Ashok Thapa

The Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) has proposed to the government to appoint labor attachés in six countries including South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Israel and Oman in the next fiscal year.

In a set of programs that the Ministry pushed for inclusion in the budget for 2011-12, it has strongly pleaded for appointment of labor attaches in the six countries on the grounds that Nepali workers in those countries has grown rapidly in recent years.

"And, there is a need to address their concerns, support them and also protect their fundamental rights," said Amal Kiran Dhakal, joint secretary at MoLTM. The ministry has also demanded additional budget from the government to improve the capacity of its departments and offices, particularly Department of Labor (DoL). The ministry has said institutional capacity building of government bodies was crucial if the government is to implement programs that promote self-employment and enhance skills of the workers.

MoLTM has also submitted a program under which it has claimed it will develop a Model Labor Office and has sought budget for building necessary infrastructure and logistics support to ensure better service delivery.

"Labor offices have not been able to deliver effective services mainly because they lack proper infrastructure and resources," said Dhakal. For the effective service delivery, he said the Ministry has proposed a program to restructure the existing labor offices.

The ministry has asked the government to support the formation of Labor Co-operatives and pledge them finances to run different employment programs. Given that the government has placed ´cooperatives development´ high in its priority list, the ministry too has attached similar importance to the program.

Apart from that, MoLTM has also asked the government to revitalize the Employment Information Center (EIC) which has remained defunct so far. The DoL has set up EIC in every zone. However, its activity is presently limited to gathering information on youth unemployment.

"EIC was set up solely because the government envisaged it to develop as a forum where employers could approach to hire fresh staff and youths could enquire if there are placements for jobs. Sadly, we have not been able to run such programs till date," said another MoLTM official.

Given the situation, Dhakal said MoLTM has asked the government to define the programs that EIC could run so that it could play more meaningful role in managing youth unemployment.

The ministry has also sought financial and logistics support for the Secretariat of Social Security Fund so that it could implement much-touted social security schemes in the new fiscal year.

"To execute these programs, we have requested the government to allocate us a budget of Rs 560 million in 2011-12," said Dhakal. However, the budget sought by the ministry is higher than National Planning Commission´s commitment of Rs 60 million.

Officials said the ministry will need more funds if it is to effectively run the ongoing programs and also to introduce new programs.

Published on: 19 June 2011 | Republica