KMC Research Journal

Traumatic Aspects of Maoists’ Insurgency in Abhi Subedi’s Dreams of Mayadevi

Badri Prasad Pokharel — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores experience and perception of the traumatized people who have lost their near and dear ones in the Maoists’ insurgency. These people either depicted in the literary works or in newspapers have their testimony to share with others. Dreams of Mayadevi, a play written by Abhi Subedi has been taken as a testimony of the war victims who were badly crippled during the war. Mayadevi, the protagonist of this play who has lost her husband in Indian war and son, Siddhartha in the insurgency, and Salleri Sahinla who has lost all his family members are the victims and liable to share their painful testimony. To analyze this play, trauma theory has been analyzed. Theoretical parameter of some well-known theorists like Caruth, Lacrapa, Kirmayer etc. have been discussed to bring out the traumatic facts of the insurgency with the help of traumatized characters who represent all the victims of the war.

Employee Recognition and Intention to Stay in Banking Sector in Nepal

Binod Ghimire, Bharat Rai, Rewan Kumar Dahal — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This research paper examines the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic recognition and willingness to stay in an organization. The study is descriptive and correlational. The sample size for this research was 400, where the respondents were categorized according to gender, age group, highest education level, and job position. A questionnaire was used to maintain the diversity in information collection and come to an appropriate conclusion. The study found that most employees consider monetary reward the most important and training and development as the least important to stay at the bank. Similarly, employees seem to respond positively that they would like to continue their work in the organization if provided with attractive salaries and incentive packages from their current job. In the relationship between recognition and intention to stay, it was found that there is a positive relationship between recognition (extrinsic and intrinsic) and intention to stay. It is very important for the human resources department to understand whether or not their employees are happy with what they are receiving. It is high time the management should think that employees prefer to pay and promotion, and having these factors, an organization will be able to retain them. Hence, it can be concluded as the recognition system of the banks must be improved both ways: extrinsic and intrinsic recognition.

Teaching Methods: Irrelevancy of Teacher Centric Techniques in Classroom

Data Ram Karki — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The research paper surveys generic trend of teaching learning methods in formal educational institution in Nepal and it also observes departure in methodological shift from traditional world to the present one. Discussing about traditional methods in present techno friendly world, it raises questions of relevancy of them. The research critically examines existing teacher-centric methods in teaching learning and raises questions over relevancy of them in classroom teaching in Nepal. Teacher-centric methods are primarily used to deliver knowledge and information to the students and those students are assumed to have been unknown to the subject matter. Teacher is considered as omniscient and makes presentations in classroom. The methods are unable to make them interactive and communicative and cannot exchange their ideas in classroom. But, modern technologies have eased access to knowledge and information for everyone. Even students can have sufficient knowledge about subject matter to be taught in formal teaching learning activities. With sufficient knowledge about subject matters, students are expected to participate in interactive learning. The traditional way of delivering subject matter to students seems to be no longer effective in teaching when students are already familiar with the topic to be presented in classroom and teachers are unable to hold students’ attention. On the contrary, teachers would be source of knowledge in traditional teaching therefore teacher-centered techniques were dominant. The conventional role of teacher and teaching methods seem to have been irrelevant along with students’ access to knowledge and it has been possible along with the growing techno-friendly learning environment.

Teachers’ Professional Development at Public Campuses in Nepal: Opportunities and Challenges

Dinesh Panthee — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Teachers’ professional development activity is an opportunity for teachers to share their knowledge and develop new instructional practices. It keeps academics up-todate with the changing world and knowledge. The objective of this study was to explore opportunities and challenges of teacher professional development in public campuses of Nepal. This study was qualitative approach with a phenomenological design. The participants of the study were three teachers of different public campuses of Rupendehi district selected purposively. The study revealed TPD opportunities for teachers of public Campuses deserve high significance in the sense that they help teachers develop various kinds of professional skills, knowledge, new techniques of teaching. However, Public campuses are facing many challenges which include proper management TPD for faculties of their campuses and there is a gap between policies and practices in implementation of TPD in public campuses of Nepal.

