In an attempt to make itself an eco-friendly city, the Lalitpur Metropolitan City on Saturday inaugurated the construction of a 4.7km cycle lane from Kupondole to Mangal bazar.

At the inauguration, Mayor Chiri Babu Maharjan reached Kupondole from the city office riding his 33-year-old bicycle along with dozens of cyclists.

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Prabal Gurung: Nepal needs women and minorities at the decision-making table

In this week's Brunch with the Post, New York-based fashion designer Prabal Gurung talks about what he owes to women, how he comes up with his creations, and why identity—not attention—should drive our work.

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Nepali women spikers storm into final after seeing off Sri Lanka

Nepali women’s volleyball team entered the South Asian Games final for the first time after quelling the challenge of Sri Lanka in straight sets at the Dashrath Stadium Covered Hall on Saturday.

The home team beat Sri Lanka 25-14, 25-18, 25-21 to set up a summit clash with India on Tuesday. The semi-final victory over the island nation means Nepal have ensured themselves a silver medal—their first at the Games. Prior to this, Nepali women spikers had won bronze medals on three occasions in 1999, 2006 and 2016.

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Nepal’s labour migration policy: by men, for men

In 2012, Nepal imposed a ban on women less than 30 years of age from migrating as domestic workers to certain countries in the Middle East. Two years later, the ban was extended to a global scale, preventing Nepali women from seeking employment as domestic help anywhere in the world. The ban was expanded on the grounds that there was a need for stronger regulations to protect women from widespread abuse and exploitation.

The ban eventually got lifted partially but regulations were never formulated to benefit Nepali women, who have the same aspirations as men to work abroad. The list of restrictions on women only keeps getting longer. The age-specific ban on women from seeking jobs abroad moved from 30 years of age to 25 and then to 24, before a complete blanket ban on women seeking jobs as domestic help across all Gulf countries. This ban went into effect after a parliamentary committee ordered the government to ban all Nepalis, both men and women, from travelling to the Gulf countries as domestic workers.

According to migrant rights experts, these bans, even though they’ve been formulated to apply to the informal sector on a whole, disproportionately affect women because the majority of domestic workers tend to be women. The flip-flops of successive governments on these bans over the past three decades are a reflection of the state’s apathy towards ensuring equal access to foreign employment, say experts.

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