Work Life Quality

The essay on Haiku literature in Nepal is prepared on the basis of publications available and interview with respective haizins of Nepal. It has iddentified four inspireers of Haiku in Nepal and also four Nepali promoter and motivator haijins to write Nepali haiku since last six decades.There are hundreds of haiku books published by various haijins at the moment. However, there is a lack of a continuous publication of edited haiku journals in Nepal. This essay has also quoted randomly selected haiku of many haijins in Nepali language together with its romanised version to pronounce/raed it as well as the literary translation of respective haiku.

साँच्चै भन्ने हो भने "धर्म" भनेको त एउटा प्राकृतिक स्वभाव नै हो। विश्वका सबै धर्महरूलाई हामीले नियालेर हेयौं भने बुझ्छौं की हरेक धर्ममा विशेषत: तीन प्रकारका अलग अलग तत्वहरू पाइने गर्छन्। पहिलो तत्व भनेको धर्मको मूल्य मान्यता दोश्रो धर्म चिनाउने प्रतीक, अनि तेस्रो भनेको धर्म द्वारा समाजमा प्रतिपादित प्रचलन अर्थात् रीतिरिवाजहरू।यी धारणा परम पूज्य श्री श्री रवि शंकरज्यू बाट प्राप्त भएको गुरु वचन हो।

बालक सरी बनौँ, आफ्नो स्थूलमय पररचयलाई प्तबस्िारै प्तबसेर आत्माको अनुभव िनु थालौँ। आफूलाई प्तबप्तसुएर सबैलाई एकै नासे सम्मान िरौँ, यही नै हो एक अभ्यास बुद्धत्व प्राि िनुुको लाप्ति, यही नै हो परम पूज्य िुरुवर श्री श्री रकव शङ्करज्यूको एक िुरु मन्त्र।

The field of Operations Research (OR) has passed through ups and downs since its inception in 1940s. The classical OR methods owned and advocated mainly by scientists, mathematicians and technologists were developed, promoted and applied in corporate sectors in manufacturing as well as service industries for modernizing the world economy during the peace and development periods. Because of the hard nature of these mathematical optimization models, classical OR could not rightly capture the complex, uncertain and messy real-world situations and thus their growth of application could not rightly take-off as envisaged by the OR promoters. In the post modern era, many psycho-social and behavioral scientists started criticizing the usefulness of the hard OR methods and initiated the development and applications of soft type of OR by thinking systematically and structuring perceptions of different stakeholders to derive alternative solutions useful for their managerial decision making. These soft OR methods are also found appropriate for development sector including community, voluntary and not-for-profit organizations, which are abundant in developing economy. The field of OR needs to be expanded by embracing the soft OR methods (Ice cream) with hard OR methods (Apple pie) through collaboration of mathematicians, scientists, engineers, psychologists, sociologists and corporate strategists. An I3 (Industry-Institute Interface) strategy is suggested to develop and apply the hard-soft composite OR methods which may provide decision supports not only to manufacturing and service corporate sectors but also to community development and government activities in developing nations.The keynote address was presented by Prof. CDinesh Chapagain at the 2nd National Convention on Operations research, Kathmandu 2013.

ICT development and ICT for development should be understood with two different perspectives. ICT development is a science, engineering and communications technology where academia, research institutions and private businesses may be interested to invest in, and promote the development of hardware and softwares related to it. ICT for development, on the other hand, refers to the socio-economic development of communities through ICT. ICT is a powerful means for empowering the society. The developed nations and the communities living in urban areas have access to the ICT, and may need minimal support of the government for utilizing ICT for their development. The communities living in rural settings are in disadvantaged situation due to their lack of awareness and knowledge of ICT for their development, and the lack of access to ICT in terms of availability and affordability. ICT service providers can not be sustainable in the form of enterprises unless full fledged market forces operate freely. Hence, appropriate policy and legislation regime is necessary to create an enabling environment for the social enterprise to operate sustainably and deliver services to empower rural disadvantaged communities. Nations with commitment for utilizing.ICT for Development for empowering the disadvantaged communities need to carefully develop appropriate policies and legislations, facilitate the establishment of appropriate institutions and to adopt correct mechanisms to promote the use of ICT for development of the disadvantaged communities as fast as possible. A regional policy paper prepared and presented by Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain in the ESCAP’s Expert Group Meeting on Provision of ICT Access for Disadvantaged Communities through Public-Private Partnership held at Bangkok, Thailand on December 2007.

