Background:
Since 1996, the people of Nepal have had to suffer appalling scale of distress and agony due to a violent insurgency unleashed by the Maoists. The difficult situation inside the country has retarded the growth of its economy besides obstructing efforts towards poverty alleviation. With 42 percent of the total population living below the poverty line and garment, carpet, and pashmina production declining due to overall slowdown of global financial system the only sector that is sustaining the ailing economy is the remittances generated from Nepalese labour force working abroad. Of late, foreign employment has ascended to be the most important sector for sustaining the country's economy. In an average, almost 200 youths leave Nepal for employment overseas on a daily basis.
The history of foreign employment in Nepal dates back to the early nineteenth century when Nepalese soldiers began to work for the British army. In the ensuing decades, hundreds of thousands of Nepalese have worked in British and Indian armies with valor and honesty. Currently, over 60 thousand Nepalese work for the Indian Army and other government institutions in India. The pace of the foreign employment increased dramatically after 1996 and the consequent shrinking of economic opportunities back home compelled Nepalese youths to look for alternatives elsewhere. Till such a time when the country is able to create enough employment opportunities, foreign employment could provide a viable support to hold the economy together. It also makes sense for the country at a time of security crisis to encourage its youths to engage in productive works and send money back to their families.
The massive unemployment inside the country is the main reason behind this upsurge in venturing out to distant lands. Among the total population of 23.1 million, 47 percent are underemployed. Underemployment is defined as such a state where even if one takes away the additional labor force, the productivity in a particular household remains unchanged. Likewise, at present there are 1.5 million people who are totally unemployed. According to one estimate, every year 300,000 to 350,000 new Nepalese laborers enter the market. Out of these new entrants, 30 to 40 thousand find jobs within the country; 100,000 to 150,000 go abroad and the rest remain in the country without a job.
According to the Labor survey report of 1998/99, youths between the ages of 15-29 make almost 25% of the total population and 13.6% of the total labor force. Of this group only a tiny portion live in urban areas. With this lopsided urban-rural distribution, it becomes clear that a huge mass of underemployed youth is living in the villages at a time when the Maoists are all the more eyeing the young as their potential cadre.
At present there are roughly 700,000 Nepalese now working in dozens of countries in the Gulf, Malaysia, South Korea and other countries sending the remittances of nearly Rs. 80 billion through official and unofficial channels. According to a study by David Seddon for the DFID, the value of foreign remittance from migrant laborers could be equivalent to 25 percent of official gross domestic product (GDP). This is indeed a whopping figure!
Even the government's official records illustrate that around half a million Nepalese are working overseas. But these figures do not include more than a million working in different parts of India as wage laborers, gate-keepers, guards, waiters, etc. Because of the open border, there is no record of the number of people that go to India as seasonal workers. Nor is there any record of the standard wage that they earn and the income that they bring back. In fact, there is a total dearth of information regarding the total outflow of laborers. A recent news report revealed that Nepalese in increasing are now going to the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan as well. Kathmandu knows very little of Baku and its employment agencies hence if these Nepalese find themselves in trouble, all the Nepalese missions in the area (Islamabad, Moscow or Riyadh) are relatively far from the vicinity.
In this context, according to the National Planning Commission (NPC), the number of overseas workers has grown, on average, by 30 percent in the last couple of years making it the single-largest foreign exchange earning sector (see Table). For the first time in history, Nepal's foreign exchange reserve has soared over to one billion dollars. The NPC has stated that because of the remittances penetrating into the remote villages, it has also helped in poverty alleviation. Thus, the importance of foreign employment for Nepal - particularly at this critical juncture - cannot be over-emphasized.
Table
| Total Foreign Exchange Receipts* |
Rs 217.1 billion |
|
Receipts from exports |
Rs 49.8 billion (23.0%) |
|
Receipts from tourism |
Rs 16.1 billion (7.4%) |
|
Remittances |
Rs 55.3 billion (25.5%)
|
* For the first 11 months of 2060/61
(Source: Nepal Rastra Bank)
An overwhelming majority of overseas Nepalese work in Islamic countries. From the Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Jordan to Malaysia, all of them are predominantly Islamic nations. Nepal must explore the possibilities of expanding its ties with these countries in political, economic and cultural spheres. Our missions in some of those countries are grossly understaffed, under-budgeted and ill-equipped to handle the enormous problems of our workers let alone survey the opportunities to consolidate and expand the bilateral relations. Since these countries don't have their missions in Kathmandu, Nepalese workers have to fly to Delhi or Dhaka in order to get their visas that sometimes take nearly two months.
