<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a1359c7e80680e0d7071jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="501"/>Imagine it is the year 2070 AD. You board a train in Janakpur at 7:37AM, enjoy scenic views between tunnel stretches, and arrive into Kathmandu Central Station’s cavernous underground hall at 8:43AM.You take the escalator up to the South Exit and emerge on to the front steps of what was once Narayanhiti Palace, gazing on to a broad plaza and Darbar Marg beyond. You stroll along dust-free streets to New Road, take care of  business and hop onto the Metro back to Central Station to catch the 12:46PM West-Nepal Express.After a four-minute ride through a tunnel, the train stops briefly among the high-rise bank and office buildings that long ago replaced the ageing factories and vehicle service centres at what was once Balaju Industrial Estate.At mid-day the station is quiet, unlike in the mornings and evenings when it is crowded with tens of thousands of people who come by train to work from outside the valley. After several tunnels and quick stops in Bidur, Galchhi, Charaundi and Shaktikhor, you reach Bharatpur at 1:35PM. You finish work in Chitwan and catch the 5:30PM East-West train to Janakpur, reaching home at 7PM.This may sound like a dream, but dreaming is important for long-term planning.On 27 August 1893 industrialist Adolf Guyer-Zeller was hiking in the Swiss Alps with his daughter when he imagined riding a train from the pasture at Kleine Scheidegg to the mountain viewpoint at Jungfraujoch.By 1896 he had permission and financing in place and began construction. The project was completed in 1912 and still brings thousands of daily visitors to Europe’s highest train station, 3,435m above sea level.Railroads are the backbone of Switzerland’s train network, putting much of the mountainous country (one third the size of Nepal) into commuting distance to the largest city Zurich, while transporting across the Alps tens of million tons of freight a year between Switzerland’s larger neighbours. The country's first rail masterplan was prepared by British engineers in 1850, and big parts of today’s network was built over the next 60 years, at a time when Switzerland’s GDP was comparable to Nepal’s today.In Nepal, railroads are back in mainstream discourse with the opening of the updated railway from Jaynagar past Janakpur to Kurtha. Nepalis now have  firsthand experience of how trains can cheaply transport thousands of people at a time.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a1379c7e80680e0d7072jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1137" height="640">While railroads have high up-front costs and need phased construction with long-term financing, they are right for Nepal’s future for a number of reasons:Electric trains will use clean domestic energy instead of imported fossil fuels.Railroads carry more people (and freight), faster and more safely using a narrower right-of-way than roads. Railroads thus have less impact on agricultural land, slope stability, and even urban vitality compared to multi-lane roads clogged with traffic.Travel by train is smoother than by road, allowing passengers to read, write and do other productive activities while traveling, without the risk of congestion delays faced in road traffic.Trains make it feasible for people to commute daily from 50-150km away, reducing the pressure to migrate to large cities for education and work.As the world reduces fossil fuel consumption to mitigate climate change, air travel will necessarily become rarer and more expensive, as it does not have ready clean-energy options. Nepal’s neighbours have extensive railroad networks; direct transboundary trains could bring to Nepal large numbers of tourists without relying on air travel.Nepal’s location between large and growing economies means there is the potential for trans-Himalayan freight trains to partially displace sea-shipping and air freight between the two countries.Several potential railroad projects in Nepal are in the pipeline. These include a freight connector from Jogbani border to Biratnagar, expansion of the line from Kurtha to Bardibas, as well as more ambitious projects including a train from Raxaul to Kathmandu, and a train along Mahendra Highway, with side-connectors to Biratnagar, Bhairawa-Lumbini, and Nepalganj.Most ambitious is the proposal to bring trains from across the Tibetan Plateau to Kathmandu via Rasuwagadi-Bidur, with 98% of the track in tunnels or on bridges.There have been proposals for possible extensions to Pokhara and Lumbini, but without clarity on alignment. In addition, there have been several proposals for a metro rail system for the Kathmandu Valley.What is missing from the discourse on individual railroad lines is the longer term thinking of what a 50-year masterplan for Nepal’s network should look like. The individual lines considered so far need to be part of this larger future network, with design decisions for the individual lines based on the masterplan.Preparing a five-decade Railway Masterplan for Nepal needs to be led by National Planning Commission (NPC) in consultation with stakeholders in Nepal and experts abroad. Several questions need to be addressed early in the master planning process:First: What kind of ultimate railroad network would address Nepal’s domestic needs in the context of long-term plans for land-use, agriculture, industry and urban growth? Which cities should grow, and what should be their catchment areas?  Where should agricultural land and forests be protected (and thus no stations built) and from where will products need to reach the market? Should the east-west railroad connect the towns along Mahendra Highway or run further south? Why?Should it go through Madi Valley and Chitwan National Park or via Hetauda-Bharatpur? Where should the main interchange between the proposed Raxaul-Kathmandu line and the East-West line be located?Would it make sense to co-locate it with the proposed Nijgad airport the way Frankfurt and Paris airports integrated long-distance train stations? While many critical questions about the airport project remain, including its exact final location, a direct rail link to Kathmandu would certainly improve the airport’s useability compared to four lanes of traffic jam on a ‘fast track’.But should the Raxaul line terminate in Chobar, or continue underground to a city centre station as imagined in the opening story?  What additional places in Nepal need to be connected to the railroad network? Dhangadi? Surkhet? Dang Valley? Pokhara? Dharan? Are there mountain towns whose access will be easier to maintain via cable car rather than roads?  How should the base stations of these cable cars be integrated into the train network?Second: What kind of a railroad network would meet Nepal’s needs for interconnectivity with the neighbouring countries? Direct trains to Nepal from Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi cities would enhance tourism in Nepal. There is already a twice-weekly train from New Jalpaiguri near Siliguri to Dhaka. Can the end of Nepal’s East-West trains be connected to New Jalpaiguri to allow direct trains from Nepal to Bangladesh? How would that be negotiated?Third: What kind of a railroad network would allow Nepal to optimally facilitate and earn from transit trade across the Himalaya?  Currently the proposed line from China is expected to descend to Bidur and then to climb up 800m to end in Tokha, north of Kathmandu, while the train from Raxaul on the India border is expected to end at Chobar, south of Kathmandu. This does not allow easy transfer of passengers and freight.Would trans-Himalayan freight not travel more easily along a track from Bidur to Galchhi and through a tunnel to the Rapti Valley without climbing up to Kathmandu?  Or are there other north-south corridors that could work better than the Trisuli Valley, such as Arun Valley?We also need to keep in mind that freight trains often run at night, when their noise may be un-welcome in larger cities.Fourth: since our neighbouring countries’ railroads use different track standards, which one should we align with? Most of China’s trunk routes are ‘standard gauge’ with a 1435mm (4’ 8.5”) separation between tracks, similar to Europe’s. Trunk lines in India and Bangladesh use ‘broad gauge’, with a 1676mm (5’ 6”) separation. Janakpur’s existing train is broad gauge.Given the larger number of potential border crossings to India, does it make sense for Nepal to use broad gauge throughout most of its trunk network, allowing direct trains from cities in Nepal to India and Bangladesh? Then, how far into Nepal should China’s standard gauge line come?That is partly determined by where there is enough space for a transfer station where cranes lift shipping containers between Chinese and South Asian trains, and where tourists coming from China cross the platform to board Nepali, Indian and Bangladeshi trains. Does Bidur have space for such a station?If so, we could have a broad gauge line coming up from Nijgad to Kathmandu, passing under the city, descending to Bidur and then heading southwest to Galchhi and the Rapti Valley to re-connect with the East-West line, while a standard gauge line runs north from Bidur.Fifth: Where do we need to learn from? Engineering challenges and costs increase greatly when trains leave flat open areas to run through mountains or under cities.  Design decisions can have large impacts on cost, durability and usability.Before we invest in construction, it is important for us to learn from the experience and expertise in other countries. While discussion have started with India and China, it will be particularly worthwhile to learn from Japan’s experience in building and maintaining railroads in steep terrain with frequent earthquakes.It will be important to learn from Austria and Switzerland about how they manage transit freight trains. And learn from the experiences of European cities on how to build effective intermodal connections that tie together urban and long-distance transport while maintaining and enhancing the vitality of historic cities.In addition, it will be worthwhile to study the financing models used in more recent railroad projects in Kenya, Ethiopia, Thailand and Laos.Designing and building a national railway network will require longer-term planning than we are used to in Nepal. The leaders who plant the seeds today may not even be alive by the time the investments bear fruit. But there is no time to waste.We need a masterplan to guide a phase-wise construction of our railway network in well thought-out, predictable and financially sustainable way. Nepal’s railroads will not only generate employment in construction and operation, but it will also bring efficiency and interconnectivity to Nepal’s economy. They will shrink costs and distances while allowing more people to live at home while working in larger cities.Arnico Panday is an atmospheric scientist with a broad interest in sustainable development. He chairs the Development Planning and Policy Analysis department of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).

