Sabita Gyawali  

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit most of the countries, including Nepal. However, it has disproportionately affected the most marginalised sections of society in a multidimensional way. Such impacts have long-term implications for socio-economic development. Isolated emergency response may be good to address the immediate needs. But it is critical for all the stakeholders to come together, and collectively address the challenges with comprehensive analysis, strategies and long-term recovery plans, especially when the conversations around ‘Building Back Better’ are evolving.

Few data relevant to South Asia and Nepal show that we are going to face deeper challenges than what seem to be on the surface. UNICEF South Asia has reported that 420 million South Asian children are out of school due to COVID-19. UNICEF also warned that some 4.5 million girls may never return to school. There were 400,000 unwanted additional pregnancies among adolescents as well. These are quite alarming data in an already highly gendered society like South Asia, including Nepal.

The impact will be multidimensional as it will give rise to gender-based violence, child marriage, unwanted pregnancies, potential death and unemployment, which will hurt the people’s aspirations to live a life of dignity. It will have significant inter-generational impacts on the future. Also, what will happen to out-of-school students? What are the alternatives either to accelerate their learning opportunities and re-enrolling them back to school, or provisions for skills and entrepreneurship?

World Bank Policy brief highlights that in Nepal, over 40 per cent of households did not have a single member with access to the internet and 70 per cent did not have a radio. This indicates deep disparities in our society.
Similarly, a recent study conducted by World Vision mentions that 83 per cent of children from Kathmandu district are studying online, compared to only seven per cent in Parsa. In one aspect, this is positive that at least certain children are still accessing education despite a deeper level of disparity. In such context, one can imagine the situation of children with especial needs and those living in extreme poverty who are also girls from remote areas.

It is clear that Nepali children, especially girls, and families are getting into long term crisis. Challenges are widespread from access to online education systems to experiencing different forms of poverty, gender disparities to inter-generational impact, learning outcomes to out-of-school challenges, entrepreneurial skills to cultivating hope for the future. It is critical to realise the inter-connectedness and the depth of these challenges.

There are many other aspects of lives and livelihoods that are severely impacted by the current contagion. Thus, for government, donors, the UN agencies and private sectors, it is critical to come together and analyse the data collectively and develop comprehensive action plans and implement them accordingly. Coordination has always been challenging among agencies, so, at least inclusive outlook and broader analysis while developing specific sectoral plan/intervention would be critical while having the discussions around ‘Building Back Better.’