Transnational resources and LGBTI+ activism in Nepal

This thesis presents an analysis of the differential power relationships experienced by three LGBTI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and others) non-government organisations (NGOs) in Nepal. It centres on the main argument that resources, networks and collective organisational identities interact in a cyclical manner whereby an organisation’s access to one reinforces its access to and utilisation of the others. However, due to the nature of resources and networks and their relationships with organisational identities, NGOs with different organisational identities have hierarchical access to resources and networks whereby some organisations are better able to utilise a cyclical effect than others. These arguments are drawn from qualitative interviews with a total of 71 participants including activists, their allies and donors, as well as from participant observations and document analysis. The study provides a distinctive analytical framework for the study of social movements in the Global South by using a multi-institutional politics approach to include within analysis multiple sources of power, combining this with an emerging regional approach

Causes and Consequences of Physiological Stress of Women Involved in Tea Plucking Activity

The present study was conducted in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh (India) to study the physiological workload of respondents engaged in plucking tea leaves and identify the major causes and consequences of physiological stress. Majority of the respondents had ectomorph body with average physical fitness. During plucking tea leaves, the body of women workers deviate from natural alignment due to varying height of tea bushes. Hence, a continuous awkward standing posture, adverse environment and working conditions increase drudgery and decrease productivity of women workers. The change in environment temperature caused significantly higher physiological stress to the workers. At average working heart rate values during complete cycle of plucking, the total cardiac cost of work (TCCW-1166.21,108/92.62) and physiological cost of work (PCW=21.43, 21.90 beats) of the respondents in 25-35 and 35-45 years age category showed unacceptable physiological stress of higher workload and fatigue. The regression analysis of physical characteristics that is age, height, weight, body mass index, physical fitness index with heart rate showed that better the physical health lesser is the stress of workload on health of workers.Drudgery, Cardiac cost, Physiological stress, Fatigue, Workload, Labor and Human Capital,

Rethinking knowledge production and exchange: perspectives from Nepal

Can we de-centre research exercise, knowledge production and exchange from core areas to the wider community? Uma Pradhan, Nimesh Dhungana, Sara Parker, Janak Rai, Kumud Rana and Sohan Prasad Sha discuss how academic research on Nepal — whether by those based in the country or coming from outside — remains focused on core centres for a variety of institutional and structural reasons, and give examples of how this can be overcome to attempt a more widely-anchored knowledge-gathering and dissemination exercise

Negotiating Masculine Identities as Dependents of Highly Skilled Female Migrants in the UK

Studies on masculinities often tend to focus on the negative connotations of the term associating men with problem behaviors. It is especially true in case of immigrant men who are more often than not seen as perpetrators of violence and harbingers of conservative gender attitudes. This not only shows them in a constant negative light but also fails to scrutinize the complex invisibilities and vulnerabilities that these men face. This study moves away from the trap of viewing men as perpetrators and instead problematizes the social approval and internalization of masculine role identities. It does so by presenting cases of migrant married couples who are in an unconventional situation with regards to gender roles and expectations within marriage. The paper shows that an ambivalence over gender roles creates anxieties not only in men who are expected to adhere to certain standards set by their societies, but also their partners who struggle with their conscious or unconscious desires to see them fulfil these standards. The paper argues that it is important to recognize that masculinities and femininities do not exist in a vacuum but rather exist within socio-cultural realities. It is pertinent to address the correlation between the two if men and women are to complement each other’s lives while fulfilling their aspirations. Such conceptualizations are already under development whether through cognizant or incognizant processes as men and women negotiate lives in an alien land like in the case of couples discussed this study

Contesting Bodies in the Constitutional Debate About Citizenship in Nepal

The idea of citizens as rights-bearing bodies continues to be an important political tool for women through which to claim space as legitimate actors who have the right to equality under the law. However, in this process of seeking legitimacy from the state, women’s bodies continue to be entangled between the normalizing and essentializing forces of nationalism which positions them as second-class citizens. Taking the case of a constitutional debate over the right of Nepali mothers to pass on citizenship to their children irrespective of the nationality of the father, this chapter explores how the female body continues to be normalised as a mere biological reproducer of the nation, without equal rights as citizens of that nation. More importantly, the chapter further shows how women’s resistance to such discrimination might rely on the same masculine and exclusionary interpretations of nationalism. The chapter draws from in-depth interviews with key constituent assembly members writing a new constitution for Nepal after the dissolution of monarchy in 2008. The chapter argues how a neoliberal understanding of citizenship goes hand in hand with the neoliberal interpretation of women’s empowerment, which often overlooks the importance of how intersections of different identities affect the lived experiences of different groups of women. In the case of Nepal, this interpretation of citizenship has overlooked intersecting discriminations based on caste, ethnicity and sexual orientation, thus homogenizing the category of “Nepali women” and dictating what a unified agenda for the Nepali women’s movement ought to be. While it is true that the embodied experience of the female body often becomes an entry point for women’s political engagement, the chapter highlights the limitations this might pose. It shows how bodies are often inscribed by dominant political and sociocultural structures in such a way that within the biopolitics of national sovereignty, some (female) bodies might matter more than others

फरक यौनिकता प्राकृतिक कुरा हो - दुर्गा थापा

An interview with a well-known Nepali lesbian activist, published in an anthology of key feminist figures in Nepa

Transnational AIDS networks, regional solidarities and the configuration of meti in Nepal

This paper critically examines the role of transnational AIDS networks and resources in the consolidation of one of the earliest identity categories, meti, used within an emerging Nepali LGBT movement in the early 2000s. It argues that political identity formation in resource-poor contexts with limited domestic support for queer organising has been a cumulative effect of transnational exchanges between activists and resource networks. Beyond this, the paper traces the emergence and changing meanings of meti to show how a seemingly Indigenous category is more closely linked to modern configurations of male same-sex sexuality in response to opportunities available for political mobilisation. The paper is based on secondary research and interviews with 71 participants and participant observation conducted during seven months of fieldwork in Nepal, and interviews conducted outside the country between 2016 and 2019

Evaluation of cyclodextrins for enhancing corneal penetration of natamycin eye drops

A new group of pharmaceutical excipients called cyclodextrins can be introduced into ophthalmology for delivering such water insoluble drug. This group of excipients is able to solubilize many water insoluble drugs which were previously impossible to be formulated as aqueous eye drop solution by forming their inclusion complexes. Analysis of pure drug and excipients by physical test, melting point determination, chemical test and solubility determination were carried out in this study. It may be concluded that cyclodextrin complexes of Natamycin can lead to an aqueous formulation (Natamycin eye drop) having better trans corneal permeability and thus can be proved to have faster and better antifungal efficiency