Campaign For a Livable Nepal, popularly known as “Gari Khana Deu (GKD)” (A Nepali expression that translates to ‘Let me earn my living)” campaign is an effort to raise voices to end prevailing lawlessness and impunity in the country by advocating for rule of law, safety of life and property and freedom to enterprise as essential preconditions to a livable country. Samriddhi hosts the secretariat of this highly popular campaign. Officially launched in Kathmandu and Pokhara, the coalition building for the campaign has been very successful and encouraging.
IMPACT
One of the most frequent occurrences that directly hamper people’s right to earn a living in Nepal are the general shutdowns known as ‘bandhs’. According to Republica national daily, from 2010 -2015, there have been 1047 such bandhs in Nepal crippling the economy. The campaign has been active in building coalition with several other groups to build pressure on the state and political parties to discourage those bandhs. The campaign also came up with a ‘bandha map’ for three years from 2012-14 highlighting the number of annual bandhas in different parts of Nepal and costs incurred by them. Consequently, three major political parties declared in their election manifestos in 2013 that they would not be organizing bandhas.
Hear the message of the campaign in an original song created by one of GKD’s long time supporter and a very popular Nepali folk-rock artist Mr. Lochan Rijal.
Officially launched in Kathmandu and Pokhara, the coalition building for the campaign has been very successful and encouraging. A coalition of over 4000 individuals and organizations help run the campaign. With over 40,000 individuals in the campaign’s facebook group alone, the campaign has reached about a million people in the past few years through billboards, flyers, car-stickers, campaign booklets, media features and its representatives in twenty two districts of Nepal. From November 2009 to February 2010, the campaign was able to partner with a nationwide musical caravan with some of the most popular musical groups of the country.
More about the campaign on its official website: livablenepal.org