Narrative that Nepal is youth empty is not true: Minister Bhandari

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Apr. 4: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sarat Singh Bhandari Thursday argued that the narrative that Nepal is turning empty as a large number of youth are leaving the country for foreign employment is not true.

"Of course, the number of young people going abroad in search of employment is high. However, the number of those returning home after completing their fixed-term stay abroad is also increasing. Therefore, the statement that the country is becoming empty is not true," he said during a visit to Gorkhapatra Corporation Office.

According to him, about 7 million youth have left the country for employment and further studies in different countries so far. A study conducted by the Foreign Returnees Forum showed that around 4.2 million youth have returned home from abroad.

People are circulating a narrative that the country will be empty only looking at the number of youth flying abroad, ignoring the returnees’ statistics, which is wrong, he said.

Minister Bhandari said that about 90 per cent of the total number of migrant youth go to Gulf countries, including Malaysia and Japan, who return home after completing their contract term.

"Meanwhile, about 500,000 people have gone to European countries. It may be said that those people will not return, but people seek their identity when they become prosperous. Therefore, it seems that people who have gone to those European countries will also return to Nepal for identity after earning money," Minister Bhandari said.

As foreign employment is playing a key role not only to improve livelihood of the family of migrant workers but also contributing to the national economy, Minister Bhandari stressed the need for making this sector more dignified, well managed and secure with the mutual efforts of the government, people, media and other concerned bodies.

"Over 14,000 bodies of migrant workers were brought in coffins in the last 16 years, which is a matter of serious concern. Therefore, the ministry is working to make foreign employment safer by making policy reforms and generating awareness among the people," he said.

Recently, in coordination with the relevant agencies working in foreign employment, the government has expanded the scope of health check-ups for workers going abroad for employment.

Now, 32 types of health check-ups will be conducted for workers going abroad for employment, the Minister said.

"About 40 per cent of those returning from foreign employment have kidney problems. That is why the government has widened the scope of health check-ups for migrant workers. This will increase the cost itself," he said.

As it was found that the health check-up report of migrant workers is not genuine, he said that the Ministry is making the system digitalised to make it transparent and effective, he said.

Likewise, the Ministry has taken initiative to mark the decade from 2025 to 2035 as Employment Promotion Decade to create more employment opportunities within the country.

Minister Bhandari said that the Ministry has been restructured and established the Internal Employment Division aiming to create employment inside the country as well.

"There is a need to connect job seekers and employers. The ministry has fixed separate bodies to provide training based on the training period. This will help youth to get training as per desire while industries will get workers according to their needs," he said.

Executive Chairman of Gorkhapatra Corporation Bishnu Subedi stressed on the need of making foreign employment more dignified and safer as it is a matter of concern for all of us.

On the occasion, Minister Bhandari said that the Gorkhapatra Sansthan has a long history and a great role in keeping the public informed, and that it should focus on disseminating news and information based on facts and reality. 

"As the number of media and political parties increases and news is disseminated based on their interests, there is a growing sense among the public as to which news is true. Therefore, the Gorkhapatra Sansthan must win the public trust that its news is true and factual," he said.

Minister Bhandari said that there can be wide range of cooperation between Gorkhapatra Corporation and the Ministry for disseminating factual information to the people regarding domestic and foreign employment.

"We, the Ministry, are ready to collaborate with the Corporation for informing people to make foreign and domestic employment more dignified, well managed and secure," he said.

Chairman Subedi said that the presence of Gorkhapatra's publications, including Gorkhapatra daily and The Rising Nepal reached 77 districts and the digital platform has proven its strength in the market strongly. 

"The GC is willing to collaborate with government, including the Ministry for dissemination of information and news related to foreign employment and its policy," he said.

On the occasion, General Manager of Gorkhapatra Corporation Lal Bahadur Airi highlighted the scope of collaboration with the Ministry in informing people about foreign employment and make the labour sector dignified and well managed.