How Nepal’s electrical accident compensation system leaves survivors paying the price

For survivors of severe electrocution, the Nepal Electricity Authority’s one-time compensation closes a case, but the financial and physical trauma continues for decades.

On a Saturday afternoon in April, 2014, Sabita Thapa was watching television at her family’s home in Gothatar, Kathmandu, when the electricity began flickering. She was 11 years old then, old enough to remember the television advertisement playing before the accident, but too young to understand how a few seconds near an exposed high-voltage line would alter the rest of her life.