The fact that home-based women workers exist within the informal sector of our economy and that they make a significant socio- economic contribution has not dawned upon the sensibilities of policy makers and those concerned with that sector. The women workers are largely utilized for off-establishment work, and taken for granted as cheap and practical sources of human resources. However, they are a largely ignored lot and have never surfaced in the politico-legal mainstream. They have not surfaced out of the socio-economic limbo and the maze of entanglements within the domestic work and home-work. The informal sector women workers are basically engaged in some economic activities, curtailing their leisure time to earn wages and at the same time fulfilling their responsibilities at their homes. These women are socially neglected and economically discriminated. They lack the benefits of social security both from their job providers as well as from the state. Their plight largely go unnoticed because they work in the unorganized informal sector all by themselves within the confines of their homes. They have never been surfaced before. This study is the first attempt to surface these ignored ones.The study is prepared for the United Nations Development Fund For Women (UNIFEM), New Delhi, India. The study is conducted by a team led by Dinesh P. Chapagain including Ramesh M. Singh, Shanti, Shailesh and Jyoti of BISCONS, Kathmandu, Nepal in 1999.

The government has already started adopting liberalized economic policy in trade and investments. Business is becoming more competitive with globalized. This competitive environment demands the flexibility in business. The permanent nature of employment system may not be able to compete in the worldwide competition. There is a big threat that more works will be done through contract labour and the chances of exploitation by the employers are high. Globalization is not an intention but a necessity to live in this millennium. Now it is right time to initiate for developing some mechanism to safeguard the rights and welfare of these vulnerable working people. The introductory and worldwide comparative policy study was conducted and presented by by Dinesh P. Chapagain at BISCONS Development and Management Consultants, Kathmandu for a seminar conducted by ILO in June 2000.

Policy initiatives and future actions required to address specific issues are given through discussions on the initiatives for restaurants, which in general terms, apply to other MSE subsectors too. The policy initiatives and future actions are grouped by the different stakeholders namely the government, employers, trade unions and the civic society. In addition, a new stakeholder in some form of trade-specific institution has been discussed. It is suggested that the government initiate a set of policy and legal reforms that would consider registration and formalization of the MSEs, capacity building of local government bodies, establishment of statistical database of industry and workers in the sector, training and exposition of manpower, consumer health protection, and policy analysis for legal reforms. Besides the role of the general stakeholders, the MSE sector needs to be seen from another approach due to a complex dimension created by unclear employer-employee relationship in the informal sector. An alternative form of agency or organization involving all MSE employers, family and paid workers should be conceived for developing business through the collaboration of everyone involved for enhancing employment generation and ensuring social protection for them. The research was carried out by Dinesh P. Chapagain for In Focus Programme on Boosting Employment through Small Enterprise Development [IFP/SEED], ILO Geneva, at BISCONS Development and Management Consultants in 2001.

When employees are viewed as variable costs, there is little recognition of the firm’s contribution to their training or managing the knowledge of the experienced employees. Hence the importance of human resource management in recruiting, retention and retirement (3-R) has to be seen by the employers holistically rather than simply pleading for hiring and firing. The seminar paper developed with managerial perspective was prepared by Prof. Dinesh Chapagain of Kathmandu University School of Management. The Paper was presented at a Seminar organized by Labour Law Committee/Nepal Bar Association (LLC/NBA) & Employment Promotion Commission (EPC), Kathmandu, 20 January 2002.

A strategy paper is prepared for the Industrial District Management (IDM). Despite its deficiencies and the general clamour for change, there is no doubt that IDM still bears its relevance. IDM must adopt the DOSH (develop, operate, sustain and handover) strategy as a process to contribute to positive industrialization in the country. An analogy can be drawn from the father–son relationship. When the son grows to be competent enough to survive and grow, the father should handover the responsibility to look after the family to him. The government and IDM must change their mindset and not be averse to the idea of handing over especially when the industries are demanding for this. IDM should identify new potential areas, develop/adopt new industrial cluster concepts and operate them till sustainable again along the DOSH concept. The strategy paper was prepared by Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain at BISCONS Development and Management Consultants after a comprehensive strategic studies of the Industrial Districts in Nepal in 2002.

