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JUL 21 -
The numbers seem incredible. Of every 100 people who enter Nepal’s workforce each year, 75 leave the country to work abroad. Last fiscal year, a record 300,000 people left—a whopping 80,000 more than the previous year. As the country fails to stem the outbound tide—if it wants to at all with remittances contributing 19 percent of GDP—opinions are divided on the precipitous rise in the number of Nepali youths seeking foreign employment.
The greater the number of outbound workers, goes one school of thought, the better it is for the country. As productive sectors continue to shrink and shed jobs, the country would be inviting a social disaster by hindering foreign employment. By seeking foreign shores, this school reckons, young Nepalis are helping themselves as well as their country’s battered economy.
It is hard to deny that unemployed youths would create a huge social challenge. Harder still to see how the Nepali economy could stay afloat at this juncture without remittances. But what is also undeniable is that the youth exodus is reflective of the state’s dismal record in employment generation by boosting its productive sector. Equally worrying, most of the money entering the country is being pumped into unproductive sectors like land and housing.
In the long run, annual out-migration of three-quarters of any country’s productive workforce is clearly unsustainable. And so is a disproportionate reliance on remittances to prop up an unproductive economy. But as the world recovers from the global financial downturn, more, not less, young Nepali workers are likely to seek foreign employment—as is being witnessed in the sharp increase of Nepali workers into Saudi Arabia and Malaysia in the last few months.
Thus the best bet at the moment seems to be channelling remittances into more productive sectors and vital infrastructure, which in the long run is likely to be of benefit both to the investors as well as the country. Sectors like hydroelectricity and drinking water supply are crying out for native investors. Otherwise the easy money may continue to fuel unproductive consumption and reckless spending.
The state could also take better care of its workers toiling abroad, often in very dangerous conditions. On average, three Nepali migrant workers lose their lives every day, many from suicide, as dreams of a better life for their families quickly evaporate under the scorching Gulf sun. Nepali women migrant workers continue to be tortured and harassed abroad. Right now, the role of relevant embassies and consulates seems confined to getting the battered and bruised women on board Nepal-bound planes.
As the out-migration of Nepali workers is likely to pick up momentum in the days ahead, and state coffers fill up with their help, it will be up to the government to do its part by working to secure them a safe working environment through its diplomatic channels.
Posted on: 2010-07-22 08:35
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