Opening Up Opportunities
With increase in population, Nepal's urban areas have become a center of economic activities generating tens of thousands of employment opportunities for rural poor. From capital city Kathmandu to other smaller cities, they are helping to reduce the poverty and increasing the income of marginal communities. Although the growing populations in the cities are creating many problems including the cost on environment, one cannot ignore the role played by cities in reducing the poverty
By KESHAB POUDEL
Jasbir Tamang, 42, a resident of Ramechhap and father of three children, migrated to Banepa, 25 kilometers east of Kathmandu, three years ago to survive from intense conflict. Being a subsistence based farmer with no economic activities in his home town to generate more income, Tamang's life was full of miseries.
However, his migration to city has changed the situation. Tamang, who started as a daily wage labor in building construction in early days, now works as a subcontractor earning Rs.10,000 to Rs. 15,000 ( US$ 150 to US$200) a month. Even his wife runs a small tea-stall in nearby bus stand.
"What I am earning now was beyond my imagination till five years ago. Of course, the life is very hard here but it pays us," said Tamang."I am sending my two sons and one daughter in the local boarding school and I have learned new skill of entrepreneurship. Previously, what we knew was only the hard work on the agriculture field that produced little benefits."
Ram Bahadur Bhujel, 35, a resident of Okhuldhunga district, 400 miles east of capital, has also similar story to tell. After moving out from village to capital city, Bhujel's major achievement has been that he is now out of poverty bracket. Bhujel - who runs a vegetable shop in Baneshwor – generates monthly income of about 10,000. Father of two, Bhujel entered into vegetable business by taking low interest loan available under a micro-credit program.
Bhujel, a Dalit, is now sending his two sons to a private boarding school hoping to give quality education to them. "Although Maoist conflict forced me to leave my parental house, migration, which was very painful in early days, turned into a boon to my life. Had I lived in the village, my work would be as a porter ferrying the goods from one village to another and my children would not have enrolled in school because my villagers do not permit Dalits to go to school," said Bhujel.
Srilal Kanu Saha, 35, a resident of Dhanusha district 300 kilometers south of capital, sells fish imported from southern terai in Koteshwor. Making a living for a family of five, Saha, who earns about Rs.15,000 a month, also sends his two sons in the local boarding school.
"Migrating to the city helped me a lot to increase my family income. It is impossible to earn the money in village. For a lot of villagers, it is a dream to send their children to the boarding school," he confided.
Like Tamang, Bhujel and Saha tens of thousands of rural people – who have migrated to the urban areas in the last one decade – have seen sea change in their livelihood. From merely a subsistence based farmers living in absolute poverty, they are now persons skilled with entrepreneurship in competitive urban area. The new skills have lifted them out of absolute poverty.
Though the hygienic condition of the cities are getting worse day by day particularly in the area where people of low income live, cities offer better facilities, quality service as well as employment opportunities.
The movements of rural folk to urban areas have drastically increased the population of cities putting a lot of pressure on the existing infrastructures including health, sanitation, education and others. However, the growth of population in cities contribute to reducing the poverty.
Kathmandu valley – which had less than 500,000 population till a decade ago, has now population of over 3 million including the floating population. From hill to terai, every one is coming to Kathmandu valley with a hope to have better future. Compared to rural areas, the life in the cities, though there are growing disparities, is much better than rural areas where health, education and employment opportunities are virtually non existent.
Transformation of Kathmandu
Although the valley is still to build infrastructures to prove as a good city, the life of Kathmandu city is now completely different than what Swiss scholar late Toni Hagen (read Observation on Certain Aspects of Economic and Social Development Problems in Nepal 1959) and the first member Hugh Wood of United States Operation Mission (read Half- a-Century of Development, the History of U.S. Assistance to Nepal 1951-1001) observed.
"The most characteristic fact is the total lack of a transport system in the greater part of the country. Only the Terai Belt and the Kathmandu Valley have a few roads that can be used by cars. The whole of Midlands are covered only by trails. Bridges are non-existent. Thus, during the rainy season wide valleys are entirely cut off from the rest of the country and the rest of the world," writes Hagen.
Oregon contractor Hugh Wood recalls the details of daily life in the 1950s. "Simply reaching Kathmandu was a major accomplishment in itself. The Wood family tried for over a week to fly from Patna to Kathmandu during the 154 monsoon, the alternative being a four-day journey by bus, truck, train and foot. For eight successive days they packed up and went to the airport; on four of these days they flew within a vertical mile above Kathmandu but were unable to land in the sea of clouds.” (read Half-a- century of Development, the History of US Assistance to Nepal 1951-2001).
From virtually isolated from rest of the country, Kathmandu city now has links with almost all cities of mountain, hills and terai. One can fly to most part of the world from the city.
People do not have to walk to collect salt and people grow all kinds of vegetables in nearby cities. The road network opened new opportunities as well as turned into boon to the valley as well as the citizens of Nepal.
In the last five decades, the valley has turned from just an isolated and rural city to a modern city with all kinds of opportunities.
For the rural poor - who rely on the subsistence based farming – cities offer enormous opportunities to learn new skills including entrepreneurship to generate the self employment.
Effects of Migration
Migration has a profound effect on structure, composition and growth of population in a country therefore it is an important area of population studies. Because of job opportunities in urban areas, rural to urban migration takes place with increased tempo. Therefore it is natural that in developing countries, urbanization is considered s a symbol of development.
" Nepal is still least urbanized among the developing countries, but also among the SAARC countries as well. Gradually, number of urban areas as well as population living therein is increasing over the years in Nepal. The rate of urbanization i.e. increase in the proportion of population living in urban areas is relatively low compared to other countries of this region. In recent years, rate of urban population growth as well as number of urban areas have increased substantially," said Dr. Ramhari Aryal, population division chief of Ministry of Health and Population.
