Cine and sporting superstars make for big headlines; grim statistics on poverty and deprivation seldom do. So the hoopla over footballer David Beckham's imminent arrival in Nepal as UNICEF's goodwill ambassador, even though ANFA, the national football governing body, is yet to confirm the visit. But another bit of news that recently trickled out of UNICEF's Nepal office was barely noticed. In a statement released on Thursday, UNICEF expressed its "serious concern" over the "future of millions of children in Nepal". These children from southern Tarai plains and the mountain districts in central and central-eastern parts of the country that were hardest hit by the Great Earthquake have been unable to go to their schools. After the earthquake and the recent unrest in Tarai, "in the last six months... schools have remained open for about half the number of days they were meant to be open," thereby affecting the education of 1.6 million children. Global experiences have shown, UNICEF further noted, that when children are out of school for an extended period of time, there is a risk that they may never come back and drop out of schooling altogether.But it's not just children who have been affected by the earthquake and the subsequent Indian blockade. Thousands of families in districts like Gorkha, Rasuwa and Sindhupalchowk that were the worst-hit by the earthquakes six months ago are still putting up in makeshift tents. The sudden dip in temperature in the last few days has added to their woes as they have nothing to keep themselves warm. To make matters worse, their tarpaulin tents leak water. Even without the Indian blockade Nepal had been struggling to get them timely help. The blockade and the resulting fuel shortage have made it impossible to get emergency food, medicine and clothes to these stranded families. If help does not get to them in the next few days we might have a full-blown humanitarian crisis at hand. For India to impose an economic blockade at such a critical time was cruel. But blockade or no blockade, the apathy of the Nepali state to its citizens in distress has been pathetic. The government had provided Rs 15,000 to each earthquake-affected family in immediate relief. Since then, little has been done to provide for and resettle up to 200,000 displaced families.
The ruling parties in the last couple of months were almost completely focused on new constitution, disturbances in Tarai and power deals. But now that we have a constitution and the new government is firmly in place, there can be no more excuse for further delay in vital rehab efforts. The least the government could do is arrange for sturdy tents that can keep the rain out and provide a little warmth to affected families. Arrangements must also quickly be made to get children back to school. If the fuel crisis makes that job hard, perhaps there can classes every other day instead of every day. But it's clear that things will get back to normal only when the strikes and the Indian blockade in the Tarai comes to a definite end. Unfortunately, the sense of urgency the unfolding humanitarian crisis warrants has been sorely missing, in Kathmandu as well as New Delhi.
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