" A crisis within a crisis" COVID-19 How are poor communities dealing with such situation

Crisis is an intense time of difficulty or danger. The Government of Nepal on 23rd March, 2020, has taken a very bold and brave decision of complete lock down in the entire country in order to fight COVID 19. Accordingly, all the state governments have completely shut the shopping malls, cinema halls & multiplexes, marriage function halls, restaurants, hotels & lodges, all educational institutions, the private offices were asked to work from home. Exemption for daily essential goods and service providers was given in order to meet daily needs of the public. Public transportation and interstate travel was completely stopped. All the people were asked to stay at home and take necessary precautions to stay safe and healthy. Many awareness campaigns were taken up by civil society organizations, print and electronic media, politicians, celebrities etc. about social distancing and self -hygiene (washing hands with soap for a minimum of 20 sec), and other measures. The second case was confirmed on 23 March 2020 in Kathmandu. As of 17 April 2020, 28 additional cases have been confirmed, one each in Rautahat and Kanchanpur, two each in Baglung and Chitwan, three each in Parsa and Kathmandu, four in Kailali and 12 in Udayapur district. 13 of the cases involved people who had recently returned from abroad, and 15 of them were Indian nationals residing in Nepal; the first case of local transmission was confirmed on 4 April in a 34-year-old woman from Kailali. A second complete recovery was confirmed on 18 April, bringing the number of active cases to 28. As of the 19th April, 4 patients in total have recovered. Nepal in the 29th day of the lock down slated to end on 15 April, there are total 42 cases, 5 Recovered cases and zero deaths.

The crisis of the pandemic has adverse impact on poor community. Absolute poor are the main target of this situation. Nepali society is stratified on the basis of power, position, rank, and prestige. There is a huge gap between poor and the rich. The poor are the most vulnerable to pandemic. Employment of those staffs who earns on the basis of daily wages has been seized due to this pandemic. As Nepal Government announce to cut of the salary of these working staffs their livelihood has become worse than ever. Since Nepal’s manufacturing industries mostly rely on raw materials from China. The knock-on effects for Nepal are significant as the supply of raw materials from China has become reduced drastically. Small scale businesses are adversely affected by this incident. Those who have footpath business as a source of income for livelihood has been adversely affect in the city area. It not only indicates the loss in business but the possible price-hiking of clothes and food and other complementary objects. It will ultimately victimize the poor as they cannot afford the expensive goods or service that is provided by departmental stores.

Food security and fulfillment of minimum nutrition requirement has become a threat to much low-class family. Health facility to the old age member and infants is almost out of reach. Insufficient health workers, medical personal and unavailable medical service has compelled the patients to struggle with major to minor disease especially in the remote area of Nepal.  Workers on factories and industries are in leisure. Those who are rich are able to take or attend their class through online but there are many children and students they do not have access to internet are deprived of education or even with the information technology. Education, Health services, Food and nutrition are the prime basic needs that poor people in Nepal are dealing with. Anyone can be victim of covid-19 but till the date poor people with lack of proper resources and alertness are found to be infected so it has increased the risk of being socially discarded or scorned. It is essential to be more pragmatic and needs to cooperate with the entire infected persons to fight this pandemic condition so that our social harmony does not get imbalanced.

Action taken by Nepal Government

Nepal established health-desks at the international airport as well as on border checkpoints with India, starting in mid-January. Land borders with India as well as China were later completely sealed off, and all international flights suspended. All academic examinations were cancelled, and schools and colleges were closed. Quarantine centers and temporary hospitals are being setup across the country. Laboratory facilities are being upgraded and expanded. Hospitals have been setting up ICU units and isolation beds. The SAARC countries have pledged to cooperate in controlling the disease in the region. India, the United States and Germany have increased their support to Nepali health sector. The Government barred the gatherings of more than 25 people in public places like temples, mosques, churches, etc. “The movement of the people is restricted unless it’s very important,” said a statement released by the high-level coordination committee. These restrictions will also have a significant impact on all our communities.







