Why I became non-Buddhist and a non-believer of the concept God?

Though I was born in an ethnic titled "Tamang" that is considered Buddhist in Nepal culturally as well as ideological belief system wise like individual or family, who follow Hinduism ideological belief system considered Hindu, Christianity culture and belief system follower considered Christian and Islam culture and belief system follower considered Muslim by birth. In my understanding fact, by birth everyone is born as an atheist with clean and clear mind but family members and society made innocent and ignorant child theist imposing parental dogma on them during process of socialisation. I realised this is the first crime any parent can do and has been doing against humanity indoctrinating theological dogma to their innocent and ignorant child's mind without any intention instead due to lack of their own ignorance and delusion. Any parent who wants their child better and bright future no child should be made any theological dogmatic but family members and society do so indoctrinating parental belief system from the very early stage of socialisation process. In the same way, I also became a Buddhist by birth without knowing what actually Buddha, Buddhism and Buddhist mean. 
However, I decided not to be a dogmatic theological believer since my youthful adolescent age became I used to question to myself why we have to do ritualistic worshipping activities in daily basis and also time-to-time why we have to invite Buddhist religious leader known as Lama to do worshipping activities requesting them to read different purposeful holy scriptures section which my mothers used to do so. By doing so we had to respect them as a holy-man, pay remuneration of their ritualistic service and also provide special foods and drinks to those Lamas, that were indigestible to me. Therefore, I used to question to myself why we had to do this, how about those family members who can afford to do so and provide such luxurious treatment to those Lamas. Besides, on the day of a prince Siddhartha Gautam Buddha was born, which is called Buddha Jyanti I noticed that animal scarification ritualistic activities are performing every year which was very much indigestible to my youthful mind. These made to think differently and decided to not to be a religious person unless and until I don't understand why such religious activities have been carried out and why God not just Buddha but else are not helping poor, ill and sick people. I also decided not to worship any God visiting temples and monasteries and put red colour religious symbol called "Tika" on my forehead. This is because in the context of Nepal and Indian societies especially in domination of Hindu cultural practice it is considered the symbol of religious person if any put red colour "Tika" on their forehead. Because of my such attitude and behaviour my network friends used to ask me whether I am an atheist or Christian. I even didn't know what atheist mean by then so I used to object them saying I am not a Christian but I don't trust and believe on any religious worship and ritualistic activities.  

Empowering Women and Infants: My Journey in Making a Difference in Nepal's Health

Before embarking on my journey as a nurse in Australia, I had gained valuable experiential learning from grassroots women since 1996. This involved various roles and responsibilities in hospitals and development agencies, spanning clinical and community settings. As a result of my experiences, I decided to pursue a career in the public health field and applied for the Australian Development Scholarship in 2004, which I successfully secured.

Upon completing the Master of Public Health program at the University of New South Wales in March 2006, I returned to Nepal equipped with new analytical knowledge and a deep enthusiasm to make a difference in the development sector. I had focused my major project work during my master's program on the issues I was passionate about. Initially, I joined a private college as a lecturer for Bachelor of Public Health and Bachelor of Nursing students. However, I soon realized that I wasn't satisfied with my role and desired to have a direct impact on the lives of women and their families. I yearned for an opportunity to make a meaningful and selfless contribution aligned with my personal and professional interests.

One day, I came across the National Policy on Skilled Birth Attendants 2006, which emphasized the establishment of maternity hospitals and community-based "birthing centers" by mobilizing resources from the non-government and private sectors. These facilities were intended to serve as midwife-led training sites. Inspired by these statements, I took the initiative to form a group of 15 female health professionals and established the first nurse-led standalone birthing center, known as the Basic Maternity Service Centre, in 2007. Each of us contributed NPR 100,000 from our own pockets to make this endeavor possible.

After gaining nearly three years of firsthand experience in managing the center, I recognized the need to establish a professional association that could advocate for and engage with the Nepalese government to develop a midwifery workforce capable of providing leadership in midwifery. In 2010, I led a group of 11 nurses working in different institutions, representing both clinicians and educators, to establish the Midwifery Society of Nepal. Meanwhile, I also realized the need to enhance my leadership skills and explore gender power relations in sexual and reproductive health. In 2010, I applied for the Australian Leadership Award, strategically aligning it with my vision, mission, and objectives. I approached and requested Kiran Bajracharya, an academic associate professor at Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine Maharajgunj Nursing Campus, to assume the role of President while assuring her two terms of three years each. I took on the role of Joint Secretary.

Before pursuing my doctorate program in Australia, I had the opportunity to secure funding from UNFPA and support the advocacy and lobbying activities for the initiation of a midwifery education program in Nepal. Subsequently, Nepal was awarded the global midwifery twinning project with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) in the United Kingdom through the International Confederation of Midwives. In 2012, during my fieldwork in Nepal, I dedicated half of my time to research and the other half to advocating and lobbying with stakeholders to kickstart the midwifery education program.

Upon completing my doctorate program in April 2015 and returning from Australia, I engaged in relief work for the districts severely affected by the 2015 earthquake. During this time, I established temporary birthing shelters and continued my advocacy and lobbying efforts for midwifery. The Bachelor of Midwifery program was subsequently launched by Kathmandu University in 2016, followed by the National Academy of Medical Sciences in 2017, Karnali Academy of Health Sciences in 2018, and B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in 2021. Currently, there are 25 professional midwives in Nepal, a significant increase from none in 2010 when the association was established. In 2019, I assumed the role of President of the association.

