His name is Jay. But we called him ‘Artist’. Artist could draw from his imagination. He has had no formal training, and is from the Musahar community here in Mahottari district.&nbsp; “Ever since I was in Grade 5, I started dabbling with art and got better at it,” he told us. “My friends used to request me to draw for them which encouraged me further.” He was part of an initiative aimed at making ethical recruitment accessible to the most marginalised communities who face significant barriers to migration. Prior to departure in September 2024, he would stand in the middle of the orientation class, doodling unperturbed while two dozen pairs of eyes watched him. Perhaps he did not sense others watching him because his passion transported him to a different world. Or maybe he knew he was good at his craft, and the others were admiring his work.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241218021240_f61ded2bf6953334d24bc5c196791c520056c2f1f0858c9529234e1dbf7485c9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241218021240_f61ded2bf6953334d24bc5c196791c520056c2f1f0858c9529234e1dbf7485c9" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1164" loading="lazy" alt="Migration is development NT 1"> </figure>  Upon our request to fit the theme for the day he doodled an airport scene. But when left to his own devices, his natural inclination was to draw portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses (pictured, above). His wife told us he was the go-to person for people in his village when they wanted divine portraits on their walls, doors, vehicles and curtains. Artist told us, “I have not made art on my wall yet because I don’t have a good house. Once I build a good house with my overseas earnings, I will draw portraits of Shankar Bhagwan and Krishna on my wall.” With that, he left for Malaysia. And 15 months after his departure, we visited Artist’s family in Mahottari (pictured, below). His house is being renovated, and by the time he returns it will be ready for his portraits.&nbsp; His mother beamed proudly, “I had told my son that as long as I lived, I would do everything to ensure his education was not interrupted. I made sure he passed his Grade 12 and learnt how to use a computer. Now he tells me not to do any work.”&nbsp; They have paid off almost all their piled up loans of Rs500,000. Listening to her made me wonder what other intervention would have helped a family like hers pay off their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/migrating-with-the-music-of-nepal">outstanding loans</a>, renovate the house and invest in better education and nutrition within 15 months.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241218021240_276c057beab24acaae02dc21f11354a82aa0ff8a99672d227bda07508da43687.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241218021240_276c057beab24acaae02dc21f11354a82aa0ff8a99672d227bda07508da43687" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="Migration is development NT 1"> </figure>  Other Musahar families say that equally vital benefits of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/fee-free-migration-is-possible">fee-free migration</a> in their case include being able to pay off outstanding loans, covering a niece’s one-month hospitalisation bills, savings, meeting household expenses, purchasing medicines, and funding children’s education. The way a large crowd had gathered to see workers off shows how migration is as much about the families as it is about them.&nbsp; To be sure, migration is not a utopia, remittance is not a silver bullet. Factory work is not easy, and overtime hours are not always guaranteed. Living away from home has its downsides. Missed milestones such as childbirth can be painful. Not everyone passes job interviews for ethical migration drives, which are few to begin with. Not everyone stays for the duration of their contract. Based on our conversations with the Musahar youth, had they not migrated they would likely be engaged in low-paying seasonal jobs in India, day labour in brick kilns, or working in others’ agricultural fields, or possibly be unemployed.&nbsp; If they did beat the odds to migrate overseas via traditional models, the challenges are well known: everyone would have taken loans at exorbitant interest rates, which could take months or even years to repay. Any goals they had would have to be delayed. Even then, there would be risks of contract violations.&nbsp; The ethical recruitment agency, International Manpower Recruitment, responsible for this drive had to retrieve passports of some of its candidates from fraudulent brokers who had been sitting on them for months.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241218021248_d28202b446a34fb6f7c7bd061c505e7e26f2e4b761cd524e7d9d498fece04634.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241218021248_d28202b446a34fb6f7c7bd061c505e7e26f2e4b761cd524e7d9d498fece04634" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="Migration is development NT 1"> <figcaption>A campaign by International Manpower Recruitment to bypass brokers.</figcaption> </figure>  Some workers told us they did not even have access to informal loans at high interest rates. Aside from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/quake-survivors-migrate-for-work">zero upfront costs</a>, it is transparency in responsible recruitment drives that is refreshing: workers get the job and benefits as per the contract. And while this may seem like a low bar, that is what workers really want but don’t always get. The way migration is being carried out now, it is a risky enterprise and almost like a lottery. Aspirants must navigate a second ‘lottery’ beyond the birthplace lottery, which drives many to seek opportunities unavailable in their place of origin: migration, with its uncertain, unpredictable and even arbitrary outcomes given malpractices and irresponsible actors. We have interviewed cleaners and factory workers who went for identical jobs – some for free, while the majority paid between Rs150,000-350,000. To try to make sense of this randomness is a futile exercise. But any migration related intervention that can contribute in addressing the unknowns to make migration outcomes predictable would go a long way for workers and their families who are often entangled in the haphazard mess it often is. On International Migrants Day 18 December, we should reflect on how our public narrative around migration should separate fraudulent migration practices from the notion that migration itself is inherently a problem. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/not-just-financial-but-social-remittances">Good migration can be powerful</a>, and must be made accessible to the poorest, most marginalised. Schemes to connect someone like Artist with the Japanese Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) or Korean Employment Permit System (EPS) programs that have higher barriers of access like language testing requirements, would make the rewards of migrating even higher than what he is making in Malaysia.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241218021248_80012868901594b28ae8fbcf36f16c8011cce527348cab3b88d7c52cba670ad3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20241218021248_80012868901594b28ae8fbcf36f16c8011cce527348cab3b88d7c52cba670ad3" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1119" loading="lazy" alt="Migration is development NT 1"> <figcaption>Crowd to see off Mushar candidates.</figcaption> </figure>  It will be like how Musahar youth are finding migration to Malaysia significantly more rewarding than their previous gigs in India. After all, gains of migration are relative, and merits attention from bilateral aid agencies of important host countries for Nepali like JICA and KOICA which invest in anti-poverty programs in Nepal. Migration is development. Malaysia-based Artist, from Nepal’s Musahar community, personifies the theme, ‘talent is everywhere, opportunities are not’ and that good migration can be an equaliser of opportunities.&nbsp; Sometimes, all people need is a platform, a nudge, and an opportunity. Good labour migration can be one such option, alongside domestic priorities like social protection and job creation. Artist will soon return to his renovated house ready for him to draw portraits of gods and goddesses.&nbsp; And soon, he will be able to start the painting business for signboards and vehicle art that he said he has always dreamed of but could not pursue due to a lack of capital. &nbsp; Upasana Khadka heads Migration Lab, a social enterprise aimed at making migration outcomes better for workers and their families. Labour Mobility is her fortnightly column in Nepali Times.

Upasana Khadka

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Migration is development

Despite the contemporary narrative that Nepalis are giving up on their country and are migrating in droves, a recent public opinion poll shows that nearly half the Nepalis are still positive about the direction the country has been going since the last election in 2022. Asked if they feel that the situation has worsened, improved, or remained the same in the past two years, 45.4% of the respondents in the nationwide survey said they were satisfied about the way Nepal is headed. Of them, 13.9% of respondents said they were ‘significantly positive’, while 31.5% said they were ‘somewhat positive’ about the situation in Nepal over the past two years. Although 34.6% of those answering the question believed that the socio-political situation in the country was ‘unchanged’ since 2022, Sharecast Initiative in its analysis of the results, said there was ‘a notable sense of optimism about the current state of affairs’. Even so, about 18% felt the situation was either ‘significantly negative’ or ‘somewhat negative’. And most respondents (35%) felt there had been no change in the country’s situation in the past two years.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241201111212_f1ec1009533e9c1e6847672142da4688694159bb5ff0e5dc9088007cb6d995a1.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241201111212_f1ec1009533e9c1e6847672142da4688694159bb5ff0e5dc9088007cb6d995a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1192" height="1030" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis not so unhappy"> </figure>  “If we count those who say ‘no change’ as not being satisfied and add that to those who had a negative view of the way the country is going, then we have 55% of the people not happy,” says Madhu Acharya of the research organisation Sharecast Initiative Nepal, which conducts annual public opinion polls. Still, 45% of the people being positive means the national mood is not as pervasively cynical and despondent as Nepal’s public sphere believes it is. Even more unexpected, and also contrary to prevailing perceptions, is that disaggregated data of the responses showed that the level of optimism is highest among young Nepalis, especially women. It was also higher, not surprisingly, among those in the higher income brackets. A higher percentage of female respondents (15.6%) thought Nepal’s current situation was ‘signficantly positive’ while only 12% of males felt that way. More men (11.5%) also had a ‘negative’ view of the past two years, compared to only 7% of women feeling the same way. Provincewise, most of those surveyed in Bagmati and Gandaki said there had been no change, while in the Madhes Province respondents held strong views with 26.5% saying they were ‘signficantly positive’ and 15.7% feeling things are ‘signficantly negative’ — both positive and negative responses were higher in Madhes than any other province. Because Nepal’s migration pattern is blurring the lines between city folk and those residing in villages, the level of positivity was at equal levels in both urban and rural areas of the country, with nearly half the respondents in both areas feeling ‘somewhat’ and ‘significantly’ positive about their circumstances. Literacy appears to play a significant role in determining satisfaction with the state of affairs. Generally, those with higher education were happier than those with less education. Illiterate respondents had the most negative view about their status. Even though understanding among media commentators is that Nepali youth are frustrated and cannot wait to leave the country, the survey showed that 54% of those in the 18-24 age group were either ‘somewhat’ or ‘significantly’ positive about the state of things. In general the older people are, the less happy they seem to be about the way things are. The survey results showed that even though those with higher incomes are generally more satisfied, one-tenth of them felt ‘significantly negative’ about the way things are going in Nepal. The scientific poll was conducted face-to-face earlier this year among 4,267 respondents from all seven provinces and three ecological zones. Nearly 70 supervisors and enumerators fanned out across the country to interview Nepalis selected by domicile, gender, walks of life, socio-economic strata, ethnicity in the ratio of their representation in the population. Most Nepalis see progress in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/beijing-30-zak6iu1w">gender equality</a>, but cite problems: 1. Violence against women 2. Lack of say within households 3. Political representation 4. Societal restraints  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241201111224_faf741ca7a1187cb971b468eca573c8c3ee756f585d6a72e0dc1bd99114f4088.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241201111224_faf741ca7a1187cb971b468eca573c8c3ee756f585d6a72e0dc1bd99114f4088" data-rendition-name="original" width="6720" height="4480" loading="lazy" alt="gender equality"> </figure>  As the world marks 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence from 25 November–10 December, a recent public opinion poll in Nepal has shown that both men and women respondents place ‘safety from violence’ as their number one concern. Asked ‘What are the primary issues facing women in Nepal today?’ more than one-third of the respondents felt it was safety and security. Both genders – and especially younger respondents -- identified protection from violence as the main problem facing Nepali women. Geographically, people in Bagmati, Sudurpaschim and Madhes prioritised safety as of women as their main concern.&nbsp; Societal restraints against women was seen as the second-most important problem, especially in regions of the country considered to have more entrenched patriarchal norms like the Karnali. ‘Lack of household decision-making’ was the third main issue respondents said women in Nepal face, and this was especially pronounced in rural areas. It could be a significant pointer to the feminisation of Nepal’s hinterland, with the outmigration mainly of young men from households.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241201111216_79f09832d11b27679a1cbeb8a8f9189d28afdd3b91a52df4c143d876e23d06f8.png" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20241201111216_79f09832d11b27679a1cbeb8a8f9189d28afdd3b91a52df4c143d876e23d06f8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1420" height="858" loading="lazy" alt="gender equality in Nepal"> <figcaption>All graphs: SHARECAST DATA INITIATIVE, THE STORY KITCHEN</figcaption> </figure>  This was among seven questions asked in a recent nationwide survey ‘General Perceptions of Gender Issues in Nepal’ by Sharecast Data Initiative and the Story Kitchen. The poll was conducted by enumerators in face-to-face interviews with 4,267 respondents selected for a balanced representation of Nepal’s population.&nbsp; In answer to questions if Nepal has been making progress on gender equality, most respondents had positive outlook about female representation, constitutional and legal safeguards and cultural norms. Asked about Nepal’s socio-political and cultural changes affecting women, nearly 62% had a positive response while about 15% said they had noticed no change and about 16% said the country was moving in a negative direction. Younger respondents of both genders, urban residents and those with higher education and income levels tended to have a more optimistic view about socio-political and cultural changes that affected women.&nbsp; In response to a question about new constitutional and legal provisions safeguarding women’s rights and gender equality, nearly three-quarter of respondents (both men and women) felt they had benefited women. Only about 10% felt the laws had negatively affected women.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241201111216_b359ef289ca228753e83564c3d5a278c650aa8a13dff93a2d49fffff7305646c.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241201111216_b359ef289ca228753e83564c3d5a278c650aa8a13dff93a2d49fffff7305646c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1212" height="804" loading="lazy" alt="gender equality in Nepal"> </figure>  Again, it was younger men and women, city-dwellers and better educated people who were more optimistic. In its analysis of the results, Sharecast says: ‘However, there are areas of concern, particularly among less educated and lower income groups, indicating a need for targeted interventions to address these disparities.’&nbsp; In response to the question about which areas Nepali women have not yet received equal opportunities with men, a surprising 35% said they could not answer, while 20% felt there was no inequality anymore.&nbsp; But among those who said there was inequality, the highest number (12.8%) said it was within in the household. Almost as many cited unequal representation in politics, while education, high-paying jobs and protection from violence were also of concern to respondents.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241201111220_59198bf078425a63f4a27fe6f6910170fd22ded6da77824de2bdd3c5ebbb337a.png" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241201111220_59198bf078425a63f4a27fe6f6910170fd22ded6da77824de2bdd3c5ebbb337a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1430" height="928" loading="lazy" alt="gender equality in Nepal"> </figure>  More men (16.3%) cited unequal political representation, while only 9.5% of women respondents felt that was an issue and they pointed to not having enough say within the household (13.7%) as their main concern. Asked about the problems faced by Nepal’s men, the highest number of respondents (27%) said men had ‘no problems’, and a significant number (14.4%) said they had no idea. Most of those who chose to answer (15.4%) said it was lack of jobs and wages.&nbsp; To a question about the problems faced by adolescent girls and boys, substance abuse and mental health topped the list (22.7%), while violence against girls (21.3%) and education came next. Nearly 30% said they didn’t know or couldn’t say.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241201111220_a5ea2454f1462a05a50730a51450ffe99b06b53f58bf5e3db3414ca14338cabf.png" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241201111220_a5ea2454f1462a05a50730a51450ffe99b06b53f58bf5e3db3414ca14338cabf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1710" height="1050" loading="lazy" alt="gender equality in Nepal"> </figure>