The coronavirus outbreak threatens to delay the completion of several infrastructure projects in Nepal. Mega project such as the construction of Pokhara International Airport, Gautama Buddha International Airport, and Melamchi Drinking Water Projects are being greatly affected due to the absence of Chinese workers. These projects are built by Chinese firms and the majority of their staff are Chinese nationals. Development sector is also not deprived with the delayed, as a result many employee have to face economic crisis for daily life.







Foreign employment is a major source of remittance in Nepal, too. In the current situation, coronavirus’ effect on remittances is disastrous. Remittances contributed 26 percent to the country’s GDP last year. According to a report, during the first four months of the current fiscal year, Nepal received more than 50 percent of its total remittance from countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

Communities Coping-up mechanisms & action taken by local people

The complete lock down situation has severely affected the farming communities as all the agricultural crops are at harvesting stage. The major crops are maize, wheat, potato etc. There is a steep fall in terms of availability of labour for harvesting. Trading of all agriculture produces came to standstill. The milch animal rearers are doing their business as usually because milk is a very essential commodity for daily needs. There is no restriction as such for milk collection centers and marketing. Harvest of fruits and processing is being carried out women at home. However the farmers are not able to sell the produce because the collection centers are closed and there is no transport facility also available. In order to tackle the crisis in farm sector, the Government of Nepal has issued WHO guidelines for farmers and farming communities during the lock down period. Though government has issued guidelines, the farmers are not lifted from the crisis that they are facing with since the labor is not coming forward to harvest and transport is absolutely a problem and hence the transporting the produce to the direct and retail market is a huge problem. The farming and wage labor depending on farming and allied sector need support to come out of the shock and crisis:

It is the time to help poorer to support as Nepal citizen. We can support and help the poor people during Nepal COVID-19 in many ways, as their requirements. The first most necessary things for Nepal victims are medical help, foodstuff support and money to save economically weak family. No contribution is too small or large because it is the time to help them anyhow. No one care about how? But we have to help them it is our humanity and responsibility to be passing this difficult time together.

There are some reliable communities and organization which are continuously supporting the poor people and trying their best to recover their life by helping in many ways like providing medical care, provisions and Quarantine center. Many celebrities and High profile individual in Nepal are supporting the poor community by their personal or joint effort. There are altogether more than 90 different quarantine center in 5 provinces from the sector of public-private and community effort. Distribution of mask, food materials, sanitizer, it be either soap and other easy delivery of basic needs to the community people are the possible ways to cope with COVID-19 consequences.

You can do any of this and support Nepal. Your single step definitely gives makeable contribution to support & help Nepal. It indicates that still a little bit of humanity exist then defiantly you gives you’re this précises time to support Nepal COVID-19 victims and to save many lives. Historical experience suggests that the rebounds from this kind of output loss are possible, but it takes time. Nepal is also facing a drop in output unprecedented in its intensity and the rebounds from this kind of loss are possible, but not by any means guaranteed. Covid-19 will go away eventually in one of two ways. Either we will develop a vaccine to prevent it, or the virus will burn itself out as the spread of infection comes to confer a form of herd immunity on the population. Neither of those possibilities will occur quickly. Nepal urgently need a unified national strategy, one informed by the best science about stopping diseases like covid-19 and from virus control efforts in China, Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as realistic projections of the human and economic toll of any option we pursue. Our way of life cannot survive an indefinite series of short-term action plans. Nepal cancelled its international promotional activities related to Visit Nepal Year 2020. Its economy is expected to be severely affected by the pandemic due its impact on foreign employment, tourism, manufacturing, construction and trade. However it is interlinked and connected with the public residing all over the nation and out of nation but it seems to hamper the daily life and survival of the poor people all over the world.  It is time to face reality; Nepal must hope for the best but prepares for the worst.