Development efforts in Nepal and Media
Periodic plans and media in
Nepal
Development, government, and
press in Nepal
Current development
communication scenario in Nepal
"With the overthrow of
the Ranas, Nepal
was ill prepared to meet the challenge of development shared by Third World countries after the Second World War. What it
did not share with many of these countries were the positive legacies of past
colonialism. Nepal had little sense of the outside world, no infrastructure to
support development, and no trained manpower resources. Various foreign
governments were willing to provide aid, but there was no effective indigenous
administration available to determine the country's needs, accept and
distribute this aid. Nepal
was actually able to spend only less than sixty-five per cent of the total
allocated development budgets during the first five year plan period of
1956-61."
Dor Bahadur Bista,
Fatalism and Development, Nepal's
struggle for Modernization
The first newspaper in Nepal, The
Gorakhapatra, was established in 1901 AD. Even the Broadcasting began in the
country in 1951 with the establishment of the government-owned and operated
Radio Nepal.
However the Kingdom was not entered in the age of planned development by the
time.
Nepal started planned development
in 2013 B.S. The First Five-year plan (1956-61) allocated about 576 million for
development expenditures. Transportation and communication received top
priority with over 36 percent of the budget allocations. The attempt continued
under various names in several successive plan-periods. Nine periodic plans
including one-three-year plan have already been implemented so far. Now we are
running in Tenth Five years plan. The ongoing plan has emphasized the role of
communication for the betterment of daily life of the common people.
It was about three decades ago,
Communication was introduced with high priority in the periodic plan. It was
during fourth five years plan of 2027-2032 B.S or 1971-73 A D. The plan had
emphasized transportation and Communication. The government prioritized the
agenda for the development of transport and communication and 125.20 cores were
allocated for the purpose. During the same plan the government came up with a
national Communications plan (NCP) to improve communication in the government
and corporate sectors. The NCP became a part of the nation's five-year plan and
served to strengthen the country's communication infrastructure.
In fact, a national communication
policy had began to emerge after the overthrow of the autocratic Rana regime in
1951.In the decade that followed, professional organizations such as the Nepal
Journalists Association, private news agencies, the Nepal Sambad Samiti, and
the Sagarmatha Sambad Samiti emerged, and the government appointed the first
press commission. The government recognized the need for using communication
strategies to achieve national development goals. Thus, it set up a ministry of
information and broadcasting.
It is noteworthy, that by the
1980s the government had not clear idea about the role of mass media in
national development. Even though it had been allocating budget for the
transportation and communication. It was continued during the fifth five year
plan of 2032-2037 too.
The years following the 1980s
brought about a communications explosion in Nepal. During this period,
television and computers heralded a new era, marked by modern by modern way of
working and living in households and offices. Around this time, some well-to-do
families in Kathmandu and other urban areas of
Terrain developed an interest in watching Indian television channels.
During the period political
awareness spread to a significant level. It started to interfere in the policy
making process. And that was possible due to the media, which played a role of
medium of dilouge.Changes in press laws in 1981 fostered the development of
small, weekly tabloids, which multiplied more than four-fold from about 90 to
400, in just two years. The private-sector press criticized the authoritarian
political system. In the 1980s, this press exposed the increasing corruption in
the government and brought attention to the discontent.
Role of communications had not
linked properly with development by the1980s.Eventhough, establishment of Radio
Nepal
and publication of newspapers during this time played a significant role to
create political and social awareness in public. During the period from the
1950s till the 1970s, Nepal
relied on traditional system of mass communications for the limited access to
information. It was during the Sixth Plan period (2037-2042) or (1980-1985)
that the feasibility studies on TV broadcasting in Nepal was conducted.
Steps were initiated in 1983
towards establishing a TV channel in Nepal in accordance with the
concept of "Communications for Development." In January 1985, Nepal
Television project was established under the then Ministry of Communications.
In February 1986, NTV project converted in to a corporation.
