Literacy in Nepal

Nepal is a country of vast cultural riches and natural beauty, but few economic resources. Most people are subsistence farmers in rural villages that may be a day or more by foot from a motor road. The rugged terrain of the Himalayas has made progress difficult, and the lowland terai, once a malarial jungle, has been equally challenged by lack of resources. Nepal remains one of the world's 10 poorest countries.

Still, it has made significant success in taking the first, basic steps towards literacy:

Fifty-four percent of the population is now able to read and write, according to the 2001 Census.
Seventy-eight percent of children go to school.
Illiterate adults, particularly women, now strive in record numbers to learn to read, often by kerosene lamp in each other's homes when their chores are done.

Yet people still face a basic problem: an almost total lack of reading material. Most children have nothing to read except textbooks, and fail to develop strong reading skills. Many leave school early because of poverty, discouragement, or arranged marriages - and later, find few ways to improve or sustain their reading skills.

Research has shown that literate women have healthier, fewer, and better-educated children. Literate farmers have better harvests. The more people read, the more they can help themselves.

Yet 42 percent of Nepalis live below the poverty line. When a book costs at least 30 rupees (about 40 cents), and the average person makes no more than 750 rupees a month (under $10), it's understandable that people don't read, publishers don't make books available in the rural areas where most people live, and literacy makes only minimal headway.

Kapilvastu: Once home to Buddha, now short on books

Kapilvastu district, where Books in Every Home was launched, exemplifies many of these issues. It lies in the midwestern terai, with a population that consists heavily of tribal and underprivileged minorities. Tharu, Abadhi-speaking madhesi, occupational castes, and Muslims live alongside Brahmins, Chhetris, Magars, and other groups from the nearby hills. Most people, like the family of Books in Every Home founder Hom Raj Acharya, are subsistence farmers.

It's a place rich in history. Kapilvastu was the name of the historic kingdom of the Buddha's family, and the archeological ruins of the Sakya ancestral palace - through whose gate, according to legend, the Buddha slipped at night to seek enlightenment--have been unearthed by the village of Tilaurakot. But today's children of Kapilvastu are struggling for an education.

Here as in the rest of Nepal, the spread of schools was greeted with great optimism. There have been real gains in literacy rates, both because of schools and because of adult literacy programs. Yet school dropout and failure rates are high, children who drop out often become child laborers, women risk being sold into the sex trade, and the insurgency that began in 1996 has drawn many disaffected youths into its ranks. Like the rest of Nepal, Kapilvastu is a place with great challenges - yet also a place that has come a long way, and has great potential for the future.

Books in Every Home is also starting programs in districts in the midwestern hills and the eastern and far western terai.