The State of Child Health and Human Rights in Nepal

Time is running out for the children of Nepal, say the authors. These children will face an uncertain future unless their health and human rights are urgently addressed

Hypocricy for Survival: Redefining Terrorism in Shalimar the Clown

This paper does close textual reading intertwined with contextual analysis of Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown published in 2005. In doing so, the paper argues that this fiction is Rushdie's another effort to survive from the Fatwa reaffirmed over hi

Using Collage for Creative Writing

This paper demonstrates use of collage in creative writing with reference to George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion

Colonial Paranoia and Cultural Narcissism as a Writing Trope

In this paper I argue that one of the dominant modes within going back to root – dialectics of colonial paranoia and cultural narcissism – deployed in many novels like R. K. Narayan's The English Teacher, Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchables, among others is an appropriate trope for Nepali writers, both to present social reality and to help marginalized groups reconstruct their identity

Post-traumatic stress disorder among individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury in Nepal: a cross-sectional study

Study design: Cross-sectional study OBJECTIVES: To identify the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) and to examine the relationships between demographic and clinical characteristics, and PTSD. Setting: Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Center (SIRC) and Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University Hospital (DH, KUH), Kavrepalanchowk, Nepal. Methods: Individuals above 18 years of age with TSCI of at least one month from trauma and admitted to SIRC and DH, KUH from June 2019 to May 2021 were included. The specific stress version of the PostTraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL), was utilized. To classify the neurological status of TSCI individuals, International Standard for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury (ISNCSCI) was used. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis between independent variables and normalized PCL score was done to evaluate the predictors of PTSD. Results: Among 163 patients, the overall prevalence of PTSD was 27%, and the mean PCL score was 36 ± 13.9. Factors predictive of PTSD included gender, family type, ethnicity, and literacy rate. No significant association was found between the clinical characteristics and PTSD. Conclusions: PTSD appears to be considerably prevalent among individuals with TSCI in Nepal. Females, individuals from nuclear families, individuals with lower literacy, and individuals from lower caste are significantly vulnerable to developing PTSD. However, clinical characteristics do not appear to be influential in the development of PTSD

Interview excerpts.

Codebook. (DOCX)</p

Informed consent form English.

Sample of informed consent form. (DOCX)</p

Informed consent form Nepali version.

Sample obtained from participants. (PDF)</p

Community identity and collective efficacy: a social cure for traumatic stress in post Earthquake Nepal

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was initially conceptualized as a psychopathology that arose as a consequence of war time experiences. More recently, available evidence has demonstrated that post-traumatic stress (PTS) as a consequence of war is buffered by social identity processes. In such contexts, identity resources are arguably more readily accessible given the integral relationship between social identities and intergroup violence. There is no evidence as yet to suggest that social identity processes may act to reduce PTS responses to naturally occurring disasters such as earthquakes and even less data pertaining to non-Western contexts where the impact of such disasters tends to be particularly catastrophic. This article reports on a study undertaken in earthquake-affected regions in Nepal devastated by the April 2015 quake and its major aftershock a month later. Participants (n=399) completed measures of their earthquake experience, Post-Traumatic Stress and Post Traumatic growth (PTG), as well as measures of community identification and collective efficacy. In total 399 people completed the measures approximately six months after the quakes. Results of the study indicated that consistent with tenets of the social identity framework, ethnic and gender group memberships impacted on reported experiences during the earthquake. Reported experience during the quakes and ethnic group membership were both related to increased symptoms of PTS. Ethnicity was also linked to the proportion of respondents reporting clinical levels of PTSD symptoms. The relationship between earthquake experience and PTG was mediated by community identification and collective efficacy. Earthquake experience also had an indirect effect on PTS through collective efficacy. Implications of these findings for those working with traumatized groups are discussed.</p