I agree with Anonymous 100%. A very inspiring report. Thanks to Ms Mahato and NT.

I wish every single Nepali knew about Pragatinagar and its pragati.It is a fantastic news not only for Nepalis but everyone living in the developing countries.I hope it will get the publicity it deserves.

thats incredible...i love my village pragatinagar

Pragatinagar's progress is in the limelight

This write-up of Pragatinagar's progress was a large claim. Let me try to reinforce it with some substance.

We cannot put it on a par with anything already existing. Because every experience of a successfully administered village is an example to be taken as unique and exhaustive as it entirely depends on the way the stakeholders of Pragatinagar lived and felt throughout.

To quote the author, “Pragatinagar proves that all it takes to develop a place is not money or resources, but leadership and determination.”

Such a rare point of satisfaction in a country where seldom folks are acclaimed for their outstanding performances either indoor or outdoor activity should be taken with relative satisfaction. Let us be hopeful that such things get momentum little by little and will this crusade swirl nationwide in order to pull those other laggards up to showcase their new achievements. After all what we search is the satisfaction to live even far away in a backwater as the crisis abates throughout the country, and not feel woefully hurt with the turn of events.

Whatever may befall, all this speaks volumes about how the governing body of Pragatinagar headed by people like the VDC Secretary Rajendra Prasad Devkota along with the president of the Child Club network Sanju Khanal and acting secretary of Jagriti Child Club Sagar Neupane seemed pretty sorted out in terms of understanding they placed in the polity of their village most probably facing all kinds of spread of innuendos peddled by their rivals to defeat them in elections or otherwise. But as the majority might have favored them they could pass an important milestone of it with probity to making it at the end a success story. They all deserve with other denizens of Pragatinagar our due consideration and faith in their bright future.

“Every village has to become a self-sufficient Republic.” was the dream of a great soul like Gandhi. I gather that Pragatinagar is hands-on showing us the path to its realization.

If I were in the vicinity of Pragatinagar for sure I would have taken pain for a 'how to book on' or 'how to video on' this small village as a footage to show on telly as a reportage in order to showcase a good example to be followed by other villages in Nepal or abroad. I wouldn't be surprised that very soon there will be some prolific reportage spawning from that end to showcase as an example to be exhibited in UN conferences throughout the world.

For once, I would like to emphasize on the example given by Pragatinagar relevant to economic analysis of social wants of the folks that form the bulk of population.

As everybody is aware of the fact that there are as many interpretations of the term poverty as there are sociologists, economists and social workers. But the root cause of rural poverty is no doubt the illiteracy and ignorance. If in Nepal the peasants were as well instructed as in developed world of the West I am dead sure they would have enhanced their exploitation by leaps and bounds. Slowly this hurdle is getting wound up thanks to the international aids and better transmission of information through media interposed.

And ' Poverty' is a catchword. Woefully, the poor (the have-nots) are forced by economic circumstances to cooperate and help in organizing activities of middlemen and are exploitable by the rich (the haves), thereby widening the gap even more making the poor poorer and the rich richer. Because of this stalemate, marginal propensity to consume is greater than marginal propensity to save.

In all poverty-stricken countries, keeping aside the lack of staples, there are other tellingly important deficiencies relevant to health hazard. In recent past international UN organizations are getting involved in catering to the Vitamin and Mineral deficiency. In the case of Pragatinagar much have been done by providing iodized salt, to fight malnutrition, iron added flour and children are receiving two rounds of outreach of vitamin A supplementation.

Great progress will be done when flour fortification will be taken for granted as a must and the spread of vitamin A, iron, folic acid and zinc, which are known as micro-nutrients, will be reached out to those with VM deficiency to wipe out 'hidden hunger' or deficiency in calories, proteins or micro-nutrients.

Of all the good deeds, for a pragmatist it is but natural to accept that it is normal in nature things get old, worn out, and pop at the seams.

We need a radical change in our culture, from how we think about what life is to the economic system that supports it to the political system that enforces it. Our old system no longer works and cannot be made to work as its internal logic is apparently false and lethal.