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Putting Nepal on the right track

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/6372055c9c7e80680e0b28b0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="986"/><figcaption>Photo: SHANKAR DAHAL</figcaption></figure>Nepal’s Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) issued more than 240,000 labour permits for migrant workers in 2021, even as the country reeled under the Covid-19 pandemic.Since 2008, the DoFE has issued<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-long-wait-before-flight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> labour permits</a> to more than 4 million Nepali migrant workers. But this figure does not include Nepalis living and working across the border in India, which does not require labour approvals as per the <a href="https://mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/6295/Treaty+of+Peace+and+Friendship" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1950 Nepal-India bilateral treaty</a>. Nor does it include workers who travel overseas through backchannels.Even the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepali-migration-in-the-2020s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2020 migration report</a> from the Ministry shows that the number of Nepali workers seeking labour approvals has steadily declined since 2013, with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kleptocrats-of-kathmandu-and-kualalampur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Malaysia</a> followed by countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia being the primary destinations.Conversely, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/more-remittance-more-than-remittance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">remittances</a> sent by migrant workers are now worth over a quarter of Nepal’s annual GDP, and the conversation is shifting to the varying degrees of access of Nepalis from different backgrounds to destination countries.‘The tendency is for the better-off to earn higher wages and to be able to send back remittances of a higher value, and for the poor to earn lower wages and to be less able to send back remittances to the family members remaining in Nepal,’ write researchers David Seddon, Jagannath Adhikari, and Ganesh Gurung in their book The New Lahures: Foreign Employment and the Remittance Economy of Nepal.‘Those from the more affluent backgrounds are in a better position to gain access to higher pay and more secure employment, while those from less affluent backgrounds are in a relatively poor position in this regard.’The book includes findings of research conducted by the authors from 1997 to 1999 on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/south-asias-migrants-shared-problems-share-solutions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s foreign labour migration</a> and remittance economy, and later studies into the labour migration sector. A new edition of the 2001 book has been updated to include the changing dynamics of migration and the remittance economy in the last 20 years, especially <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-economy-already-weak-takes-direct-hit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">during the Covid-19 pandemic</a>.The abuse and death of a Nepali domestic worker at the hands of employers in Kuwait in 1998 prompted the Nepal government to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16350#.YfIiTeNBzOR" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ban women from going to the Gulf to work as domestics</a>. The ban was eventually lifted, but similar immigration policies that limit female mobility have been introduced in the years between, including <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/history-of-female-immobility-in-nepal/">a 2021 proposal requiring Nepali women under 40 travelling to the Gulf or Africa to present consent from a guardian and local government</a>.In August 2004, 12 Nepali labour migrants led to Iraq for work under false pretences <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=1872#.YfIi4eNBzOQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">were abducted and killed by insurgents</a>, their execution filmed and released by the extremists for the world to see. Thirteen Nepali security contractors were killed and five injured by a suicide bombing in 2016 while en route to their jobs at the Canadian embassy.A July 2021 mobile video of a Nepali security guard in Malaysia getting beaten up by his supervisor prompted Nepalis to share their own experiences of violence against migrant workers in Malaysia.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/afghanistan-abandoned/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Taliban takeover of Kabul</a> in August 2021 brought to light the plights of potentially<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-will-rescue-nepalis-from-afghanistan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> thousands of stranded Nepalis</a> working to protect embassies of US and NATO countries, as well as undocumented migrants in Afghanistan.In Qatar, as many as 1,600 Nepali workers are believed to have died in the past decade <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-rights-referees-blow-whistle-on-world-cup-fouls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">after the country won the bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2022</a>.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-days-of-international-migration/">The Days of International Migration</a>These incidents are only the highlights of Nepal’s tragic migrant history that made it to the media. Yet, there are many more success stories of workers who have done well for themselves and supported families back home, while at the same time keeping Nepal’s economy afloat.Yet, over the years, the Nepal government’s treatment of the labour export sector, whether in terms of policy-making or bilateral discussions, have not brought long-term benefits to workers. On the contrary, many Nepalis have had to resort to taking illegal channels and routes to travel and work overseas, further risking their lives.This has also made it impossible for Nepal’s authorities to pinpoint the number of undocumented Nepali migrants across Asia and the Gulf, let alone ensure their rights and safety. Preliminary data of the 2021 census released this week shows that there are only 2.6 million Nepali workers abroad, which seems to be a gross undercount (see box, below).“While economic diplomacy has been incorporated into our foreign policy, discussions about labour diplomacy have not moved forward,” said migration expert Ganesh Gurung, co-author of The New Lahures, in his keynote address at the Kantipur Migration and Remit Summit 2021.Indeed, in recent years experts have pointed out the need to diversify out-migration destinations to include better, higher paying jobs for Nepali workers seeking employment abroad. The need to ensure access to safer and better-paying labour destinations for Nepalis of all socio-economic as well as socio-cultural backgrounds have also been highlighted.Added Gurung: “We are sending Nepalis to the Gulf, Malaysia, and India —countries that earn them the least amount of income but with some of the worst human rights records in the world … We have the strength of the Gurkha reputation in the security sector, but we have not been able to use it to tap the market in Europe, or North America.”The Ministry of Labour’s 2020 Migration Report prioritised the diversification of labour destinations and employment sectors. The report read: ‘More flexible approaches such as revised time limits on employment contracts for short-term opportunities, employment in emerging sectors … and innovations in joint partnerships … should be considered.’However, into the third year of the pandemic and the third Covid wave, Nepal’s government does not seem to have learnt its lesson and has no clear short-term plans to manage Nepalis leaving for overseas jobs, even as it continues to issue labour permits. Nor has it been able to integrate returning migrants in Nepal with support.As the highly contagious variant spreads across the world, there is no clear information about when and where migrants can receive booster shots. The paperwork for workers is laborious, confusing and ridden with corruption. Recruiters blatantly exploit workers, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/diaspora-diaries-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mislead them about jobs and earnings overseas</a>.“I was told that I could get the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/boosting-booster-jabs-against-omicron/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">booster shot</a> here,” says a man waiting near a crowd of people registering for their first and second doses in front of Shahid Memorial Hospital in Kalanki this week. “I have to leave the country soon, but no one seems to know about it.”The security guard at the vaccination booth asks him what kind of frontline worker he is. He is then promptly told that booster shots are not available for those going overseas.Reading The New Lahures puts the individual everyday hassle of Nepal’s desperate migrant workers into perspective and historical context. How the government benefits by shifting responsibility for finding work for its citizens at home by driving them away, and then props up the economy with the money they send back.Yet the same government invests so little in making life easier for those very workers, ensure that they are not abused and exploited by recruiters, and getting Nepal’s embassies to look after <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-the-minds-of-nepals-migrant-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">their welfare while abroad</a>.The New Lahures: Foreign Employment and the Remittance Economy of NepalAdroit Publishers, 2021219 pages<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/6372055f9c7e80680e0b28b1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="686" height="1096">Census undercount?The <a href="https://cbs.gov.np/wp-content/upLoads/2022/01/Preliminary-report-2021-final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">preliminary date of the 2021 Census</a> that was released this week has interesting new revelations that all point to the country having defused its <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-holding-census-despite-covid-and-boycott/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">demographic bomb</a>. However, some of the growth is uneven and there are indications of possible problems in future with an ageing population.<ul><li>Nepal’s annual population growth rate dropped to only 0.93% from 1.34% ten years ago</li> <li>The proportion of Nepalis living in the Tarai grew to nearly 54%</li> <li>Two-thirds of Nepalis live in urban areas</li> <li>The male-female ratio is 95.9:100, meaning there are 600,000 more women than men in Nepal</li> <li>The fertility rate is now approaching replacement level: 2.3 children per mother</li> <li>67% of the population is made up of working-age youth, which is Nepal’s ‘demographic dividend’</li> <li>Madhes Province has the most people, making up 21% of the population</li> <li>Kathmandu district’s population is now 2.02 million</li></ul><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111410114/637205619c7e80680e0b28b2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">However, the census data shows that there are 2,169,478 Nepalis living abroad, and experts say this is a gross undercount. There are said to be at least 3 million Nepalis working just in India, and the figure for labour permits show at least 2 million in the Gulf, Malaysia, Korea and Japan. And this does not even include the number of students who have gone abroad.Even the head of the Central Bureau of Statistic Nebin Lal Shrestha said in media interviews that he was personally surprised by the low figure. He said there could have been an undercount because households where all members were abroad were not counted.However, among those abroad, the proportion of women has increased from 12% to nearly 19%. The reason for this could be greater <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/3-4th-of-the-sky/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">gender equality in Nepal</a>, increase in female literacy, overseas demand for domestic and caregivers.

