India and Nepal Research

Researching Nepal and India was quite interesting. The first piece of information I looked at was the geography, to get an idea of what each of these areas is like. In Nepal they have eight of the world’s tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest, or as they call it in Nepal, Sagarmatha. It contains more than 240 peaks over 20,000 feet above seal level. It is noted that Lumbini is located in this region, which is one of the holiest places of one of the world’s great religions, Buddhism. But what was more fascinating was reading that Hinduism was the main religion actually practiced in Nepal, but followed by Buddhism, Kirat, Islam and with just a small majority that practice Christianity. While in India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the 7th largest country and the 2nd most populous country with over 1.2 billion people. In India, there are four world religions, which are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. These religious views had shaped the regions diverse culture. One other idea I had learned was that the foundations of Hindu, philosophy, mythology, and literature were established here and dharma, karma, yoga and moksa are popular and well in existence today. 

Looking at their education stances was a big surprise to me. In Nepal their literacy rates seem low even though they have improved dramatically over the past years. Currently the overall literacy rate has increased from 54.1% in 2001 to 65.9% in 2011. Male literacy rate is 75.1% compared to female literacy rate of 57.4%. While the primary enrollment rate was 74% in 2005 and in 2009, that enrollment rate was at 90%. As one can see, there is a huge step forward in the enrollment rate but the next information I found was more interesting. The secondary education level is extremely low at only a 24% rate of kids going to school from the 9^th to 12^th grade. However in India, 96.5% of all rural children between the ages of 6-14 were enrolled in school. 83% of all rural 15-16 year olds were enrolled in school. It is also stated that with India’s improved education system it is one of the main reasons why there has been a successful rise in the Indian economy.

Human trafficking is the biggest concern today. Nepali victims are trafficked within Nepal to India, the Middle East and many other areas like Malaysia. They are forced to become prostitutes, domestic servants, beggars, factory workers, mineworkers, circus performers, (which I found the most surprising), and many others. Sex trafficking is also another major issue for these areas. From Nepal to India as many as 5,000 to 10,000 women and girls trafficked to India each year. This was astonishing to hear and it is getting worse by the year.

Another source of information I came across is the growing trend of cyber crime. The police had handled 16 cases one year but since then it has gone up very drastically. In 2012 police had dealt with 47 cases, leading to the 78 cases in 2013! 58 out of these 78 reported were related to social networking sites. This is also another problem that needs to be looked more into because it is a growing phenomenon that is getting worse by the year as well.