Political and social dimension of COVID-19 in Nepal

By: Rajan Ghimire

Roll No.: 1
MSW 1st semester

The current global pandemic, Covid-19 (caused by corona virus) is not only a health problem anymore. It
is incurring a huge impact economically, socially and politically. Nepal's ill preparations towards it are
gradually coming to surface as the number of Covid-19 patients increases. Two months have already
passed since the Corona virus first emerged in China. But Nepal's government didn't take it seriously and
were very slow to act. The lack of testing kits soon after the second case was detected, is a glaring
example of how ill prepared government was and under equipped health system is. Following the
second case detection in Nepal, the government signed a contract with Omni Group, to purchase testing
kits and other medical supplies. But the agreement was extremely criticized by the media and public
over the standard of testing kits and buying kits at a very high rate.

Then the government handed over the responsibility of purchasing medical supplies to Army which also
didn't go well among the public. The government was criticized for its incompetency and
unaccountability for not being able to get the Covid-19 medicinal supplies on its own. Yet, the Army is
still in halfway of medicine buying process though it has been already a month nation has gone into a
lockdown. The government has not considered the severity of pandemic well and acted accordingly.
Instead of focusing in management of health crisis, the government is busy in power struggle, it passed
an ordinance which facilitates splitting of party which is currently leading the government.

The public health system is bearing the brunt from lack of testing kits, PPE and other medicinal supplies.
The slow testing process is testimony to this. Apart from this, the livelihood of general public is also
considerably affected. The daily wage earners are returning back to their home on foot after being
jobless and having nothing to eat due to the lockdown. The government had distributed food packages
as a relief to daily wage earners but in many places it was reported to be of low quality
(kathmandupost.com). Though a massive number of people were returning home on foot, government
advised them to stay where they are and assured to be provided with food. Following a huge public
disapproval of this public movement of low wage workers, to some extent buses started sending
stranded people to their homes (setopati.com).

While we talking about positive side, government established one door relief fund and through it
collecting funds and distributing to local authorities. Government also requested to individuals and
organization to act as volunteer to fight against COVID-19. There are many individual political leaders
who offered their salary to relief fund, it motivates others to help whatever they can.

Government trying to implement lockdown as effective as they can. It helps to reduce virus
transformation. They also tracing those who came from abroad to check if they are infected or not.
Government build temporary treatment facility to those who are infected of COVID-19. With the limited
resources, government trying to fight against this pandemic which indicate positive sides.
Covid-crisis has brought various problems at the same time it has come with some merits as well. People
are locked in their homes and practicing physical distancing which has been an opportunity to promote
social intimacy and strengthen family bonds. In a normal time people are always busy with their
everyday lives leaving them with little time to give their family. Nowadays, people are getting time to
redefine their relationships doing new things, exploring creativity, hobbies, spending more time with
children. People started understanding values of family, friends and community more closely. While
staying at home many of us learning new stuffs ie. Cooking, gardening and many more. It also let us
know more about our relatives, people started to explore more of them and talking with them
frequently which create good bonding between each other.

Many individuals directly or indirectly engaging to fight this pandemic. While maintaining physical
distancing, they started using social medias as a primary medium. Many of them started online yoga
classes, mental health related classes and awareness related classes which help individuals to get out of
stress and move on.

While staying at home, we are learning social behavior and cultural practices as well. Because of the
globalization and industrialization our society become individualistic so we almost forgot many cultural
practices. Now we are spending more time with family we learning many things from our parents,
grandparents. While staying together, they are sharing their experiences and how they grow up which
teach us how to balance our life socially and professionally.

To conclude, there are many political and social problems and challenges created by this pandemic at
the same time it teaches us to prepared ourselves for every difficult situation.

References

https://www.setopati.com/social/204220

https://kathmandupost.com/province-no-5/2020/04/22/quality-control-office-verifies-foodstuff-
distributed-as-relief-in-ramgram-were-of-substandard-quality