious that the players were outclassed. Instead of being so condescending, cricket associations could invite Nepal to train and play with them. Give these boys experience and they will perform better.
Teenager raped in menstrual shed
Chhaupadi has been a blight on Nepal’s social landscape for decades now, and despite attempts by the government and NGOs to eradicate this evil practice, it continues in numerous places across Nepal’s Far West. This Monday, reports emerged from Achham that a 16-year-old teenager had been raped while she was out in a chhaupadi hut. She was reportedly so traumatized that she passed out for 12 hours and was unable to speak. Locals reportedly believed she was suffering from epilepsy and had refused to get close to her thinking that they might catch the disease.
This incident is once again horrifying. For those who are unaware, chhaupadi is the traditional practice of banishing women who are on their periods to makeshift huts outside of the family home. The women are expected to stay there for the entirety of their period, cooking and cleaning on their own. This is an extreme form of ostracization but minor forms, like not allowing women in the kitchen or the general living area, are still practiced in cities like Kathmandu, even among the ‘educated’. Chhaupadi has led to numerous deaths over the years — from snake bites, exposure, suffocation. Nepali outlawed chhaupadi in 2005 and in 2017, after not seeing any changes, made it a crime to send any women to a chhaupadi hut. Community actions have followed, with young newly elected women representatives leading the charge. Shristi Regmi, who was 24 when she was elected as deputy mayor of Budinanda Municipality in Bajura district, had led efforts to demolish chhaupadi huts and eradicate the practice at the roots.
Yet, old habits die hard and chhaupadi continues to persist in the hills of the Far West. I don’t know what it will take to root out this evil. Top-down legal measures have been tried, as have bottom-up community-led initiatives. But little seems to change.
Krishna Man Pradhan, accused of sexual misconduct, recommended to Election Commission
On Sunday, the Constitutional Council recommended Krishna Man Pradhan, former executive director of the Nepal Law Society, as a member of the Election Commission. The only problem is that Pradhan was accused of sexual misconduct in 2022. The case went to court where an ‘agreement’ was reached between Pradhan and the plaintiff. The issue here is that the constitution states that any commissioners be of ‘high moral character’ and someone accused of sexual misconduct certainly doesn’t fit that bill. Pradhan wasn’t even acquitted by the court but reached an ‘agreement’, leaving room for suspicion regarding his guilt.
Pradhan will have to undergo a parliamentary hearing before he is confirmed as a commissioner and the Parliamentary Hearing Committee has already called for complaints from the public regarding Pradhan’s recommendation. No doubt some complaints will bring up his court case and the eventual agreement. However, two-thirds of the 14-member Parliamentary Hearing Committee will have to reject his nomination to disqualify him, and that’s a pretty tall order considering that the committee has nine members from the ruling coalition.
After the very public acquittal in rape cases involving popular actor Paul Shah and popular cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, it feels like fighting a losing battle to decry the appointment of problematic people to high positions. Rape culture is alive and well in Nepal.
On that depressing note, let’s move to the deep dive, written this week by Alina Pandey.
The deep dive: Can Nepal be the next big LGBTQ+ destination?
Image: ANI
by Alina Pandey
It’s June – pride month! It is a time for parades and to celebrate love and self-expression. On June 8, three weeks ago, the queer community in Nepal held its own pride parade, as it does every year. This year too, the parade was vibrant, full of life and love, showcasing powerful solidarity. The celebrations demonstrated a yearning to be seen, a unique sense of emotions and the changing times.
Globally, Nepal is seen as a beacon for LGBTQ+ rights in Asia. Nepal ranks 29th on the LGBTQ equality index, primarily due to some progressive legislation and strong judicial stances. However, while Nepal scored 83 out of 100 on the legal index, it only scored 61 on the public opinion index showing that legal measures have not translated into societal acceptance. But even this took years of struggle and the queer community had to put up a great fight to stand where we are today.
In 2007, the Supreme Court, in Sunil Babu Pant v. Government of Nepal, recognized LGBTI persons as equal citizens and held that the state was responsible for providing identity documents that reflected an individual’s self-declared gender identity. Going even further, the Supreme Court stated clearly that “gender non-conformity and same-sex orientation were not results of mental perversions or emotional or psychological disorders.” The Court ordered the government to legally recognize a ‘third gender’ category and form a committee to study the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
Following this landmark decision, the government of Pushpa Kamal Dahal Nepal introduced its first implementation measure in the 2008 federal budget, which stated: “The state will accord special priority to solve the core problems of Nepali people relating to sexual and gender minorities…” This marked the first time any Nepali government had mentioned the umbrella term ‘sexual and gender minorities’ in an official context.
Following much discourse and advocacy, Bishnu Adhikari, in 2008, became the first Nepali citizen to gain official legal recognition as ‘third gender’ on his citizenship card. Then, in 2010, the Election Commission added the ‘third gender’ option to voter rolls, marking the start of actual inclusion measures by the government. The most sweeping implementation of the third gender category in Nepal was introducing a third gender option on the 2011 federal census, making Nepal the world's first national census to include a third gender category.
