COVID19
Photo Essays
2 MIN READ
The Nepal government’s announcement of a lockdown threw millions of lives in disarray, perhaps none more so than that of migrant workers looking to return home.
How will we remember 2020? The Record is republishing stories from a curated series of visual stories commissioned by photo.circle that presents the work of visual storytellers based across Nepal who began documenting their communities since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
When Nepal enforced a nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020 in response to the spreading Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of migrants were stuck outside of the country’s borders with no way to get back home. Nepali migrant workers in India began to return home in droves as the pandemic shut down industries, factories and most places of employment.
Over just one weekend at the end of May, 19,000 Nepalis crossed the border into Nepal at Gauriphanta in Kailali. New arrivals are sent to quarantine and according to Narendra Karki, chief of the Health Division at the provincial Ministry of Social Development, 37,000 people have been quarantined since the lockdown was enforced. However, only 1,500 of those who arrived have been given Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.
This story was produced for the Nepal Photo Project with support from the photo.circle 2020 grant.
Longreads
Perspectives
13 min read
Nakunni Dhobi and the 20-day march to Kathmandu: How many women have returned to private cages of violence, never to reach out again?
Features
5 min read
Women from the indigenous Sardar community have long been making mats and vases out of water hyacinth but now, they’re also learning sustainable dyeing methods.
Features
Explainers
8 min read
The Nepali economy is going through a liquidity crunch. The Record explains just what that means.
The Wire
Features
6 min read
Lured abroad with false promises, Mumtaz Rain returned in pain and in debt
The Wire
Features
16 min read
11 have been sentenced to life in prison while the Tharu community in Tikapur continues to pay the price for the horrors of 2015
Features
5 min read
Unless Nepali migrant workers are allowed to vote from abroad, we won’t have a truly representative democracy
Features
8 min read
One June 2004 , Krishna Prasad was on his way to his grandparents’ home in Jayamangla, Chitwan, when he disappeared mid-journey. The Adhikari family still awaits justice.
Longreads
Perspectives
19 min read
Anti-secular voices demanding a return to Nepal’s character as a Hindu state are on the rise but they ignore the larger danger to Hinduism – Hindutva.
