This website creates for the purpose to sharing the information about the karnali region. Its also hope to source for the research and thesis writing for the student. If you wants to more thing from this website you can contact (mack.shahi@gmail.com) and you will get the direct support to reach the local level. And we focus on the tourist area and route for the safe side. We request to you please visit this site time and again with updating new information.
The Karnali Zone is the most poverty-stricken area of Nepal. The five districts that make up this zone -- Dolpa, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot and Mugu -- all come at the bottom of Nepal's district-wise human development index. The Karnali people suffer from widespread hunger, illiteracy, poor health, unemployment, and very low incomes.
Karnali is isolated from the mainstream of development. It is the only zone in Nepal which is not linked with the rest of the country by a road. According to the UN's Human Development Report, the Karnali Zone is the least developed area in Nepal with very low indicators of human development. It is characterized by a growing population, environmental degradation low productivity, annual disease epidemics and famines, a weak educational system negligible employment opportunities, and growing out-migration in search of work. Togetherthese represent the dire poverty suffered by the Karnali Zone's inhabitants.
Some development initiatives such as establishing the Karnali Technical School and an
agriculture research centre in the zonal capital Jumla have gone ahead . But the region stilllags way behind most of the rest of the country in terms of transport facilities, access totechnology, and industrialization. The whole of the Karnali Zone continues to depend on traditional technologies and there is no infrastructure for industrial development.
The completion date of the under-construction Surkhet to Jumla highway keeps on being delayed. At the current rate it will take more than 20 years for this 220 km long road to be completed. Air transport is a very important mode of transport but flights are unreliable and are often cancelled . The airports that are being built in Mugu and Kalikot are unfinished more than 20 years after they began to be built. A major hindrance for those travelling on foot is the lack of footbridges to cross the areas’ many rivers.
Radio is the most important source of news about the outside world for the Karnali people but many of them do not have a radio set. Although a television transmitter was installed in Jumla in 2002, regular transmission has yet to happen. Newspapers are not easily available and those that are available are usually well out of date before they reach the area. The telephone service is very limited and the postal service unreliable.
Food crises are common. A disease epidemic and famine claimed hundreds of lives in 1997 and 1998. One of the major causes of this has been the central government's inefficient system for distributing subsidised rice to the Karnali. Although elections have sent MPs from Karnali to sit in the national parliament, the Karnali still suffers from a lack of proper representation and access to policy making and central government. The central government is responsible for planning the area’s development, but has failed to properly carry out this task. The people of Karnali have yet to see real democracy. It is money, and the influence of friends and relatives that decides voters' choices. Anyway, once elected many of the representatives move their homes away from the Karnali either to a town in the Terai or to Kathmandu.
The legal system also has little to offer the local people. They have little trust in the official justice system and people from the northern Karnali tend to settle their disputes locally. The main problems are the very few lawyers who practise in Karnali, the courts being bogged down with unsettled verdicts, and the inadequacy of the few qualified lawyers.
Transparency is completely lacking in the way that government and non-government
organisations operate in Karnali. This is due to the officials' self-centredness, the lack of
public awareness about development issues, and the lack of any effective monitoring and evaluation. The corrupt behaviour of the people’s representatives and government
employees is a serious problem. Corruption and mismanagement are widely recognised as the factors most responsible for the delays in executing the long -standing incomplete infrastructure projects. Local government has been made largely ineffective by a host of factors. There is a lack of efficiency and accountability whilst favouritism, nepotism and corruption unduly influence decision making. The representatives lack the required knowledge and often pose as members of the elite rather than working to serve the masses. The system is also undermined by the absence of autonomy, and the lack of monitoring and evaluation.
The Karnali-based civil servants are not motivated to deliver services to the people and
hardly any of the government’s local development staff ever visit the villages. There is no clear system to manage, monitor and evaluate the delivery of public services in Karnali. The Karnali people are proud to be Nepali and point out that the Nepali language originated in their area . The Nepali language played a crucial role in the unification of Nepal. In spite of this they feel great bitterness that the central government in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu has always neglected them. This has fuelled a strong sense of regionalism.