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No country for young men

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfdd89c7e80680e0a0c08jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Scars of injuries sustained by Shyam in his scalp when his Nepali employer in a restaurant in Luxembourg allegedly beat him with a tandoor skewer, ladles and other objects.</figcaption></figure>The Nepali restaurant is located in the richest country of the European Union, and its Facebook page is full of recommendations from guests lavishing effusive praise on its cuisine and service. The page also contains a post from its owner saying that the restaurant's chefs and staff prepare all meals with great care so that guests leave with satisfaction and good memories. What the Facebook page does not say is that the chef and staff had been made to work more than 18 hours a day as virtual slaves with their bank accounts, and in some cases passports, in the hands of an abusive owner. Luxembourg is Europe’s smallest country, and has the world’s highest GDP per capita. It is one of the founding members of the European Union, is one of its four capitals, and is also the seat of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Some of the restaurant’s regular customers could have been rich Europeans and those who worked on human rights. However, they were oblivious to the mistreatment and abuse of the restaurant’s Nepali staff by its Nepali owner. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/two-decades-of-debate-on-female-migration/">Two decades of debate on female migration</a>, Upasana Khadka “I arrived in Luxembourg in October 2015 with a work permit sent to me by the owner of the restaurant,” says Shyam from Baglung, who paid for his own air ticket. “I wanted to live a decent life and save enough to provide for my family. But what a disappointment it has been.” In a series of phone calls from Luxembourg, Shyam spoke of chronic beatings, abuse, withholding of salary, and substandard living conditions. Unable to bear it any longer he and some other co-workers lodged a complaint with the Luxembourg police in July.  The case will now be further investigated by the Police Judiciaire, and based on its verdict the prosecutor's office will decide whether there is enough evidence of human trafficking to file charges. After several attempts to contact the restaurant owner, he finally responded via an email from his lawyer denying all accusations. He says he had neither mentally nor physically abused his staff, or forced them to work for free for 16 months or work extra hours.  ‘All the claims made by my ex-employees are false. They might have received a better offer from competing business and hence they fled from the restaurant housing overnight leaving a resignation letter in my mailbox,’ he states in the email. ‘This is nothing but a stunt to defame my image and damage the reputation of my very well-established business.’  Luxembourg law does not permit naming of the restaurant and the owner, unless convicted, but Shyam’s story has been corroborated by two of his colleagues as well with depositions he made with the local Nepali community and the police.   When he arrived Shyam was given space above the restaurant to share with two other co-workers. The toilets were rudimentary, and they were allowed to take a bath only once a week and that too, very grudgingly.  The restaurant’s cook, Binod, left soon after Shyam arrived because he could not tolerate the injustice of the owner, who happened to be his relative. Nepali Times tracked down Binod in Chitwan this week, and he confirmed that the owner was physically abusive and exploited his employees from Nepal. Binod is an experienced chef, having worked for 12 years in India and seven years in Qatar before spending €3,000 of his own savings to go to Luxembourg to work for his relative, who sent him a work permit.   <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/caught-in-the-middle/migration-agency-exploitation,4003">Caught in the middle by middlemen</a>, Upasana Khadka He also agreed to work for 12 months without pay in lieu of his work permit. He was hired as a chef, but was asked to also do all the shopping, carrying heavy goods into the store, cleaning and other chores. He had been promised a four-hour working day, but ended up doing 18-hours a day.  Binod’s passport was taken away from him, and his phone calls were monitored. After he found the abuse intolerable, Binod asked his relative for his passport and money, but he lost his temper and beat him with anything he could lay his hands on. His employer opened a bank account in Binod’s name and would deposit about €2,000 every month. But the restaurant owner kept all the passwords himself and Binod could not have access to his account. The owner then withdrew most of the salary he had deposited, and gave only €500 to him. At first, Binod says he did not complain because he thought that was the way things were done in Luxembourg. Binod’s unwritten agreement with his relative was that he would work for free for one year to repay him for the work permit. But he ended up working at the restaurant for no salary, no leave and no weekends for most of the 3.5 years. “When I did not do as asked, he hit me with a metal tandoor skewer or a ladle,” Binod recalls. “There were many nights when I could not sleep because of the pain from the beatings, and the pillow would be soaked with blood from wounds in my ears.”  Binod would plead with the employer to take him to hospital to get stitches, but was not allowed. After nearly four years of this, Binod’s father died and he asked his employer for leave. When the owner refused, Binod got relatives back home to buy a one-way ticket back to Nepal and never went back to Luxembourg.  Both Binod and Shyam thought the prospect of a job in Europe would change their lives, and trusted a fellow-Nepali employer. But while Binod returned to Nepal because he could not bear the mistreatment, and did not want to turn against his relative, Shyam lodged the complaint with the authorities.   <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-and-malaysia-rewrite-rules-for-migrant-labour/">Nepal and Malaysia rewrite rules for migrant labour</a>, Kunda Dixit Binod and Shyam talked to us separately, and one did not know the other was in touch with Nepali Times. But the pattern of abuse and the method of exploitation they described unprompted were identical in both cases.  In July, three of the Nepali workers complained to the Non-resident Nepalese Association (NRN) Luxembourg, and a section of the interaction was recorded by someone there. Shyam also said he had to work 16 hours a day without holidays, not allowed breaks or to meet with other Nepalis “I was imprisoned for seven years,” he said in the audio clip. Like Binod, Shyam’s verbal deal with the employer was that he would work without pay for the first 16 months to compensate him for arranging the work permit. But because that is not allowed under Luxembourg law, the employer would deposit €1,600 every month in his account, and he would withdraw the amount every month and hand it to the owner. He was sometimes allowed to keep €150 for himself as an allowance. For the first six months he was treated well by his employers, and he did not complain about the bad accommodation and poor food as the other employees were in the same predicament. But after that he started facing physical violence – being hit by skewers and boxed in the ears, like Binod. After 16 months, the owner made him sign an official contract as required by law. But even after that, he kept most of Shyam’s salary himself. In addition, the owner only gave the workers left-overs, vegetables and a thin gruel to eat.  “Sometimes we used scrap bones to make soup, and he would beat us up calling us thieves,” Shyam said on the phone. “At other times he would summon us in the middle of the night to massage his legs.”  Shyam says he tolerated the beatings and abuse because he did not want to lose face back home, and wanted to protect his mother from social stigma. He sold his land in Nepal, and brought his wife and two children over to Europe as well, and for this he needed his employer’s help. When he visited Nepal for the first time since leaving for Luxembourg, family members asked him about the scars on his face. He told them it was work related. Finally, unable to bear the abuse any longer, Shyam and three other staff – one of them another relative of the owner – decided to tell their story to the NRN. In the audio recording of their deposition, the relative of the owner is heard saying that although he and his wife were also mistreated, he could not come out openly to lodge a complaint because of his family ties to him.  Another staff member is overheard in the clip saying he was forbidden even to drink water or take a toilet break while in the kitchen. Shyam explained that after meeting the Nepali community, the three of them got the courage to file a complaint with the Commissariat Luxembourg on 25 July 2021. The NRN Chair in Luxembourg Hari Khatri and his family own a restaurant and grocery. He was shocked by the revelations of the four Nepali restaurant workers.  <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/women-migrant-workers-are-doubly-vulnerable">Women workers are doubly vulnerable</a>, Rojita Adhikari “In my 23 years living here, this has never happened before in the Luxembourg Nepali community. We all lived together as one family,” Khatri said on the phone. “The case is now with the police, they will investigate and we will soon know the facts. I will try to help the staff as much as I can.” There are about 450 Nepali residents in Luxembourg and some 120 households. Many of them have come as cooks to work in Nepali restaurants, and earn enough in about six months to bring their families over. Luxembourg law allows restaurant owners to import cooks if a citizen who qualifies for the job cannot be found.  That is how Khatri himself brought his brother over in 2006, who is now well settled with his family in his own house. “But I had never heard of any Nepali not paying 16 months salary to a fellow Nepali,” he added. Like other countries in Europe, Nepalis also try to come to Luxembourg on student visas by paying agents in Kathmandu up to Rs1.6 million. He warned Nepali youngsters not to get duped, since the cost of living is very high, and it is difficult to pay living costs and school fees by working. With the pandemic, there are also fewer jobs in the service industry. Most are now working on home delivery and take away.   After the interaction with the NRN, the restaurant owner’s mother and father pleaded with Shyam and his colleagues not to press charges against their son. In an audio recording of a telephone conversation that Nepali Times was provided, they can be heard apologising to Shyam about the way their son treated him.  Shyam then asks them why they did not speak up even though they knew that their son was abusing employees. The restaurant has remained closed since the four employees left and filed the complaint. Many Nepalis in Europe have said in interviews that they are not surprised by this story from Luxembourg. The practice of friends and relatives misusing the work permit in restaurants to engage in human trafficking is said to be rife.  But such is the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/half-of-nepalis-lost-jobs-in-past-month/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">desperation of young Nepalis for jobs</a> that they are willing to risk all for a decent income to support families back home. Many of them tolerate the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-guard-beaten-in-malaysia-goes-viral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">abuse and exploitation</a>, and are also not aware of their rights in European countries.  Service Info Traite, which supports victims of human trafficking in Luxembourg says that the investigation and judicial process could take up to three years. It says the restaurant owner using a bank account to get around labour laws to exploit his employees is not new.  Says Frank Wies, who is a lawyer with Luxembourg’s Human Rights Commission: “The police, the courts and the prosecution often lack the necessary sensitivity to recognise and treat human trafficking. I have often seen cases where victims are given a settlement and deported back to their countries.” That is not likely to happen with Shyam and his two colleagues who have work permits. But they have gone to the police in one of the world’s richest countries in the hope that justice will be served, and maybe set an example to other Nepali employers in Europe.   Some names have been changed. Luc Caregari of Reporter in Luxembourg collaborated in this investigation. This report is published simultaneously in English in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195528000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHtSVNSRWqbuFfj0xvYbhurabXE-A">Nepali Times</a>, in German in <a href="http://reporter.lu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://reporter.lu&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195528000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHmoJ1q5lxrWAGKSIqhvoLQ1ds7Yw">reporter.lu</a> and in Nepali by <a href="http://onlinekhabar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://onlinekhabar.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195528000&amp;usg=AFQjCNExFo0zvEqQtb7MfZDSAfMpQv1MvQ">onlinekhabar.com</a>._________________  <h2>Dark shadow of the European dream</h2> During my reporting trip to Europe in 2019, I visited many Nepali restaurants, interviewed their Nepali owners, and met with employees. I also met government officials and visited police departments. In Luxembourg, it was not easy to get information. After the initial chit chat restaurant workers suddenly went quiet when asked about their working conditions and seemed intimidated. Owners liked to highlight how they were helping fellow Nepalis attain their European dream. I soon found out that the reason was that many of them are victims of physical and mental torture, not aware of their labour rights in Europe because of lack of education or being unable to speak the local language. They trusted the employer who was often a relative or friend from back home.  It was in Luxembourg, the country where the Court of Justice of the European Union is situated, that migrant workers were facing some of the worst violations of their human rights at the hands of fellow Nepalis. Outwardly, the restaurants looked spic and span, the guests were all well-groomed, and seemed to be from the higher echelons of society. The Nepalis all said they were happy. But behind this veneer, I had a nagging feeling that it was all too good to be true.  Sure enough, after some digging, I found a similar story to what I had uncovered in Helsinki earlier. Together with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/finnish-paper-expose-on-nepali-restaurants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/finnish-paper-expose-on-nepali-restaurants/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195528000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE_Bi1ton1z4xOyqLRgwTTz1UfqsQ">Helsingin Sanomat</a>, we at Nepali Times had covered the story on human trafficking of Nepali workers by a Nepali restaurant owner in 2019, after which the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-restaurateurs-fined-in-finland/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-restaurateurs-fined-in-finland/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195529000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEsSkybqU-hj0KgZBpma0xalqzAAg">Finnish government took action</a> on the perpetrator.  Like in Finland, some migrants who had entered Luxembourg legally were being abused and denied basic human rights, including the right to decent working hours and salary as per the labour laws of the country, right to safe housing and good food and the right to live with dignity.  The stories of Binod, Shyam, and their colleagues prove that there are Nepalis who themselves rose up the ranks to be restaurant owners who are now preying on vulnerable and desperate people from the home country.  There is no other label for this but human trafficking — anyone who is made to work in a different place than their home country without a fair salary, housing, food and health services are victims of human trafficking, even if they are not subject to physical, verbal, mental and sexual violence.  Shyam and Binod’s Nepali employer has all the legal paperwork for their contract and bank accounts. Still, they were exploited. It is now up to the authorities there to find out how such violations  could occur in a country which has such strict safeguards. <img width="97" height="103" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfddb9c7e80680e0a0c09jpeg.jpg" alt="">Namrata Sharma is former chair of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal. This article has been developed with the support of the <a style="font-family: georgia, serif;" href="http://www.money-trail.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.money-trail.org&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195529000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHi58yJp7lYGXJm-u7RxXB37cRrBw">Money Trail Project</a>, <a style="font-family: georgia, serif;" href="https://www.journalismfund.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.journalismfund.eu&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195529000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFgo-S83vRTW2_zljHaM5pvCj-uzg">Journalism Fund EU</a>, and <a style="font-family: georgia, serif;" href="http://www.financeuncovered.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.financeuncovered.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629986195529000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG5Rn24XIEKJ2NEdArVvblHbVcR1A">Finance Uncovered</a>.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-the-minds-of-nepals-migrant-workers/">In the minds of Nepal’s migrant workers</a>, Upasana Khadka<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/south-asias-migrants-shared-problems-share-solutions/">South Asia’s migrants share problems, share solutions</a>, Upasana Khadka