Nepalis not so unhappy

Quake survivors migrate for work

‘Malaysia NPR 400,000. Dubai, Qatar NPR 200,000-250,000.’ These are prevailing under-the-table market rates listed for Nepalis to secure overseas jobs.&nbsp;
Low paid workers pay <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-theory-and-practice-of-zero-cost-migration">high recruitment fees</a> equivalent to months of wages, while higher paid professionals get relocation and other benefits.&nbsp;
Yet, ongoing research by Migration Lab and International Manpower Recruitment (IMR) with ethically hired workers shows that aspirants and their communities still regard the employer-pays recruitment model with deep skepticism and disbelief.&nbsp;
And why would they believe it? Even when workers pay hefty fees, it is never guaranteed that they will land the promised job, or not be stranded abroad. Jobs that require zero payment are even considered scams, with concerns about the quality of the job, wage deductions or about being duped.&nbsp;
Some workers do not apply for jobs at all, or are dissuaded by their families. The good news is that perceptions change.&nbsp;
And all it takes is one successful migrant worker in a village to change perceptions. One worker who did not have to pay recruitment fees told us: “People from my village do not believe me.” Another said: “Four or five from my village have already migrated for free, so people believe it.”
Some workers passed up job offers requiring fees, waiting instead for ethical employers from whom close friends or family members had benefited.
Because not all aspirants know about workers who did not have to pay recruitment fees, social media <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@migrationlab/video/7418580695485795617">messaging</a> is critical. Online <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@migrationlab/video/7421150186598190369">testimonies</a> from workers who got jobs through ethical channels are helpful, but are also met with skepticism because it is widely known that workers are frequently coerced by fraudulent recruiters into speaking on camera about not paying fees despite having paid significant amounts.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/labour-mobility/a-few-good-agents">Ethical recruiters like IMR</a> conduct village campaigns to screen workers. This reduces the reliance on middlemen, and broadens the understanding of how ethical recruitment drives work.
Prior to departure, IMR wins the trust of workers and creates a safe space to admit if they have paid anyone fees. Middlemen can often mislead workers to believe that they have a say in influencing interview outcomes and charge workers.&nbsp;
The biggest obstacle is to assure workers that admitting they have paid will not cost them their job and that the recruiter will work with concerned authorities to ensure the agent returns the money and does not harass them or their families. Although Nepal’s laws consider such subagents illegal, ‘agents’ are often family members, villagers and friends.&nbsp;
These practical home-grown innovations in recruitment are products of testing to address years of exploitation and distrust in the system and the labour mobility industry. They also bring a nuanced understanding of the often complex aspects of the employer-pays principle.
<a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@ipec/documents/publication/wcms_727143.pdf">Research</a> shows that when workers do not have to pay recruitment fees, it has positive impact on their productivity and well-being. Responsible recruitment also allows innovation to make migration a transformational development tool to uplift the poorest.&nbsp;
Ethical Examples
IMR and Migration Lab recently connected 70 youth from the Musahar community in Mahottari and survivors of the Jajarkot earthquake last year with factory jobs in Malaysia for which they did not have to pay anything.&nbsp;
Accessing overseas jobs, including those with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/why-has-zero-cost-migration-not-happened">high fees</a>, is a challenge in these communities. Finding responsible recruitment opportunities is even more difficult. Good migration has the power to push families out of intergenerational poverty and discrimination as seen in the case of many migrant workers in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/50-diaspora-diaries-in-nepali-times">Diaspora Diaries series</a>.&nbsp;
For <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&amp;v=-mh1uk3fvQc">Jajarkot earthquake survivors</a>, fee-free recruitment can also complement patchy post-disaster recovery efforts by the government. Even without an earthquake, emigration from far-flung areas like Jajarkot is complex because of financial, information and network access issues.&nbsp;
It takes at least two days to travel to Kathmandu, costs are high, and workers may not even pass employer interviews after all the time and money invested.
The earthquake made overseas migration even more difficult in Jajarkot, further affecting access to informal loans, yet increasing the desire to migrate. Many were ready to borrow at 60% interest, while others said they would have migrated to <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099439009302442870/pdf/IDU1bade747310f41144991a576183a9a3eb57d4.pdf">India</a>, a cheaper, less-risky alternative with lower returns.
The Musahar community also faced multiple challenges including passport confiscation by middlemen for months without any job placement. Moneylenders also do not trust them to pay back, and are wary of recent restrictions on meter interest lending.
Labour middlemen are strategic about snaring the vulnerable to manipulate and cheat. There are anecdotes about them identifying the most desperate women, including those that are victims of domestic violence or extreme poverty, to send them as domestic workers through irregular channels.&nbsp;
New York University Professor Natasha Iskander’s <a href="https://www.ias.edu/ideas/forging-closed-loop">research</a> documents how companies in Qatar reported targeting candidates from regions experiencing climate breakdown because the educated but newly poor make ideal recruits as they are now willing to accept lower wages.
This narrative can be flipped by good actors through ethical interventions. Sourcing areas can be redefined: not as preying grounds for fraudulent middlemen but where responsible recruiters can reach that last mile with transformative overseas opportunities.
The Musahar and Jajarkot candidates have modest goals: paying for their children’s education, household and medical expenses, buying land, rebuilding houses, and saving to start a small business.&nbsp;
To be sure, migration outcomes are determined by more than just recruitment fees and it will take time to see how they fare. But the likelihood of achieving any goal is certainly higher under debt-free responsible recruitment schemes.&nbsp;
Beyond no costs, workers hired under ethical drives know exactly what jobs they have signed up for and employment terms from the onset, unlike traditional recruitment that is often characterised by false promises and exaggerated benefits.&nbsp;
Workers paying exorbitant fees for jobs will hopefully be an outdated concept one day, but for now the number of ethical recruitment drives is insignificant.&nbsp;
Workers interviewed said their peers paid up to Rs400,000 for comparable jobs, and they too would have been compelled to take the same route if the ethical option was not available. Repeat workers had paid up to $2,259 in fees in earlier migrations.&nbsp;
Highly marginalised communities need even more support to overcome information, finance and networking barriers to connect them with rewarding and safe overseas opportunities.&nbsp;
Systemic disadvantages in education or skills training also limit their ability to secure worthwhile jobs abroad that have wages and better labour protection but higher barriers to entry such as language or skills.&nbsp;
Making ethical migration accessible to the most marginalised Nepalis would have the best impact. Perhaps these issues would come to the fore if we also saw emigration as people chasing their dreams and aspirations, and not just as a compulsion “बाध्यता” that is entrenched in Nepal’s public narrative.
But forced immobility also merits attention. It is an unfulfilled dream for many to also take social media photos at Kathmandu airport with teary-eyed relatives before departing. &nbsp;&nbsp;
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Upasana Khadka heads <a href="https://migration-lab.com/">Migration Lab</a>, a social enterprise aimed at making migration outcomes better for workers and their families. Labour Mobility is her fortnightly column in Nepali Times.

Fee-free migration is possible

Daniela-Mariana Sezonov Ţane was fascinated with the teachings of the Hindu epics, and studied Hindi at the University of Bucharest before joining the Romanian foreign service. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
In between, she served with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Nepal in 2007, the year after the ceasefire. Ţane is now Romania’s ambassador to Nepal, Bangladesh and India and is in Kathmandu this week to launch her book, Twilight Chronicles of which two chapters are about her time in Nepal. &nbsp;She spoke to Nepali Times about her impressions. &nbsp;
Nepali Times: How did you land up in Nepal with the ICRC?
Ambassador Ţane: My work with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) lasted some eight years and took me to several countries affected by conflicts or in post-conflict time. The mission in Nepal was the third one, after one year in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and 10 months in refugee camps in Eastern Tanzania. In Nepal, initially I was assigned to work on the missing people file. In June 2007 there were still some 1,200 people unaccounted for. I did some field work for families of the missing affected by conflict, recipients of a small assistance program which was meant to help them out of dire poverty.
The last months of my mission were spent mostly in Tarai, preparing the ground with the Nepali Red Cross for the<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14692"> first elections in 2008</a> after the king’s abdication. If you remember, there was a lot of tension at that time because the Madhesi people felt underrepresented. We were making contingency plans in case there were violent clashes.
My most memorable moment is presented in this book, in the chapter Solukhumbu. Together with my Nepali colleague, Roshan, we went to search in a very remote area for the family of a minor girl who had been separated from her loved ones a few years before. She was rescued and kept by a humanitarian group in a shelter for unaccompanied minors supported by ICRC. She expressed the wish to go back home, so we needed to see if the family was still there. After three days of trekking, we found them in a remote ward, living in a very poor house.
In the meantime, more siblings had been added to an already very poor family. But the reaction of the parents, when they saw the photo of their missing daughter, now a teenager, was a very emotional moment, as well as the insistence of one of her schoolmates to give us a letter for her, next day early morning, before we would start our long journey back.
What I loved the most in my mission in this amazing country were the people. A real bond with my Nepali colleagues at the office was created, and I keep in touch with some of them even today.
After that you became ambassador, how did the book come about?
I started writing my Indian diaries, while posted in India as third secretary and cultural attaché at the Romanian Embassy in New Delhi, beginning of 2000. My friends wanted to know more than the emails sent sporadically. It also came out of the need I felt to make India easier to grasp by my fellow citizens. After being the guide of many delegations, I realised there is a need to better explain the countless puzzling, contradictory expressions and manifestations of India. I noted in my diary the people and the moments which marked me the most.
The entries about Nepal and Sri Lanka came naturally after that somehow. Writing made me explore the various cultural, religious and social aspects of those countries where, by staying longer than a tourist, I became adopted and felt like a local. I hope the readers will like the chapter dedicated to Nepal, a country that will always remain in my heart as one of the most beautiful places I have visited, with warm people and an amazing culture.
How is being ambassador to Nepal in peacetime different from when you were here with ICRC?
Working as a humanitarian comes with a lot of field work and direct contact with people at grassroots level. Time spent in the office alternates with time in the field. There is no diplomatic glamour, just hard work, sometimes in dire or extreme conditions, to which one needs to constantly adapt. As an ambassador, the perspective is totally different.&nbsp;
It means to run both an embassy, as a manager, cultivate the contacts in all areas and at all levels with the countries where you are accredited, and work towards the deepening of ties and economic cooperation. It implies a lot of protocol aspects, and the only common ground with the humanitarian word lies in the 100% requested dedication, leaving almost no time for one self.
Romania is now in the Schengen group, how will it affect Nepalis going to work there?
Belonging to Schengen means we have to apply strictly by the book the Schengen regulations for granting all types of visas. There is no exception from the need of physical presence at the interview and of presenting all the required documents demanded for every visa type.
Nepalis will continue to go to Romania for work, provided they have a valid work permit, and they pass the interview. Nepali workers are highly appreciated in Romania, they are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/europe-now-favoured-destination-for-nepalis">currently more than 20,000 there working</a> in many sectors like hotels, restaurants, pubs and clubs, agriculture, supermarkets, construction. They are appreciated for their seriousness, hard work, good behaviour and pleasant personality.
How much interest do Romanian trekkers and mountaineers have for Nepal?
With the increase of living standards and of wages, the past decade witnessed a growing number of Romanians coming to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/ever-gone-wildlife-trekking-in-nepal">trek in the Himalaya</a>. I do not have any exact figures, but during the second wave of the pandemic in June-July 2021 we managed to evacuate some 60 Romanian and Moldovan trekkers and tourists with the help of our Honorary Consul General, Narayan Bajaj.&nbsp;

