There are tell-tale signs of a youth bulge in Nepal, where 60 percent of the population is under the age of 40 years. Twenty percent of the population is between the age of 15-30 years. With unemployment rising to astronomical levels, a large chunk of young people are left out of the mainstream. According to figures, there are 1.5 million youths in the country who are totally unemployed. This is a terrible problem, given the insurgency raging in the countryside. As the state fails to chalk out proper strategies to provide jobs, the problem is gaining urgency day by day

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

Sarun Thapa is a disoriented person right now. Having failed the SLC examinations, this 17-year-old boy from Sankhu feels there is little option before him at present. “I was thinking of finding some job once I pass the exam and support my family. Now that I have failed, I don’t know what I am going to do. I have no desire of giving the exams next year and I cannot work in the family’s agricultural fields. I think I will go to Dubai to work,” he said.

Thapa’s sentiments represent those of thousands of disoriented Nepalese youths. The scenes of dozens of youths, in their prime productive age, sitting idle and whiling away their time by playing carom-boards or cards in and around the Kathmandu valley point to the rising problem. When the problem is so grave in urban and semi-urban areas, what is happening in rural countryside is anybody’s guess. Day in and day out, newspapers carry reports that hundreds of youths are leaving their native villages in search of employment in cities or outside the country. Those who do not leave their villages are being hounded by Maoist rebels and are being forced to join their rank and file.

Youths in city : Wandering for jobs
Youths in city : Wandering for jobs
When the results of this year’s School Leaving Certificate (SLC) were published two weeks ago, there were very few happy faces around. Among the total of 152,334 students who appeared in the examinations, a whopping two-thirds failed, exposing a gaping hole in the country’s education system.

This result becomes all the more disturbing when one analyzes the significance the SLC holds among Nepalese students – or, more specifically, what it means to fail this exam. For decades, Nepalese students have regarded the SLC as the ‘iron gate’. From cities to villages, most parents see it as a launching pad to the job market. In a country where pursuing higher education is exclusive to a few thousand families, the SLC is a turning point in a student’s life. In a poor society, it forces people to seek jobs to support their families.

What will become of the more than 100,000 students who failed this year’s SLC is anybody’s guess. “Fewer than 10 percent of these failed students may try to reappear in the exams next year. The rest will try to enter the job market. And if they fail, they could be exploited by violent elements” says Binod Bhattarai, member secretary of Employment Promotion Commission (EPC), who has done extensive research on Nepal’s unemployment problem.

That is a feeling shared by the youths themselves. “In fact, the government is creating a breeding ground for terrorists by not being able to rope in these unemployed and vulnerable section of youths,” said Rakesh Manandhar, a youth from Patan.

Unemployment & Underemployment

According to Bhattarai, among the total Nepalese population of 23.1 million, 47 percent (around 11 million) are underemployed. Underemployment, he defines, is the state where if you put out the additional labor force from a particular household, there will be no change in productivity. This is just subsistence work. “Underemployment especially in rural countryside where families depend on farmlands is a very big problem,” he says. (See box)

Likewise, there are 1.5 million people, mostly youths, who are totally unemployed. This is a big number and in the absence of economic growth, this figure is likely to increase in the coming days. Every year, between 300,000 and 350,000 enter the job market in Nepal. Only ten percent of them are absorbed in the domestic market. More than 100,000 of these leave the country in search of jobs and the rest remain here.

Worse, the economic slowdown has resulted in the closing down of several industries and has rendered thousands more jobless. The carpet and garment sectors are also laying off employees. So are other service sectors like hotels and airlines, to name a few.

Education Values

Many people see a big problem in the values taught by our education system and believe this has added to the problem of unemployment. “Our education system does not teach that all jobs are equal. In fact, Nepal is the only country where people become unemployed if they get education,” says Bhattarai. He cited the example how youths shy away from working in farms or engaging in menial jobs once they receive education.

The social norms and division of labor means that youths do not easily engage in jobs that are perceived to be menial ones, even though they have to live without work.

Apart from values, the education system itself, too, is flawed. “The education is not in keeping with the market demands. We are teaching our students the same old things over an over whereas the outside market has changed a lot and there are demands for new kinds of jobs,” says Dwarika Gurung, a teacher at a private school in Kathmandu.

