Birthing centres, crucial for mother and newborn safety, face funding cuts under ne...

Thousands of contract employees serving under the Ministry of Health and Population lost jobs following the decision of the erstwhile Sushila Karki-led non-partisan government to dismiss all those appointees hired mainly due to their political connections. The incumbent Rastriya Swatantra Party’s government, led by Balendra Shah, has not only barred the hiring of contract employees but also lowered budget ceilings across federal, provincial, and local levels for the upcoming fiscal year. The move is likely to affect most of the public health programmes. Safe motherhood, one of Nepal’s priority health programmes credited with saving hundreds of maternal lives, is likely to be hit hard by the government's decision to reduce the budget for the fiscal year 2026–27. According to the Maternal and Newborn Section at the Family Welfare Division of the Department of Health Services, the government has slashed the ceiling of the new budget by 20 percent in all three levels of government—federal, provincial and local—compared to the budget for the last fiscal year. “The budget ceiling given for public health programmes such as the safe motherhood programme is sufficient only for four months,” said Dr Madan Kumar Upadhyaya, director at the division. “Several programmes of public health, in which the country has invested a lot and has national and international commitments to, will be affected if the budget is not increased.” Officials at the division said there are over 2,700 birthi