“The most amazing thing about Nepal are its people”

Halucha is a carpenter living a happy life with his big family in Kathmandu’s Maru Hiti in the 1960s handcrafting chairs, tables and temple woodwork. He observes festivals of his Newa community including <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-legend-behind-the-myth-of-indra-jatra">Yenya</a>, Indra Jatra, enjoys his favourite choila baji and with friends, and occasionally momocha. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/wine-and-women-during-yenya">Wine and women during Yenya</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240914040936_b1f8b03dc37e18d45a24c93422715ea0f6480b050683893d0fc5f3a8d6a290ce.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240914040936_b1f8b03dc37e18d45a24c93422715ea0f6480b050683893d0fc5f3a8d6a290ce" data-rendition-name="original" width="1833" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="London Lakhey review MASK NT2"> </figure>  But then a big new furniture factory is set up nearby, which takes away the jobs of those with the ancestral occupation of carpentry. Halucha loses his customers.&nbsp; One thing leads to another and by the 1970s, Halucha travels to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-in-the-garden-of-england">England for work</a> after borrowing money at a high interest rate. London is rainy and dreary, he struggles with the language and at his job. He has no friends, people look at him differently and treat him poorly. He feels lonely and homesick. The isolation affects his <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-other-pandemic-mental-health">mental health</a> and before long, he loses his job and is homeless.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240914040952_5ff460d094ce67737cfcdf0bbf88edaadeffd58571806fe91bfc37a962d1390f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240914040952_5ff460d094ce67737cfcdf0bbf88edaadeffd58571806fe91bfc37a962d1390f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1320" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="London Lakhey review MASK NT3"> </figure>  Author Ojesh Singh weaves a layered tale that delves into the universal themes of migration, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/50-diaspora-diaries-in-nepali-times">diaspora</a>, mental health, racism, heritage and identity in simple, engaging storytelling style with vibrant illustrations by Sahanshil Dangol in the new Nepali children’s book, London Lakhey. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/brain-gain-into-brain-drain">Brain gain into brain drain</a>, Sonia Awale “Children are smarter than we give them credit for, they have genuine reactions and responses, and the earlier they are exposed to difficult emotions, the sooner they will learn to express them openly and grow up better able to deal with them,” says Dangol on some of the heavier themes underlying London Lakhey. Indeed, as children’s literature, the book does not shy away from difficult topics. This was a very conscious choice, says Singh, who himself went to England in 1999 and is now an aerospace engineer running two restaurants specialising in Newa cuisine in London. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/passing-the-baton-on">The Unstoppables</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar&nbsp; “The story is inspired by some of my own experience when I moved to England and that of people close to me, the not-so-easy beginning, the loneliness,” adds Singh, who is in Kathmandu to launch the book.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240914040956_bc4f28cd93c2b2c568d979707bc0d8a04f37e0fe519e1d8752f952b91a5fdea2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20240914040956_bc4f28cd93c2b2c568d979707bc0d8a04f37e0fe519e1d8752f952b91a5fdea2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1141" loading="lazy" alt="London Lakhey review MASK NT"> </figure>  “The first thing we Nepalis seek abroad is a plate of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/dal-bhat-power">warm dal bhat</a> and not getting that can be so hard, then there are our festivals, dance and music that we miss so much.” Singh had it relatively easy as his father was already in the UK. But even then, he had to support himself and for the first five years he studied by day, while working at a restaurant at night. Finally, he bought his own restaurant, and another one a few years later. He calls them “Nepali-Indian” restaurants but actually specialise in Newa food, the first of few in the London area. “I do a lot of work virtually so the restaurant for me is like a living room and it is as if I am cooking for my friends and family, it keeps me feeling alive,” says Singh, whose clan home is in Basantapur. He is actively involved in the Pasa Pucha Guthi in London as one of the founding member since its inception in 2000. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-in-the-garden-of-england">Nepalis in the Garden of England</a>, Joy Stephens The Newa-English community in London organises cultural events including performing the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-spirit-that-is-fire">Lakhey mask dance</a> during Mha Puja, also the Newari New Year. This real-life tradition in London serves as an inspiration for the book. “The new generation of Nepali diaspora should know the struggles of their parents, what they went through, some were asylum seekers, others came for better opportunities,” says Singh, stating how this was one of the ideas behind the book, especially as he is himself a father now. A mutual contact brought animator and illustrator Sahanshil Dangol onboard for the book, and the two would go on to work closely for the nearly two years it took for the volume to develop. Dangol works for London-based studios and was previously involved in making commercials and music videos for up-and- coming Nepali artists like Yugal Gurung and Ankit Shrestha.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/memories-of-a-london-nepali-hangout">Memories of a London Nepali hangout</a>, Sunil Pun But what really got him passionate about the book project was the Lakhey element. During his undergrad, Dangol was working on a film to document his cousin’s mask dances in Pokhara but had to shelve it. He has since come across the Nepali Creative Gang, an online collective of artists, writers, game developers, animators and others which helps young talent with guidance and feedback as well as protection for their work. Dangol went on to develop a 4-minute-long stop motion film called Death and Exposure but he always had the Lakhey project at the back of his mind. “It felt like a second chance to work on something close to my heart,” he told Nepali Times in a video interview from London. It also helped that the characters spoke to him. Having moved to London at 11 following his father who was in the army, Dangol never felt like he quite fit in, neither in London, nor in Kathmandu. “Growing up, I didn’t have Nepali friends, and in any case, I didn’t feel like I completely belonged anywhere, and while I didn’t go through everything that Halucha went through in the story, I could still resonate with the character and sympathise with him, it is a relatable story with so many of our friends and families migrating today.” Dangol based the physical attributes of Halucha and other characters on people around him. The last few pages of the book are dedicated to the process of illustration including doodles and sketched studies of Lakhey and his masks. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/getting-behind-the-divine-mask">Getting behind the divine mask</a> The Lakhey mask depicted in the book is a variation of the real thing which is supposed to give devotees divine powers when they wear them. In fact, communities in Kathmandu did not want their actual mask to be represented in the book for fear of offending the deities.&nbsp; Lakhey is a demon in the carnival of God but is worshipped as a deity protecting townspeople of the Newa civilisation. He is depicted as having a ferocious face, protruding fangs, and a mane of red or black hair.&nbsp; During festivals including Indra Jatra which falls on 17 September this year (below), he comes out on the streets and dances in a trance whirling and jumping to the thump of drums.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240914040936_0d60bd64fe6b3db69c9654e3a90569768ba0caeaaaacd1b46b5ca4e357b21a6e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20240914040936_0d60bd64fe6b3db69c9654e3a90569768ba0caeaaaacd1b46b5ca4e357b21a6e" data-rendition-name="original" width="2170" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="London Lakhey review MASK NT 4"> </figure>  On the surface, London Lakhey is a children’s book but since its release, it has found as many adolescent and adult readers who have requested most copies, says Dangol. “I want our children to remember their roots and not be ashamed of it. They can so easily feel embarrassed because they are eating dal bhat for lunch and not burgers and pizza,” says Singh.&nbsp; “We have to own up to our roots but we don’t have to stick to one singular identity either, it can be a mix of Newa and British like in my own persona. This is important for stability and a peace of mind.” ­­  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240914040936_4af67a538381c66209f7cc834a6b2056857275cc12c2b3a5e3bf6f3f1c1c78c9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20240914040936_4af67a538381c66209f7cc834a6b2056857275cc12c2b3a5e3bf6f3f1c1c78c9" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="London Lakhey review MASK NT 5"> </figure>