Sixth plan aimed at improving the
existing means of communication for developing a conducive environment for
social and economic development. It further planned to develop the
communication facilities in such a way that it would enhance the national unity
and integrity as well as maintain a positive image of Nepal and the Nepali
around the world. It also had an ambition of providing at least the basic means
of communication to all parts of the country. It believed that the best use of
the means of communication would be to use it for the promotion and
preservation of the art and culture of the nation.
The Eighth plan recognized
communication as a means to ensure the people's right to know. It aimed to
develop the media sector as an important infrastructure for the development of
the nation. It further aimed to make means of communication reach the rural
areas. Efforts were to be made to make the communication sector economically
and financially independent. During the period government improved the
broadcasting condition of Radio Nepal
and planned to introduce Frequency Modulation (FM) broadcasting system from the
private sector. Total of 5770.0 million was spent in the information and
communication in the Eighth plan period. During the plan, the strategy to
provide common type of communication service to the commoners had adopted and
ensures balanced development of various means of communication.
However there is still some sort
of lacking regarding the coordination among the government, media and
development efforts in the country. The Ninth Plan that was completed in the fiscal
year 2058-59 had mentioned the communication. But it could not do anything
substantial in the area. This plan stressed on the high priority to the proper
development and expansion of the information and the communication sector with
the objectives of extending the communication services to the rural areas
throughout the country, expanding required communication system for the
required infrastructure, assisting in increasing the economic growth rate while
mobilizing the communication sector, alleviating poverty which still remain a
serious challenge to the nation, and eradicating social backwardness.
The Tenth plan, the third planned
document after the restoration of democracy or the first plan in the 21 century
is underway at present. It had commenced in the year 2059-60 with such aims:
- Encouraging private sectors for development and
promotion of information technology sector in order to eradicate poverty.
- Developing sustainable and competitive information
technology by using modern technology in the rural area.
- Introducing new development programmes in information
technology for socio-economic development.
Just before the beginning of the
Tenth plan Nepal
had the following scenario in the Human Development front:
Literacy: 49.2 %
Primary School enrolment: 80.4%
Longevity: 61.9 years
Maternal Mortality: 415 per lac
Total Fertility: 4.1 %
Population Growth: 2.25 %
Delivery Service by trained hand:
13.0 %
Drinking water: 71.61
Human Development Index: 0.466
Communication facilities in Nepal are also
very poor. According to the UNDP Human Development Report, 2003 the country is
in 143 rank of HDI. Telephone, Cellular phone and Internet are available for
13.0, 1 and 2.6 per thousand people respectively. Same condition is prevailing
regarding the mass communication.
Use of information technology by
the media is one of the significant developments in Nepal after the advent of
democratic political system in 1990. But the flow of information as well as
availability of the media throughout the country is still unbalanced. According
to the latest data from Press Council Nepal, number of registered newspaper is
1620. Among them 26 percent is regular. And distribution of these newspapers is
70, 15, 9, 4 and 2 for the mid, eastern, western, mid western and far west
respectively. Among the 52 of lisence holders, 42 FM are operating throughout
the country. Total of 7 TV are presenting Nepali programmes.
One should be able to see an
intensification of an overall trend without denying a past for it.
Underdevelopment in Nepal,
therefore, has a long history whose roots lie in the continuous, if uneven,
process of peripheralization. If it was the world capitalist power, the British Empire, under whose ausices peripheralization and
underdevelopment marched ahead before 1947, the Indian dominant alliance has
been the immediate motive force in this process in the more recent past as well
as at present. (Mishra 110)
In nutshell, there is still a
room for coordinated role of media and the government for the development
awareness and efforts. As Willbur Scharmme development is impossible
without the right to information of the people, we have miles to go to achieve
such noble goal.
Works Cited:
Mishra, Chaitanya. Development
and Underdevelopment: A Preliminary Sociological Perspective. In James F.
Fisher (Ed) Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology vol 1. Kathmandu: Central Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
TU, 1987.