Likewise, there are growing voices in favor of vocational training. “It is important to rope in those students who have failed in SLC in such training so that they will learn skills to live,” says Gurung.

A youngs person : Pondering hard
A youngs person : Pondering hard
“Our education system is flawed. It makes individuals dependent on jagir rather than making them problem solvers or enterprising. This has to do with the historical link between education and employment. Traditionally education was attained to get service in the government administration. This deeply rooted concept still largely prevails in our education system. We spend money to create a detached bookish and largely burdensome mass,” says Dr. Jagadish Pokharel, a member of National Planning Commission (NPC) who is in charge of employment affairs.

Insurgency & Unemployment

Recently, a program called “Matole Magdaina, Aanfai Dinuparchha”, produced by the Royal Nepalese Army and aired every fortnight on Nepal Television, showed an interview with a young person who was captured by security forces after finding him involved in Maoist activities. The naive teen-ager said he had joined the Maoists because they promised him a decent job. “But instead of providing a job, they involved me in their activities,” he said. This episode shows how vulnerable our youths are to such violent elements.

Since the last six years, the Maoist insurgency has hijacked the country’s peace and tranquility. The violent elements are increasingly recruiting poor and vulnerable youths and exploiting them for their selfish purposes. Among the various factors Maoists have exploited to advance their cause is the rampant unemployment in the country. As the saying goes, “An empty mind is the devil’s workshop”, these disoriented youths are naturally susceptible to high-sounding dreams.

Dr. Pokharel agrees that there is a possibility that insurgents are luring unemployed youths. He adds that the state needs to urgently address this problem before it gets out of hand.

Potentials

It is not that the country does not have the potential to provide jobs to its youths. Apart from sending skilled youths abroad for employment, there are enough potentials within the country as well.

Tourism could provide jobs to hundreds of thousands of youths if it takes off. Once the situation of insecurity is overcome, the tourism holds enormous potentials. Bhattarai cites an example of Muktinath alone. If we can construct roadways linking Muktinath, several hundreds of thousands of Indian tourists will visit, as they regard it in high religious esteem. “It can open up avenues for providing employment to thousands.”

Likewise, you can employ people of far western districts in hotels in Solukhumbu or Mustang districts. So is the case of agriculture. Due to variety of climate and geography, Nepal has some of the best places for fruit and vegetable plantation that can be exported outside the country. As the country is vastly under-developed, development projects like road construction, irrigation, hydropower, communication will also provide jobs to hundreds of thousands of people.

Apart from traditional jobs, new sectors like Information Technology offers jobs to relatively educated urban and semi urban youths in jobs like Medical Transcription, call centers and so on.

The country does have ample scope to absorb its unemployed mass. In fact, it has to start pushing its development projects and rope in such youths to steal the steam from the currently raging insurgency as well.

The problem of unemployment is also a global one. Because of rising threats of not addressing the unemployment problem, a major Youth Employment Summit 2002 is going to be held later this year in Alexandria, Egypt. The summit promises to launch a decade-long campaign with the target of providing sustainable and productive livelihoods to an additional 500 million young adults, especially those facing poverty.

As the country stands at the crossroads of development, addressing the problem of unemployment would solve a lot of its problems, including the core challenge of poverty alleviation.

Shocking Situation

A recent news report is enough to indicate the gravity of the situation. The officials of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) got a terrible shock when they received 120,000 applications for 600 vacant seats. The NEA had called for applications from qualified Nepalese for the 600 seats. To their utter disbelief, they received applications in excess of several hundred folds. “This is a good example of how rampant the problem of unemployment is in the country,” said an applicant who was in a queue to submit his application. The officials of the NEA had never imagined that they would be receiving such a huge number of applications. They had thought that a few thousand would apply. But this incident is not an exception. A few years ago, the Nepal Telecommunications Corporation, too, had received a similarly high number of applications. The government or semi-government organizations are found to rarely call for applications from common public. Therefore, when they do call for such applications, they get flooded with response. There is very limited possibility of getting jobs in government organizations. That apart, even the private sector is unable to cater to much employees. The Nepalese job market is able to absorb merely ten percent of the aspirants. The absence of big industrial units in the country have forced Nepalese youths to emigrate en masse. The rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country has fueled the problem. Now the youths are under pressures of all sorts. Unless there is a positive change in the economics of the country, the problem of unemployment could further aggravate.