Sonia Awale

MASK

India announced recently that it was ‘close to victory in its fight against poverty’, with only 2.2% of its population living below the World Bank-defined extreme poverty line. Ten years ago, it was 12%. In China, President Xi Jinping announced three years ago that the country had eliminated absolute poverty, after lifting 800 million people out of poverty in four decades. &nbsp; Nepal, sandwiched between the Asian giants, however, has not been able to match the pace of its two neighbours in reducing extreme poverty despite notable progress since 1990. Using the previous poverty threshold, Nepal’s absolute poverty rate theoretically fell from 25.16% in 2011 to only 3.6% in 2023.&nbsp; However, the threshold for per capita expenditure has since been raised from Rs43,000 per year (factoring increased consumption and inflation) to nearly Rs73,000, which means the new 2023 poverty rate rose to 20.27%. This means one in every five Nepalis lives in extreme poverty, and the state’s intervention in poverty reduction, international development assistance, and private sector investment have made little difference in improving living standards. Which begs the question: where has all the money gone? &nbsp; “Those who have opportunity, knowledge and access to resources have benefitted greatly, while farmers and underserved communities have been left further behind,” explains economist Keshav Acharya.&nbsp; The flatline in poverty reduction also raises doubts about the government's investment in poverty alleviation. In the last 11 years, it has allocated more than Rs11 trillion in budget but only a third was spent on capital expenses which helps create jobs, and kickstart the economy. Domestic and international non-governmental organisations have spent more than Rs300 billion in Nepal’s social sector in the last six years. The international community has also poured in $1.5 billion in the past decade, with USAID alone providing Rs200 billion in aid to Nepal over the last 20 years. Private banks and financial institutions have disbursed another Rs4 trillion in loans in the last decade. All this investment should have made a dent in poverty reduction even if the cash was distributed directly to households. But the money and its intended use has rarely benefitted the people who need it the most – driving an increasing number of young Nepalis abroad in search of work. <div class="embed-block"><iframe title="Nepal's province-wise poverty rate" aria-label="Map" id="datawrapper-chart-zng7U" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zng7U/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="457" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}(); </script></div> Critics say that much of the foreign aid is tied to international consultants, most of it is channelled through INGOs or local NGOs which have high overhead costs and very little of it trickles down to the grassroots. Most of the poorest families in Nepal are trapped in poverty because they rely on subsistence agriculture and cannot work the system to access state services. Non-governmental efforts, on the other hand, mostly have local impact with little upscaling and replication. &nbsp;&nbsp; “The actual hard cash very rarely makes it to the hands of the people who need it the most,” says economist Dilli Raj Khanal. “And the economy has not expanded in proportion to the investment in poverty alleviation. In particular, credit expansion has contributed little to economic growth and poverty reduction.” The 2021 census showed that 57% of Nepali families still depend on agriculture, and the Fourth Nepal Living Standards Survey last year showed that 38% of Nepali families whose primary earner is engaged in farming lives in poverty.&nbsp; This means the household income of farming families in Nepal has not increased due to persistently low productivity, and the agricultural sector has remained stagnant despite the government spending Rs100 billion in subsidies and farm loans over the last five years. Despite studies after studies by the government itself showing that the subsidies do not reach most small-scale farmers, the money keeps being allocated and evaporating along the way. The 2021 census showed that only 7% of farmers received government subsidies. &nbsp; Persistent poverty in Nepal is also linked to skewed land ownership. Over 23% of families who own less than 0.2 hectares of farms live in poverty, while 11.4% of families who have more than two hectares of land are poor. The percentage of landless Nepalis in rural areas is about 16%, and one-third of them live in poverty. &nbsp; In the last decade, Nepal’s economy has been shifting away from farming. Agriculture now accounts for less than 25% of the economy, while the service sector has grown to 63%. This also means the income gap has widened between farmers and others. <div class="embed-block"><iframe title="National poverty rate " aria-label="Interactive line chart" id="datawrapper-chart-DGfm3" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DGfm3/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="600" height="400" data-external="1"></iframe></div> The poverty rate is calculated based on the cost of the calories intake per day of a person to lead a healthy and active life. &nbsp;Nepalis require 2,236 calories per day on average, which costs around Rs35,000 annually. But consumption expenditure also has to be factored in non-food costs which include lodging, clothing, and household items, and added up these costs equals the expenditure on food. By this measure, Nepalis who are unable to spend more than Rs200 a day, or Rs72,908 a year fall below the poverty line. &nbsp; The main reason for less-than-expected decrease in poverty is poor delivery and governance failure. Other factors include the 2015 earthquake and the Covid-19 pandemic. The 16th Periodic Plan (2024-29) cites 4% of Nepalis being pushed below the poverty line due to Covid-19. The poverty rate would have been much higher if it was not for money Nepalis working overseas send home. Studies have shown that remittances have led to an increase in household income, access to better education and health services. The 2024 Living Standards Survey showed that 77% of Nepali households receive remittances, two-thirds from relatives working in India or overseas.&nbsp; “No doubt, remittances play a major role in lifting people out of poverty in Nepal, and the state’s economic initiatives have not contributed meaningfully to poverty reduction,” says Khanal. Nepal is soon graduating to middle-income status, largely because of remittances, even though this is not a sustainable long-term insurance against poverty. “Policy-wise, Nepal is moving in the opposite direction in reducing poverty,” says Pushkar Bajracharya, a former member of the National Planning Commission. “Programs and budgets directly meant for poverty reduction like the Poverty Alleviation Fund have been abandoned. And the most significant failure is in job creation.” Bajracharya argues that the government must extend the social safety net to the neediest population to ensure sustainable results in poverty reduction. And since the poorest people are subsistence farmers, that is where efforts must go. &nbsp; <h2>Relying on remittance</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240823120836_6c03c769846a01f0f846235dd54ddc0c0c0dbf61cb0722d729fca14d6a568375.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240823120836_6c03c769846a01f0f846235dd54ddc0c0c0dbf61cb0722d729fca14d6a568375" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="1167" loading="lazy" alt="migrant workers"> <figcaption>Photo: NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption> </figure>  A new report published by the Nepal Rastra Bank has once again reiterated what we all knew — the role of remittances sent by Nepalis working abroad does not just help Nepali households but the national economy as well. What is new in the central bank report is just how much more dependent we as a nation are becoming on remittances every year. In the absence of investment in productive, job-creating sectors, the remittances are mostly used to pay for burgeoning imports of food, fuel and consumer goods. The report, ‘Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation of Nepal’ for the financial year 2023-24 published on Sunday shows that remittance inflows increased 16.5% to more than Rs1.45 trillion during the past fiscal year. Remittances now make up a quarter of the country’s economy. The record rise in remittances is proportionate to the increase in numbers of Nepalis moving abroad for employment. More than 741,302 Nepalis went overseas to work last year. Among them, 460,103 obtained first-time approval for foreign labour, while 281,199 renewed their permits. The most pronounced impact of the increase in remittances is on Nepal’s macro-economic indicators. It helped make up for Nepal’s Rs1.44 trillion trade deficit last year, and in fact remittance income is almost exactly equal to the trade deficit. Nepal’s foreign reserves have also held strong, standing at $15.27 billion, which is a 30.4% increase from last year and sufficient to cover 13 months worth of imports. The central bank’s usual target is to hold enough foreign currency to cover imports for seven months. The reason for the growth of hard currency reserves is also the drop in imports due to belt-tightening measures, as well as fall in demand due to sluggish domestic economy. The current account also remained at a surplus of Rs221.3 billion during the 2023-24 review year, compared to a deficit of Rs.46.57 billion in 2022-23. A current account surplus means that there is more money coming into Nepal than going out.

Why Nepal’s poverty rate is stuck

More than 2.5 million Nepalis left the country just in the last three years to study and work abroad. In the past year alone, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/push-factors-driving-nepalis-out">nearly 900,000 students and migrant workers flew out of Kathmandu airport</a>. These figures do not include those who crossed over to India.&nbsp;
There were, of course, returnees in that period, but it is estimated that up to 16% of Nepal’s population at any given time is outside the country. Most of them are 20-35 years old, which means an estimated q<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepals-demographic-window-is-closing">uarter of all Nepalis in that age group are abroad</a>.&nbsp;
It is mandatory for students going overseas to get a certificate from the Ministry of Education, and last year alone 112,593 were issued -- nearly double the pre-Covid figure (graph, below).
Before leaving, Nepali students officially exchanged Rs117 billion last year into hard currency to pay for their education costs. The actual figure through unregulated channels is probably higher.
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="MORE NO OBJECTIONS" aria-label="Column Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-OBL1y" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/OBL1y/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="600" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}(); </script>All graphs: RAMESH KUMAR</div>
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="$ in, $ out" aria-label="Column Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-gUPnY" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gUPnY/4/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="600" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}(); </script></div>
Meanwhile, the 4 million <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/the-migration-myth">Nepali migrant workers</a> in Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Korea, Europe and elsewhere sent back through banking channels Rs1.47 trillion in remittances ($11 billion) last year. Actual figures are higher.
“The great irony is that while poorer Nepalis toil in the Gulf and Malaysia to increase our foreign exchange reserves, middle and upper class families are exchanging a part of that money to pay for college fees, travel and medical care abroad,” points out migration researcher Ganesh Gurung.
The numbers going to Australia and Canada dropped last year because of visa restrictions. But that has been more than made up by a 30% uptick in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-hard-working-students-overseas">Nepali students</a> going to the US (11,261) and UK (13,339) compared to last year.
But by far the largest number of students are going to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/why-nepalis-are-flocking-to-okinawa">Japan</a> (34,731) which is also an increase of 30% over the previous year (map, below). Numbers going to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/yo-man-ta-mero-nepali-ho">South Korea</a> doubled in one year to 6,889.&nbsp;
Nepalis go to 66 countries for higher studies, with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/looking-for-the-nepali-dream">Denmark</a>, Finland and France becoming more popular, although the numbers are still much lower than the top six.
Till recently, Nepalis were the third largest number of foreign students in Australia. They were number three also in Canada. Nepalis were among the top ten in the US.
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="TOP 6" aria-label="Grouped Columns" id="datawrapper-chart-mbIyZ" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/mbIyZ/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="496" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}(); </script></div>
It is no secret that many young Nepalis leaving on student visas <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/migration-certificate">intend to emigrate permanently</a>.&nbsp;
Countries in the Global North experiencing declining populations know this, but find it a convenient way to allow controlled entry for much-needed workers in the service or tech sectors.
“Many young Nepalis plan to settle in first-world countries eventually, or to return only after 10-20 years,” affirms migration expert Ganesh Gurung.&nbsp;
“Destination countries benefit too, they are getting a new generation of cheap labour without having spent anything on raising or educating them. What’s more, they also earn university fees. It’s a way for them to allow calibrated migration,” he adds.
Nearly half the students coming out of 10+2 schools opt to go <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Between-the-lines/More-Nepali-students-settle-overseas,528">abroad for higher education</a>, leading to a significant drop in college enrolment across Nepal.&nbsp;
Just like migrant workers are a safety valve that lets the government off the hook from providing jobs at home, students going abroad allows the state to dodge its responsibility to improve higher education quality here.&nbsp;
Indeed, some argue that better universities and colleges in Nepal would not lessen the exodus of young Nepalis, because many of them intend to emigrate for good.&nbsp;
“Yes, student visas have become a means to an end, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/hardworking-students">the goal is to work and settle</a>,” says Narottam Aryal of King’s College in Kathmandu. “But more alarming than the figures of students leaving is that we are taking it so casually, calling it normal."&nbsp;
He adds: “Let us not worry about people who will leave anyway, but focus on the students who will stay if Nepal’s higher education is system is redesigned, repurposed and reformed to foster an entrepreneurial mindset so they benefit the country.”&nbsp;
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The method of education in state-run colleges and universities are still stuck in the era of rote learning taught by under-motivated teachers using outdated curricula, regurgitating memorised answers at exam time. The university environment is politicised and there are frequent disruptions with delayed exam results.
One way to change this is twinning with international universities, but for this there has to be a less xenophobic and transparent government machinery that is open to new methods.
“Accreditations, partnerships and exchanges with institutions around the world will open up opportunities for students,” says Aryal. “The government should welcome foreign universities, they will force us to raise the standard of our education.”
Information technology and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/grass-is-greener-overseas-for-nepals-doctors">medicine</a> are among the most lucrative options for Nepali students abroad. Institutions of higher learning in Nepal itself could specialise in inter-disciplinary liberal arts, social studies, agriculture and the environment, public health, hospitality, or heritage studies.&nbsp;
Youth are also leaving because there is no guarantee of jobs even when they get a higher degree here. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/brain-drain-into-brain-gain">The informal sector</a> is still the biggest employer, and job options in private companies and civil service are limited.&nbsp;
Ganesh Gurung says the education sector must adapt to the changing labour market such that Nepal produces skilled human resources in the areas with high demand like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nursing-grievances-against-the-state">nursing</a>.
He adds, “The focus must be on our strengths. The economy can be revived by making the best use of Nepal’s natural beauty to generate jobs in the hospitality industry, and turn it into a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/go-away">destination for international retirees</a>.”&nbsp;

