About Nepal

Even with the advent of “peace” in the country, the existence of social discrimination, acute inequalities, absolute poverty, lack of access to resources and failure to recognize the needs of post catastrophic issues makes the current Nepalese society extremely vulnerable to further social disharmony leading the nation further into extreme poverty. The devastating earthquake of 25th April, 2015, undeclared blockade of India and fringe political parties’ non-cooperation movement with violent agitation pushed the nation aggravating further poverty.

The prevalence of extreme poverty in Nepal is largely a result of systemic issues and political problems: lack of functioning systems at the national, district, and village level (infrastructure, education, health, social services, and justice). There are a number of contributing factors to such as the problems in reintegrating maoist rebels, harmful traditional practices, climate change, lack of reliable data (e.g. Lack of birth registration) making, and monitoring impossible. This further aggravated by earthquake devastation, economic blockade led by noncooperation movement Factors of non-speedy restoration for victims and affected people, is the lack of a genuine call and inspiration from God is contributing to the stagnation in the community and national level.

Nepal is a severely under-developed country. It is ranked 143 out of 177 countries in the Human development Index (HDI), with almost 40 % of the population earning less than US $ 1 /day but claims to be increased now. Of the poorest 80% of the population, they receive far less than 50 % of earnings. Populated with 26,620,809 people, average life expectancy is 58 years with men 58.3% and women 57.8%. The literacy rate is 40.5% average, with men 58% and women 23%. Child mortality and infant mortality (under 5 years) are respectively 6.4% and 9.1%. Overwhelmingly increasing political conflict and insurgency is engendering a chaos in the country. By virtue of this, poor people are becoming poorer, many youths have left to seek employment abroad, migration and internal displacement has been rapid. Data source: CBS 2011 census

Nepal is enriched with a diversity of ethnic groups as well as the diversity of cultures. About 76% of the people are Hindus, 15% are Buddhists, 4% are Islam, 3% are Christian* (as per informal data).

Role of Churches for transforming into New Nepal: At present churches have no right to legal recognition, comparing to Hindu Guthi, despite Nepal being declared as a federal secular republic nation. Prior to the people’s war, Christianity and proselytizing faced strict regulation. Since the change in government following the people’s war, regulations regarding proselytizing have eased a bit, though there continue to be some challenges. Nepal is a country with many religious institutions, but none are able to play a role in binding people together.

Declared by the first Constitution Meeting, Nepal is a Secular country. Congregations are growing in Nepal but the churches do not have legal recognition. Proselytization is restricted, even normal conversion used to be labeled as Proselytization and many Christian pastors and ministers have been persecuted during the Panchyat regime before the monarchy was thrown away by the people’s movement.