‘The Weak And Marginalized Must Not Be Alienated Further’

— Dr. JAGADISH POKHAREL

jagadish.jpg (3012 bytes)
Dr. JAGADISH POKHAREL is a member of National Planning Commission. He talked to SANJAYA DHAKAL on various aspects of unemployment in Nepal. Excerpts:

What is the situation of youth unemployment in the country today? What proportion of the productive population is unemployed or under-employed?

According to the Labor Survey report 1998/99 youths between the age of 15-29 make up almost 25 percent of the total population. Of this group, only about 13 percent live in urban areas. Given this scenario of urban-rural distribution and given the urban-rural employment situation, there is a huge mass of youth underemployed and living in rural areas. As is the case with the urban population in general, the urban youth is largely unemployed rather than underemployed. If we take the age group above 15 years, then 178,000 people are unemployed. The unemployment rate in the 15-29 bracket is 25 percent. If we classify those working less than 40 hours per week as underemployed, then over 2.2 million people are visibly underemployed. The 15-29 age group makes up 13.6 percent of the total labor force.

What is the reason for the state’s failure to provide jobs?

Economic growth is key to employment generation. Economic activities that are appropriate to indigenous labor and skills only can absorb the local labor force. The state is not the real creator of jobs in a market-oriented economic context. The state can only create the environment for private sector to step in and invest in industries and services to generate employment. For this, the private sector expects a credible and consistent policy environment. The private sector should feel confident in the state’s behavior. This somehow has been lacking in the Nepalese state in recent years. The private sector does not find it credible. This is for the formal sector. For the informal sector and rural agriculture, the lack of modernization has impeded job creation for the youth in particular. This sector is traditional and is not reliable and respectable for the educated and semi-educated.

Do you see flaws in the education system? Do we need more vocational training?

Our education system is flawed. It makes individuals dependent on jagir rather than making them problem solvers or enterprising. This has to do with the historical link between education and employment. Traditionally education was attained to get service in the government administration. This deeply rooted concept still largely prevails in our education system. We spend money to create a detached bookish and largely burdensome mass. Imagine the situation where an illiterate agrarian father and mother feed and educate a number of children whereas after investing hundreds of thousand rupees a son/daughter is unable even to feed himself/herself. This is the paradox of our education system. Vocational training is all right but not one that is detached from what the individual already knows from the household. Modernize and make traditional/indigenous skills and knowledge respectable and marketable. Households, whether peasantry or occupations, can and are providing free training to children. Make it systematic and mainstream them, this can do wonders. We tend to train a Brahmin whose whole upbringing is for education in, say, tailoring. This is not going to work. Besides, it is too costly. We should be very clear as to what we mean by vocation and then provide/integrate them right from elementary education.

Each year, tens of thousands of youths fail the SLC exams. How can the country absorb this group for its benefit?

The SLC system should be reviewed and revised completely. It should not become an exclusive process that keeps out hundreds of thousands of youths from participation in mainstream economic activity and self-development. Worse, those who are mostly excluded are youth from poor families, remote areas and socially disadvantaged groups who cannot afford to pay for or who do not have access to better education. This system must be revised or else we will be creating a huge gap in society. I think the state must take this matter very seriously. These are weak and marginalized people and they should not be further marginalized. The state must be prepared to spend liberally to include them in the mainstream. Do not exclude them. The SLC does exactly this.

What special features does the upcoming Tenth Plan have on employment generation and promotion?

The plan revolves around the goal of poverty reduction. The strategy is broad-based growth and redistributive arrangement. The investment in sectoral projects and programs will take up the issue of employment very explicitly. The private sector will be seen as a true partner. Sectors that have greater employment effects will receive priority. There will be clear employment promotion initiatives by the Employment Promotion Commission both in the country and abroad. We should not forget that remittance money (employment abroad) is a major source of our revenue. This sector needs a more serious and sincere focus. The areas (rural) that receive most remittance money will be identified and there will be special strategies and programs for better utilization of the funds. Gulmi district alone receives over one billion rupees each year in remittance money. We do not have a clear idea on how to invest this money. There will be more special training in the modern sector such as information technology, which is most attractive to the youth.

