English

Society: Analysis and Challenges of present day Nepal

• Arjun Dahal
• 02 May, Wednesday, 2018 | 16:27:00 Published

Abstract

Society is one of the intangible needs of humans, for humans since their very dawn have been a social animal. Through this article, we have attempted to analyze the social aspects of current day Nepal, and have made a humble attempt to categorize the major challenges faced by current day Nepal under 4 major headings.

Keywords: Society, Nepal, Nepalese Society, Administration, Decentralization, Democratic Involvement, Orthodox

                               

Introduction

Society is an integral part of all living creatures, irrespective of their nature and habitat. A frequent and widely used word in our daily life, when treated in brief, simply carries the meaning of groups or collection of a population of a certain species in an organized fashion, but when studied by the unbridled minds concerning the every aspects involved in it, society not only provides us with an insight of that certain population under study but also removes the mask shrouded by various multi-dimensional factors affecting it either in tangible or intangible way, since the inception of it, till the painful breath of time it has travelled to the present state.

In general, when the female sows the seeds of male and bury it in her womb to fertilize it within the saturation limit provided by the nature to form a new life for celebration, a new generation thus begins in every society, which in the long run develops and adapts itself with the changing variables of time and environment to a certain state. If we see it through the context of we- humans, our history of society dates back to the Stone Age, where our ancestors even at such prehistoric time would go in an organized way for hunting and collecting foods, thus symbolizing the social aspects of ancient society.

Sociologists on dealing with the sociological understanding study the deeply rooted beliefs, values and norms of the society and correlate the facts with various other social groups to provide us with a sociological understanding of humans. Sociologists further examines the way how the society and its members socialize its new members to overcome obstacles in its development. Philosophy says, “Nothing is Perfect”, hence obviously like the rest; even society has got some factors, which are generally seen as the backbone of problems/factors that are creating hindrance in its development.

Charles Bukowski said, “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

Our Nepalese society has a very long history, and with the change in autocratic rule, ruled by several dynasties, finally today, we are living in the country with Republican government. Even with the rapid progress of science, skills, human resources, and technologies, our present day society still face some challenges that must be overcomed as soon as possible to lift the status of our country. Through this article we have attempted to classify the major challenges in present day society of Nepal under 4 major headings.

1. Administration

Administration is solely responsible for maintaining, and controlling the activities happening in the everyday life of any society. It is a bureaucratic system commanded by an authority structure, which, formulates and implements, plans and policies, creates the division of labor providing specialized responsibilities to the people of their own interest. Since, our society is economically as well as technologically less developed than the rest of the world. It is administration that helps to smoothen the development of necessary infrastructures.

Our administration is highly praised for being well-corrupted and except for some absurd days in the calendar, we are lucky enough to hear our corrupted officials of administration being caught every day. No any developmental works can be carried out unless authority is provided by the administration, and our corrupted officials, within a blink of eyes, provides the contract and tenders of infrastructural development to the certain group of corrupted people under their command, thus, creating the first hindrance in the development.

The result is obvious and predicted. None of the works are completed within their time boundaries and since corruption has already played its role, quality is never executed, neither achieved. Thus, the same work needs budget every year which raises the pocket of some staffs performing the administrative duty and few contractors basically acting as the human slaves.

Apart from the corruption, our administration needs to be updated and upgraded in the context of developing world of present 21^st century. Offices with well-equipped technological materials not only improve the efficiency of work, but also help to perform it more precisely. Furthermore, government should train the staffs performing the administrative duty, time and again, and provide them with necessary services needed by a citizen of the country under the prevailing law, and order. A well facilitated administration can only run exciting and encouraging developmental activities for the welfare of the public, hence every challenges of administration must be overcomed for the smooth performance of the society as well as country or things are gonna happen as once Confucius said, “ Only the stupidest and the wisest of the men never change.”

 

2.  Decentralization

The term decentralization means to distribute the power of the country in all the regions equally. Decentralization craves the highway for the smooth development of the infrastructures as well the works can be accomplished within their local level. This not only erases the burdens of the various factors involving with the seeking the permission from authority from the proper administration, planning and implementation, but also increases the democratic involvement of people and the public participation on the developmental activities.

With the introduction of 7 states, 77 districts, and 753 local level administrations, our government has started to decentralize its power.  The major goal of decentralization is to deliver public services effectively to the citizens equally under the democratically constituted local bodies. In the context of our country the term ’Local Government’ and ‘Decentralization” are taken synonymously, but in the deeper sense, they have vast differences as the local level is just the branch of the central government and decentralization plays the mode of transferring the power, resources, authorities, and responsibilities from the central government to the local government.

This not only makes the local bodies more capable and efficient but also sets the culture of performing the works conveniently and effectively through the local bodies. Hence, every sort of facilities are achieved by the citizens within their local level. Local government has the complete understanding of the society under its’ control, thus, it is more capable to bear the responsibilities of their local development to make better plans and execute them with the involvement of the local public.

Our society is still in its developing phase, so, it’s not only duty of our government, but even ours to solve the problems and challenges associated with it to develop advanced and civilized society.

As Jane Stanford said,” There is only one failure for you, and that is not to be true to the best you know.” Today we have decentralized the power of our country, so to upgrade the present status of society, we, ourselves, must initiate the developments of our society from the very local level to the central level, so the trees planted by us today may be able to provide delicious fruits to our future generations, earning us dignity from them.