Nepalis abused by Nepalis in Luxembourg

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111152/636cd86b9c7e80680e092e40jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photo: NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption></figure>Almost exactly two years ago, Prime Minister Oli launched an ambitious employment creation scheme, which was widely considered at the time as a potentially significant contribution to the reduction in unemployment within the country.In the budget for 2018-19, the government had allocated Rs3.1 billion for an employment ‘drive’. Two years later, the ambitious program had not provided the promised jobs, even as the need grew for employment for the many migrant workers who returned, mainly from India, last year.The scheme would provide guaranteed public sector employment for 100 days to those currently unemployed, across a dozen different sectors, including irrigation, commercial agriculture, drinking water, river control, forestry, tourism, transport infrastructure and other public works across the country.The PlanThe plan was to was to be delivered through Employment Service Centres (ESCs) to be set up in the 753 local administrative units to those registered as unemployed. Already, 2,259 candidates had been shortlisted to run the ESCs.Unemployed persons between 18 and 51 would be covered under this scheme, which would assign them jobs according to their qualifications and interest areas. Additionally, they will also receive vocational and skill-oriented training.With the implementation of the new program, each unemployed person would get a paid job for a minimum of 100 days in a fiscal year, along with a subsistence allowance worth 50 days of work. The then Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-and-tears/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-and-tears/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970334000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHOgDJ2olr5zixIp8i2UKNw_OyUzA">Gokarna Bista</a>, promised that the program would be instrumental in bringing down the massive outflow of the country’s youth to foreign lands.The scheme reminded some of a similar project introduced in India under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, whereby India also aimed to guarantee 100 days of paid work annually.That program was fraught with corruption and malpractice, and although the proposal made by Oli was generally welcomed in Nepal by economists, journalists and other commentators, it was recognised that much depended on successful implementation – not something for which the government of Nepal was considered to be particularly effective.Also Arjun Kharel, researcher on labour and migration at the Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility warned that much depended on the successful implementation of the programme and also reminded policy makers of the importance of remittances from migrants working abroad for the national economy.As regards the former warning, even PM Oli himself recognised the enormity of the task ahead. He was quoted by the media as saying: “We all need to come together for its effective implementation to ensure that there is no poverty and no unemployment in Nepal.”But he clearly had high hopes for its realisation. When he formally inaugurated the scheme at the beginning of June 2019, he promised “no Nepali will now have to go abroad looking for work as the government would provide employment to all within the country itself”.He described the Prime Minister Self-employment Programme as an illustration of the broader campaign of nation building on which he and his government was now embarked.  “Now, no one will face problems, as the government has conducted a campaign of life security for all, from children to the senior citizens ... this is a new beginning, a new campaign. Among many problems of the country, unemployment is the major one, which is directly linked with poverty. This program aims to resolve both,” Prime Minister Oli added.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/win-win-migration/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/win-win-migration/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970334000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFFgkqjGOUuegnI6kad_Q3paFMD9Q">Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista</a>, said that the government had initiated the Prime Minister Self-employment Programme with a goal of making the unemployed youth self-employed.He added that, although this program had been implemented only partially in the current fiscal year, it would be expanded throughout the country with the goal of providing jobs to at least 500,000 unemployed youths from the coming fiscal year. He said the government had designed an employment programme for both educated and uneducated people.Lawmaker and former Minister for Industry, Mahesh Basnet, said that the government had provided Rs24.6 million for the employment program in four municipalities of Bhaktapur, and added that the municipalities would mobilise the unemployed youths at the ward level in work from 16 June 2019.“The government should set up an Employment Bank and provide employment to the unemployed youth based on their qualification as per the data of unemployed youths,” he said, predicting that “employment can be given to 1.2 million youths in the agriculture sector alone, while more than 700,000 youths can be given work in the construction industry.”He reported that, already, around 750 unemployed young people in Bhaktapur had found work under this program, and that some 1,500 youths had enlisted their names in the unemployed youth list.Meantime, in April 2019 the British development agency DfID had launched a complementary four-year <a href="http://seepnepal.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://seepnepal.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970335000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZM6z1-e5FxiZwHdbx96g7oIgv7w">Skills for Employment Programme (SEP)</a> which was intended ‘to support the generation of new employment by working with government, employers in the private sector, training and education institutions, and youth to carry out innovative employment interventions, including skills training and job placement which provides higher wages for the individuals and increases the productivity of firms in growth sectors’.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111152/636cd86f9c7e80680e092e41jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4002" height="4002"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>It was anticipated that some 100,000 young people would be involved, and there would be a focus on women and other disadvantaged groups. The SEP would concentrate on information and communication technology, commercial agriculture, construction (hydropower), light manufacturing sectors through market-led interventions that enable job creation, increase in incomes and migration optimization.It was recognised that ‘the majority of Nepalis will remain dependent on the informal sector and migration for a long time to come, so the project will also contribute to increasing jobs, productivity and incomes in the informal sector and migrant work’.The program would, ‘harness the benefits of migration for Nepal’s work force and economic development by demonstrating several cost-effective models to increase migrants’ skills; lower financing and other costs of travelling abroad; and increase savings and investment of remittances’.The RealityWhat has happened since these program were announced? <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-and-tears/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-and-tears/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970335000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGTGVWQD3g8uy9E4wNIH1wXB6TcEw">Labour Minister Bista was sacked</a>, Basnet has been busy defending Prime Minister Oli from internal rivals within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Oli himself has been engrossed in internal fire-fighting.Prime Minister Oli dissolved the Lower House on 20 December, the Supreme Court reinstated it, but another court decision annulled the unification of the NCP on 7 March. Lurching from one crisis to another, the government has had little time to concentrate on governance, job-creation and addressing the economic and public health impact of the Covid-19 crisis.There has not been any systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of the roll-out and implementation of the two employment generation programs, or any assessment of the extent to which they have achieved their ambitions.The Dfid SEP did set up a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SkillsforEmploymentProgrammeNepal" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/SkillsforEmploymentProgrammeNepal&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970335000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEg7h_F0TSvFDz0SaDnid4MmXv8tA">Facebook site</a>, which is still running and reporting on employment initiatives under this program. But there is no overall evaluation of its achievements and its impact on employment.In June, there were media reports that a task force formed to study the impact of Covid-19 on employment and the economy has said that the country needs to create 1.5 million jobs, more than double the target set by the government, to avoid an <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/03/21/covid-19-pandemic-likely-to-devastate-country-s-labour-sector-as-ilo-projects-25-million-job-losses-globally" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/03/21/covid-19-pandemic-likely-to-devastate-country-s-labour-sector-as-ilo-projects-25-million-job-losses-globally&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970335000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEcs-Hb-ATiAtOeQ3aBeZ8dvQtCxw">imminent unemployment crisis</a>. With the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the global workforce, tens of thousands of Nepali migrant workers based in various labour destination countries were expected to return home while many people within the country were thought to be likely to be put out of their jobsThe government had announced plans to create <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/05/29/government-eyes-massive-700-000-jobs-within-the-country" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/05/29/government-eyes-massive-700-000-jobs-within-the-country&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970335000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEL7W7xd8D3Dx0Z-kdB8CsHWtCVJA">700,000 jobs in the fiscal year 2020-21</a>. But the government’s own task force now suggested that this – even if implemented -- would not be enough to employ the workforce at home and those expected to return from abroad.“Our estimate is that we need to create 1.5 million jobs to accommodate the new workforce that joins the labour market every year, those who were planning to go abroad for jobs but were unable to because of the pandemic, and the people who lost their jobs at home and abroad,” said Ram Kumar Phuyal, coordinator of the task force and also a member of the National Planning Commission.According to the task force, around 700,000 Nepali migrant workers were estimated to return from abroad over the next year. Phuyal said 300,000 people were estimated to arrive from India and the remaining from other key labour destinations.The task force estimated that around 225,000 people were likely to return in the immediate future (June to August 2020). It noted that the government<a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/05/29/government-eyes-massive-700-000-jobs-within-the-country" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/05/29/government-eyes-massive-700-000-jobs-within-the-country&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970335000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEL7W7xd8D3Dx0Z-kdB8CsHWtCVJA"> plans to create employment </a>through various existing programs, like the Prime Minister Employment Programme, as well as new ones.It estimated that this, if implemented, could provide as many as 700,000 jobs, but there was no indication at that point that the scheme was being effectively implemented, or indeed, implemented at all. Shankar Sharma, former vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission, commented that the government would struggle to create 700,000 new jobs in a year, let alone 1.5 million.In fact, by all accounts some 300,000 to 400,000 Nepalis previously working abroad, mainly in India, returned home during 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across India and the economy was effectively locked down.According to the World Bank, the Nepal Unemployment Rate, which was 2.85% in December 2019 (and had averaged 1.84% over the previous decade), had risen by December 2020 to 4.44%. Even as early as September-October 2020, finding insufficient and inadequate economic opportunities in Nepal on their return, tens of thousands of former migrant workers began to return to India in search of employment or other livelihoods.There is no indication that the employment programs launched in 2019 had provided anything like what was needed in the way of jobs to prevent a dramatic rise in unemployment and the return of many migrant workers to India towards the end of 2020.<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/positive-alternatives-to-federalism,350" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/positive-alternatives-to-federalism,350&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1615787970335000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFOoLIXteUjx9jWZvRcPAy1dhJeIw">David Seddon</a> has undertaken research and consultancy on development issues in Nepal over several decades.