After lengthy deliberations, the new Constitution of 2015 included several articles like Article 12, which allows citizens to choose their gender identity (male, female or other) on their official documents; Article 18, which specifically prohibits discrimination against gender and sexual minorities and pledges to create “special provisions by law for the protection, empowerment or development…of gender and sexual minorities”; and Article 42, which includes gender and sexual minorities among the groups who will receive inclusion provisions to participate in state bodies. Since then, the government has also tried to incorporate gender minorities by implementing information about sexual and gender diversity in the grades 7-9 curriculum, making Nepal the second Asian country to do so.
While these were commendable broad legislative measures, they have yet to translate into concrete action at the level of implementation. In 2015, a committee of experts formed to study the feasibility of same-sex marriage recommended that the government introduce and amend laws to legalize same-sex marriage. However, despite this recognition and despite being guaranteed equality before the law by the constitution, the new Civil Code, promulgated in 2017, still recognizes marriage as “a permanent, inviolable and holy social and legal bond…between a man and a woman.” It was only last year, in June, that the Supreme Court once again directed the government to establish an “interim registry of same-sex marriage” as a transitional mechanism while Parliament mulled over changes in law. It took almost another year for this decision to be implemented. Earlier this year, in April, the Home Ministry finally issued a circular ordering all government bodies to begin registering same-sex marriages.
Socially, Nepal remains deeply patriarchal and conservative. Legislative changes and judicial fiats have not translated into changes in societal attitudes. Many communities, especially outside of the urban centers, remain deeply homophobic, forcing many LGBTQ+ individuals to flee their homes for the cities. Even in cities like Kathmandu, finding education, residence, and employment can still be difficult. The queer community continues to face persistent harassment and physical attacks, even amounting to murder. Nepal's rape laws, as outlined in the 2017 Criminal Code, still defines rape as a forceful act committed by a man against a woman, disregarding the experiences of queer individuals and cisgender males. Queer individuals also face much more harassment and cyberbullying on the internet. According to a 2023 UN Women survey of 1,181 individuals, four out of five LGBTQ+ respondents said that they had suffered from at least one form of violence. The same report concluded that “the main driver of violence against LGBTIQ+ communities was a patriarchal, heteronormative system.”
In the years since the 2007 Supreme Court decision, there have also been changes in the broader LGBTQ+ community. While older activists like Sunil Babu Pant advocated for a third gender category, many younger queer activists reject this label. Transwomen are women and transmen are men, they argue, not a separate ‘third gender’. “Transgender and intersex are proper categories. ‘Other’ as a gender category does not make sense,” a transgender individual told The Record in 2018. In February 2022, the Supreme Court, in Rukshana Kapali v. Election Commission et al., decided that a transwoman's gender identity is ‘woman’, not third gender. Gay and lesbian individuals too feel slighted when they are lumped into the third gender category when they identify as cisgender men and women. Many more advocacy groups have taken root since the early days of Blue Diamond Society in the 2000s. These groups represent – and advocate for – the diversity within the queer community.
Amidst this complex and constantly evolving context, the Nepal government and various non-governmental organizations have decided to explore the possibility of turning Nepal into a ‘queer-friendly destination’ to attract high-spending LGBTQ+ individuals while also promoting inclusivity within the tourism sector. Last year, Nepal Tourism Board and UNDP Nepal provided a 35-day trekking guide training for 25 queer individuals. And earlier in April, Mayako Pahichan Nepal, in collaboration with the Nepal Tourism Board, organized a ‘Rainbow Tourism Conference’. Nepal ranks 44th among 203 countries and territories in the 2023 LGBTQ+ Travel Safety Index. It ranked first in Asia, followed by Taiwan at 48, India at 51, and Thailand at 62. So Nepal appears to be well-positioned to welcome queer tourists but much remains to be done.
Turning Nepal into a queer-friendly destination has to begin with the social and economic inclusion of the local queer community. It would be hypocritical to promote Nepal as a queer-friendly space for tourists when Nepali LGBTQ+ individuals are not wholly accepted, discriminated against, harassed, and attacked. While queer tourists may feel safe and welcomed during their stay here, locals too deserve to feel a sense of safety and acknowledgment. In any case, Nepal’s ‘pinkwashing’ plans will certainly backfire in the face of opposition from queer groups themselves.
The question we should be asking is: what has Nepal's government done to celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ community? Thailand recently legalized same-sex marriage and introduced a Pink Plus economy package that seeks to invite queer individuals from across the world to “wed, live, play, innovate, plan a family and retire in the country”. Successive Nepali governments, on the other hand, have done the bare minimum to protect the queer community in Nepal and provide them with equal rights. It took over 16 years for Nepal to seriously consider same-sex marriage and that too only because of judicial fiat, not because of the government’s desire to support queer Nepalis. Nepal cannot take credit for laws, actions, and policies that were achieved by activists fighting tooth and nail. Ensure true equality for the LGBTQ+ community at home before inviting tourists to partake.
That’s all for this week. I will be back next Friday, in your emails, for the next edition of Off the Record.
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