Unemployment opportunities for Nepalese youths and their hardships


Vaghawan Ojha

"Unemployment", the mostly talked and used word in Nepal, is the bitter word for every youth who are entering in the job market every day. Seems as if the whole nation is acting to solve this problem, each and every political party/leader come up with their proposal of mitigating this problem, but the problem is becoming severe every day.

Leaders and Bureaucrats who have succeeded to earn comfort for them and their offspring are becoming unable to listen and feel the voices of poor Nepalese, who are dying due to preventable diseases, because of accidents occurring each day in the rugged mountain roads which were never improved citing lack of budget to black top those roads. People are facing 12 hours of load-sheeding every day, most of the educated youths are jobless but who cares, political leaders are busy drumming with the songs of consensus and drafting new constitution since past eight years.

Most Nepalese people (around 71%) depend on agriculture for their livelihood. But traditional system of farming, lack of irrigation, lack of quality seeds and advanced technology, the food produced is unable to sustain a family. Those farmers who are producing surplus are unable to get a market to sell their surplus and make money. Current conditions of market of sugarcane in Tarai clearly manifest these problems and a red apple blossoming in the orchard of Mustang know more the value of market.

Our ancestors do not want their offspring being involved in agriculture but want them to get such type of education which will give them quality live. Every family invests their hard earned money for the education of their children so that this education would make sense for their career. But the current scenario is, even graduates of Medicine, Engineering and Accountancy are unable to get suitable jobs which pay them the salary to sustain life, the matters of return of investment is a distant dream.

Each year thousands of graduates enter to job market dreaming of their sparking future. But their dreams begin to shatter each day, because of the lack of employment opportunities in our country. Due to inadequate development and industrialization the employment opportunities are very less in our country. The cut-throat competition, corruption, nepotism and political apathy start to make the future of our Nation, a frustrated jobless youth.

Universities and colleges have become the factory to produce educated people but having no skills that is the demand of this fast pacing global market. The knowledge students acquiring in the college/university is insufficient to motivate the youths to do something of their own, to start some business to be an entrepreneur.

College and Universities rarely teach the entrepreneurial skills that is the need of this hour. Practical and vocational education is beyond the reach of ordinary Nepalese population, because of the associated costs among others. On the other hands people who have graduated from Engineering and IT fields are also jobless are heading abroad every day, thanks to the long armed conflict of Nepal and slow pace of industrial growth.

If the condition of above mentioned fields is like this than what's the future of graduates from humanities and education fields, which have rare practical applications than these subjects?

The lack of clear policy about utilization of the manpower produced in Nepal and government’s lack of concern when thousands of youths are leaving everyday for gulf countries or any other developed countries manifests that political leaders and bureaucrats are happy with the current situation They don’t want to utilize Nepalese youth to make our Nation, but wants them to work for other Nation, and bring remittance to our country.

If government can't create employment opportunities for its educated youths, it should come up with clear policy which is conducive to promote self employment and private industry. It should invest in the ideas of the youths and give them seed money so that they can start their own business.

Government of Nepal must attract young youths in the government services, so that youth can get opportunity to make National Policy which determines the future of many similar youths. The old aged and wrinkled bureaucrats failed to realize our aspiration. Youths can create change, so we should be determined and keep struggling though the climate is not so suitable now. If the eager young minds of a Nation become the victim of frustration than what will be the future of this nation?

This is a guest post by Vaghawan Ojha. You can contact the writer in [email protected]