From February 2016 to February 2020, I served as a board member of the Nepal Nursing Council, nominated by the Ministerial Council. The council serves as the regulatory body for both nursing and midwifery professionals, enabling me to work on the scope of midwifery practice, midwifery code of conduct, and the establishment of a national licensing examination for midwifery graduates.

Over the past 14 years, I have been dedicated to putting the government of Nepal's policy into practice, producing the critical human resource of midwives for safe motherhood. Empowering Nepalese girls and women has been my lifelong dream, starting from my involvement with the Women's Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC) in 1996. I believe that midwives, based on the global evidence spanning 300 years from Sweden to the United Kingdom, are the key professionals in the health sector who can bring about lasting change. Despite the challenges, I have been unwavering in my commitment to producing well-trained professional midwives in Nepal, and I believe this will significantly improve the lives of childbearing women and their infants, even beyond my lifetime.

Modern Nepal's ancient childbirth practice still exist: Manifestations of violence against women during childbirth

Yesterday (27 March 2022) early in the morning at 7:47 am my near and dear obstetrician and gynaecologist (OBGYN) friend who also happened to be a licensed advocate shared me this picture in my messenger. Seeing the picture I could not write anything to her for a while and then after awhile I replied her saying, Brave lady! In an animal world that's normal and natural physiological process but in the human society world people had fantasized childbirth." I could not stopped myself and trying to find out the authenticity of the picture that has been shared via Swasthyapati facebook page stating, "A woman giving birth on the way to Bajura district. Lack of healthcare, illiteracy, lack of road transport and inaction of the responsible bodies, such incidents are still repeated in Nepal today. Photo: Prakash Singh- Bajura"

I wrote to the Swasthyapati in the messenger requesting to provide the contact of Mr. Prakash Singh who took the picture. But I could not stopped myself waiting to get the answer so I searched in the facebook to Mr. Prakash Singh then I came across his facebook page. Quickly first of all I went through is profile and came to realized that he is a journalist working for different media houses, for example, Editor-in-Chief at Badimalika Khabar, Reporter Nepal Television, Himal Khabar, and Himalyan Times. I dropped the message introducing myself and requesting his contact number. In between my OBGYN friend replied to my comment questing, "Fantasized!?" I replied her saying, "Yes no doubt about it because of the over commeralization of childbirth." and I personally thanked her for sharing the picture then called her. Then we decided to meet at 11:00 AM. Once we met at at her workplace we discussed about the case secanario and explored about what we can do to stop similar incident to take place in the near future. Besides, I wrote an email to the concerned authorty of the government of Nepal and stakeholders with the same subject of this post, "Modern Nepal's ancient childbirth practice still exist: Manifestations of violence against women during childbirth." Dear respected duty-bearers and human rights advocates, Namaste! In modern Nepal ancient childbirth practices still exist but our policy makers and planners don't care about it since they love to preserve and protect ancient practices that prove from their action and/or inaction. This is manifestations of violence against women during childbirth. Below picture from Karnali provice's Bajura district of a woman giving birth on the way depicted that because of lack of access to maternity care, illiteracy, low women status, lack of road transport and inaction of the duty bearers, inhuman practices and incidents are still exist in the modern Nepal despite we have good number of development agencies working for safe motherhood, road construction and education sectors but women in a rural and remote Nepal lives have not changed that much in the last 20-30 years sadly to say.

According to the National Policy on Skilled Birth Attendant's Long Term Strategy Since 2010 we have been tirelessly advocating for the development and deployment of midwifery workforce especially for rural and remote Nepal in order to prevent this kind of incidents from happening in modern Nepal. But we have been facing problems from policy makers and planners even implementing the government of Nepal policy to put into practice so that our rural and remote poor women don't have to give birth like ancient time Nepalese women or animals in a very inhuman manner. Isn't this violation of human rights of women during childbirth? Violation of human rights in childbirth has to be stopped as early as possible by the government of Nepal as a duty brear. Right holders, childbearing women's rights have been violated by the government of Nepal even in this 21st century modern Nepal despite it has been stated in the Constitution of Nepal to be ensured then how can we expect healthy mothers and healthy babies for the nation building process by improving maternal and newborn health in this country? I strongly urge the government of Nepal and concerned stakeholders to support the government of Nepal to put into practice what has been ensured in the Right to Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Act 2018 so that our childbearing women and their newborn can be survived, thrived and transformed according the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030). We know that the SDG goal relating to safe motherhood won't be attained by 2030 but at least we can strive for it in the next 8 years. Thank you and look forward to taking action proactively so that next time we don't have to read or hear any incident like this. At 12 noon Mr. Prakash Singh has shared his contact number then I called him and decided to me him today at 11 AM since he leaving today for his work station in Karnali province. As a responsible person and right holder it is my right to educate both duty bearers to fulfil their duty and to the right holders to educate and empower them to exercise their rights so that no women have to left behind like this rural and remote Bajura district childbearing women had to even in this 21st century. I felt that she has been treated like an animal by her family, society and state that's why she has to give birth in such a condition which we hardly can imagine and think in this 21st centruy era.