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VOL. 27, NO. 40, June 20 , 2008 (Ashadh 06 2065 B.S.) |
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Youth Unemployment
Huge Expectations
With the number of young population entering into the job market reaching 300,000 a year, a high economic growth rate is needed to generate employment opportunities for them. As the country's major political parties are busy grappling with the unending series of political deadlocks, economic development is yet to be their primary concern. As long as this large number of youth are given proper employment opportunity, they will remain a constant threat to political and social stability. At a time when the culture of consumerism is pervading the lives of youths, their expectations are rising. As the country does not have programs to generate employment, growing number of involvement of youths in criminal and other political activities have already indicated that the human time bomb is ticking
By KESHAB POUDEL
Like all other youths with high expectations, Bimal Tiwari, 18, a high school drop out and a resident of Bahuabbhitha Village Development Committee of Parsa District, 150 miles south of Kathmandu- had a dream to buy a motorbike and mobile phone.
A son of primary school teacher, Tiwari was searching ways and means to fulfill his aspiration. As various armed and criminal groups are in search of such desperate youths, he came into contact with Mohar Kumar Chaudhari Sahani, who is said to be a member of armed outfit Terai Janatantrick Mukti Morcha.
Tiwari settled the matter with Chaudhari and agreed to shoot a renowned industrialist Om Chachan of Birgunj, a southern commercial border town, 200 miles south of capital Kathmandu According to Superintendent of Police Rom Khami, Tiwari was also involved in killing of an employee of Nepal Electricity Authority and shooting at a homeopathic doctor.
"I agreed to shoot businessman Chachan after Sahani offered me to provide money and a brand new motorbike," confessed Tiwari to police. "I was given a week long training on how to use the gun."
This is not a unique case. Recently, after a month long investigation, Nepal Police with the support from Maiti Nepal, an NGO working against girl trafficking, arrested five youths under the charge of trafficking eight Nepalese girls to Indian brothel.
Among the five arrested persons, three of them were found to have sold even their kidneys. "We joined the girl trafficking racket to make more money," said Krishna Giri Nepali, Hari Nepali Pariyar and Krishna Nepali. "We used to get Rs. 30,000 (US$ 700) by selling a girl to Indian brothel."
Similarly, Police arrested twenty two years old Roshan Mishra and Ram Manish Sahani, resident of Madhepura village of Mahottari district 250 miles south east of capital on the charges of criminal activities.
Likewise, three former Maoist cadres Manuman Lama, 25, Sunder Singh Lama, 27, and Tirtha Bahadur Yonjon, 25, were arrested recently on charges of exploding bombs at a Maoist public meeting in Kathmandu, and Pindeshwor Sanskrit College in Dharan.
"We learned the technique of detonating explosive when we were with Maoists five years ago. Now, we have been using this technique to make money," said Lama.
According to Nepal Police, the number of youths involved in criminal activities has significantly increased in the last few years. Illiterate and unskilled, the rural youths come to city in search of better life. However, many youths get trapped in wrong place. As consumerism increases their demands, these youths are ready to carry out any kind of work.
As numbers of organized armed groups, political and criminal, continue to increase in all parts of Nepal, such youths are vulnerable to fall prey in the process.
During the twelve years long Maoist insurgency, many youths joined the insurgent group. As Maoists have entered into the mainstream politics, the left-out former guerillas, who had acquired skills of bomb making, have already started to create trouble in various parts of the country.
"When youth population rises above 16 percent of the total in any country, it could be problematic, as the nation will have a tough time to cater to their rising expectations," said Dr. Shiva Sharma, a consultant who led a taskforce to formulate the National Action Plan for Youth Employment (2008-1015).
As the political instability and uncertainty continues to rule Nepalese politics, there is no immediate solution and development package to engage the number of youths coming to the job market.
Nobody's Baby
At a time when all political parties are concentrating their efforts to form the new government and write a new constitution, the problems of unemployed youth seem to be nobody's agenda. For shorter gains, parties are recruiting the youths for political purposes. From illiterate to literate, they mobilize youths to build pressure on their opponents.
Al the major political parties are recruiting the youths in their party forum but they don't have any economic program to engage them productively. Giving a populist slogan they are attracting them in their party organization.
"Our organization would create job opportunities for a large number of youths and we have plan and program also," said Ganesh Man Pun, president of Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL).
Other political parties have accused YCL for using the youth force to terrorize and threaten opposition political parties. Pun rejected the charges saying that this is politically biased comment against the organization.
