The Rise and Fall of National Service in Nepal: A Critical Study of Service and Citizenship Building in Nepal

Service in Nepal is not a new phenomenon. Traditional approaches to service based on voluntarism, however, have begun to fade as NGO-sponsored volunteer organizations and state-sponsored service programs have taken on a larger role in the country. State-sponsored service programs and NGOs, however, have not necessarily promoted citizenship. This paper explores the relationship between service and citizenship in Nepal with a mixed method study of participants in two national service programs: the National Development Service, established in the 1960s, and the National Development Volunteer Service, established in 2001.