Food security plans

I agree with your editorial titled “Lame excuses” published on March 3 that current

approaches to food security need to be reviewed and overhauled. The weaknesses of the NFC and the government food distribution system are well known, particularly as regards the Upper Karnali, which has suffered desperately from food insecurity over recent years. But it is time that other agencies, including international and bilateral development agencies, also critically re-framed their conventional wisdom and long-accepted practices. Food security at the local level is not only about food production but more about access to food.

Food for work is often considered an effective mechanism for poverty alleviation, but often cash payments for work are more useful to the poor and do not undermine local food

production and suppress local food markets to the same extent. Cash payments for work may be a better way for poor households to gain access to food through the market than cumbersome bureaucratic mechanisms. A combination of food and cash may sometimes prove the best way — the Indian government plans to allocate $3 billion on a national rural employment guarantee scheme, which will pay workers partly in food and partly in cash. But before making pronouncement on these matters, a better understanding of Nepal’s food production, distribution and consumption system and of food grain markets is needed.

David Seddon, Thamel

Socially wrong

This is in response to Alankar Khanal’s letter published in THT on March 2. I am

astonished that Khanal is for legalising sex in Nepal. Not only that, to legalise sex, why should we see it from sex workers’ point of view? By the same logic then, why not legalise robbery, dacoity, etc.?

The question of whether sex should be legalised or not should be viewed solely from its social impact and its repercussions on the country. Why should we legalise sex? If it is because Hong Kong or Malaysia have done so, then we will only be showing stupidity. I think a country should never adopt a profession of sex as a means of survival. Of course we should respect a profession, but the people in that particular profession should respect their profession first. Provided the society has a good sex education, I am of the opinion that sex should be legalised only to the extent that legalising it would protect the interest of both men and women, and if it brings both men and women under the same footing of societal values. But it should never be allowed for the people involved in it to become professionals.

Lila Prasad Ojha, via e-mail

Act soon

I firmly believe that it is high time the government took up the Bhutanese refugee issue as its top priority and found a right solution acceptable to the refugees. I personally feel that the refugee case received a lukewarm response in the last 14 years, and it was almost

neglected and Joint Verification Team became a farce. The government, together with the international community, should help resolve this crisis.

I B Chhetri, via e-mail

Update it

I am writing from the UK to you, as I am a regular reader of THT. I like the “question of the week,” section. But the same question “Is reality derived from reel life, or do movies draw from real life?” has been appearing for the last one month in your web page. You must change it. Also, it would be better if you could come up with interesting topics.

Pradeep, via e-mail