According to Nepal's Population Report 2007, in the span of 40 years, Nepal's urban population increased from 3.6 percent of the population to 14.2 percent of the population. This is an increment of 400 percent over a forty-year period. In 1952/54, the percent of urban population was 2.9 percent. In 1962, percent of urban population was 3.6 and annual growth rate of 4.53 compared to county's annual growth rate of 2.07. In 1981, the urban growth rate was 7.55 percent compared to national growth of 2.66 percent with 6.4 percent population living in urban areas. The momentum picked up since the 1981 and continued to rise. In 1991, the 9.2 percent population lived in the urban areas with growth of 5.89 percent and 14.2 percent in 2001 with 5.89 percent growth.
In the past forty years, Nepal's urban population increased from 3.6 percent of the population to 14.2 percent of the population. This is an increment of 400 percent over a forty-year period.
Published by Ministry of Health and Population, Nepal Population Report 2002 revealed that the rise of urban areas in Nepal take place through three reasons. First declaring an area as urban is a political decision made by the government. Therefore, just by declaring an area urban government can easily increase the proportion of population living in the urban areas. Some urban areas still have so many rural characters. Secondly, old urban areas increase their geographic size by incorporating adjoining VDCs in their municipality. Thirdly, increase in the urban population is due to the natural increase plus the migration figures. Because of increased opportunity for employment in the urban sector, people from rural areas migrate to urban areas for employment.
Economic Perspective
The expansion of urbanization in Terai region is much faster than in hill areas. This is due to better infra-structural development in the terai areas than in the hills. Population settlements in terai are dense thus population requirement of urban areas can readily be reached. And thirdly, because of higher level of economic activities, required income of the municipality can also be easily met.
"Urbanization has accelerated with inflow of people to areas with higher potentials for growth, where people can have education, health, and employment opportunities. In Nepal, urbanization is rapid –urban growth is more than 5 percent compared to population growth of 2.25 percent. Conflict and internal disturbances have further increased the speed of out migration from rural to urban areas. Conflict and disasters both natural and man-made have also contributed to internally displaced people, and this number is likely to grow if root causes of conflict: deprivation and social exclusions are not addressed. Personally, I favor rapid urbanization as it has greater potential to solve poverty, deprivation and social exclusion because targeted programs can be implemented with minimal transition costs in urban area than serving a sparsely populated areas," said Junko Sazaki, country representative of UNFPA to Nepal. (See Spotlight July 20-26)
Experts argue that tales of urban success attract more people to cities than most urban economies can support. This leads to significant unemployment and underemployment in the cities, as well as in burgeoning informal sector where job security tends to be limited, health and safety precautions minimal, hazards high and incomes low.
"It is extremely difficult to link poverty alleviation in the process of urbanization in Nepal," said Professor Dr. Bishwambher Pyakuryal. " Nepal's current process of urbanization is not a natural growth but it is due to internally displaced population and insecurity in rural parts of Nepal. There are so many externalities in the urbanization, Nepal 's current pace of urbanization is just a migration caused by insecurity."
Despite all these problems, cities play a major role in national and global economics and politics. Large cities in particular can make a substantial contribution to the overall economic performance of a nation, providing centers of commerce, trade, industry and culture. Cities can act as the engines of national growth, adding value to rural produce, serving regional markets and attracting international investment. According to economists, cities will account for between 60 to 70 percent of gross domestic product.
The size of the cities determines the access to labor market, schools, colleges and universities. Proximity to other businesses also provides advantages and access to specialist products and services including lower interest rates on loan and strong network
For many it is not the actual growth of cities that is the problem: it is the sharp differences between the urban rich and urban poor, for whom conditions seem to get worse year on year. These inequalities present not only a moral crisis but the potential for economic disaster and civil unrest.
The increase in population in large cities in the country comes from both internal growth and from net inward migration from rural areas, smaller towns, other cities, and indeed other nations. High internal population growth may reflect both high national population increases and also the better health care and sanitation systems often found in cities.
According to Panos Briefing June 1999, large-scale inward migration to cities generally reflects economic imperatives and people's perceptions of economic opportunities. The number and range of work opportunities is greater in cities, and incomes are higher. In addition, there are a number of push factors for rural-to-urban migration, including environmental problems in rural regions, from land degradation to nature disasters.
The World Bank Report Resilience Amidst Conflict, an assessment of Poverty in Nepal 1995-96 and 2003-04 writes the incidence of poverty declined dramatically falling from 42 percent in 1995-96 to 31 percent in 2003-04. Progress occurred in both rural and urban areas, although it was much greater in urban areas.
"Urbanization moved worker from low-productivity jobs in rural areas to higher productivity activities in urban areas. Urban areas have significantly lower levels of poverty than rural areas (10 vs. 35 percent respectively in 2003-04). Urbanization was a powerful driver of poverty reduction: changes in the population shares across urban and rural areas and across regions accounted for about one-fifth of the overall reduction in the poverty headcount rate," writes the report. Urbanization was also important for changing social relations between advantaged and disadvantaged ethnic population groups, as discrimination is less in urban areas.
Prepared under the support from the World Bank by Central Bureau of Statistic, Nepal Living Standard Survey 2003/04 stated that about 37 percent of the enumerated population aged 5 years and above are found to have migrated from another VDC or municipality or from outside the country. Most of the movement is from the rural areas (81 percent) as against from urban areas (6 percent) and from other countries (13 percent). The study showed that substantial proportion of population migrated hoping to have easier life style and looking for job.
Despite many debates, the migration to the cities has transformed the lives of people like Jasbir, Ram Bahadur and Srilal - people from three different rural ecological regions of Nepal contributing to overall reduction of poverty.