Brain gain into brain drain

Nepali Times: What are the main demographic trends that will affect Nepal in the next 30 years? Won Young Hong: There are two major demographic trends we see on the horizon in Nepal in the next 30 years. The first of these is the age of the population. We expect fertility rates to continue to decline, as in many other countries in the region. It dropped from 4.6 children per woman in 1996 to 2.1 in 2022. This indicates a shift towards smaller family sizes in Nepal.&nbsp; The working-age population between 15-64 years is 64.6%, and this will peak in 2051 at 69.4% before starting to decline to 66.7% in 2061. At the same time, the proportion of people aged 60 and above increased from 7.6% in 2011 to 9.0% in 2021.&nbsp; The UN projections estimate that the share of the elderly population will continue to grow in the next few decades until one in five people (22.4%) are elderly in 2061. The second major demographic trend relates to migration, both within Nepal and overseas. According to the 2021 census, around 2.2 million Nepalis were living abroad in 2021. This trend is likely to continue as most young people seek opportunities abroad. Internal migration is also a major trend.&nbsp; Between 2011 and 2021, the population share in the Tarai increased from 50.3% to 53.6%, while in the hills, it decreased from 43% to 40.3%, and in the mountain region, it declined from 6.7% to 6.1%.&nbsp; There is significant internal migration from rural to urban areas in search of better job opportunities and improved living conditions, leading to rapid urbanisation. By 2021, about 27.1% of the population resided in urban areas, up from 22.3% in 2011, while the share of the population living in peri-urban areas remained similar at around 39%.&nbsp; The share of the rural population declined from 38.5% to 33.2% during the same period. Urban areas, especially the Kathmandu Valley, have seen significant population growth, while over half of rural municipalities have seen negative growth. Provincial capitals like Biratnagar and Janakpur have seen population surges. Current trends indicate a rising share of the urban population and a shrinking rural population in the future. How can Nepal avoid the mistakes of some other Asian countries in responding to low fertility? It is an important question, and there are no fixed answers because each country is unique in many ways. Low fertility levels are a global trend, and no single country has managed to reverse this through policies despite a variety of initiatives being introduced. There are many lessons to be learned.&nbsp; It is clear that policies with an exclusive focus on the reproductive function of women with cost-based financial support without addressing structural issues affecting reproductive decisions made by men and women are largely unsuccessful.&nbsp; It is important for Nepal to analyse the issues and develop a context-driven and evidence-based approach to responding to the needs of people. Generally, policy is most effective in supporting people's choices when it responds to the diverse needs of individuals.&nbsp; For example, it is crucial to recognise the impact of the disparities between paid employment and raising children and close that gap with financial support for families with limited incomes. At the same time, employment needs to support women and men with children so they can balance family life and activities with work. Less rigid 9–5 working hours and accessible and high-quality childcare support are just a few of the measures that can help.&nbsp; Employers need to be encouraged to recognise that people with children in the workplace have needs and that there are systemic barriers for parents that have wider social impacts. These can be broken down with greater accommodation of the diversity of preferences of adults as to their choices of when and how many children they want to have.&nbsp; Policies need to create family and child-friendly societies focused on the health, education, and well-being of children and families at large to be successful. Public spending is another such tool, with levels of public funding for families closely linked with period fertility rates as well as cohort family size. There also needs to be individual choices available including in relation to sexual and reproductive health and rights and family planning.&nbsp; There is no one-size-fits-all solution. UNFPA is encouraging this kind of learning and knowledge sharing across countries because there is a huge increase in countries with declining populations, and we believe there are important lessons to be shared across the region and the wider globe. And it is imperative that policies be developed now rather than in a reactive manner.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240714020756_22823ab3f792d6bcc5169b6912021be51006b65c1dda95771fbed1293fccdf6f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240714020756_22823ab3f792d6bcc5169b6912021be51006b65c1dda95771fbed1293fccdf6f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1060" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Won Young Hong UNFPA"> <figcaption>Photo: UNFPA ASIA</figcaption> </figure>  How serious is the anomaly in male: female ratio in Nepal? I would say any population anomaly has serious impacts. Nepal exhibits a skewed sex ratio at birth, with 112 boys born for every 100 girls, according to the 2021 census. This is higher than the biologically normal range of 102 to 107 males per 100 females, indicating potential sex selection practices. The disparity is particularly pronounced in Madhes province, where the sex ratio at birth is 118, compared to the lowest ratio of 106 in Kosi province.&nbsp; This imbalance is concerning as it mirrors trends seen in countries like China (112) and India (108), where cultural preferences for male children have led to significant gender imbalances. The preference for male children can have long-term social impacts, including an imbalance in the population structure related to gender disparity and discrimination.&nbsp; This might include a decline in marriages and partnerships, which can further increase the risks of human trafficking, gender-based violence, and other forms of harm. Nepal needs to identify the underlying drivers and address them with appropriate policy measures. In countries where over the long term there was this kind of imbalance, we see challenges, including a shortage of domestic labour in the workforce, a rapid reduction of fertility levels, and very few tools to reverse these trends. How are population dynamics, gender relations, migration and dropping fertility rate impacting Nepal’s population? The large proportion of the population that is young can potentially bring an enormous demographic dividend with investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. There is, however, a limited time window to seize this opportunity of about 30 years, when the population dynamic momentum will reverse as the lower rates of fertility start to impact working age groups and the percentage of the elderly will continue to increase.&nbsp; As the population ages and the proportion of young to old reverses, profound policy-level challenges arise. To take advantage of the window of a demographic dividend, targeted investments that directly benefit young people, including girls, need to be made now while fully implementing a wider range of socio-economic initiatives at all levels in line with the national development vision. We are seeing some really key results in Nepal’s legal framework and policies, including special measures to promote women in public life. At the same time, gender inequality remains a significant challenge, with persistent disparities in public and private spaces.&nbsp; Such persistent gaps, combined with social and economic factors like rising living costs, education costs for children, and childcare costs, will continue to discourage young women and men from having children.&nbsp; For that to happen, there needs to be a family-friendly environment for young people, women and men, to pursue a family life that includes raising children at home and being balanced with the workplace.&nbsp; This brings me on to the second part of your question on migration. The impact is, of course, profound. As people move abroad or to cities, the population landscape changes. If the large numbers of people overseas decide not to return, it will definitely contribute to the low fertility trends in the medium to long term. Equally, as people move to cities from rural or remote areas, there is a huge risk of leaving these areas barren and depopulated, leaving only an ageing population.&nbsp; These population flows require careful policy intervention and incentives to encourage people to invest in Nepal. It is welcome that the government is discussing ways to allow migrants to vote so their preferences can be reflected in the legislature and policymaking and future opportunities that encourage them to return to the country. UNFPA has been involved in helping the Nepal government plan for the demographic window? What have some of your main suggestions been? We do support the Government of Nepal in the area of the demographic window, and the first part of this relates to generating data and evidence that take into account demographic shifts and other megatrends in development policies and plans, as we recognise that without disaggregated, high-quality data and evidence, it will not be possible to achieve inclusive and sustainable development, including economic growth.&nbsp; Evidence is key to good decision-making, and the decisions made today can profoundly impact population dynamics in the future. As such, we support timely, high-quality, and disaggregated data generation that is essential for identifying those furthest behind. A second and related part supports the strategic use of evidence, including data, to improve understanding of the population and demographic structure of Nepal in actual policy decisions. We work with government decision-makers at all levels and civil society to translate data and evidence into pragmatic policies, such as the population policy, that respond to existing and future needs, including the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and men.&nbsp; Population policy is very important to Nepal, and our experience across the globe shows that to future-proof population policy, it needs to respond in a holistic manner to the socio-economic changes we are witnessing and respond to the diverse needs of young people.&nbsp; To do this, it needs to examine a wide range of issues, including budgetary ones, affecting family decisions, and gender inequality. It is critical for Nepal to expand its understanding of population issues and build an integrated planning framework to respond to the new population trends.

Future-proofing Nepal’s population strategy

The Nepali Dream is taking many Nepalis outside the country in search of a better life. Most young people on the streets of Kathmandu, in cafés or teashops are either waiting for their flights out, or for their visas. Nearly four million Nepalis live and work abroad, most of them in India, West Asia, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, the US and across Europe. More than 6,000 are in Denmark alone. These are their dreams. Rojina Syangbo, 29  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240701080740_2b3a01b332c6bd1dff34d939b6017e23f79e0fb734e51a8a4c001f0a2c316331.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240701080740_2b3a01b332c6bd1dff34d939b6017e23f79e0fb734e51a8a4c001f0a2c316331" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis in Denmark NT 1"></figure>  “I want to find a proper job here,” says Rojina, who has been working part-time at a restaurant in Aarhus for the past six months. But this is not where she wants to end up. After getting her Master’s in Soil and Global Change from Aarhus University last year, she has been living in this western Danish town in a rented room near Den Gamle By. Rojina is working on her job application, goes to Danish language tutorial and is taking a Data Analytics class. In her late 20s, she is determined to find a job in her field so she can make her parents proud. There is pressure from her parents to get married and settle down, so her life will be easier. But she does not want to get married, at least not yet. Rojina believes a proper job will give her freedom and a better life, and she hopes to find that within the next six months. Stay tuned. Kritika Pokhrel, 27  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240701080740_957a4e6dadc6992102fabf45a8e8b50877c0b3e3fa5f1c2fe7dc284d42e6cc97.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240701080740_957a4e6dadc6992102fabf45a8e8b50877c0b3e3fa5f1c2fe7dc284d42e6cc97" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis in Denmark"></figure>  “I like to go for walks these days, it helps me feel alive,” says Kritika, who lives in Aarhus and is on a strict deadline to finish her Master’s thesis by this month. She used to be a good undergrad student in Nepal before coming to Belgium, where she finished the first year of her Master’s. She then moved to Denmark last year, but it has been hard for her in Europe. The education system based on software and technology is much more advanced here. She could not navigate the lectures and assignments, and slowly her grades dropped. “If I don’t get settled in Denmark, I will go back to Nepal,” says Kritika, and is now convinced life will be better in her own country where she once worked for a British volunteer agency as a Learning and Capacity Development Adviser. Ruza Chauhan and Hemanta Thapa, 22  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240701080744_c7955cbafae7235365735f226226a6d609c4d2f8209b387d99ea286b20c59ba8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240701080744_c7955cbafae7235365735f226226a6d609c4d2f8209b387d99ea286b20c59ba8" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis in Denmark"></figure>  “We will fulfill our dreams together,” says Ruza Chauhan, who married Hemanta last year after knowing him for five years. Ruza’s application for an Australian visa was rejected, but they found out it was easy for a married couple to move to Denmark and came here last September. Hemanta is studying Climate and Supply Engineering at VIA University Campus Horsens, and to support his studies and overhead costs, Ruza is working full time at a cleaning company. That is still not enough to make a living, though. “I had to ask for my last semester fee from my parents,” confides Hemanta, who also works part-time in the town of Vejle. The couple is adjusting to the new country, and Ruza discontinued her studies to support her husband. They cannot both afford to be studying at the same time. Once her husband finishes university, Ruza plans to get training in hairdressing. They are confident they can take on any challenge life throws at them. They want to stay on in Denmark before they decide on their next move. Surya Prajapati, 35  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240701080744_473e8ba496193791179bba8b53369db892f5d06b11af280ebef085d2d5b3718d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240701080744_473e8ba496193791179bba8b53369db892f5d06b11af280ebef085d2d5b3718d" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis in Denmark"></figure>  Surya Prajapati came to Denmark eight years ago to study Structural Engineering. After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, he worked on reconstruction of houses and the Darbar Squares of Kathmandu Valley. While with a Danish organisation in Nepal, he saw the faults in Nepal's construction sector. Surya realised that he needed to upgrade his knowledge and practice. The streets and architecture of Aarhus fascinate him, and he is amazed by how Danes adapt modern elements with traditional architecture. Surya works at Envidan, a Danish consulting engineering company, as a project engineer. He was born in Bhaktapur and wants to eventually go back and revive the rich architectural heritage of his hometown. He says, “The least I can do is give back to the community where I was born.” Soni Sah, 29  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240701080744_494f7e08bd1ec3f23eda576e47edf86e35dca6ce91f663269dec2d5f951c25e7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240701080744_494f7e08bd1ec3f23eda576e47edf86e35dca6ce91f663269dec2d5f951c25e7" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis in Denmark"></figure>  “It’s hard to integrate into the Danish society and family life here,” says Sony, who has been married to a Danish man for the past four years. She speaks fluent Danish and is familiar with the culture and society here, but still feels left out. Sony is studying Molecular Biology at Aarhus University but says she does not have many close friends in class. It is lonely despite having a supportive husband. But she likes the degree of personal freedom in Denmark, which was not possible back home. She and her husband want to go back to Nepal at some point and work in the research field. Her elderly mother is alone at home. Her husband likes Nepal and its rich culture, and is familiar with the country after having worked there. Prajent Shahi, 30  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240701080748_a34e42d0490abfcae3ec6f4017d46077e6d4add74219fb7f481cb19b96d3e6c6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240701080748_a34e42d0490abfcae3ec6f4017d46077e6d4add74219fb7f481cb19b96d3e6c6" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis in Denmark"></figure>  Prajent burned his hand while making breakfast in the morning and is in pain. He is studying Business Development at Aarhus University in Herning and has been living and working in Denmark for over two years with his wife Leena Rai. Prajent worked as a data specialist in Nepal for four years, but he did not see much of a future. He chose Denmark as it is easier for married couples to get a dependent visa compared to Australia, a major destination for Nepalis who want to study and work abroad. Since he arrived, Shahi has worked in restaurants, cleaning companies, catering firms, and hotels. His wife works as a chef at a Danish restaurant. Like other Nepali students here, Prajent is struggling with the cost of living and saving enough for school fees. Prajent has to pay 54,000 Danish Kroner ($7,800) every semester. He is concerned about his parents back in Nepal since he is the only child.“Sometimes I feel guilty about leaving them alone and not being there when they need me the most,” Prajent admits. He dreams of starting an IT company in Nepal some day. Aashish Ghimire, 24  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240701080748_25c005a55e3beee48efd7d0cd8a02179e0383588a87abd4e5a02bed06c3a8258.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240701080748_25c005a55e3beee48efd7d0cd8a02179e0383588a87abd4e5a02bed06c3a8258" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis in Denmark"></figure>  Aashish’s rented room in the basement of a house close to the Botanical Garden in Aarhus has one bed, one table, two suitcases. It feels like a room of someone in transit. Aashish moved to Denmark last September and is studying Economics and Business Administration at Aarhus University. As he gazes outside his window with a faraway look, he says, “I have to pay the loan that my parents took up to send me to Denmark.” For an average Nepali middle-class person, it is hard to afford education at a foreign university without borrowing money from family or a bank. Most Nepali students work as cleaners or in cafés and bars to support their studies and living. Aashish also works in a Rema 1000 warehouse, and sometimes as a food delivery courier. It has been difficult for him to manage paying school fees, and meet living costs. After finishing his studies next summer, he hopes to get a skilled job. Aashish is convinced that his life will improve by then, “It can’t be hard forever,” he says.