The labour administration capability of the Ministry of Labour has to be strengthened to implement the politrcies in relation to the decent work agenda. The labour administration elements such as labour courts and dispute settlement process, the labour market, wage institution, labour inspections, OSH etc must be appropriately addressed. Besides, immediate attention must be given to initiate an organizational development plan for reorienting the focus and thrusts of the ministry of labour towards decent work agenda. This may include developing a lean but effective structure for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, staffing plan, plan for human resource development and resource mobilization. The following recommendations are made for restructuring the labour ministry for effectively addressing the decent work agenda. The discussion paper was prepared and presented by Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain at BISCONS, Development & Management Consultants for ILO Office, Kathmandu in 2002.

The effort of the government of Nepal to encompass a larger section of the working population under a wider social security framework is laudable, but a low level of economic development, lack of clear strategies and waning commitments have constrained the implementation of an effective and efficient system. The following recommendations are based on the above observations and conclusions. Five piece recommendations for establishing an effective and strong social security to workers in the form of National welfare fund is proposed after a comprehensive policy and structural study on social security system in Nepal. The policy research was conducted by Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain at BISCONS Development and Management Consultants in 2003.

Discussion on labour flexibility is not merely about prerogative to hire and fire by employers. It brings forth a number of cross-cutting issues that need to be recognized and addressed. A comprehensive policy study has identified major issues that have to be considered while addressing the labour market flexibility in Nepal. Major issues are: surplus unskilled labour, sector-wise flexibility, rapid growth economic sectors, unorganized sector, absence of social security, contract workers, part-time workers, gender issue and rationalization of organizational restructuring. The study has proposed some recommendations like integrating HRD policy with labour policy, incorporating flexibility in labour policy, providing flexibility in legislation, employment agreement, termination of employment, creation of social security fund, activating labour market information system and formation of legislation update task force to address the larger issues vis-à-vis labour flexibility debate. The study was carried out under the coordination of Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain at BISCONS Development and Management Consultants for His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, Ministry of Labour and Transport Management in August 2003.

It is apparent that a separate MSE policy dedicated to address the diverse concerns of this sector in an integrated manner is very much required to address the micro and small enterprises. The MEDEP with its demand driven strategies closely incorporated with strategies of sustainable enterprise partnerships and local capacity building provides a scope for micro enterprises in Nepal if a number of policy gaps are appropriately addressed. The review has identified few important policy issues as well as has recommended few policy measures to address the current MSE problems. The policy review was done by Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain of Kathmandu University for International Labour Organization, Kathmandu Office in 2003.

The inclusion of “Hiring and Firing” provision in labour laws of Nepal is most debated issue in the employment environment these days. Especially, the employers and the employers’ association, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) which is the apex body of all business communities in the country is propagating this issue very strongly among the policy makers. The Government’s human resources development policy and labour policy should, therefore, address the proper strategies for different economic sectors depending on which employment environment region these sectors are operating with a purpose of enlarging the No-risk region and diminish the employers as well as employees risk region. This will establish a framework for incorporating the incoming market economy in the country, flexibility as well as the protection of labour rights. Discussion paper prepared by Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain, Dean, School of Engineering, Kathmandu University for GEFONT, Nepal, 2004.

The prospect of bringing about developments in economic and social sectors through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is globally recognized. Unlike the failure in benefiting from the industrial and green revolutions, Nepal could immensely take benefit from the ICT revolution and utilize it as an ideal vehicle for achieving its poverty reduction development goal. This requires a positive and forward looking mindset to visualize its benefit and act immediately through developing policy strategy for promoting the services through ICT. The comprehensive policy study has identified eleven major structural and legislative constraints in the promotion of PPP led development ICT enabled services in rural Nepal. The policy study among many others has also recommended in detail the recommendations like, integrating the existing IT policy, the broadcasting component of the communication policy and the telecommunication policy into one comprehensive ‘Broadband ICT Policy’, and promulgate appropriate policies to enhance connectivity, to encourage resourceful local contents, to encourage research on computing technology and to support capacity building of manpower and institutional capacity, and providing connectivity at affordable prices in the district headquarters, peri-urban areas and rural areas. The policy study was conducted by Prof. Dinesh P. Chapagain on behalf of Kathmandu University, Nepal for Establishing Economic Policy Network and Asian Development Bank , 2006.