Let us concentrate ourselves on some endemic problems. Nepal is often victim of different natural calamities brought about sometimes by monsoons causing inundation and landslide, sometimes by famine and drought, and now climate change. As this country has the chance to have all varieties of climate what could be more suitable than fruits to be planted according to climate change in the territory of Nepal.

When Terai could be blossoming with all sorts of juicy fruits such as mango, orange, jack fruit, pine apple, banana and papaya, the sub-tropical region could produce, plum of Syria, apricot, nectarine, peach, and grape fruit as well as string of grapes. Whereas the cold regions where seasons are like that of Switzerland, Sweden, and Canada could produce abundance of black berry, cranberry, raspberry, arbutus berry (strawberry), varieties of apple and et al. As we have seen the region of Ilam could be very prolific in producing tomatoes like in Spain and Morocco under the plastic shelters to control temperature, water distribution and fertilizers if possible monitored by the computer assisted device whole year round.

Mustang region is all set for the mushroom production as there are plenty of natural caves and abundance of horse dung so as to make the mushroom farming meant for exportation of the same to the region of Tibet.

It has been proved that some of the vegetables are the wonders by themselves. If you could take a kiwi everyday your heart will be as robust as that of a lad of fifteen thanks to vitamin C daily intake. If you need a vegetable which contains almost all vitamins and minerals do not hesitate to take curly parsley .or broccoli or sprouts everyday. All fruits with red and yellow color are full of vitamin A which mainly lack in Nepal frequently causing eye-diseases and slow growth of kids' height. If not take cod lever oil for its omega 3 , vitamin A and vitamin D.

We all must have a way with food which really helps.

All successful governments must have policy wonks who are experts in nutrition so as to help the Health minister to elaborate a caring policy for the sake of citizens in want of appropriate information about nutriments.

I took this opportunity to give a free ride on the roller coaster of my imagination in changing mind about giving the tot up. All that was made possible by Ms. Rubeena Mahato of Nawalparasi whose article deserves a dithyrambic praise from the part of the browsers who had access to the NT.

I firmly hope the abduction case of that cute lad Ashish Baniya,11, would be over with the happy end by the time you go through my lines.

C'mon folks, get a life!?!

We really proud the development of Pragatinagar.  we have seen all the changes in Pragatinagar from very near as we implemneting the same DACAW program which play vital role of the development of Pragatinagar. Yes ofcourse all the credit goes to the people living there, their enthusiam to develop their community, collective efforts and implement their plan in reality. We have seen lots of better plan which in vain because of lacking ethusiam to implement. This is the good example how we can make the  life better if you think and work collaboratively rather than looking other for our development.

The heartly thanks goes to all the active hands ofcourse VDC secretary, Child clubs, all the leaders, community mobilisers, mother groups etc. and also my sincere thanks to Rubeen for well coverage of the development of Pragatinagar and Nepali Times to publish it . It will definately encourge other VDCs to follow the footstep of Pragatinagar.

We would like to say thank you so much for the Reporters and Paper which published the Pargatinagar progressive activities. In Pargatinagar there have one Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal organization. Which organization had held the program on the Topic of "Youth Leadership Training" and they were also making the network of Child Club and Youth Club. Youth Club network leading by JCYCN and Child Club leading by Jagriti Child Club. I thought that, Pargatinagar VDC is famous for the Child Club active VDC of all over the Nepal. I would like to wish, Pargatinagar VDC will doing very good work in future.

If only some 'Pratinagars' could grow everywhere, including in Kathmandu Valley! Or better still, if the country as a whole could apply the lessons learned from this small-scale model and upscale it, then perhaps we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and see positive change in the next decade.  Who will start it - the youth clubs, the mothers' clubs?

I left Kathmandu over a year ago and am now working part-time with a small charitable organization in Vancouver BC which is supporting education and health initiatives in the Himalayan region. In Nepal we are currently supporting education projects in Humla and Kathmandu.

small may be a place, raged may be the villagers, and they may lack an adroit of speaking, thier thought, dedication and labour cannot be compared to the technocratized metropolitan cities because it always soars in a height , since they have a pure heart, loving mind and hospitable behavoir. i know my villagers, pragatinagar basi, they love their village, villagers and thier guests. let the world, learn the lesson of hospitability from them, obama and laden will shake their hand. our pride, pragatinagar.