Looking for the Nepali Dream

Between the 1980s and 2000s, over 5,000 <a href="https://download.ssrn.com/11/01/06/ssrn_id1736064_code1383023.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline&amp;X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEBkaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJIMEYCIQCiYUc7BuJ7zaDn%2BOTCFOWBgNKqYarnapqY%2FWZbamFVsgIhAOC%2FPFXHR9Dx6xTicWMj5%2BJXdIEGZ7LxKRyjrCe61Ng9KsYFCPL%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEQBBoMMzA4NDc1MzAxMjU3IgzWD1Y1XNz2kaOS3jEqmgX0TbxyBTTrZrpd%2B5N72pFzJAwc%2BxTF8Dc0GnVG2tUGUYyxBt1YmfEqAw5cdOuRCZV23SSKkJwndg9IwI3yrjZGBp9XKxg4lK4Vq0Qy9RMmma5hNCVnA2T0MwGghlnmkgWPZA5ouZPiKFAecf4PE5qml2fu1wj72LEAig5R77cN6nC6%2BxTcygMiuiHrR9yZB4RyvTD9s58avGqUcn9hcIUdku3ydvAGVEgczzgEMCesRMtSgqzHz3E9bju9QLR5RpcDRp0wptfQ89uGXgyBGLCX%2BAl6uareSxQCSaDOthP4PmswWI7y7kBJbQp1pZq8r56Yoa3Qf5WVtmxbsWmDtbOsaSBa0yB6EIS8RKFGeQ%2Bcz%2BnEsOoPHIS%2BqO1k1%2BQuihjN0T66SnWFo8rl8Cv2g4GghY9p9DR3wopBJ6cE%2FtDJMY%2BZ03LkUwS%2Fc7ckyaRpfPX5g6Bb9J56a%2BNA5lnIV5o%2Fpjp%2BZJaVIvEzciyzzTwP58wznmcy3xppvK%2BwXBzBR96cPMXKTdNv9%2FqJ5jlnsgSRJpHWE3UyHbFucwQYXi19i7mCglFSuSkkL5Tg9nQWvXpuP9Z9VmMlQfQ%2F%2FpsfA6KlL81K3UK%2Bp%2FJB2mxQD9SYexZvAf1g21NUSF%2F8I19orsNrT6LutAnoJU%2FOTgO3qMbdgnR%2FuBytI3POnQAEIfbG0Za%2FrEDJ9j8CEbasNXsBMqkx8JKGRG2PUHMRC2xl5Z%2BNIbpsqGB8t%2BvAt40osDpgZStiyeiGdC1nMakUzZtBjWlttzoirCdemwPKJ8M%2BEohj2%2BLEN92yaOKdFewns0gjh%2BUxcotGvBo%2F7QZFappBNjLlR0PyanjcuB4MndEQjeIrd67ntscTKiLDI%2FfzwCHulsl6nbMpewpWFAYwg67guwY6sAGb3VJ2q%2F36hWhrVa8igP2hswnnLlcIU2uhOZa5ge2hCXkUYhL1BcSJfoWy2LwrWCXtdFo%2BT7KMU3p6O3jySdxSop8F4iO%2BJBiXVjSiXm%2FqZo3ri8sVwUgo4ksJI%2BT4AbfK3D3VGYapBgU5LdX%2FjkNwSVoR1vz4vMIyF56i7MKeYG1nFLgc0l9cIjrQI6eY869uIbgZ1XKqqBsuavCbYjSbSy7dMP0QSym%2FgmoWILGE0Q%3D%3D&amp;X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&amp;X-Amz-Date=20250103T172339Z&amp;X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&amp;X-Amz-Expires=300&amp;X-Amz-Credential=ASIAUPUUPRWE65YAH56X%2F20250103%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&amp;X-Amz-Signature=9b654b526e0779da4fa9f54e2fcde04ac9f7e91fb50d4f8094b1039ebb19e21b&amp;abstractId=1736064">Nepali children were adopted abroad</a>, primarily to the United States, France, and Spain. While international adoption was intended to provide vulnerable children with better opportunities, child trafficking and irregular practices prompted Nepal to suspend adoptions in 2007, and overhaul its policies. By 2010, stricter regulations aligned with the <a href="https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/specialised-sections/intercountry-adoption">Hague Adoption Convention</a> drastically reduced adoption numbers. Today, many of these children, now adults, are returning to Nepal in search of their roots, only to encounter a society that no longer recognises them, legally or socially. Behind the statistics lie the <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01GRNPPXAC1Z3AETV9HARNCG5Q">deeply personal and emotional journey</a> of adoptees returning to reconnect with their past, seek family, and rediscover a sense of belonging. These stories reflect a broader struggle for identity and the complexities of bridging two worlds. Maya Adopted at 9 by a family in Barcelona, Maya carried fragmented memories of her early life in Nepal including the painful recollection of the day her mother and sister vanished, leaving her and her younger siblings behind. She had faint images of her mother, elder sister, and the village where she once lived. In June 2017, Maya came to Nepal accompanied by Chandra Kala and two friends, Jay and Vikram. With only a few photographs of her mother Tulsi, her elder sister Pargati, and her brother-in-law Kamal, along with a street name, Maya arrived in Birendranagar after a 20-hour bus ride from Kathmandu. “Now that we’re close, I feel like I can’t face them,” she confessed to Chandra Kala, wrestling with anxiety about what she might uncover. “I’m nervous. I don’t know if I’ll recognise them or if they’ll recognise me. I don’t know how they’ll react or what they’ll say. And then there’s him [Kamal]. I have such bad memories of him. I don’t know if I can handle this.” Chandra Kala reassured her, reminding her of her courage and the importance of this moment. Maya and her companions asked around the town with little success until a shopkeeper recognised Kamal and directed them to a nearby village. Jay went to confirm and returned excitedly, shouting, “It’s her! It’s your sister!” Maya froze, paralysed by fear and anticipation but she pushed ahead. At the village, Maya’s sister Pargati initially struggled to recognise her. Jay introduced Maya: “Do you recognise her? This is your younger sister. She’s come all the way from Spain to find you.” Slowly, realisation dawned, and the two women embraced, bridging the decades of separation with tears and disbelief. The next day, Maya met her mother Tulsi in an emotionally overwhelming reunion. Tulsi rushed into the room and embraced Maya tightly, sobbing uncontrollably: “Mero chhora-chhori, gaye, gaye… my children they went, they went …” Once the tears subsided, Tulsi and Pargati began recounting the heartbreaking circumstances of their separation. After the death of her husband, Tulsi faced relentless judgment in their village when Kamal stayed with the family before his marriage to Pargati. The villagers accused Tulsi of impropriety, calling her पापी (sinful) and demanded that the family leave. “We didn’t want to leave, but the village didn’t want us here,” explained Pargati. “We left intending to bring you and your siblings later. But when we returned, you were gone.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250103120140_da7482d222e0a03b783c5e1df25536ed416d7b7475442e7fd40e54451572142e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250103120140_da7482d222e0a03b783c5e1df25536ed416d7b7475442e7fd40e54451572142e" data-rendition-name="original" width="384" height="512" loading="lazy" alt="Searching for a homeland away from home NT"> <figcaption>An adoptee and companion return to Bal Mandir in Kathmandu after 19 years. Photo: CHANDRA KALA CLEMENTE-MARTINEZ</figcaption> </figure>  Tulsi recalled how she had entrusted Maya and her siblings to relatives, hoping they would be cared for temporarily. However, when she returned, the children had been sent away without her knowledge. “I only trusted them because I had no other choice,” Tulsi said through tears. “I didn’t know they would send my children away. What kind of mother does that make me? They called me a bad mother, but what else could I have done?” The reunion brought healing and answers but it also exposed the societal pressures that had fractured Maya’s family. Despite the challenges, Maya spent the rest of her visit bonding with her sister, nieces, and younger half-sister, Sunita, slowly bridging the gaps created by time and distance. Maya’s journey was a testament to the courage required to confront the past, the pain of uncovering difficult truths, and the hope of rebuilding connections once lost. Her story highlights the enduring emotional complexity faced by adoptees navigating their history and identity. Ashmita Unlike some adoptees whose main focus is reuniting with their biological family, 26-year-old Ashmita’s priority has been to uncover the institutional details surrounding her adoption. She wanted to understand what the orphanage and the government knew about her background and why so much information seemed concealed. “I just want to know where I come from,” she said. “Even if I never find my biological family, having a better sense of the places and people connected to my story would mean so much.” For many adoptees, returning to Nepal is not just about reconnecting emotionally, it is about seeking formal recognition as members of the Nepali community. However, the legal framework in Nepal often fails to acknowledge their unique status.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250103120144_bf0158b7829cf5db44382d7386d3b123032adad3f9e10e28096b80cd09170ba6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250103120144_bf0158b7829cf5db44382d7386d3b123032adad3f9e10e28096b80cd09170ba6" data-rendition-name="original" width="384" height="512" loading="lazy" alt="Searching for a homeland away from home NT"> <figcaption>A mother reunites with her don after 18 years. Photo: CHANDRA KALA CLEMENTE-MARTINEZ</figcaption> </figure>  In Nepali law, adoptees are left in limbo: their birth parents are not considered legal parents, and their ties to the country are effectively erased upon adoption. This lack of recognition creates significant hurdles, particularly in two key areas: accessing pre-adoption records and obtaining Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) status. Despite international norms like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantees the right to know one’s origins, institutions often refuse to cooperate. Orphanages and non-profits in Nepal, which hold critical pre-adoption records such as birth certificates and citizenship documents, frequently withhold this information, reflecting the systemic reluctance to provide transparency. In numerous cases, records that should include family names, addresses, or relinquishment agreements were either incomplete or falsified. These practices not only prevent adoptees from reclaiming their histories but also perpetuate their disconnection from their heritage. Ashmita’s initial requests for information from her adoption agency were met with delays and incomplete responses. When she turned to the orphanage where she spent her early years, she encountered even greater resistance. At one point, the director of the orphanage issued veiled threats. Nevertheless, Ashmita persisted and managed to find the name of the individual who had brought her to the orphanage. However, the person had disappeared, leaving yet another gap in her story. A breakthrough came when Ashmita accessed a police report that suggested she might have been born in a different municipality than the one in her adoption records, prompting her to seek help from local authorities. The police took an interest in her case and began investigating possible connections to her birth family. While progress was slow, they meticulously followed leads to help her trace her origins. “It’s not easy,” Ashmita said of the process. “But every small step feels like I’m piecing something back together.” She also noted that societal perceptions could add to the difficulty. At times, she felt questioned about her identity and her right to seek answers. “People have asked me why I care so much or even suggested that I’m not Nepali anymore because I was adopted abroad,” she reflected. Ashmita’s story is a complex account of persistence in the face of institutional and personal challenges. While her search has not yet provided all the answers she seeks, it continues to offer her insights into her early life and the systems that shaped her adoption journey. &nbsp;“These records are sealed for a reason. They are not meant to be reopened,” said a government official. Even an NGO representative said: “It’s better for everyone if the past remains in the past.” An orphanage director asked: “Why are you asking these questions? This is not your place anymore.” Hari Prasad Sacré The Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) card is a lifeline for Nepali diaspora members, granting them residency and property rights in Nepal. Yet, adoptees are notably excluded from this framework. While the law stipulates eligibility for individuals whose parents or grandparents were Nepali citizens, it makes no provision for adoptees whose legal ties to their Nepali parents were severed by adoption. When Hari Prasad Sacré, a Nepali adoptee, sought to obtain an NRN card at the Nepal Embassy in Belgium, he encountered officials unfamiliar with processing an NRN request from an adoptee. His case was the first of its kind, setting a precedent but also highlighting the systemic barriers adoptees face. "You are not eligible; your surname is Sacré, it is not a Nepali name," an embassy staff said.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250103120140_9bdc24b7e34930059f895048ab7dc0ad3ca23b16907c572f01a8d5404a5feac5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250103120140_9bdc24b7e34930059f895048ab7dc0ad3ca23b16907c572f01a8d5404a5feac5" data-rendition-name="original" width="446" height="512" loading="lazy" alt="Searching for a homeland away from home NT"> <figcaption>Hari Prasad Sacré receives tika from his father Khul Prasad Adhikari during Dasain, a few weeks after receiving his NRN card. Photo: HARI PRASAD SACRÉ</figcaption> </figure>  Sacré’s situation was legally ambiguous. Although his biological parents, including his father, Khul Prasad Adhikari, are alive and he maintains contact with them, he no longer had “legal” ties to Nepal due to the adoption process. Carrying a Belgian surname the embassy staff was initially convinced the adoptee couldn’t claim Nepali origin. Nepali law, which does not recognise biological parents as legal guardians once a child is adopted, created complications for the NRN application. To navigate this complexity, Sacré relied on a testimony from his father. Issued by a local government body in Kaski, the testimony affirmed that Hari had been put up for adoption and was of Nepali origin. While this enabled the embassy to approve his NRN card, the process was unnecessarily protracted and emotionally charged, highlighting the inadequacy of current policies to accommodate the unique situations of adoptees. Sacré’s case represents a rare instance where biological parents were alive and willing to provide testimony, but many adoptees are not as fortunate. A large number of adoptees were declared “orphans” during the adoption process, even when their parents were alive. This severed their legal ties to Nepal, stripping them of documentation that could later prove their origin. For others, the absence of living biological relatives or access to their original adoption records creates insurmountable barriers. Without clear documentation or a family member to vouch for their Nepali heritage, adoptees are excluded from the NRN framework. This denies them the rights and privileges afforded by the card, including property rights, legal recognition, and a formal connection to their homeland. Current laws fail to account for the complexities of adoptees’ legal status, leaving them disconnected from their cultural and legal heritage. Adoption papers, as evidence of Nepali descent, should be accepted as proof, granting adoptees rightful access to the NRN card and ensuring their inclusion in Nepal’s diaspora. Such reforms are crucial to ensure that all adoptees, regardless of their circumstances, can reclaim their heritage and establish a sense of belonging in Nepali society. Without these changes, the systemic exclusion of adoptees will persist, perpetuating inequities and denying them the opportunity to step up as active members of the Nepali diaspora. Sacré’s case serves as both a precedent and a call to action. It exemplifies the challenges and triumphs of adoptees navigating complex bureaucracies and advocates for a more inclusive and equitable approach to reconnecting adoptees with their homeland. Nepal can draw inspiration from South Korea, where the government has actively supported the reintegration of adoptees into their society. The F4 visa, established through efforts by organisations like the Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link (GOA'L), grants adoptees the right to live and work in Korea, while dual citizenship acknowledges their dual identity as members of the diaspora and their country of origin. GOA’L further fosters reconnection by offering language classes and cultural exchange programs, creating opportunities for meaningful reintegration and belonging. As Nepal refines its NRN citizenship framework, explicitly including adoptees could address the severance of legal and cultural ties caused by international adoption. Such inclusion would provide adoptees a pathway to residency, citizenship, and rights, enabling them to reconnect with their heritage. Complementing this with programs for language acquisition, cultural immersion, and historical education would honour Nepal’s responsibility to the approximately 5,000 children sent abroad. Nepal could establish a dedicated organisation similar to South Korea’s GOA’L and help adoptees access pre-adoption records, navigate legal processes, and engage in cultural exchange initiatives. It would also serve as a bridge between adoptees and Nepali society, fostering mutual understanding and collaboration. This article is based on doctoral studies by <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01H4Z85GPS63ZWDJ3WB2E6KS70">Hari Prasad Sacré</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10357823.2022.2142932">Chandra Kala Clemente-Martínez</a>. Hari Prasad Sacré, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University in Belgium, specialising in cultural translation, multilingualism, and identity in education. His PhD, Reading Illiteracy, explored fractured multilingualism and illiteracy in displaced identities such as adoptees, with work published in leading journals like Critical Arts and the European Journal for Cultural Studies. Chandra Kala Clemente-Martínez, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the AFIN Research Group, Autonomous University of Barcelona, with a PhD in Social Anthropology. Her research focuses on family strategies, reproductive decisions, and adoption, with extensive fieldwork in Spain and Nepal examining adoptee reunions and related governance and rights.

