Nepal

Nepal is a landlocked country in the Himalayan mountains, straddling East and South Asia. Roughly the size of Arkansas, Nepal is home to seven of the planet's fourteen highest peaks, including Mount Everest, which lies on the border with China. The monarchy was destabilized in 2001 after the heir apparent to the throne went on a shooting rampage in the royal palace and killed his parents and several other members of the family before killing himself. Maoist insurgents used the resulting chaos to stir up unrest among the people, and in 2006 the new king, Gyanendra, announced he was ceding absolute power and called for the formation of a new government.

The population is 28,900,000 and growing at a rate of 2.132 percent annually. The birth rate is 30.46 per 1,000 and the death rate is 9.14 per 1,000. Median age is 20.5 years. Life expectancy is 61.87 years for males and 65.54 years for females. Gross national income is $270 per person, with 24 percent of the population living on less than $1 a day. Nepal has one of the world's most underdeveloped economies, and lacks a skilled, literate workforce. Almost 80 percent of Nepalese get by on subsistence agriculture.

Health statistics are incomplete and record-keeping is poor. About 90 percent of people have access to potable water, although 15 percent of wells are polluted by arsenic. Only 35 percent have hygienic latrines. Malaria and tuberculosis are common, along with leishmaniasis, a chronic and often fatal parasitic disease transmitted by sand fleas that causes inflammation of the internal organs. There are also believed to be high rates of Japanese enchephalitis and filariasis. The adult prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS is 0.5 percent, with about 75,000 cases country-wide. However, there is no national coordinating body for AIDS treatment or prevention.

Morbidity is driven by skin diseases, diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, intestinal worms, fevers of unknown origins, ear infections, chronic bronchitis, anemia and abdominal pain. Leading causes of death are pneumonia, cardiovascular disorders, encephalitis and meningitis, septicemia, and diarrhea. Illness and death from non-communicable disease is rising, largely from preventable causes such as drug and alcohol abuse and tobacco use. In rural areas, a 2001 study found that 85.4 percent of males over 15 and 62.4 percent of females over 15 used tobacco.

Child mortality is almost half of what it was in 1990, with 56 deaths per 1,000 in infants and 74 per 1,000 in children under 5. Malnutrition is believed to be the [Page 1217]underlying cause in up to 60 percent of deaths in childhood, with 50 percent of under-5s classified as underweight and 51 percent showing signs of stunting. Thirty percent of children between the ages of 5–14 are in the labor force. The Maoist insurgency and teacher strikes have closed many schools throughout Nepal, and those that remain open sometimes turn into indoctrination centers, where children are absorbed into militias.

Quality of life for Nepalese women is generally poor. The literacy rate for females older than 15 is 35 percent. At least 200,000 women (including an estimated 7,000 young girls a year) are trafficked into sexual slavery in India. About 60 percent of rural girls and 34 percent of urban girls are married in childhood, sometimes as young as 8. The total fertility rate is 4 children per woman. Three-quarters of pregnant women are anemic, and 21 percent of infants are born with low birthweight. Prenatal care is rare, and 11 percent of women give birth with the help of trained assistants. This contributes to a maternal mortality rate of 740 deaths per 100,000 live births.

...