Participants of a programme have said the contribution of Nepali migrant women to their families’ economic support is significant but their contributions have gone largely ignored.

They further said that women constitute almost 55 percent of all internal migrants and 11 percent of international migrants in Nepal.

The United Nations Population Agency (UNFPA) entitled “State of the World Population 2006” and its supplement “Moving Young” released on Wednesday highlighted the social, economic and demographic aspects of youth migration.

The report said that every year, millions of women working overseas send hundreds of million of dollars in remittances to their homes and communities. These funds go to feed and educate children, provide health care, build homes, foster small businesses and generally improve living standards.

Presenting the report UNFPA representative to Nepal, Junko Sazaki said that number of new international migrants was 36 million between 1990 and 2005, according to reports.

She said more and more youths are on the move internationally and migration could be positive factors in efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, but there were negative issues to be addressed such as irregular and forced migration, refugees and asylum-seekers, trafficking of women, sexual exploitation and abuse.

Speaking at the report release ceremony, Minister for Education and Sports Dr. Mangal Siddhi Manandhar said that the Nepal government and UNFPA had agreed on empowering the issues on migration, reproductive health and other issues in the district level. He said that the issues of migrant workers should be addressed and the government had agreed to act it together in different issues related to the movement of youths.

Dr. Bhim Subedi presented paper on status of migration in Nepal. He said that in Nepal, 2.9 million persons change their residence from their birthplace and among them 55 percent are women.