Few jobs created by Nepal employment drive

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171144/636bd93b9c7e80680e080200jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="844"/><figcaption>Nepali Times Archives/Om Astha Rai</figcaption></figure>Nepal has set a positive image in the region for adopting a ‘employer pays’ principle that removes the cost burden on its overseas migrants. The reality is that it has remained just that: a principle.Only a negligible number of Nepali workers have benefited from the free visa and free ticket policy – even under bilateral agreements with some Gulf countries and Malaysia that require employers to pay the costs.The issue of recruitment costs has resurfaced with the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/demand-grows-for-nepali-caregivers-in-israel/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/demand-grows-for-nepali-caregivers-in-israel/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1601892756901000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF4sMxqHE6wL_TK2WWv0yxqKiRe8w">Israel-Nepal agreement</a> for caregivers signed last week. Early indications are that the recruitment fees may not be zero, and workers will have to bear costs such as air travel and pre-departure training.Nepal has bilateral agreements with other countries which do not have the employer pays model. Korea has signed Employment Permit Scheme (EPS) with 15 countries for employment in five sectors. Japan has Specialised Skilled Worker program with 10 countries for employment in 14 specific sectors. The agreement between Israel for 500 more Nepali caregivers is similar to the ones it has with Georgia and the Philippines.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-workers-stuck-in-no-mans-land/">Nepali workers stuck in no-man's land</a>, Nepali TimesIn all cases workers have to bear some of the cost of recruitment, all countries have specific quotas. And they are often the only legal pathway for Nepalis to get jobs in those countries. The criteria of these overseas worker programs uniformly apply to the sending countries.Nepal’s agreements with the Gulf states and Malaysia, however, are different. They are generic and not part of any specific overseas worker employment program with criteria that apply to all sending countries. The provision in the agreements are outcomes of country-specific negotiations, there are no quotas, and jobs are not tied to any sector. With or without MoUs, Nepali workers continue to migrate legally to those countries.While there is more leeway in the negotiations of such generic agreements, it is difficult for Nepal to be a sole fighter for the employer pays principle in specific bilateral labour programs such as those with South Korea and Japan.Average recruitment costs also vary widely across sending countries (see figure). For example, the Philippines allows an equivalence of one month’s salary as recruitment fee. South Korea is not going to have a flagship bilateral labour scheme for Nepal that says ‘workers from 14 countries will pay $700 but Nepalis will pay 0’.There are therefore limitations to what labour diplomacy and negotiations can achieve. A zero-cost or bust strategy may deprive Nepali workers from benefiting from the most attractive opportunities overseas with guaranteed returns.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171144/636bd93e9c7e80680e080201jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="954" height="551"><figcaption>Average recruitment costs and monthly earnings (2016) of Nepali workers. SOURCE: IOM/KOICA</figcaption></figure>It would help if all sending countries adopted a single voice on common issues such as recruitment costs. Regional platforms like the Colombo Process for cooperation between sending countries have very little to show for now. Instead, each sending country’s priority is the size of the quota it can bag for its workers in South Korea or Japan.Recruitment costs also need to be considered not just on their face value but in terms of their equivalence to wages. There is a vast difference in the returns to employment across countries. Some are more attractive than others in terms of returns and in our case, Japan, Israel and South Korea are relatively better despite room for improvement in worker treatment.The difference between job opportunities in Israel/South Korea versus the Gulf/Malaysia may be an inter-generational social mobility jump versus just sending enough remittances to make ends meet.EPS workers in South Korea have three advantages: they are charged the same amount, there is a transparent breakdown of costs involved that apply equally to all, and they will be able to recoup this cost within a month.On the other hand, workers headed to Malaysia face a completely different reality, even if there is a zero cost pact between the two countries: they are arbitrarily charged <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/brokers-going-for-broke/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/brokers-going-for-broke/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1601892756901000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGVwF9oATSp2EVcyePLm9CY65x_2A">as per the recruiter’s demand</a>. There is no certainty when they can recoup costs, usually it will take many months.  If workers headed to Malaysia knew that they would be able to recoup recruitment cost within a month of arrival, as in the case of South Korea, they would likely see it as a blessing considering the status quo.<a href="http://nepalitimes.com/opinion/zero-sum-game-in-zero-cost-migration/">Zero-sum game in zero-cost migration</a>, Upasana KhadkaNepal’s bilateral schemes with Korea, Japan and Israel have evolved to address high recruitment costs. The EPS itself is remodeled after its predecessor, the Industrial Trainee Scheme, under which workers paid as much as $10,000 for their jobs, and the process was rife with malpractice and exploitation.The Israel market was shut down for Nepali caregivers in 2012 when recruiters started charging up to $8,000 each. Removing intermediaries in these programs is an attempt to reduce costs for workers. In the quest for the ideal ‘employer pays’ model in which workers pay nothing, we disregard the achievable progress in government-to-government schemes like the most recent Israel-Nepal agreement.While Nepal may have signed agreements with employer pays provisions for visa fee and air tickets, there are no mechanisms to ensure its implementation. These principles are only as good as the impact they bring to migrants.In the past few years since it was set up, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/brokers-going-for-broke/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/brokers-going-for-broke/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1601892756901000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGVwF9oATSp2EVcyePLm9CY65x_2A">Ethics Practitioners Association of Nepal (EPAN),</a> an umbrella organisation of recruiters committed to ethical recruitment including no cost for workers, has been able to mobilise zero workers. The only reason they are surviving is because they have alternate businesses in other sectors.There are some positive signs. Glove factories in Malaysia are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/global-glove-makers-compensate-nepali-workers/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/global-glove-makers-compensate-nepali-workers/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1601892756901000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE4L3qB7b5YW3AoiKNQQl9UGlYvCw">reimbursing recruitment fees of workers</a> from all nationalities – not just workers from Nepal with which Malaysia has signed a zero-cost pact (see figure). This move was not due to the goodwill of employers or the Malaysian Government, but pressure from the United States after their exports faced a ban from CBP (Customs and Border Protection) and a potential damage to their reputation from profiting during the pandemic.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171144/636bd9419c7e80680e080202jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="965" height="472"><figcaption>Recruitment costs (Months of earnings at destination) SOURCE: World Bank</figcaption></figure>This calls for a more strategic approach to bring real change alongside non-binding, soft commitments, or moral agreements on zero-cost migration that get all the media attention. Another unintended consequence of focusing only on the principle of no-cost migration is that more practical solutions may be disregarded.One of the biggest downsides of financing recruitment costs for Nepali workers is that they are slapped hefty interests by informal lenders that add up significantly. Financing collateral free, low interest loans, as was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/zero-sum-game-in-zero-cost-migration/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/zero-sum-game-in-zero-cost-migration/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1601892756901000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGtkqeNW-PNxTlOIsFKLrrB3Sp62A">implemented by DfID in Province 2</a> before the lockdown, is an example of a more practical short-term approach to ease the burden on migrants.Is it fair to deprive them of low cost financing solutions knowing that workers are paying to go abroad regardless of whether it is to a country with which we have signed a zero-cost pact or not,Nepal’s well-intentioned policies have failed to deliver, but anyone who cares about migrant welfare will champion the employer pays principle. The bosses of migrants, often migrants themselves but referred to as ‘expats’ for being in a higher position, are not only exempted from recruitment costs but also get compensated for relocation. It is counterintuitive that those in the lowest rungs of the ladder who cannot afford the costs are being made to borrow to pay exorbitant fees just to get the jobs.Nepal’s implementation capability and whether policies are practical in the current context, the incentives for those involved, regional dynamics, and the diverse situation of worker treatment across countries, all have to be taken into account.Turning this aspiration to reality is a long game, and we would be remiss to disregard a whole range of shorter-term, practical alternatives en route.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171144/636bd9449c7e80680e080203jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="95" height="105">Upasana Khadka writes the column Labour Mobility every month in Nepali Times analysing trends affecting Nepal’s workers abroad.