Disaster, Women and Vulnerability: A Study of Earthquake 2015 in Nepal

Dipesh Kumar Ghimire — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study focuses on the impact of Nepal’s great earthquake 2015 on women and girls. The context of women’s vulnerabilities to disaster is shaped by social differences in roles and responsibilities of women and men. The difference in the division of labor that forces women to stay within the house put them at more risk of death than men. Women are engaged in domestic tasks and caregiving responsibilities, which delay their response and escape from the buildings during emergencies. The lack of education, good health, hygiene and early warning system or absence of disaster awareness made women more vulnerable than men during 2015 earthquake in Nepal. Women relate to different social, physical, psychological, and economic vulnerability in, during and post disaster period. This paper explains the relationship between disaster and its impact over women in the context of Nepal. This article is identified as qualitative research. This research is based on interpretive and descriptive methods. Researcher therefore has collected qualitative data derived from both primary and secondary sources. To analyze and prove the effect of earthquake ethnographically, interviews and key-informants’ interviews are employed. Total 16 interviews and 4 key informants’ interview, and one focus group discussion were held in study area. Researcher also collected secondary data from multiple sources— books, articles, journals, review papers, government documents and archives, nongovernmental reports, newspapers and online materials. The findings of this paper are that women are specifically more vulnerable during disaster because of their socioeconomic and cultural positions. Women encounter different types of problems like social, cultural, economic difficulties. Women’s vulnerability is increased by social differences in roles and responsibilities of male and female during the disaster. The paper strongly argues that gender-based discrimination, inequalities, access to resources and decisionmaking process are the key factors, which directly affect the women during the disaster.

Historic overview of pandemic, COVID-19 and Nepal’s experience

Krishna Prasad Pathak — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease similar form of pneumonia/ SARSCoV-2- impacting globally. Purpose of this article is to review the published studies and gather of the current information aimed at COVID-19 situation of Nepal. We summarized the published papers from the web pages, Journals, Google search engine. We focused eight steps to prepare this article (Conceptualization of the research question, literature search, title/abstract and full text screening, data extraction, risk of bias assessment, evidence synthesis, dissemination, updatefollowing the model of Tricco et al., (2020) conducting rapid reviews. It is declared as a public health emergency. However, why COVID-19 did not catastrophically hit Nepal rather than USA, Brazil, India, Europe and North America, is unknown. The pandemic of COVID-19 is still increasing and has created panic along with its different waves. But, as the numbers of cases are increasing rapidly governments are struggling to increase health care facilities and health care workers. There are lots of hypotheses about an end of covid but no clear answer has come yet. Thus, a lot of scientific studies is required to find the truth. Nepalese health services are needed to strengthen than today and follow lockdown, isolation, social distance and an advance screening test kit around the country. Further we need to adapt digitalization of health care system to prevent contamination.

The Stakeholders’ Perception on the Reliability and Validity of Internal Assessment

Rajendra Khanal — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents the stakeholders’ perceptions of the reliability and validity of the internal assessment system at Masters’ level under the faculty of Education, Tribhuvan University. It is based on mixed-method research design as well as primary and secondary data sources. For this purpose, the purposive sampling technique was applied to select 100 master’s level students studying in semester system and 25 teachers who were involved in teaching at the same level. The respondent views and perceptions have been analyzed and interpreted as descriptively and analytically. The findings depict that only 42 percent of students and 48 percent of teachers were agreed with the reliability of the score achieved from internal assessment. It can say that their level of satisfaction has signified as a weaker position. Likewise, 38 percent of students and 36 precent of teachers agreed on the tools used in internal evaluation, and their level of satisfaction is seen as very poor. However, they agreed that the tools used for internal assessment possess all sorts of validity. The findings conclude that internal assessment doesn’t have a higher level of reliability and validity.

Dual Identity of Pattharkatta (Kusbadiya) Community of Nepal

Reena Maharjan — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Caste and ethnic categories are social and historical products. In the case of Pattharkatta2 , there was only (Tarai Dalit) caste identity among all Pattharkattas of Nepal before a couple of decades. Most of them shared origin myths, history, social memories (knowledge), and livelihood strategies. After the penetration of ethnic identity politics, there was a division among the Pattharkatta. Some of them claimed that they were Kusbadiya, not Pattharkatta, and listed themselves in an ethnic community of Nepal. The rest of them continued their caste identity and cultural practices. The government of Nepal also recognized both Pattharkatta and Kusbadiya. The researcher is interested to explore why the community changed and continued its identity. Is it possible to be a caste and an ethnic group at the same time? If yes, how and in which contexts? What are different evidences and cultural practices that support their claims of Kusbadiya and Pattharkatta? What are the motivational factors of identity change? What are the cultural relations between the Pattharkatta and Kusbadiya? By employing a mixed methods design, the researcher explored that the community has a dual identity. Politically active elites of Pattharkatta were influenced by ethnic activists in the name of the social security fund. When the marginalized community was lured by a per-month bonus, they were ready to change their identity. In spite of similar stories of origin and cultural practices, the community is officially recognized by two different names. There is no fixity to ethnic differences and boundaries of caste ethnic identity.

