Call it resilience, hardy, or tough. Among the many qualities described of the Nepalese fortitude, some of these descriptions can be highly visible in times of crisis. This year in late March when a delayed pandemic hit Nepal, news started to surface in our public spaces of the many people who had been stranded across the country. We heard reports of many who had been traveling on foot hundreds of kilometers trying to make their way back home from eastern Nepal part of Solukhumbhu to as far as Kailali on the far west with very little money or food. Captain Ramesh, a commercial pilot based in Kathmandu who had been actively initiating food parcels and distributing cash along with his wife from funds collected through his network of professional friends recalls meeting many such travelers on the deserted roads of lockdown Kathmandu roads. Of the many caught in the crisis, he mentions the men who had severe health conditions, new mothers who had given birth and yet had no place to go to. There were many kuruwa, waiting persons for sick family members stuck at the hospital. Canteens at the hospital had closed and their rented rooms so far away these individuals faced another crisis brought on by the pandemic.
From the comfort of our lockdown homes, we read and distressed over these situations. The rise of civil response and the food parcel system that was initiated during this time therefore has to be understood within this context of the pandemic. In my own neighborhood, the grocer didi voluntarily informed me, "Oh, her, she left long ago with her new born baby, but her husband left during the lockdown." Her husband who worked as a jyami in a construction site could no longer sustain his family after the lockdown so along with his friends they had left to walk to their village in Nijgadh from Kathmandu, a distance that would cost them several days on foot.
Nepal has had two lockdowns since the start of the pandemic and it is over a few weeks now that the movement has eased up. As I write this article, the number of cases continue to rise and the inevitable lockdown looms ahead. In the midst of this stifling uncertainty, many of us at home and abroad contemplating about our personal situations have also come forward in the way we know how to assist the many groups leading these relief works. A civil response entailing of individual and collective efforts sprung up to tackle the sporadic state measures have also not to say collided at times as I am told. Within this midst, a resurgence of the traditional food concept of Dharma Bhakari has also come up, revived in Dhading by a local leader, Sita Dhungana who is doing her Ph.D. in "Women's Leadership in Financial Operations". This system that seems to share the similarity in function to Guthi system that exists within the Newa community - it conveys the ideals of community-based social arrangements. Dharma Bhakari with its rural roots of grain collection system serves to protect its members in dire situations of natural calamities, droughts, or the current crisis. Furthermore, community members are sanctioned to borrow collected food grains even during social occasions of birth and death with an understood commitment to make a return of whatever has been borrowed. This system which saw the demise post-1990 has seen a new form in the urban centers as a modern-day food bank. Collective groups such as Kriti Foundation and many others across the country that are initiating food parcels have been implementing it. Food items such as rice, lentils, cooking oil, salt, and soya beans have been distributed to many daily workers. A youth club called King Come based in the locality of Baneshwor in Kathmandu has been serving its local community by cooking meals to the daily workers, who mostly come from a construction background. When I met the members of the club one afternoon it was in the balcony of a privately run hostel, the owner who had generously provided the use of her hostel kitchen was also enclosing the lunch boxes of rice and chicken curry. It was the first day after their last food distribution. The club running in its third decade appears to have its own unique history. Three decades ago while trying to decide on its name King Come had been chosen simply because King Birendra who at that time was on his travels abroad and was arriving back home that day. Since the start of the lockdown members of the club have been assiduously helping out the community. When I asked what the food items of the next couple of days will be, someone said, “Chana (Chickpea), why not – they are good for health.”
In the photo members of King Come Youth Club, Baneshwor, Sep. 2020
Within the Kathmandu valley, a wide network of civil response was seen. Around Lagankhel in the southern part of the city, an organisation called Hiteri has been distributing cooked food items. The photo below extracted from their social media page displays a wage earner chopping gourd and eggplant donated by local shop keepers with a makeshift open fire on the roadside. On a sunny day when they are able to do their own cooking, Hiteri only provides essential items of rice and lentils but on rainy days, when an open fire is not possible, the affected locals are supported by giving meal packs.
Photo Credit: Hiteri, September 2020
Similarly in Jorpati, northwestern Kathmandu an effort initiated by Rubina and friends and financially supported by King Come and Mountain Goats without Borders have been catering cooked food for the workers who mostly come from the garment sector i.e. carpet weavers and textile dyers. Another group that I have met called Hamro Team Nepal has been addressing the food crisis of the daily wage earners in the middle of the city in Ratna Park since the start of the pandemic. Distributing cooked food of vegetarian meals of rice, lentils, vegetable curry, and pickles they have been serving those affected acutely by the pandemic in the hospitals, stranded workers, and daily wage earners. The team members (the photo below) tell me that they gather at the wee hours of the morning and start preparing the meals. When I met them this week, like the many collective groups I had spoken to and some that I had also met, thousands of meals had been served throughout the pandemic.
In the photo members of Hamro Team Nepal, Oct 2020
In Patan, a group of locals Prem Bahadur Shakya and his friends had distributed bags of food items of rice, lentils, cooking oil, salt, and sugar.
Photo credit: Tato Khana Sewa, July 2020
Photo Credit: Meal packs of rice, egg, and potato curry with slices of radish, cucumber, and carrot, Tato Khana Sewa, May 2020
Photo Credit: Tato Khana Sewa, 2020
Another group Tato Khana Sewa that was introduced to me through Rewati Gurung, founder of Kokroma had also been distributing cooked meals of biryani some days and other days with rice, vegetarian curry, and salads within the Thamel, Lazimpath, and around the slum areas of the inner city. A significant effort has also been seen at Utpala Village, under the guidance of His Eminence Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, abbot of Ka-Nying Monastery, chancellor of the Rangjung Yesye Institute, and founder of Utpala Cafe. Utpala Cafe stayed open to offer free cooked meals to the hundreds of people stranded in Nepal. Volunteers at Utpala continue to serve fresh, and hygienic meals to the stranded locals and international students taking courses at the Buddhist institute.
Behind this civil response in Nepal, many anonymous individuals and families at home and abroad have also played a part in sustaining this movement. At a time like this to witness this concern for humanity and empathetic civil response will forever remain in the memories of posterity.
Note: The food parcels and activities of some of these groups are still ongoing, and should you wish to make a contribution please check their social media pages for updates. I am also grateful to Basudha Ghotane didi for coordinating and connecting me to many of these groups.