Ban the bomb

Mission

I was one of the international delegates that comprised of physicians and medical students from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Malaysia, the United States, and Russia. The delegation was organised by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel peace prize in 1985. Established in 1980 by doctors from the United States and the former Soviet Union during the peak of the cold war, the organisation advocates for peace, people's health, and nuclear disarmament.2 My connection to the organisation was as national medical student representative of the Nepalese affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility. Four Nepalese--three doctors and myself--had joined the group.

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War sends delegation teams to all the nuclear capitals of the world. These teams talk with the decision makers--politicians, parliamentarians, diplomats, researchers, and economists--of the country.3 They discuss the medical consequences of nuclear war and proposals for disarmament.

This time, the team was going to talk to the decision makers of India and Pakistan to put pressure on them to act judiciously on the issues of nuclear weapons, paving the way to nuclear …