Searching for a homeland away from home

Villages along the proposed alignment of Nepal’s ambitious <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/putting-nepal-on-the-right-track">east-west train project</a> are excited about the connectivity and development it will bring. But here in Hariban village there is only apprehension. While elsewhere, there are environmental concerns about the train track slicing through national parks and protected forests, here along the densely populated Tarai plains there is worry about losing farmlands. “This project will cost me a big chunk of my land,” says Dinesh Mahato, who farms a small plot in the Ghurkauli village near the East-West Highway. “Why should I agree to give it all away when I will only be compensated partially?” Hari Narayan Mahato echoes his brother’s anger. “The map shows that I have to give up nearly 700 sq m of land, but I know the area is going to be three times bigger once construction begins,” he says. “It’s just not worth it.” There is also opposition in the Dhanpati locality, and 10 households from these two villages have refused to accept the government’s compensation rate for land which they say is much less than market value.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250105050152_41071574c82ba8f9698b8b7fdecb3ebf280dd314b1175262d961f76dc6d6ad5b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250105050152_41071574c82ba8f9698b8b7fdecb3ebf280dd314b1175262d961f76dc6d6ad5b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1292" height="821" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal train project struggles to stay on track NT"> </figure>  The East-West Electric Railway project will ultimately be <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-journey-to-electric-public-transport">Nepal’s transportation </a>artery stretching from the eastern border with India in Jhapa to Kanchanpur, connecting 24 districts. It will intersect with the proposed Birganj-Kathmandu railway at a junction in Sarlahi district. When completed, Nepal’s 950km long ‘gateway to prosperity’ as it has been dubbed, will have 123 stations, 10 tunnels, 334 bridges, a dam, and a 132kV transmission line to supply electricity to the locomotives. The project will require the acquisition of about 4,520 hectares of land, including 518 plots belonging to 4,000 households. Some of this will be along corridors through Chitwan, Bardia, Banke and Sukla Phanta <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/does-nepal-need-the-army-to-guard-parks">National Parks</a> and other nature reserves. Controversy about land acquisition and compensation as well as environmental impact have stalled the project since 2010. “The biggest issue has been compensation for land,” admits Kamal Kumar Shah of the Department of Railways. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-china-rail-race">India-China rail race</a>, Shristi Karki This means less than half of the work along the 70km Bardibas-Nijgad segment has been completed and 16 bridges built, and this is the first section of the railway where construction started 15 years ago.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250105050148_9e1de8c104dcbd239a70d4a3abda71579f86502c8b9f4cdd7e184aeef90eb638.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250105050148_9e1de8c104dcbd239a70d4a3abda71579f86502c8b9f4cdd7e184aeef90eb638" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal train project struggles to stay on track NT"> </figure>  Says Senior Division Engineer Kiran Karki: “It is difficult to work here, people have built houses in public land, knowing that the railway is coming. How do we ask them to leave?” Part of the delay is also due to lack of budget, and this has increased the initial estimate of the total cost because of the increase in land value. The government has nationalised over 190 hectares for the Kakadbhitta-Inaruwa section of the railway in the eastern Tarai for which it will have to distribute Rs24.41 billion in compensation. But the budget allocated for that is only Rs1.5 billion. This means farmers have lost their land, but have not yet been compensated. The East-West Railway line was initially estimated to cost around Rs1 billion per km, but this has increased to Rs1.5 billion per km. Just the first Bardibas-Nijgad section will need an additional Rs50 billion to complete. The estimate for the entire project was estimated at Rs955 billion, but a revised budget has already surpassed Rs1.5 trillion. A major bridge across the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/kosi-now-kathmandu-next">Kosi</a> north of the barrage on the Indian border is expected to cost more than Rs410 billion. The &nbsp;Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been revised to build an elevated line over towns in the Butwal section, for example, to avoid paying exorbitant compensation. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-railways-janakpur-test-drive">Nepal Railways Janakpur test drive</a> “This project works on multi-year contracts, which have been difficult to award due to a lack of budget,” says Shah. “So the date of completion of the project depends on money being forthcoming.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250105050148_addd8a08b727efb1bf1f71752dce1a28d6ea2e9d5f76dafe5dbc9a53a223c5e0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250105050148_addd8a08b727efb1bf1f71752dce1a28d6ea2e9d5f76dafe5dbc9a53a223c5e0" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal train project struggles to stay on track NT"> </figure>  Meanwhile, activists have raised concern over the project’s environmental cost. The Railway Department has prepared DPRs for four sections of the railway, but <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/from-nowhere-to-nowhere">Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)</a> have not been carried out. In Chitwan, the proposed route was realigned to avoid Chitwan National Park following a Supreme Court stay order. However, Chitwan residents have now formed a Railway Victims’ Struggle Committee, saying that the new route would cut through their densely populated communities. “We only found that our land would be part of the railway line when the people from the Railway Department came here last year,” says Hari Thapaliya of Bharatpur Municipality. “The decision to reroute the track was made overnight without any consultation with us.” Angered locals had set fire to a Railway Department vehicle when a survey team reached Krishnapur in July. Bharatpur Deputy Mayor Chitrasen Adhikari says the Railway Department did not even coordinate with the municipality about the new route. “We have proposed an alternate route to the Department,” she adds. “This project affects the livelihoods of people across <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/fogbound-tarai">the Tarai</a>, their concerns must be heard, and they must be included in the decision-making process,” says infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250105050148_682ed3ef3e398592f098d1ac638faa4d3b7517515e0f1b2014cb9c4383e6d9c3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250105050148_682ed3ef3e398592f098d1ac638faa4d3b7517515e0f1b2014cb9c4383e6d9c3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal train project struggles to stay on track NT"> </figure>  The problem is that 53% of Nepal’s total population now lives along the narrow strip of plains along the Indian border through which the railway line will pass. The Railway Department is squeezed between the need to balance environmental concerns with high compensation demands of locals. Conservationists have maintained that the railway alignment will go through ecologically sensitive areas, disturbing and fragmenting the habitat of endangered species, blocking their migration routes and disrupting water and food sources. All of this could in turn increase <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/human-animal-interface-in-nepal-wildlife-corridor">human-wildlife conflict</a>. Experts have suggested measures to invest in ‘ecological offsetting’ programs that help in the creation of new protected areas, restoration projects, and wildlife underpass and overpass corridors. There is also <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/more-pre-monsoon-forest-fires-in-nepal">concern about the forests </a>that have to be sacrificed. Already, 13,500 trees have been cut down in the Bardibas-Nijgad section alone. The Sagarnath Forest, which stretches from Sarlahi to Mahottari, and areas under the Rautahat Division Forest also lie along the proposed alignment. Surya Raj Acharya blames inadequate monitoring and evaluation during the preparation of the DPR because government agencies lack sufficient technical capacity and experience in the railway sector.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250105050148_7823653d3f037122441c11f6485c5407acc716811bedf464255aefe3a76d97f8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250105050148_7823653d3f037122441c11f6485c5407acc716811bedf464255aefe3a76d97f8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal train project struggles to stay on track NT"> </figure>  He adds, “Transparent financial planning and management are necessary to ensure the project’s sustainability and economic viability. But the contracts have been hurriedly awarded without proper land acquisition. An urgent review is necessary.” All this needs stronger political will and coordination between various agencies which is sorely lacking not just in the east-west railway project, but in other infrastructure schemes as well. When built, the nearly 1,000 km long railway will streamline cargo and passenger traffic, making it cheaper and more convenient for ordinary people. Railway junctions can also facilitate the north-south transshipment of goods and passenger traffic when coordinated with public transport. Transport costs for exports and imports from India will also be slashed. “A high-speed train running at 200 to 250km per hour will mean that trains will get from Kathmandu to Dhangadi faster than planes, and at much cheaper fares,” notes Acharya. Trains will also reduce carbon emissions by up to 30% compared to trucks and buses. Train lines will be the backbone of Nepal’s transportation system, boosting tourism in the Kathmandu, Chitwan and Lumbini triangle.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250105050148_ee137f417c5712be9d2d16f295ba7e30fc207e878214103e387346dfed3a9815.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250105050148_ee137f417c5712be9d2d16f295ba7e30fc207e878214103e387346dfed3a9815" data-rendition-name="original" width="577" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal train project struggles to stay on track NT"> </figure>  Ultimately, the Kerung-Kathmandu trans-Himalayan railway will connect with the Birganj-Kathmandu line and in future be a future non-maritime corridor for India-China trade. Nepal has been trying to get the East-West railway project funded through foreign investment, but so far there has not been much interest. There also needs to be a better viability study for future railway links, otherwise Nepal may be straddled with loans it cannot repay. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-and-china-to-study-trans-himalayan-railway">Nepal and China to study trans-Himalayan railway</a>, Ramesh Bhushal “The border region along the Tarai remains behind in terms of education, health, and the economy,” says economist Bishwo Poudel. “A railway line alone will not do much to improve their quality of life, there have to be other interventions.” Poudel adds that a north-south railway through Kathmandu to connect India and China through Nepal makes much more economic sense. China has been studying the Kerung-Kathmandu track with tunnels under <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/cleaning-up-high-places">Langtang National Park</a>, which would have technological and financial challenges. India is also working on a railway alignment to connect Kathmandu to its border town of Raxaul. At present the only operational passenger railway in Nepal is the 35km cross-border Jaynagar–Janakpur–Bardibas line. The former Department of Railways Director General Rohit Kumar Bisural is a road engineer, and says: “Very few people in Nepal have experience in railways.”