 

3. Democratic Involvement

Democracy as prescribed by US President Abraham Lincoln is a practice involved, run and maintained by the people. It is formed by the real involvement of the people with the state assuming all the responsibilities for the betterment of its citizen. Our country has a long history of practicing democracy since 2007 B.S., which halted for some time after the advent of Panchayat System, and was restored again, after the people’s movement of 2046 B.S. So, through this sands of time, we have seen all of its pros and cons. Due to lack of stability of government and disputes arised among the political leader for their selfish motives and the nature of political parties only focusing for the power of the country, the meaning of democracy has been deviated from the principle provided by Lincoln, but has even make our country contra-democratic. The general people view the running government of our country as the eagle with the brain and victims in its peak.

The term “Democratic Involvement” means giving equal rights and opportunities to every last citizen of the country. Yes, many things are considered even by our government by making quota system, establishing unions and associations, in almost every field. It’s a universal truth that the quota system will uplift the socio-cultural, economic aspects of the people falling under certain quotas provided, but it also equally brings less capable candidates to the post, as the qualified candidates are expelled out by the less qualified candidates belonging to quota group. Similarly, establishing unions and associations increases the participation of mass public. On the other hand it also favors “Haves” system termed by Karl Marx, as only the leaders of the unions are benefitted from it, whereas the rest of people have to follow their same daily routine without any change. The most common example of failure of union system is seen in the context of Student’s Union, which acts as backbone of several political parties, claiming to provide students with their rights, but have failed, even to gain the trust from the student themselves.

Apart from the corruption, our administration needs to be updated and upgraded in the context of developing world of present 21^st century.

What we need today is to redefine our meaning of democratic involvement in the context of our country. With the establishment of federal states and decentralization, the people can have most of their things/works accomplished within their local society. Thus, to increase the democratic involvement of public, our government must be able to maintain open communication with the citizens themselves by the new formed states and local government. We have been experiencing democracy our country in a bitter sense, as what Benjamin Franklin once said, “Where liberty dwells, there is my country”, as the government is still unable to make people believe in the representatives, whom, the people, themselves, had chosen to run the country’s administration. Through the means of open communication, problems and feedbacks of the citizens should be taken into consideration by the local government, thus creating an effective management of the society.

 

4.  Orthodox

Despite the rising literacy rate of our country, which has climbed to 65.9% according to the census report of 2011, our country still bears it in its cognitive state. With the advancement of technology and rapid progress in the field of infrastructural developments, many of the orthodox have still been failed to be eradicated out completely from the core of our country. Orthodox are generally seen as the deal between the angel and devil, and are considered to be mandatory to maintain a good, colorful, and galloping life, but, in reality is nothing but a herd of preachers with a mind of destructive taste and  a beggar within their soul, hailed by the public due to the dismay of their own illusions.

Most of the common examples of orthodox are the system of watching horoscopes and belief in astrology, to which, people still blindly believe, and not only the general public, but even the medias uses them as a means to increase their TRP. Witch doctors commonly hailed as “Dhaami”, and “Jhankri” by our society are another types of orthodox. Cultures like “Dewali” promote the mass murder of livestock animals and still exist in our society with unaided reason. Religion in itself is responsible for creating fragments in the society by polluting the brain of so-called divines and the wisest of the men, and with their behest commanding laws, the orthodox mutates itself into bigger and bigger, so much, that our society itself can’t escape from its grasp, finally resulting in, the praising of supreme followers of the orthodox as the people of high moral goodness. Thus orthodox based on the probabilistic laws of outcome, with their full blooded meaning, not only retards the development of the society, but even makes the fun of education by making the educated people as an celebrated fool, ultimately hampering the rest of the persons who attempts to live a good life by showing them the fake means of either salvation or an erotic funeral, for till this date, no ladder has been found, through which, an normal human can climb to the places where angels reside. G.B. Shaw had rightly said. “Those who can’t change their minds can’t change anything.” So we must train ourselves to get rid of the pollutions created by the orthodox in order to make our society better and prosperous.

 

Conclusion

Society when defined in a large scale groups, comprises of every factors associated with the certain populations. In the context of Nepal too, change in social aspects are profoundly responsible for the development. Yes, there are various abstract aspects invisible to the naked eyes that are constantly deteriorating the social structure of our country. So, to overcome them, we must solve the anomalies arising in the social structure one by one. We must make our administration system transparent to the public as well as the accountability of the whole nation should be within the observation of the citizens. Since, we have already began the process of decentralization, we must achieve it, as fast as possible, to implement the state-wise rules, laws, and policies. Until and unless, each state becomes self sustainable in making and executing their own laws for their respective people under the direction provided by the central government, we cannot aim of democratic involvement of the public to its highest degree. Corruption, which still remains, as a thick fog to hide our smile must be eradicated to the zero to ensure the proper utilization of budget. Education system both formal and informal should be design in such a way that, within a short instant of time, we should be able to eradicate out the orthodox too or we shall ultimately face the consequences as what Charles Bukowski said, “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” Our society is still in its developing phase, so, it’s not only duty of our government, but even ours to solve the problems and challenges associated with it to develop advanced and civilized society.

 

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