Implications:
The ruthless killing of 12 innocent Nepalese in Iraq and the subsequent mob fury on September 1st in Nepal has opened up newer challenges and trials for hundreds of thousands of Nepalese working in Muslim countries as laborers. The damage done to the jama masjid by a mob at the heart of Kathmandu sadly produced world-wide publicity. The CNN website placed the photo of the damaged mosque under its news on Nepal. 'The Statesman' of Sep. 2nd published the same photograph as its banner on the front page. Such pictures have been placed on other Internet sites and Arab newspapers as well. We should not take the foreign employment sector for granted. The events of the day made it painfully clear how vulnerable this sector was. If not handled properly this will have grievous consequences on not only the over 1 billion Rs. remittance being received annually but more so on the law and order situation of the country that will have to confront further complexities if young Nepalese start returning home. Both will have dreadful fallouts on the conduct of international relations and foreign policy and moreover on national security. It is now clear that Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in the days and months ahead will increasingly have to focus on labor issues pertaining to Nepalese workers outside the country.
Possible Suggestions:
Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, a renowned Muslim scholar in his book Nepal: Home of Gods published in 1938 from London writes, "The people of Nepal are amongst the most delightful in the world. They are humorous, light-hearted even in adversity, fond of good living and almost entirely without guile. With their studied independence, they blend a wonderful simplicity, and they are honest almost to a fault." It is the natural blend of uniqueness and Hindu-Buddhist-Muslim harmony that has existed in Nepal since centuries that we should try to publicize in the Gulf and other Islamic countries. Both Nepal and most of the countries of the Gulf are monarchies and we in concert take pride in the fact that the institution of monarchy has been a symbol of unity and stability in all our countries. The fact that two huge mosques have been allowed to exist barely a kilometer away from the main gate of the royal palace of the world's only Hindu kingdom alongside a Sanskrit hostel speaks of the broad-mindedness and liberal attitude of the Nepali society. Muslims have been living in Nepal for centuries. They are a part and parcel of Nepalese society from hills to the Terai. Without the beads and bangles (Chura, Pote) made by them, a wedding ceremony of a Hindu Nepali cannot be complete.
Sound inter-ministry coordination especially between the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions in the Gulf, Arabic language training of officers, opening up of new missions in countries with substantial Nepalese workers, equipping our missions with additional personnel, budget, and modern tools such as satellite telephones and computerized database of Nepalese working in a particular country and their home addresses, emergency funds for crisis/rescue situations, etc. is urgently needed to meet the future challenges and cash in on the enormous reservoir of opportunities that lay in these countries. Improving and expanding banking channels to encourage remittance through official networks, lobbying for the safety and protection of the rights of Nepalese workers and for their better pay and working conditions, providing brief orientation to the prospective overseas workers about the laws and culture of the country of work, penalizing those manpower agencies engaging in unlawful practices, having a better record system of outbound laborers, finalizing labour agreements with Gulf countries, exploring possibilities of imposing a minimal charge on every worker going abroad so as to create a fund to be used to equip diplomatic missions, opening a Nepalese consulate in Mecca to assist annual Nepalese haj pilgrims, asking Gulf countries to open their missions in Kathmandu, setting up a foreign employment promotion cell at the MoFA to coordinate all these multifarious procedures and dealings could be additional arrangements to facilitate foreign employment and remittance inflow.
The visit to the Gulf by a high-level government team has boosted Nepal's relations with the Gulf countries and is a successful step in the right direction. This sort of to and fro visits must be accentuated in the coming days. During a meeting of Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat with his counterpart of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Rassid Abdullah al-Numami, the latter stated that even upto a million Nepalese workers would be permitted in the UAE. Likewise, Qatar has also agreed to take increasing number of Nepalese workers. Minister al-Numami also pledged security to Nepali workers in his country. In a nutshell, an overall policy on minimizing the risks involved and enhancing the possibilities of this sector must be appropriately framed and earnestly implemented. But one thing is for sure, labor issue has become a major subject matter in the area of Nepal's international relations exercise and perhaps will remain so at least for the foreseeable future.
- Sanjay Dhakal / Nishchal N. Pandey
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