Thousands of youths go overseas in search of employment each year. What can the government do to provide them jobs inside the country?

It is alright for people to go abroad for employment. We should not consider this something bad. Every nation has its own characteristic economic activity. The Nepalese people are historically fairly mobile in term of getting jobs abroad. This is respected also in the society. We should accept this fact. Then we can improve the situation and utilize it the best way we can. Understand this in a deeper way. We should not be carried away by some elitist feelings. We should understand the reality from the side of the people who go abroad. The issue is how to best use their income and skills they acquire abroad for their transformation so that their children do not have to go abroad for the same type of job. The nation must and should use them as assets for national development. These are mostly rural youth. We must come up with a plan for helping them to get better jobs through training and enlarging their choice. The state should look at this activity and the people more positively.

Some say rampant unemployment is fueling the insurgency. What do you say?

This is possible. Those who are excluded either because of our insensitivity in designing policy such as the SLC exam or other unintended ones are likely to look for alternatives, and this could be one alternative for them. It needs deeper analysis. But one thing is for sure, unemployment and exclusion can push youth far away from the mainstream.

Does the NPC have any special programs to rope in the jobless and misguided youths of insurgency-hit areas?

Once the situation improves, there will be a major effort for rehabilitation and reconstruction. This program will take some of these issues very seriously and come up with several options that suit the particular situation and context.

Does the Integrated Security and Development Program (ISDP) include anything on employment generation?

The ISDP is evolving. We are also learning. The experience over the past four years, be it as the Special Area Development Program, Basket Funding Approach, or the ISDP, has been very valuable. We are using this experience to design future course of action and to refine the ISDP. Employment and basic services to the people will be our core concept under the ISDP.

‘The Whole Value System Has To Be Re-Oriented’

— BINOD BHATTARAI

binod.jpg (5307 bytes)
BINOD BHATTARAI is the member-secretary of the Employment Promotion Commission (EPC), a high-level body formed by the government. He talked to SANJAYA DHAKAL on various issues relating to unemployment. Excerpts:

What is the extent of unemployment in the country today?

Unemployment is very rampant in the country. Of the total population of 23.1 million, 47 percent are underemployed. Underemployment is defined as that state where if you take away the additional labor force, the productivity in that household would not change. Likewise, at present there are 1.5 million people who are totally unemployed. Each year, 300,000 to 350,000 people enter the job market. My estimate is that out of these new entrants, 30 to 40 thousand get jobs within the country, 100,000 to 150,000 leave for India in search of work and the rest remain unemployed. This is the estimate we have come up with after our interactions with local leaders in various districts and representatives of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

What is the function of the EPC?

The EPC was set up in 2053 during the first tenure of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. Later it was changed into Employment Promotion Committee. In early 2057, the EPC was dissolved. Once again, in Kartik, 2057, the EPC was revived and I was appointed its member secretary. Our mandate is to mitigate unemployment by effecting coordination among various ministries, promoting it internally/externally, helping in the introduction of fruitful policies and initiating social dialogue. There are more than 20 ministries in the country and each is related with employment in varying degrees. But there was no coordination among these ministries. The EPC came into being to coordinate their policies and make them conducive for employment promotion.

What has the EPC done for employment promotion?

Since I took charge, I have introduced a number of programs. Each year, around Rs. 1 billion is spent on skill-oriented training programs by various ministries and departments. In the absence of coordination, there was rampant duplication. I approached the prime minister and told him that 80 percent of the resources spent on training was being wasted and gave him a report. There is an urgent need to create a coherent policy in this regard.

The EPC has tied up with Unlimited Numedia to provide Medical Transcription jobs to youths. How is it turning out?

