KATHMANDU, NEPAL — Four years after a pandemic upended Nepal’s media sector and eliminated more than two-thirds of the print, radio and television jobs in the country, work for journalists remains scarce. Salary cuts for many people haven’t been restored — some journalists are even fighting in court to get the pay they’re owed. On … Read more
BADHAIYATAL, NEPAL — In 2023, Jagdish Tharu’s farm produced three times more rice than he expected. In an era of dried-up springs and protracted drought in this agricultural area, this success surprised Tharu — as well as his neighbors. When they saw tall weeds growing in the fields, they predicted that at most Tharu’s field … Read more
KATHMANDU, NEPAL — The constitution here guarantees the right to marry anyone, but that didn’t matter when Manoj Kumar Ram, a 22-year-old Dalit, married a woman from a higher caste. Instead, his wife’s family accused him of kidnapping her, and Ram landed in jail. Ram’s wife, Babita Isar, says her father wanted to marry her … Read more
JHAPA, NEPAL — Ganesh Kumar Jogi, from Bhadrapur, a municipality in Jhapa district, has been walking from house to house with his father since he was 11 years old, chanting mantras and blowing a pheri, a blackbuck antelope horn, to protect people from evil spirits, ghosts and bad luck. Walking around in the middle of … Read more
KATHMANDU, NEPAL — Outside the imposing Supreme Court building, Bharati Sherpa draws a shaky breath. She went on a hunger strike because the man convicted of killing her husband — a former Nepali Congress party worker — was released from jail after being pardoned by Nepal’s president. She filed a petition against the man’s release, … Read more