Covid-19 and its impacts in Nepal: An exploration of sustainable development, intersectionality,and social justice approaches

Abstract

While the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are multiple, this study explores the impacts on people’s income and its cascading impacts on four sustainable development proxy indicators – No poverty, Zero hunger, Good health and wellbeing, and Quality education, consequently affecting Nepal’s sustainable

development. This study focuses also on how the intersectionality among these four

goals is becoming visible in the way the pandemic is affecting the lives of

marginalised communities, especially in Nepal. The study reviews laws, policies, and

programmes of the Government of Nepal (GoN) related to each of these four goals to

investigate the prevalence of the notion of resilience in these policies and whether and

how have they considered the needs of vulnerable groups like the people living in

poverty, workers in informal sectors, women, people with disabilities (PwDs), and

those from minority and minoritized communities. These laws, policies, and

guidelines are official documents of the GoN to understand where the government

stands in terms of its preparation to protect the vulnerable communities and groups in

crises. Finally, this research recommends more comprehensive and integrated social

security schemes, such as insurance and immediate cash transfer, with special

considerations for vulnerable populations such as the workers in informal sectors, the

poor, women, children, and other structurally and systemically disadvantaged

communities. As the adverse effects of the pandemic have put us in risk of increasing

and widening disparities in the future, my recommendations focus on dealing with

terror of virus at present by building socio-economic changes from the bottom-up

strategies that center social justice approaches while making policies and

implementing them.

Key words: COVID-19, sustainable development, social justice, social protection