To understand women’s experiences with menstrual practices, the author spoke with seventy-one women in Kathmandu, Nepal, the place where she grew up. Based on interview responses, a clear spectrum exists with four specific types: 1. Adherents who strictly follow menstrual practices. 2. Aspirants who would like to practice, if another family member shouldered responsibility. 3. Negotiators, who engage or defy practices when beneficial to them. 4. Opponents, who openly oppose practices, following rarely.

Women’s secondary schools have become an option for educational attainment in Nepal. We assess bonding and bridging social capital available to women who attend the Utprerana Women Secondary School (UWSS) in Nepal’s major city of Kathmandu. Using qualitative approaches, we consider the social capital available to women that both encourages and limits women’s educational access and address the networks women build when attending school. Bonding capital both encourages women to pursue their education and demands that women conform to traditional roles. School attendance prompts a change in bonding social capital, accumulated with family prior to school attendance. Women add to their bonding social capital by strengthening relationships with classmates and teachers. Women’s school attendance improved bridging social capital by enhancing future opportunities. Bonding social capital formed within the school provides emotional support, personal space from domestic responsibilities, and a sense of freedom, while demanding women’s conformity to expectations for student conduct.

No abstract

The devastating Gorkha earthquake, measuring 7.8M on the Richter scale, struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, followed by a major aftershock on May 12, 2015. The earthquakes killed approximately 9,000 people and injured thousands more, garnering significant media coverage. We employ qualitative content analysis and media framing theories to demonstrate evidence of social construction in the Gorkha earthquake media coverage from two Nepali national and two Indian newspapers. Using a sample of 2,862 articles published within a year of the earthquake, five major frames: the disaster frame, disaster myths, the therapeutic community frame, recreancy, and international support emerged during the analysis. Our study demonstrates how media coverage reflects current geopolitical dynamics in the region, distinguishing impoverished Nepal from two emerging economic giants, India and China. We contribute to developing literature arguing that media coverage during disasters produces global human life hierarchies. Our study adds a class hierarchy dimension, where tourists are more valuable than locals, and even among tourists, those involved in high-end tourism attract additional media attention.

INTRODUCTION: Health organizations are characterized by multidimensional and complex environment that makes nurses prone to occupational hazards and injuries. MATERIAL AND METHODS:  A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the knowledge regarding occupational health hazards among nurses. Sixty one respondents were selected as the study sample by using enumerative sampling method. Self- administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the data and collected data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS software version 16. RESULTS: The findings of the study revealed that 70.5% of respondents had knowledge on meaning of occupational health hazards. Forty six percent had knowledge regarding meaning of biological hazards, 86.9% and 65.6% had knowledge on high risk person and immediate management for blood and body fluids exposure respectively. The finding of the study showed that 52.5% had high knowledge and 47.5% had low knowledge regarding occupational health hazards. There was statistically significant association between in-service training and respondents' level of knowledge regarding occupational health hazard (p-value= 0.024). CONCLUSION: Based on findings of the study, it is concluded that more than half of the respondents have high knowledge regarding occupational health hazards. Besides this, respondents have high knowledge on meaning of occupational health hazards, causative agents of biological hazards, diseases that can occur after exposure to infected body fluids, preventive measures and low knowledge on meaning of biological hazards, virus having chance of transmission and first person to report after exposure to blood and body fluids.