The Karnali Zone has very little access to and participation in the services provided by
national and international organisations. Local citizens have struggled to carry out
development activities through their own initiatives; but these efforts have met with little
success due to a severe lack of resources.
Agriculture, animal husbandry, and cottage industries – all of which depend on local natural resources -- make up virtually all of Karnali’s economy. The traditional technology, the often obsolete means of production, the growing population, and the increasing attraction of modern lifestyles have all adversely affected the standard of living in Karnali.
Valuable medicinal and herbal plants such as yarchagumba, gucche mushroom,
panchaunle, and jatamashi are found in Karnali. But, this resource has not been properly exploited. They are often not collected, stored or marketed properly and little attention has been given to increasing their production.
The Karnali people have been deprived of access to a good relevant education. The difficult geographical terrain means that some students have to walk two hours a day to reach their nearest school. The teachers in government schools often remain absent from their posts.
Anyway the pressure of work at home prevents many students from attending classes
regularly. The main health problems in the Karnali are malnutrition, the lack of awareness about hygiene, moking and drinking (alcohol), and the neglect of women’s health. Health care provision is very poor with most facilities lacking medicines and doctors.
Women in Karnali are neglected and discriminated against from birth. Women are forced to stay in cowshed s or caves whilst they are menstruating and whilst delivering babies. Girls are often married off before they reach puberty. The root causes of this neglect are the superstitious traditional beliefs and parents' poverty and illiteracy. The locals are guided by conservative beliefs and believe whatever the local preachers say about the influence of the gods and evil spirits. These superstitious beliefs influence many aspects of everyday life.
The Karnali people are mostly ignorant about Nepal’s constitution and laws whilst the Karnali based government and non-government organisations fail to uphold and monitor whether or not local people's human rights are respected.
This is the one zone of Nepal which is totally covered by the hill. There are no facilities of transportation, proper education, health service, electricity, water and sanitation, etc. Most of the people are fully depend on the agriculture. In the karnali region lack of irrigation and fertilizer land there is not enough production get by the farmer. As a result they are bound to go India and demand to the government to deliver the rice for karnali people. There is always start famine that creates the problem for the nation to save the people from the die by the famine. People are too much hard working but they are not able to join to hand to mouth in all season. In this region famous for the natural resources but lack of transportation and collection centre it’s useless.
In the education sector only few people are studying higher level education. Most of the children are busy in the home work like care of livestock, care of newly born child, help to mother, etc. Besides that lack of income they are unable to get the higher education. There is no quality education and English medium colleges which creates the problem them to study higher level education. Now days there are establishes colleges but the student are not come to study because geographical difficulty. They can’t go to college in time which is far from the own home it takes day long time so its not possible to go and come. There is no science college for science student if you were got college you can’t get the practical equipment so only in theoretical matters would get. In this region difficult to get the educated people so all thing also going on as a formality way not for the quality and capacity.
Many people are die by the simple disease because there is no nursing home and health care center only health post which handled by the CMA, HA, and ANAMI so they are not knows about the disease and lack of equipment people are die by the simple disease. In 5 districts 5 district health offices in these offices also doctor less. Doctors are willing to sit there by the lack of facilities and proper available equipment. Still now people are believe in witch and religious matters.
Political leader are not responsible for development about the karnali region so this region always backward in terms of development. local political leaders are not able to hold the powerful position in the government as a result they are only demanding right of karnali people but not able to implementation it. Most of the political leaders also corrupt the budget in local level and they are not think about the karnali people they think about only own family.
In the karnali region there are so many project established for the purpose to reduce the unemployment, poverty, etc. But they are also work in like as government agencies. Many INGOs/NGOs are withdraws budget from the many institutions and government bodies but they are also limited with the personal development.
Karnali region rich for natural resources if government gives the priority for this region nation also can get the revenue from the karnali region. It’s also area for tourist we can promote them by the proper management of the historical places, Himalayas, lake, and national park.
