Migrant workers

Perhaps no other country sends as large section of its workforce abroad as Nepal. Currently, more than a third of the country’s population of 27 million are estimated to be working abroad. About six million Nepalis work in India alone; while the remaining four million are employed in other countries. Continuing political and economic chaos in Nepal has compelled a large number of youth to leave. Push factors such as poverty, unemployment and risk of life are coupled with pull factors like lucrative job opportunities abroad. The choice could not be starker. 

Unemployment among the Nepali youth is as high as 40 percent. For many, working abroad has also become a symbol of social status and adds to their credibility back home. Whether rich or poor, skilled or unskilled, male or female, most of the working age population has dreams of going abroad. So each year hundreds of thousands of people apply for the American Diversity Visa, though only around 2,500 eventually get the opportunity to go to the ‘land of dreams’. Recently, almost half-a-million Nepali youth appeared for Korean language tests for a limited number of jobs in South Korea. The frustrated youth often prefer to try their luck abroad, even in the absence of any job guarantee, even if they have to leave their loved ones behind. 
 
Officially, 1,500 people leave the country each day for overseas employment, excluding India. However, unofficial estimate of people leaving the country through legal and illegal channels is much higher, at around 300,000 a year. 

In 1996, only six people used to leave Nepal each day for jobs abroad. Nepali workers in the Middle East countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE numbered 10,000 in 1991. But in 2011 their number had multiplied several fold and reached 700,000. In Qatar alone, the Nepali labor force accounts for some 40 percent of total working population in the country. 

Most importantly, in 2013 Nepal received remittance to the tune of US $5 billion from its migrant workers, which comes to 25 percent of the country’s GDP. Unofficial figures, however, suggest that Nepal’s earnings through this source are as high as 40 percent of GDP. Remittance has made a big contribution in reducing the poverty level in Nepal to 25 percent. 

Over the years, remittance has brought about a lot of changes in the country. The service sector for instance grew by six percent in 2013. Most traditional mud-built houses have been replaced by brick homes. Private schools are cropping up everywhere. A number of FM radio stations have come up as well. TVs and mobiles have become as common. People are better fed and dressed than ever before. Many of them have access to health facilities. Women are more empowered today as they are the ones to make household decisions by virtue of becoming de facto household heads after their male-partners left the country for jobs abroad.

However, the outflow of the working population is not unmixed blessing. Nepal’s economic growth of 3.6 percent in 2013 was lowest among the eight South Asian countries. Because of the shortage of labor, agricultural growth was as low as 1.3 percent in 2013; while the industrial sector growth rate was an even less-impressive at 1.6 percent. Meanwhile, inflation (at 9.8 percent) is threatening to get out of our hands.
 
The social costs of mass migration of workforce are as troubling. Sexually transmitted diseases, including the HIV/AIDS cases among the migrant workers and their families back home are on the rise. Suicide rates among workers shot up. Incidents of deaths of Nepali laborers in popular destinations like Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are alarming. At least three to four Nepali laborers die every week in Qatar alone. As per the data released by Foreign Employment Promotion Board, 726 Nepali workers died abroad in 2012: Malaysia (253), Saudi Arabia (205), Qatar (151) and UAE (47). Unofficial reports, however, suggest that at least five coffins of Nepali workers arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport each day. Nepali workers mainly die due to workplace accidents, suicide and cardiac arrest. 

Many Nepali workers have been forced to work like slaves. They are not paid for months. Their salaries are retained and their passports confiscated. They are not provided free drinking water even in scorching sun, when the temperature reaches as high as 50 degrees. They have to work on empty stomach for long periods. Still they prefer not to return home as many of them are heavily indebted and have to pay interest rate of up to 36 percent. 

Commenting on the plight of the Nepali workers, Maya Kumari Sharma, former Nepali Ambassador to Qatar, had said that the country was like an ‘Open Jail’. But there is no sign that the outflow of the Nepali workers would be reduced in the near future. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the state to educate workers and make them skilled in one or the other field before they leave the country. For instance, it can be made mandatory for women workers to take martial arts training to enable them to face possible risks abroad. 

Activities of the mafias who smuggle workers to foreign lands should also be curbed. But most importantly the Nepal government and its embassies abroad must see to it that the passports and other documents of the workers are not ceased by unscrupulous elements and that they are not exploited physically, mentally and economically. An environment needs to be created in which the workers and their families at home are made to spend their hard-earned money on productive ventures. In the meantime, the social costs at home should be minimized. These measures will go some way towards making Nepal truly prosperous by the way of foreign income. 

The author is a Professor of Economics and Executive Director of the Centre for Economic and Technical Studies

Published on: 22 October 2014 | Republica