Shining Input

Even though they constitute only six percent of total migrant workforce, Nepalese women contribute 11 percent of the total remittances

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

In the recent years, remittances, without a ray of doubt, have held the economy of Nepal together and prevented it from collapsing. The blood and toil of hundreds of thousands of Nepalese youths shedding their sweat in far-away foreign lands have helped their motherland from collapsing economically. The hard-earned money these workers send as remittances have pumped in precious resources and capital into the conflict-shattered economy of Nepal.

Even though till now people perceive that only Nepalese male youths are responsible for sending remittances, it is becoming clear now that women have not fared behind in coming to the rescue of their nation and society. In fact, the contribution of Nepalese women migrant workers – in relative terms – are higher than that of men.

Because of their higher propensity to save earnings, Nepalese women contribute relatively more than their male counterparts in the remittances. Dr. Chandra Bhadra, a gender expert, said that while the number of women migrant workers is only 6 percent of the total Nepalese migrant workers, they contribute 11 percent of the remittances received by the country.

“They tend to save more,” she said, speaking at a recent program on Empowering Migrant Women Workers of Nepal organized by Sancharika Samuha and UNIFEM on the occasion of International Migrants Day.

In her research titled “Mapping Women Migrant Workers” Dr. Bhadra has come up with some startling findings. Dr. Bhadra said that while the trend of Nepalese women working as migrant workers in global scale is a relatively new phenomenon, the jobs (most) which they do in foreign lands are not at all alien to them.

“Nepalese women are mostly engaged in what is known as care economy that demands low or semi-skilled workers in low-paying jobs that are mostly associated with providing care in houses or care institutions,” she said giving examples of works like domestic workers, nurses, child care providers and so on. “In the developed world and oil-rich Gulf states, the women there have bigger opportunity cost and go for higher paying jobs outside the realm of their houses. And they attract poor workers from third world to provide care to their children, home, elderly and so on.”

Interestingly, Dr. Bhadra adds that these ‘care’ jobs are the very same ones in which Nepalese women are engaged within the country as well. “They are engaged in household chores and care-giving jobs round the clock in their homes. But these jobs are not recognized by the larger community as it does not lead to earnings. But now as migrant workers, these very women doing same jobs can now earn money. They can now become a meaningful economic entity. Their job transforms from unpaid, unrecognized and unvalued into the valued one,”

The findings of Dr. Bhadra’s research were similar to the findings of a research on economic aspects of Nepalese migrant women workers conducted by Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal (SEJON) and UNIFEM.

According to Bijaya Ghimire, president of SEJON, the country now receives between Rs 100 to Rs 130 billion in remittances from overseas workers. “And the contribution of women is 11 percent which is equivalent to 2 percent of GDP,” said Ghimire highlighting the findings of the research. Remittance is now second only to agriculture in terms of its contribution to GDP. While the agriculture contributes 40 percent of GDP, remittances contribute 18 percent. The growing remittances have helped in increasing the foreign exchange reserve, making the balance of payment positive and increasing deposits in banks.

“Women’s contribution to the national economy is undeniable. It is now for the government to create necessary atmosphere to promote and secure such jobs for women,” Ghimire added.

The research also found out that most women do not know about government’s concessionary loans for prospective migrant workers. “Women are paying between 18 to 140 percent interest to traditional money-lenders to raise money required by them to go overseas,” the research suggests. “Most women go overseas due to family and economic compulsions and they wish to make money to run their household expenses and provide good educational and health care to their children.”

The improvement in social and economic status of returnee women has helped in encouraging more women to pursue overseas jobs.