The theory and practice of zero-cost migration

<figure><img width="2502" height="1824" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915114/636bb3989c7e80680e07bb4djpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>Three months after nearly 400,000 Nepali workers returned from India following the Covid-19 lockdown, many are now headed back because they have not been able to find jobs in their home country.It is estimated that only some of the Nepali workers in India <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/workers-return-to-jobless-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/workers-return-to-jobless-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNES-udZ7ld-wC_WHzHsAPJNc__IXg">returned to Nepal in May-June</a> after the lockdown, and it is not known if the numbers going back to India now will pick up since Dasain is less than two months away. <figure><img width="450" height="600" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915114/636bb39c9c7e80680e07bb4ejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Gobinda Malla en route to India</figcaption></figure>One of those returning to India is Govinda Malla from Nepalganj, who returned from Gujarat three months ago. He had heard about the difficulties at the border and the poor state of the quarantine centres in Nepal, but came home anyway.“With the joblessness and fear of the virus, we thought it was better to die in our own land near our families than in a foreign country,” Malla said over the phone. But it was not long before he and many thousands like him found they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. In Nepal, there were family expenses, but no more earnings and the savings were gone. Malla crossed over into India on 7 September after hearing that his friends had made it safely back to their work place. He will try to get a train to Mumbai where he has relatives. He does not have a job confirmed yet, but will stay with them while he looks for one. “Everything is uncertain, but likelihood of finding a job is higher there than here, and I am glad I have an Indian Aadhar card as without it, I would not have been allowed back,” says Malla, admitting that he might have to return to Nepal if there are no jobs in Mumbai.Purna Thakuri returned last week to a eatery that he co-runs in Gujarat, and said on the phone from there <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lockdown-limbo-in-no-mans-land/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lockdown-limbo-in-no-mans-land/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFwTy0o4dhyU7UXuZd7dhDfcyZsLA">that compared to the difficulty of traveling to Nepal</a> from India in May, this time it was smoother. "The police in the Nepali side tried to dissuade us, saying it was better to stay in Nepal during this crisis. But we convinced them that our jobs or businesses are at stake,” said Thakuri, who said the Indians took a temperature check at the border but there was no quarantine requirement. “We are in a green zone in Gujarat and business is picking up. What alternatives did I have in Nepal?" <figure><img width="400" height="418" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915114/636bb39e9c7e80680e07bb4fjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Purna Thakuri returned to run his small restaurant (Khaja Pasal) in Gujarat</figcaption></figure>Durga Bahadur Khadka from Bardia spent five years working in a restaurant in Maharastra state, and is not sure whether he is going back. He says: “It is not about whether or not I will go, but when. I worked as a cook, made around 15,000 Indian rupees and did not have to spend on food and room.”The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-reintegrate-returning-workers/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-reintegrate-returning-workers/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_Hgw6FU1sp4GHUTlfV04s68dpSA">Nepal government does have plans</a> to help returnees find jobs so they can get back on their feet. Labour experts even pushed all three levels of government to urgently give jobs vacated by the 500,000 Indian workers in Nepal to Nepali returnees from India. But the rush of Nepalis returning to India in the past weeks shows that these <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/where-have-we-heard-that-one-before/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/where-have-we-heard-that-one-before/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEz2NDnIfwX4VeC0mwOCv0t8KHJZQ">promises are limited to paper.</a>In theory, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-reintegrate-returning-workers/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-reintegrate-returning-workers/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_Hgw6FU1sp4GHUTlfV04s68dpSA">there are reintegration programs</a>, soft loans, and jobs via the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-reintegrate-returning-workers/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-reintegrate-returning-workers/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_Hgw6FU1sp4GHUTlfV04s68dpSA">Prime Minister’s Employment Program (PMEP)</a>. Even before the pandemic, the PMEP was criticised for creating just 13 days of employment for 175,909 returning migrant workers in the past fiscal year. The returnee soft loan program approved credit for less than 1% of 18,000 applicants. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-unveils-covid-19-budget/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-unveils-covid-19-budget/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEmjEdFK5j3sVHLD7V0hjdUyMChzA">This year’s budget</a> had employment generation as a central focus, but implementation has been slow and returnees do not have the luxury to wait around. Migrants from India do not even qualify for programs targeting returnees such as the soft loan program because they have not contributed to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/helping-hand-for-repatriated-nepali-workers/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/helping-hand-for-repatriated-nepali-workers/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFVhbX6N6Z_A0YlTCQZv1F4R9E_cw">Foreign Employment Welfare Fund</a>. In fact, Nepalis migrating to India for work are almost treated like internal migrants. Faced with the choice between hunger and jobs, many of the poorest are heading back across the border. Khadka of Bardia knew local officials were collecting information on the jobless for the Prime Minister’s Employment Program, but he did not sign up because he was not sure he would get a job if he did. “It would be working on road or irrigation construction projects for just 500 rupees a day,” he says. “The best option for me is to go back to India to the cooking job I had. But I am trying to find out more about the journey back and the situation in Maharastra so I know the risks.”Hari Sharma from Banke, who <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-long-journey-to-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-long-journey-to-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599539999195000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEop1iZGPMVtMzNNg8Gp0TRcKGCMQ">shared his experience about his journey back home</a> with Nepali Times in May has decided to try his luck in Nepal despite being asked by his employer in India to return. “I spent Rs20,000 to start a small butcher shop from my house, but it is not easy because many customers want to buy meat on credit. But I will see how it goes, some days are better than others,” Sharma said in a phone interview.If the pandemic in India goes down and things get back to normal, Sharma knows it may make more sense to re-emigrate to India, or even go to the UAE. However, Nepal has not yet fully re-opened issuing labour permits. <figure><img width="450" height="601" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915114/636bb39f9c7e80680e07bb50jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Hari Sharma, an India returnee, started a butcher shop in Banke</figcaption></figure>So far, the Department of Foreign Employment (DOFE) has said it will issue labour permits only after receiving No Objection Certificates (NOC) from the employer which is verified by the concerned Nepal Embassy. Workers on vacation stranded in Nepal after the suspension of international flights in March can also fly back. Over 5,000 Nepalis now in Nepal have renewed their labour approvals, but the entry requirements of destination countries vary. For example, Malaysia has not yet started allowing foreign workers to the country while the Nepal Embassy in Bahrain has published a list of 297 workers who have registered to return to Bahrain from Nepal along with a list of entry requirements.

Nepali workers returning to India

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba76b9c7e80680e073781jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photo: AJAYA UPADHAYAYA</figcaption></figure>As serious as the rapid spread in Nepal of the novel coronavirus looks, even more frightening is what the lockdown meant to prevent it will do to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-economy-already-weak-takes-direct-hit/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-economy-already-weak-takes-direct-hit/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647267000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMB3uRxLtXPB1J9V0PQdJF-f6E6w">country’s economy</a>. The health impact of the virus may pale in comparison to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-revive-economy-hit-by-covid-19/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-plans-to-revive-economy-hit-by-covid-19/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647267000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHZ73Q3ug57-h3IKB7NUBfuqD8LyQ">long-term damage</a> to the country from a prolonged lockdown that enters its sixth month today.It is difficult to make predictions on how Nepal’s economy will fare till the end of the year because that will depend on how the virus behaves. But all indications are of that SARS-CoV-2 is here to stay, and that it will resurface with added virulence in winter.On 21 July when Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada triumphantly announced that the pandemic in Nepal had peaked, and the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-ends-covid-19-lockdown/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-ends-covid-19-lockdown/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647268000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEfmOWpPyfs0PHIzdD4yHmecUC6hg">lockdown had been lifted</a>, traders, businesses and industries were cautiously optimistic. But since then there has been a surge, with cases and fatalities more than doubling in the past three weeks.Aside from essential food and other items, business transactions are down by more than half since 24 March when the restrictions were first announced. Even when the lockdown was eased last month, the people’s purchasing capacity had gone down and businesses did not really pick up.The Rastra Bank estimates that it will take at least nine months after the lockdown is fully lifted for the economy to come back to previous levels. This means Nepal is not going to see a recovery this fiscal year. The central bank says 22.5% of those employed in the country have lost their jobs in the past five months of lockdown.The central bank expects Nepal’s economic growth rate to plunge from 6.9% last year to less than 1% this year. But the World Bank is even more pessimistic, it says the growth rate may even go into negative 2.8% if the crisis continues.“Everything is at a complete standstill, there are no transactions taking place except people buying food from day to day,” says Shekhar Golchha of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI). “The question is how long before businesses run out of cash to pay salaries, and families run out of savings.”Factories along the Itahari-Biratnagar and Simara-Birganj corridors have been hardest hit not just by the plunge in demand but because workers who had returned from India after 21 July started falling sick.One of those hit was Jagadamba Steels, whose Sahil Agrawal says: “The sale of steel rods had picked up somewhat after the lockdown was lifted, but after workers tested positive, the local administration closed the factories. Now, with the lockdown everything is closed.”Even worse hit is the tourism and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/domestic-flights-need-to-resume-so-the-economy-can-take-off/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/domestic-flights-need-to-resume-so-the-economy-can-take-off/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647268000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQz5xiYmnvrrNu2XXeOqvI6eqyXQ">aviation sector</a> where revenue is zero for the past five months. Banks had given loans worth Rs1.1 trillion for hotels and restaurants, and had lent Rs40 billion to the transport sector. They are not in a position to replay even the interest, let alone the capital.Imports are down 20%, from Rs1.7 trillion in the first half of last year compared to only Rs85 billion in the same period this year. That should be good news, but it means the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-unveils-covid-19-budget/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-unveils-covid-19-budget/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647268000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEHmYyroAVpq5ZVmt1E9zdYH6duUQ">government’s tax revenue</a> has gone down by more than half.The middle class has been hit hardest with incomes falling. Of the 923,000 registered businesses in Nepal, nearly all are small and medium enterprises employing less than ten people. As a result, house and property transactions have gone down by half last month compared to the same period in 2019.“Except for mobile phones, motorcycles, fast moving consumer goods, nothing else is moving,” says Golchha. “Even when they do shop consumers are buying cheaper items, which is an indicator of a drastic fall in income.”Even the sale of alcohol products are down by up to 80%. Bhat Bhateni Supermarket’s Panu Poudel says turnover in the nationwide chain had picked up after 21 July, but was still down by a third, but now it is back to zero again.But the real barometer of just how bad the crisis is can be felt in the banking sector where on the one hand liquidity is overflowing because of reduction in loan disbursement, but collection has also shrunk because of defaults. The print editions of the Nepali language press in the past month are full of bank notices for auctions of collateral property. However, even if the property is up for auction, they may be no buyers.In the whole of July-August the banks collected Rs34 trillion in loan repayments, but they lent only Rs28 billion. “The reason is that it is difficult enough just to survive for businesses, and they are in no position to take a loan to invest,” says businessman Pashupati Murarka.The government had told borrowers they had a grace period till December to repay bank loans without being put on the defaulters’ black list, but it is looking like even that is being optimistic.One ray of hope for businesses was that public spending would increase in the run up to Dasain, which this year falls at the end of October. But most businessmen have given up on a Dasain-Tihar revival this year. Car sales used to go up at this time, but the Nepal Automobile Dealers’ Association has cancelled its annual auto show, and its chair Krishna Dulal says: “This year we are just trying to get by, there is no hope for sales.”With revenue down, the government will be forced to borrow. But the state borrowing already makes up 37% equivalent of the GDP, and it could go up to 51% by the end of this fiscal year. Economist Govinda Bahadur Thapa says the government may run out of money if the current trend continues. He says: “We have brought the economy to a standstill to save lives, but we need to save the economy as well. It is a very difficult balance.”Former finance secretary Rameshore Khanal is not as pessimistic. Although he does not discount the seriousness of the crisis, he thinks what could save Nepal is that it is still largely a subsistence economy and families have coping mechanisms to get by in times of extreme hardships. For example, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/cash-flow-crisis-for-migrants-and-families/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/cash-flow-crisis-for-migrants-and-families/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647268000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEYYoLn_p_-ES3VLLcSEZMh_J0QPQ">remittances from Nepalis working overseas</a> have not gone down despite predictions it would drop drastically.He says the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/ways-nepal-can-rebound-from-covid-19/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/ways-nepal-can-rebound-from-covid-19/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647268000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH425REk3c_X8wnX5A6WbreQBdGKw">crisis also presents opportunities</a> for the government. “We can have a pro-active policy to channel unemployed Nepalis to the jobs 1.5 million Indian workers used to do before they went home, and this would be the time to flood the market with liquidity in order to inject cash and raise purchasing power.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/ways-nepal-can-rebound-from-covid-19/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/ways-nepal-can-rebound-from-covid-19/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1598352647268000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH425REk3c_X8wnX5A6WbreQBdGKw">Ways Nepal can rebound from Covid-19</a>, Bikash Pandey

