By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, May 21: Until the time of writing this report, Kathmandu Valley has 12 active cases of COVID-19 and most of them have been people arriving from outside. This has caused people to suspect and fear ‘non-residents’ or so-called outsiders.
“No Kathmandu resident has been infected so far. All the valley’s confirmed cases have been people coming from outside,” said Astha. She requested to be identified only by her first name because she feared being branded a racist or elitist. “But this is not about racism or privilege,” she put forth her perspective. “Had the outsiders not been allowed to enter Kathmandu without proper testing, we would not have seen so many cases here.”
Similarly, on Monday evening, three men were seen walking down an alley in Swotha, near Patan Durbar Square, engrossed in their own conversation but using derogatory words about certain groups. When asked why, one of them plainly said, “Because they brought the coronavirus to us.”
The current crisis has created suspicion among people and communities and is fragmenting the society at a time when solidarity and unity are needed to fight the coronavirus.
This fear of supposed outsiders has started to take ethnic dimensions as well, according to Rupak Jaiswal. Jaiswal is originally from Saptari but was born and raised in Imadole, Lalitpur. He has not left the valley since last Dashain, so technically should not provoke any concern. Still, he said that he felt ethnically profiled.
“People have come to me and asked bluntly why I came to Kathmandu during the lockdown. The shopkeeper serves everyone normally but he asks me to wait outside the shop. And I have seen my neighbours whispering to each other to maintain proper social distance from my family,” he shared his experience, adding, “What pains me most is that they know that we have not gone outside [the valley]. Yet they think we may carry the coronavirus just because we are originally from a certain district.”
Along with social distancing, the virus seems to have brought social fragmentation to Kathmandu, he said.