Along with CPN-Maoists, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML also have youth organizations. CPN-UML leader Bamdev Gautam even declared that his party will form full time party workers recruiting the youths.
Even as the country's economic growth is around four to five percent, youth wings of political parties will exploit the youth resources not to help the economy but to create trouble for opponents.
"Given the current capacity of the government and slow growth of the economy, the government is less likely to manage the expectations of youths unless advanced planning and serious efforts are made to increase employment opportunities among others," said Dr. Shiva Sharma.
Population of Youth
According to Nepal's Population Report 2008, over 55 percent of population are aged between 10-44 years and people between 10-29 years of age occupy 36 percent (of total population). The youths between 15-29 years of age is 24.7 percent of total population. In global context, all people aged between 15 to 24 years of all age fall under the category of youth. According to this definition, over 18 percent of Nepal's population consists of youth.
The study has shown that over fifty percent of the children aged between 10-14 years of age have dropped out from the schools and entered into labor force. This trend indicates a gloomy picture.
"Our population composes of young population that means this is a demographic bonus. We have to use them as a bonus. Although we need to use them, somebody else is using them through migrant laborers as we could not tap their resource. We failed to use them in development. Whenever there is a majority of young population, many countries have seen political change. This is also what happened in Nepal. Young population has always high expectation, which a country like Nepal cannot meet because of limited resources," Dr. Ramhari Aryal, Secretary at the Ministry of General Administration and Nepal's renowned demographer.
Studies have shown that if the proportion of youth population crosses beyond the one-sixth of the total population, it creates destabilization in the economy unless their expectations are addressed.
Challenges for Future
As the political uncertainty continues to discourage private investors from investing in big projects and industries, the employment opportunity is yet to open up.
Others, too, agree that youth unemployment is going to be major challenge for future. "Youth unemployment has been a burning problem in Nepal. Due to low investments in non-agricultural sector and limited diversification and commercialization of agriculture, the domestic employment market is growing at a much lower rate than the rise in number of new job-seekers. Many youths, therefore, seek foreign employment," said finance minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat. "But due to skill deficiencies, they mostly find menial and low-paying jobs in the most insecure environment. The problem of unemployment is further exacerbated by rampant under-employment in agriculture sector."
At a time when there is less opportunity in rural areas, more and more youths have been migrating to urban areas thus contributing to the problem for the authorities in managing them.
"We have included 26 various programs for youth in interim planning but the budget allocation for the program is insufficient," said Dependra Bahadur Kshetry, a member of National Planning Commission (NPC).
Labor Force
Nepal's youth population remains a major labor force and their participation is high in agriculture and non-agriculture sector. The labor force participation rate is almost 75 percent even in 16-19 years groups. This is due to early dropout from schools.
According to Nepal Living Standard Survey, total labor force (15 years plus age) in 2004 included 5.6 million male and 5.5 million female compared to 4.8 million male and 4.5 million female in 1995/96.
Another big problem for Nepal is underemployment. 47 percent of the population is underemployed (working for less than 40 percent of the time in a year).
Policymakers are concerned about the need to recognize political urgency of responding to the threat of youth unemployment as a precondition for poverty eradication, sustainable development and lasting peace.
Urban areas are much more affected by unemployment compared to their rural counterparts. According to NLSS II 2004, the male unemployment rate is 7 percent in urban areas compared to 4 percent in rural areas.
However, the underemployment is more widespread in rural areas and among females "Underemployment and rural poverty can be addressed only by commercialization of agriculture. We will, therefore, increase investment for market access improvement and market information system in rural areas," said finance minister Dr. Mahat.
According to a study, majority of all workers in Nepal are engaged in the self-employed agriculture activities. According to NLSS II, overall 58 percent of employed males and 82 percent of employed females were engaged in this sector in 2003-04. In urban areas, self-employment in agricultural activities accounted for 20 percent of employed men and 52 percent of employed women in 2003-04. Employment shares in professional wage employment have increased for urban males (from 9 to 13 percent).
As the long term and short term growth and development process hinges on achieving lasting peace and stability, there is no immediate visible sign for the improvement in the employment opportunity to the youth. Overseas employment has come up as an option for many but majority of youths like Tiwari are still living in a vulnerable situation with high chances of falling prey of untoward elements.
Failure to manage the growing population of youth may trigger political and social unrest turning Nepal into a breeding ground for violent youths. This issues, therefore deserves to be the number one priority of all the political parties and other stakeholders.