Economic cost of 5 months of Nepal lockdown

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221129121152/6385f2899c7e80680e0cc94djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="695" height="364"/><figcaption>Patan Drbar Square. Photo: TEMPLE TIGER</figcaption></figure>The ancient brick walls of the Patan Darbar absorb the dull afternoon light like spilled claret. A black dog slinks behind a doorway and a woman in a pale sari gazes immobile from a high window, but otherwise the square is empty.Temples are closed, worship is suspended, offerings banned, bells muted and lamps left unlit, monitored by the occasional passing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/clamping-down-on-the-country/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">police patrol</a>  Two long wooden benches flank the magnificent nipple-studded gold doorway, usually packed with lounging locals and tired tourists soaking up the sun and watching the world go by.But now the palace door is slammed tight shut, gleaming dully in the overcast afternoon, and the seats, polished by generations of grateful bottoms, are bare and bereft.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/when-the-air-is-clean/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">When the air is clean</a>, Abhushan Gautam<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/kathmandu-turns-into-flower-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kathmandu turns into flower city</a>, Manish Paudel<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221129121152/6385f28c9c7e80680e0cc94ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Across the silent Valley, streets deserted, shops shuttered, offices closed, hotels barred and government gates padlocked, the reclining Vishnu at Budhanilkantha lies abandoned and alone. His black stone limbs are strewn with dead flower petals and rotting leaves blown through the concrete fence. Barricaded behind chunky chains wrapped around his metal gates, the normally bustling temple precinct, never without worshippers, pilgrims and prayers, is still and lifeless.A defiant smear of vermillion stains a tree near the entrance. Narayan’s celestial powers protect the Valley swamped by this unnatural quiet, and bolster the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nation’s battle against the invisible coronavirus</a> to be vanquished with a strategy of isolation, closures and lockdown, defeated by a drumbeat of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/prevention-while-searching-for-a-cure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hand washing, face masks and social distancing</a>.The silence of the airport departure terminal is all pervasive, the car park empty, the doors locked, and inside the dusty check-in desks and rows of untenanted immigration booths stand sentinel to former days. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/anzacs-homeward-bound-from-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rare evacuation flights</a> and the occasional cargo plane brings the place alive with masked staff and gloved security personnel. An aircraft overhead causes us to stop and raise our eyes in witness to an unusual event. Every motor engine sounds unnaturally loud in the Valley hush with which we have become habituated.After 50 days of Nepal lockdown, what is utterly extraordinary has come to seem normal, the unimaginable become commonplace. I wake at dawn thinking: ‘Is this for real?’. ‘Unprecedented’, ‘historic’, ‘incredible’ are all overused words, but how else to relate, to express, to process our current situation. We are becoming inured to scenes and situations throughout the world that a scant few weeks ago would have been unthinkable.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/anzacs-homeward-bound-from-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aussies and Kiwis homeward bound from Nepal</a>, Lisa Choegyal<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/coronavirus-shutdown-gives-nepals-nature-a-respite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Coronavirus shutdown gives Nepal's nature a respite</a>, Mukesh Pokhrel<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221129121152/6385f2909c7e80680e0cc94fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Thousands of aircraft are patiently parked along the periphery of unused runways as flights worldwide are grounded by the pandemic, machinery moth-balled and travellers confined to home. The vast skies above South Asia are devoid of air traffic, all borders sealed, domestic flights forbidden, and not even citizens permitted to return home. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-airlines-may-merge-to-survive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The airline industry is suffering</a> its worst ever crisis, and when planes do take off on the other side of this disaster, aviation will never look the same again.Global <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/survive-2020-revive-in-2021-and-thrive-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tourism</a> is realising how its tentacles extend far beyond the obvious frontline of hospitality - airlines, transport, hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, tours and attractions - into less obvious areas of the arts, theatre, design, banking, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/uncertainties-for-nepali-overseas-students-with-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">education</a>  conservation, and of course <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/back-to-the-future-of-farming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">agriculture</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/work-for-food/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">food production</a>.Businesses that have taken a lifetime to build are crumbling day by day. Touts and beggars are jobless, working horses, donkeys, elephants and camels are having a holiday, wild nature is flourishing in the respite, but the roaming street dogs and stupa monkeys are hungry. The world is at a standstill, the suffering stark.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/back-to-the-future-of-farming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Back to the future of farming</a>, Editorial<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-lockdown-chance-for-self-sufficiency-in-veggies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal lockdown chance for self-sufficiency in veggies</a>, Ramesh KumarSporting events are cancelled, competition abandoned, arenas empty, stadiums forsaken, games aborted, scoreboards blank, ladders and league tables on hold. The massive preparations for race meets, world cups and Olympics evaporate in the face of the most destructive viral onslaught of our lifetimes.Footballers have hung up their boots, racehorses remain in their stables, and the green lawns of Wimbledon see no tennis served with Pimms and strawberries. In bizarre efforts to keep audiences engaged, matches are played in vacant venues, and Formula One and sailing regattas have resorted to virtual events online. There is no fear of missing out, as the sporting world is on ‘pause’.Desperate people queue around the block, snaking for hours through socially distanced circles, for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/feeding-1000-a-day-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">free meals</a> or access to food banks – and not just daily wage earners deprived of employment in emerging nations, but white-collar workers in the world’s major capitals of London, Paris and New York.Public parks are enjoyed only by ducks on the ponds, solitary trees and insects in the flowers, blushing unseen in the deserted gardens. Jobs are being lost, companies collapsing, rents unpaid, loans and mortgages reneged.In Nepal we are familiar with political shutdowns closing the roads and shuttering the shops, strikes that never lasted more than a day or two. The strict curfew that accompanied the king agreeing to lift the ban on political parties in April 1990 was only suffered for three days.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/survive-2020-revive-in-2021-and-thrive-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Survive 2020, revive in 2021 and thrive in 2022"</a>, Alisha Sijapati<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/feeding-1000-a-day-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Feeding 1,000 a day in Kathmandu</a>, Lisa ChoegyalWe are exhorted to stay safe and shelter in place, as the walls close in and perimeters shrink, moulded by the relentless confines of our homes. Rooms contract and expand, depending on our state of mind and time of day. Vivid night dreams infiltrate beyond sleep to penetrate the waking hours. Is that a dent on the sofa cushion where I have been sitting glued to my laptop day after day, week after week?Tenzin paces the driveway, wearing out his prayer beads, the tyres of his unused car softening on the flagstones. The cuckoos have arrived and the whistling thrush has nested. The roses have budded, bloomed and died, the extravagant white petals of the magnolia have exploded before wilting waxy brown, and the cherry tree has carpeted the ground with crimson blossom and is now clad in hopeful fresh green.Within the relentless rhythm of the lockdown the formless days unfold, measured in perpetual birdsong and sheets of vitamin pills, all plans in suspension, all projects on hold. In theory, now is the chance to read, watch movies, wallow in Netflix, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/music-is-my-aeroplane-too/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">listen to music</a>  sort photos, fix the house, and call friends but in reality I struggle with the focus and motivation to do any of it.I have learned to value every cup of coffee, waste no food, and prize the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-lockdown-chance-for-self-sufficiency-in-veggies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fresh vegetables</a> bought from the end of the lane. How sweet is that first mango of the season, and with what difficulties must it have travelled to arrive whole and perfect green and gold on our kitchen table.None of us has seen anything on this scale before and emerging the other side of it will have its own unknown shocks and challenges. But when we do, and when we are asked in some future virus-free era: ‘What was it like during the time of Covid-19, the great pandemic of 2020?’, these are the moments and memories I do not want to forget.