Well, this was an important venture the EPC took up. I think there is no rationale in providing training without guaranteeing jobs. At present, information technology is rapidly growing in the whole world and I felt there was a big possibility of providing jobs to our youths in this sector especially in areas like Medical Transcription, Legal Transcription, call centers etc. So I arranged a meeting with the vice-chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC) where I proposed that the EPC be allowed to give loans to cover training costs of prospective youths so that it could be recovered by cutting from their salaries. Everybody agreed and we called for proposals and later on tied up with the Unlimited Numedia to train 500 youths each in Itahari, Pokhara and Kathmandu for Medical Transcription. The training is currently running successfully into its sixth month. After the completion of nine months, the successful candidates will get jobs with Rs. 10,000 as monthly salary. There is a tripartite agreement between students, Unlimited and the EPC whereupon Unlimited will guarantee two years of jobs to successful candidates (with at least 85 percent accuracy rate). The EPC has been bearing the training cost and will invest Rs. 20,000 on each youth. The project is running satisfactorily.

What about the promotion of foreign employment for Nepalese youths?

Foreign employment has proved to be an attractive source. Every year between 100,000 and 150,000 youths, including unskilled ones and those who fail SLC, go overseas. Naturally, unskilled people earn far less than those with skills. When I talked with overseas employment agencies, I found out that they were not able to send as much youths as demanded by the employers in Malaysia and the Gulf countries. Mostly, 70 percent of aspiring youths were unable to go because they lacked finance. They did not have money to go out. I felt there was a space in which the EPC could play a role here. I talked with banks and they said they had no problem in giving loans provided they were assured of re-payment. In particular, late Thakur Nath Panta of Bank of Kathmandu jumped with excitement on my offer. We arranged a meeting with Nepal Rastra Bank where everybody was positive. I went to Malaysia to talk with major employers who said they had no problem in cutting a certain portion of salaries from their employees and sending it to us. In fact, they were doing that with workers from countries like Myanmar, Indonesia etc. Recently, we formed a committee to look into the nitty gritty of this proposal. We are hopeful that we will be able to provide loans to aspiring youths in a judicious manner and selected by chief district officers. We believe we can send 150,000 to 200,000 youths every year in this manner shortly.

Is there no chance of absorbing the youths within the country?

There are plenty of opportunities here as well. The newly freed bonded laborers of Kanchanpur are sitting idle. On the other hand, the Thakalis of Mustang region, who have become well off due to their successful hotel and other businesses, have stopped doing menial tasks themselves. Recently I brought the DDC chairmen of Mustang and Kanchanpur together and we have reached into an agreement whereupon 50 Kamaiyas would be provided jobs in Mustang and the EPC will bear their initial training cost. This is just an example. Nepal is rich enough to adjust its problems. There is tremendous scope in tourism.

Why, do you think, has the state failed to provide jobs?

The state’s failure starts right from population growth. There is high fertility particularly among poor people. And we don’t have a long-term perspective plan on population. Such plan has to be tallied with tourism and industrial growth. Then the state can find out what volume of job it needs to create and when. There is no such thing in existence here. The EPC has started initiating social dialogue in this regard. Because of lack of planning and coordination, demand and supply are often not matched.

Do you see any lack in the education system?

Definitely, our education system does not teach us that all jobs are equal and that it is okay to become a waiter or a coolie. The whole value system has to be re-oriented. Nepal is probably the only country where youths become unemployed if they are educated. For instance, when a young person passes SLC he would cease to help in household chores or engage in agriculture. This mindset has to be changed. I feel that the prime minister should take time out and shake hands with, say, sweepers and give them encouragement. This will help a lot. Soon we will be entering the World Trade Organization and we can export our products to outside world. We need to develop a coherent long-term approach to take advantage of changing times.

What about vocational training?

Everything has to be linked with the scope. As we have potentials in tourism, we have to train our manpower accordingly so that backward and forward linkages that will appear will be taken care of. We also require rolling training institutes that travel to districts.

How do you see the link between insurgency and unemployment?

It is absolutely important to ensure equitable employment opportunities. In our project of providing loan to aspiring youths who want to go overseas, we have decided to be judicious while doing so. We will provide loans to those youths selected by an all-party committee and headed by chief district officers. We have to be extremely careful about this. If we fail to rope in such youths, if we fail to bring those who have failed in the SLC and who have nothing else to do to the mainstream, they could join the rank and file of the Maoists.