Nepal train project struggles to stay on track

A young non-resident Newa person in Dallas emails a New York Times article to his grandfather in Nepal who cannot read English.
Grandad copies the English text, pastes it into Google Translate to read it in Newari.
This translation feature, available to the world’s major languages, can now also be used by the indigenous people of Kathmandu Valley to translate their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/decoding-diversity?fbclid=IwAR3P0GygTCQ7HE-LaaVOhmKSyUDLlIrR2l9VzXKwCFJ8Em7YFHSAOiiXqQE">mother tongue</a> into English and vice versa.
This involved three-and-a-half years of effort and will impact everyday life in the study and preservation of Newa culture. It also shows a path forward to Nepal’s 123 other languages and dialects.
The World Newah Organisation (WNO) in 2011 invited Newa people from around the world to a convention in London. Software engineer and historian Sanyukta Shrestha was involved, and now leads WNO.
The top priority for discussion was how to conserve the language which was classified as ‘definitely endangered’ by UNESCO, with only 850,000 speakers left.
“The Newa people are diverse: there are different sects, religions. The language and the calendar are what is common,” explains Shrestha. “The strategy was to unite the community behind an existing technology.”
Ujjwal Rajbhandari, an engineer at Google who does not even speak the language, got involved. “I thought why not take advantage of a great tool that already exists,” Rajbhandari, who is co-founder at Qubrid AI in Austin, Texas, told us on the phone.
Work started December 2020, but the prognosis was bleak. Engineers said that the project may take up to 10 years. Translate runs on a ‘transformer’, a machine learning neural network designed to take sequences as input, uses math to understand the context, and outputs a probable output. It uses an ‘attention’ mechanism, which looks at the input text and tries to work out the relationships of each word to each other word.
The more data you feed this statistical monster, the better it gets. But that was the first problem. There was a dire lack of digital material, either in Newari, bilingual Newari-Nepali or Newari-English dictionaries.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/languages-are-both-software-and-hardware">Languages are both software and hardware</a>
“Tens of thousands of digital pages of content were needed, so in 2021 we met with the editors of Newa magazines and asked to scan and digitise their material,” Shrestha recalls. “We hunted down writers, publishers, songwriters, invitation cards - anything that was written in Nepalbhasa.” &nbsp;
Google gave WNO a sheet of 1,200 sentences from random contexts, to be translated. WNO formed a committee to complete this task, and by April 2021, Translate could at least identify the language.
Nepalbhasa can be written in 13 different scripts, the two most popular are the Ranjana and Devanagari. The team chose the latter because there is a lot more material in Nepalbhasa in Devanagari, and many more people who can type in it. “Devanagari is what has allowed any of this work at all,” points out Shrestha. “Translation was the much harder problem to solve, converting output to another face is much easier.”
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lost-in-translation">Lost in translation</a>, Alisha Sijapati
Now the model needed a large volume of input from the community. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/tech-and-transition-in-nepal">Every AI model</a> is dependent on the volume of data, even that which is introduced later. User corrections are fed back, which makes the model more robust,” says Rajbhandari.
This happened to be at peak pandemic-time. People knew how to video-chat and had time on their hands. WNO members met for one or two hours in the evening, on a Zoom call that they also broadcast on Facebook. People worked together translating. Which was very effective, because they could get instant input or feedback from others on the call. “It was cool to see was how this brought together elders who knew the language deeply, and the youngsters who have the tech skills,” says Rajbhandari.
By February 2024 there were 500,000 contributions, and Google deemed that this volume of data was sufficient for the model to ‘level up’. Translate added Nepalbhasa to its list of supported languages in June last year. The language had now been intergrated into a tool that can be used for free from anywhere with an internet connection. Accuracy was unusally high, over 90%.
It opens up a whole different world on the internet, for those who only know Nepalbhasa, since any website integrated with Google can be used automatically and instantly converted to that language.
The translations are already being used in East Europe to translate legal documents, Newa songwriters, like Ujan Shakya, use it to convert English lyrics. And when Rajbhandari speaks to WNO over video, his English is instantly translated into Newari subtitles.
“Older people are happy that language will now not die. Younger ones can use it to self-learn the language, now they can’t blame elders for not teaching them,” says Shrestha.
Yet another use is the integration with large language models, like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/chatgpt-news-about-nepal">ChatGPT</a>. LLMs encounter Nepalbhasa in their training data, so they can already generate rudimentary responses.
Says Shrestha, “You can ask questions about a Newa book in English, and the LLM &nbsp;gives you a coherent answer and even cite the page number.” This makes the use of Newa books for research possible and a lot faster.
Leading this mammoth task led Shrestha to a better appreciation for his mother tongue. “I saw the richness of Newari. There are onomatopoeia and proverbs that only elders use, and it is these and the dialects that need to be saved,” he says.
The next step is a text-to-speech, speech-to-text interface, which would open up its use by those who speak and understand Nepalbhasa but may not read, write or type it. Tourists to Nepal would also benefit.
Rajbhandari wants to work on similar projects for other endangered languages of Nepal, and the team has shown that it does not need government to do such work.
Says Rajbhandari: “We have learned many things that would make integration of future languages more efficient so we can solve problems in other projects.”

Nepal Bhasa on Google Translate

When a dozen tiger range countries met in St. Petersburg for a summit in 2010, they committed to doubling the population of their big cats in 12 years. Nepal became the first country to not just achieve the target but nearly triple the figure, from 121 in 2010, to 355 in 2022. But some people in Nepal, including Prime Minister KP Oli, now think Nepal has been too successful and the number of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-counting-its-tigers">wild tigers</a> should be reduced. This was the same prime minister who last year had urged people to help in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-tigers-now-number-235-1iulcaq1">conservation of tigers</a>, calling it “the pride of Nepal”. But last month, in his own pithy language, Oli said <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-tiger-conservation-too-successful">tigers had become as numerous</a> as dogs, and they could not be allowed to breed at the cost of human lives. “The tiger population should be proportionate to our forest area, why not gift the extra tigers to other countries as economic diplomacy?” Oli added at a debriefing on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/bad-cop">COP29</a> last month. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/human-animal-interface-in-nepal-wildlife-corridor">Human-wildlife conflict</a> has indeed claimed lives, since tigers are venturing outside crowded parks to find prey. So, the prime minister’s proposal to promote wildlife diplomacy may not be such a bad idea since it would raise Nepal’s international profile and highlight <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/is-wildlife-conservation-a-victim-of-its-own-success-in-nepal">the country’s conservation success story</a>. “Tigers can be sent to other countries through diplomacy, but the receiving countries must have the right capacity and environment,” says Ghana Gurung of World Wildlife Fund (WWF Nepal), adding that tigers to be sent must also be chosen carefully. “The Prime Minister gave an emotionally charged statement, which probably came after he spoke to affected groups,” Gurung added. “We tripled the tiger population, but if proper steps for management and cooperation are not taken, we can lose them all as easily.” However, member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) would have to follow strict protocols and paperwork to transport the tigers. Previously, Nepal has sent <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-many-rhinos-is-enough-rhinos">rhinos</a> to China in two batches through the completion of complicated procedures. Naturalist Sushila Mahatara at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bardia-s-birds">Bardia National Park</a> does not agree that Nepal has too many tigers. She tells us: “Tiger numbers are not excessive according to the areas allocated for them. If there are too many tigers, they fight and kill each other to keep their numbers in control.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025011008010_8cf30b15459a919f1d72d06ca02b3515255460c025a62222a219218787c08bc6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2025011008010_8cf30b15459a919f1d72d06ca02b3515255460c025a62222a219218787c08bc6" data-rendition-name="original" width="640" height="481" loading="lazy" alt="No. of tigers"> <figcaption>Photo: WWF</figcaption> </figure>  Bardia National Park has 125 adult tigers, and Chitwan National Park has 128. There were about 12 fatalities from tiger attacks in the past year, and some of the maneaters are darted and caged. However, many of them soon die in the confined space. Dhan Bahadur Tamang, a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/unsung-heroes-of-nepal-s-tiger-recovery">tiger conservationist </a>with over 50 years of experience explains exactly why tigers venture out when they do: “Those that enter human settlements are usually young tigers which have been separated from their mothers. Some are injured tigers who cannot attack traditional prey.” The other reasons include encroachment as a result of human settlement and infrastructure projects in close proximity or within the protected areas with no wildlife-friendly components such as overpasses. The water shortage made worse by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/those-who-stay">the climate crisis</a> has added to the challenge. Although an average of 3,000 people in Nepal are killed every year by venomous snakes, tiger kills get far more media attention. This has led to tigers being seen as a threat rather than an important apex species in an ecosystem. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/the-snake-bite-emergency">The snake bite emergency</a>, Chandra Kishore The other threat to tigers is from commercialisation. Last year, then Minister for Forests and Environment Birendra Mahato of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) &nbsp;proposed auctioning tigers to trophy hunters because Nepal had “too many tigers”. He calculated that the country could earn $25 million through tiger hunting licenses which would underwrite the cost of maintaining national parks. His statement created widespread outrage as well as mockery from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/conservation-vs-conservatives">conservationists</a> and environmentalists, just as Prime Minister Oli’s statement last month did. Tigers are also a major source of revenue for national parks, and a highlight for tourists. “The tigers being in the jungle means that there is the presence of a balanced environment,” says Mahatara at Bardia. “Any <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal">loss of biodiversity</a> in the parks could lead to a decline in the influx of tourists.” Eco-tourism and tiger safaris are a big source of income also for homestays and the local communities in Chitwan and Bardia. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/saving-tigers-to-save-the-economy">Saving tigers to save the economy</a> Says <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/conversation-with-mr-conservation">Ghana Gurung</a> at WWF: “Tourists visit national parks in anticipation of viewing tigers. At present the number is 355 and if tourists don’t spot a single tiger during their safari, then how will they see one if the numbers are reduced?” Better management of wildlife is the key, and involves a mix of approaches including the idea of tiger diplomacy. But because many human-wildlife conflict cases take place when locals go to the forest to collect firewood or fodder, they should be aware of safety precautions. “We have worked continuously through skill development and behaviour change campaigns to help the locals live and maintain a livelihood in the buffer zone and protected areas,” adds Gurung. “This has been one of our major goals, to uplift the living standards of the locals so that they can coexist with wildlife in the area.”&nbsp;

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