Community Forestry and Local Development A Study of Sukhani Community Forest User Group

Rudra Prasad Bhattarai — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Community forestry is small scale, village level forestry practice where decisions and actions are often made on a collective basis, and where the rural population participate in planning, establishment, management and harvesting of forest crops and receive a many or proportion of the socio- economic and ecological benefits from the forests. Conceptually community forestry can range from pure forest cropping on one extreme to combining tree and food crops agro forestry on the other. In the context of Nepal, according to forest survey, 2016, forest area had covered 44.74 of the total area of the country. This proves the popularly known proverb “Hariyo Ban Nepal Ko Dhan”. Forest alone contributes 10 percent of total GDP; livestock get 40 percent of total fodder from forest foliage. Fuel wood contributes about 76 percent of the total energy sources used in the country, which also comes from forest. Also, much of the agricultural system are directly or indirectly based on the forest. Community Forestry was introduced in Nepal in 1978. The community forest has been defined as the control, protection and management of the local communities known as user groups. It advocates strong community participation, bottom-up planning and sustainable use of forest resources. The main objective of the CF is to achieve the sustainable forest resources by converting accessible national forest into community forest into in stages. The CF approach has been highly successful in the protection of the forest in the hills of Nepal. The local user groups are responsible for the control, protection and management of the forest. CF advocates strong community participation, bottom-up planning and sustainable use of forest resources. Under this program, 2,312,545 hectares of forest land have been handed over to the community, up to 22,519 user groups, and 21,00,000 HHs were directly benefitted in mid-July, 2020. It shows that after emergence of community forestry program, local developmental activities have been increased.

Borderland, Culture and Contestation between Nepal and India

Sedunath Dhakal — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The border between two countries is not only a passway to travel across, and legal trade transit; it is also the cause of socio-economic and cultural transmission, and sometimes it can also create political and criminal activities. This paper highlights how the border between Nepal and India has created contestation with different activities from the sociocultural celebration to the economic and political relations, and also to the terrorism and criminal activities. It traces historical contexts of setting the border in general, and the context of Nepal and India border in particular. The paper aims to describe the geographical, cultural, and socio-economic activities across the border. Based on the secondary materials available about open border, and its pros and cons, this paper focuses on the context of Nepal –India open border, its prospects and challenges for both countries. The analysis in this paper is based on books, documents, historical records about Nepal – Indian border, experiences of the people across the border and experts’ opinions from both countries.

Human Interaction with Nature: Ritus and Forests of the Himalayas

Shankar Paudel — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The pivotal concern of my research is to explore the ranges of human interaction with forests and rivers in six different Ritus2 (seasons) in the context of Nepal in general and Morang and Chitwan Districts in particular. People are constantly engaged in various kinds of contact with nature according to the changing seasons. On one level, it is the interaction that occurs between any life form and nature. And on the other hand, especially in the case of humans, it extends towards the variety of causes, i.e. political, religious, and economic/ educational, that shape the interactions between humans and nature. My research aims to explore the nuances of those dialogues between humans and forests that are shaped by natural forces and the religious, socio-economic, aesthetic and common reasons during different Ritus.

The Practical Aspects and Relevance of the Texts of ‘Patterns for College Writing’ in Nepalese Context

Sudeep Gartaula — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

‘Patterns for College Writing’ (Twelfth Edition) is a prescribed textbook under Tribhuvan University compulsory English for four years program of B.A./B.A.S.W. and B.B.S. level first year students. The textbook is also studied by millions of students at colleges and universities across the United States. The problem is that being composed by US writers, published by US publications and written in the US context, many Nepali students are thinking this book is irrelevant and impractical to Nepalese society. A question can be raised why this book is prescribed for Nepali students. This paper aims to address these problems and satisfy the students by discovering the practical aspects of the texts included in the textbook. Therefore, this brief academic study analyzes how the textbook ‘Patterns for College Writing’ can address various issues of Nepali public lives, which are: a) Socio-cultural issue b) Historical issue c) Health related issue d) Gender and racial issue. This paper aims to highlight the fact that the contents of this textbook, which are mostly written in American context and contain various essays on American issues, are relevant and useful in Nepalese context as well.