Lisa Choegyal

Coronavirus Nepal Lockdown Month 2

<figure><img width="1500" height="1125" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110912118/636b8ac59c7e80680e06b25djpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption></figure>The COVID-19 lockdown by the government is an effort at ‘primary protection’, and builds on the experience of how other countries have flattened the peak. Nepalis have taken the lockdown in their stride, perhaps because of the hardships suffered during ‘bandhs’ past, as well as the earthquake and Blockade of 2015.  A survey last week showed that there is strong support for the measures the government has taken so far against the virus. Awareness about the virus and what we must do to protect ourselves is high. But people are afraid of the disease, and are worried about the future. Indeed, as a nation we must now look beyond the horizon of the national quarantine period to matters related to food security and employment. Job loss in the country and a slump in overseas employment will introduce great social distress.  While employment generation is a medium- to long-term concern, more urgent is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/work-for-food/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sustaining agricultural production</a>, ensuring a fair price for farmers, and access to market. The climate and soil of Nepal are fertile and productive, but past neglect, the drift of educated youth away from the land, and now the climate crisis has affected agriculture production.Across Nepal, fields and terraces are barren or are reverting to jungle. The elderly are left managing the farm, while others move to the roadhead for schooling, or living off remittance. In the Tarai, once Nepal’s grain basket, agricultural activity is affected by urbanisation, salination and depletion of ground water.And now we have a pandemic lockdown. The message that has to go out is that farm work cannot wait, and it is safe to be in the fields. Some farmers are waking up at 4AM to bring in the harvest, such secrecy is not needed. It is the maize planting season, and that should be allowed to go ahead as normal. A group of nine eminent citizens this week put out an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/save-farms-empower-farmers-nepal-citizens-appeal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/save-farms-empower-farmers-nepal-citizens-appeal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586397047966000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGvzGOH_0KPEycIyGMGDilYUjurIA">‘Appeal on Agriculture: Save the Farm, Empower Farmers, Enhance Agriculture’</a> which insists that agriculture is an essential activity during the COVID-19 crisis. It also urged the government to embark on a long-term strategy to make farming a sustainable and employment creating sector.There is a surplus of milk and vegetables right now, and immediate action needs to be taken to ensure that there is market access for both consumers and producers. The government must support distribution, and Nepal’s much vaunted cooperative sector which has mostly concentrated in money lending must come forward as a partner.Farming in Nepal has suffered depletion of resources and interest, which is why Nepal has turned from a nett exporter to an importer of most foodstuff. It is not enough, of course, to ask citizens to go back to the land. Farming has to be made attractive and profitable as a profession.It is clear that those who have <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/aamas-village/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/aamas-village/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586397047966000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEtzy2dB1BQszCwT26lmIuMc3cJuA">abandoned farming</a> will not go back to the back-breaking work of their parents and ancestors. Young people who remain on the farm are seen by society as failures in life. This attitude needs to change. The coronavirus pandemic provides Nepal with an opportunity to bring back agriculture as a pillar of the economy, providing employment and food security for the people and self-sufficiency to the nation. Nepal can create jobs in the service industry and manufacturing, but these will not be enough for the volume of returnees from Gulf, Malaysia and India due to the global economic downturn.Farming must adjust to new realities and find a mix between tradition and innovation. For example, the organic produce could open up as a good source for internal consumption as well as export, as has already begun to happen. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18312#.Xoyuxi8w0Wo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D18312%23.Xoyuxi8w0Wo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586397047966000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFwJ8D_VtiHXWB1gbM9nrHTXdBX6A">System of Rice Intensification</a> to raise paddy harvests, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/productivity-empowerment-and%20job-with-mechanization-and-cooperative-in-agriculture,2378" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/productivity-empowerment-and%2520job-with-mechanization-and-cooperative-in-agriculture,2378&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586397047966000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHkyLfBxVUpA-NWnVcztI_sYuEauQ">mechanised agriculture</a>, new methods of irrigation, from drip farming to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/something-fishy-in-new-nepal-farm/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/something-fishy-in-new-nepal-farm/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586397047966000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF88CRmup5Op-gJXJpYhM_X1VBXIw">aquaponic agriculture</a> must be promoted. While we must try to save indigenous seeds and livestock, we must not shut ourselves off from new cash crops suited to Nepal’s diverse topography and climate.The world economy and industrial agriculture has been on an unsustainable path because of the way it damaged nature. Going back to normal after the pandemic subsides is not an option. It was this ‘normal’ that got us in this mess.Agriculture Minister Ghanshyam Bhusal must take it as a campaign to restore priority to the kind of farming that can create jobs, distribute income, ensure sustainability and resilience to fight the next crisis the world throws at us.

Back to the future of farming

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151124/636a66be9c7e80680e0599a0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photo: OM ASTHA RAI</figcaption></figure>In many parts of the world the ratio of the working age group to the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/need-to-prepare-for-ageing-society,3624" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elderly population</a> is on a decline. By 2050, OECD countries will lose more than 82 million workers, and gain 96 million elderly individuals.In contrast, developing countries are experiencing a youth bulge including Nepal which is in the midst of a <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/editorial-reaping-demographic-dividend,3621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demographic window of opportunity</a> expected to last till 2047. Over 500,000 Nepali youth enter the labour market annually, not all of whom can be absorbed, increasing the pressure to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-lottery-of-migration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">migrate for work</a>."In order for labour migration to be an industry for good, it has to be a good industry," said Oxford University professor Lant Pritchett at a recent lecture in Kathmandu. The irony of it was that the remarks came a week after <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-and-tears/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Labour Minister Gokarna Bista was ousted</a> for trying to push worker-friendly reforms by targeting the illicit profit-making.Pritchett highlighted two aspects of the global economy that make labour mobility “a simply irresistible" force of the future: demographic trends and wage differentials. Pritchett and his colleagues came up with the concept of ‘place premium’: persistent wage differences for workers with the same productivity across borders, adjusted for the cost of living.The impact of these two factors is being felt in Nepal. In April 2019, the Nepal government signed an agreement with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nepalis-from-chitwan-to-chidoya,4110" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Japan</a>, a country with a severely ageing population to mobilise workers in 14 sectors under the Specified Skilled Worker visa category. If selected, Nepali workers will receive equal pay for equal work, which means the income gains of moving will be orders of magnitude.However, such a win-win outcome has not always been realised in practice.  When a few months of salaries of a 24-month contract period is spent on repaying loans and interests, the wage differential that drove the decision to move can be muted.Furthermore, migration in Nepal has also entailed giving up basic rights including freedom of movement and access to justice. The economic ‘place premium’ has almost always been accompanied by a rights ‘place cost’.  Stories of abuse, discrimination and inadequate labour protection abroad have shaped a more cautious migration discourse in Nepal despite its <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/doubts-on-zero-cost-migration-deal-coming-into-force,2157" target="_blank" rel="noopener">high dependence on remittances</a>.The emphasis on addressing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kleptocrats-of-kathmandu-and-kualalampur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">malpractices in recruitment and employment of migrant workers</a> is warranted, but Nepal must also be forward looking and  take advantage of potential opportunities opening up in Europe and other ageing societies.Pritchett predicts we are entering a never before demographic era in which the narrative in many ageing societies will change from ‘how do we find jobs for workers?’ to ‘how do we find workers for jobs’? Temporary labour market programs can ease the qualms of receiving countries that fear immigration, and sending countries worried about losing their productive workforce.Nepal needs more active labour diplomacy, especially in Europe, to benefit from these opportunities. Nepalis need skills for jobs of the future such as in hospitality and care that meet international standards and are less susceptible to automation is needed.Private intermediaries here undercut competition for labour by compromising on wages and hiking up recruitment costs. If this is not addressed early on as newer job markets emerge, we can expect recruitment costs for the new destination markets to be significantly higher than now. The recruitment cost demanded by intermediaries at their discretion and the workers' willingness to pay for such jobs out of desperation are also often tied to the attractiveness of the job and location. This would again bring a big dent in the place premium.Better migration opportunities should not be considered to be at odds with national development priorities. Research shows that economic development and emigration follow an inverted-U pattern, with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/migration-certificate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emigration</a> rising with economic development until countries reach upper-middle income levels.The latest Labour Force Survey estimates that over 35% of Nepali youth (ages 15 to 24) is not in employment, education or training, while the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/young-educated-unemployed,664" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unemployment rate</a> of this age group is over 21%. The costs of staying are not negligible if the stayers do not have access to meaningful jobs.Not giving those who want to migrate legal avenues means irregular channels of migration will flourish and the workers will <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/nepalis-killed-in-the-line-of-duty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put themselves at risk knowingly or unknowingly</a>, especially in the face of the two ‘irresistible forces’.

employment