In order to answer this question, we must, at first, try to find out in what ways ‘democracy’ and ‘poverty’ are related in context of Nepal. Implicit in this statement are answers about why democracy came in the country during 1950s-for the first time in history, and again in 1990s- as an effort of restoring democracy. In the mean time, ‘poverty’, in case of Nepal, appears to be an outcome of the past autocratic regimes, and as a gifted challenge to the democracy. On that ground, I will make an attempt to see -to what extent- democracy has been successful to address the problem of poverty in the country.
Poverty, in case of Nepal, is an outcome of the past autocratic regimes, by all accounts. For instance, until 1951 i.e. during the 104-year-old autocratic Rana regime, Nepal experienced the picture of severe economic stagnation. The hills areas experienced an acute shortage of labor even for normal agricultural operations, leading to conditions of acute scarcity on famine (Shaha, 1990) . This was because Nepalese people who were abroad, mainly in India, did not wish to return because of their growing dissatisfaction with the condition of life inside their own country. In contrary, the Rana administration lived the most luxurious life ever with the wealth of the country on their side, while Nepalese people were subjected to extreme poverty. Shaha writes that in those days, as even now to an extent, Kathmandu presented a striking picture of contrast between extreme poverty and vast wealth (1990). In such a scenario, Democracy, for the first time in Nepal in 1951, became a tremendous hope for Nepalese against their extreme poverty situation.
The interim democratic era (1951-1960), nine years of infant democracy, could not produce much in terms of reducing the problem of poverty, but it achieved significantly in terms of signing new treaties, agreements, admission, etc. For instance, conclusion to Delhi Agreement, first foreign aid agreement with United States in 1951- named four point program which was soon followed by India (in the same year), China (1956) and USSR (1958), membership of UN (1955), etc (Aryal, Subedi, & Thapa, 2010) . In addition, the spirit of the first five years plan (the beginning of the planned development initiatives in the history of Nepal), launched in 1957, was overshadowed by another political upheaval in 1960 i.e. the beginning of the Panchayat Era.
