The plight of Mid and Far West of Nepal and the Mission Possibility

The situation on the ground has not improved much in the Western Nepal despite the political changes and the initiation of developments from the government. The issues like poverty, illiteracy, health related problems and migration are some of major problems in these regions.   How to tackle these issues?  What could be the symptom of the existing poverty? We strongly believe that the transformation of the heart can bring the changes in others as well. Having not sought to transform the heart, our labors probably would have gone in vain.  That is what Christ Jesus did two thousand years ago. He always looked at the heart of the problem. The world does not seem to be bothered by this problem.  Jesus did not come to establish a so called religion or any religious kingdom rather his ultimate mission was to transform the human heart and life and establish the Kingdom of God.  And we are just doing what he asked us to do – the mission that demands a transformation at the core of our heart. Development begins from the changes in human heart therefore; Christ is the reason for the transformation. Having said so, the Human life and Development cannot be separated since they go hand in hand. The development is all about the individuals’ attempts toward the overall good, therefore it should begin from scratch and, the starting point is the changes in human lives.  Geographically, there are plenty of challenges that we observe as transportation has been an obstacle in those regions.

The gospel has been fairly widely shared in Bheri and some parts of Rapti (Dang) including Seti (Kailali) and Mahakali (Kanchanpur and Dadeldhura) especially through the Assembly of God and NCF (which is now called NCF Nepal- National Churches Fellowship of Nepal). Assembly of God churches are the growing fellowships in the Mid and Far Western regions. The independent churches however are very active in the last decade to take the gospel to other parts of the region as well. This is a positive move in building the Kingdom of God in Nepal.

Mid-Western Region of Nepal:

Rapti               (Dang, Pyuthan, Rolpa, Rukum and Salyan)

Karnali           (Dolpa, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot, Mugu)

Bheri               (Banke, Bardia, Surkhet, Dailekh and Jajarkot)

Far Western Region of Nepal:

Seti                  (Kailali, Achham, Doti, Bajhang, Bajura)

Mahakali        (Kanchanpur, Dadeldhura, Baitadi, Darchula)

It is primarily assumed that the Doti, Achham, Dadeldhura and Baitadi seem to be more needy areas where one should be observing carefully. The Mid-western regions are not much better such as in Karnali region where travelling is one of the major difficulties that we have observed. The problems range from one end to another in both regions as political parties opted to divide the regions on the basis of ethnicity and races. Nonetheless, people from these regions have discarded such a divisional move through the recent general election. They have given the mandate for integrity and sovereignty.

Few months ago, one of my friends was defending the development of those regions. I however, do not think that the reality has been improved much looking at the amount of progress in those regions compared to the other parts of Nepal. Transformation of livelihood and the standard of the peoples’ status was not so impressive. The Mid Western Region and the Far Western Region comprise 23% of Nepal’s population and 42% of its area. The two regions are home to 703,500 adolescent girls and 1,588,175 women of reproductive age.^[1]  This factor is to be noted when we talk about the development of these regions. I therefore, would rely on the women who could be a wonderful instrument to bring the changes tomorrow. It won’t be wrong to assume that the population of women may triple the population of men as the most of the male folks have been pulled way to gulf countries or in India. This is a reality of rural Nepal.  However it is very sad that the government statistics do not even count those thousands of migrants who bypass to India daily. Their problems and issues are always swept under the carpet as neither government nor civil agencies take notice of those groups of people.  This is very sad.  The lack of employment and livelihood opportunities for both men and women primarily lead people to migrate to India. The absence of male groups in the villages of these regions forces the women to take up the new challenges in the family and society.  Obviously, there are plenty of issues that cause the problems in these areas. Robert Chambers outlines the “deprivation trap,” in which five clusters of disadvantaged people interact with each other to trap other people in a situation of disadvantage. [2]  And one of the five clusters is poverty (others are as isolation, powerlessness, vulnerability and physical weakness). The issue of poverty is very much linked with the other four clusters too where people have paid less attention when it comes to eradicating poverty. However the root cause of the Far West is not that people are poor because of poverty. There existent phenomenal problem  is that darkness (lies, deception, evil) that has robed the people of power and made them vulnerable and thus made them  isolated from all possible access of opportunity.  Charles H. Kraft uses three important encounters- Truth, Allegiance and Power- which are not the same, but they are each intended to initiate a process crucial to the Christian experience aimed at a specific goal. [3]  The concern of those terms gives a clear notion that truth leads to understanding through teaching, allegiance leads to a relationship through witnessing and power leads to freedom through spiritual warfare.

Nonetheless, another major part of the problems of the Mid and Far West is the so called Patriarchal Socio-Cultural system that hinders the people from change. In one way or the other, women are mostly isolated or over-burdened as male folks have to go abroad (both gulf and India) to earn the bread and butter for the family.

Case Study[1]