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Notes from South Asia: India Unparliamentary Conduct, Mindful Bhutan, Illegal Mining in Nepal [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-12-21  

Hello everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of Notes from South Asia. You can find the previous edition here. Today, we will cover Indian parliament’s unparliamentary conduct, Bhutan’s dreams of mindfulness city, and illegal mineral mining in Nepal.

As always, apologies for the length.

India

Unemployment protest and unparliamentary conduct

On Dec 13th, 2023, the twenty second anniversary of Dec 13 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, a few young people entered the parliament and fired smoke canisters with yellow smoke. They have said that they were protesting unemployment. Sobhana K Nair reports for the Hindu.

On December 13, at 11 a.m, the proceedings in the Lok Sabha began on a sombre note with Speaker Om Birla recalling the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament. As members stood up in silence to pay tribute to the nine people who lost their lives that day, Birla said, “On this occasion, we reiterate our resolve to confront terrorism firmly. And reaffirm the oath taken to protect the unity, integrity, and sovereignty of our nation.” About half an hour later, two men — Manoranjan D., 34, an unemployed computer science engineer from Mysuru, Karnataka, and Sagar Sharma, 24, an e-rickshaw driver from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh — entered the premises as “visitors”. As Zero Hour, when matters of urgent public importance are discussed, was drawing to an end and members were packing up their belongings, the two men jumped down from the gallery, startling parliamentarians and catching the security, manned by the Delhi Police, off guard. Manoranjan whipped out a canister and sprayed yellow gas into the air. The incident, which took place on the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist attack on the old Parliament building, is the most audacious security breach that Parliament has seen since.

Two of their team remained outside and raised slogans and sprayed the yellow smoke.

It appears they had conducted reconnaissance, obtained a pass from an MP (a BJP MP), and hid plastic canisters of smoke in the soles of their shoes since screening did not include checking shoes. And their profile? Youth seeking employment and disappointed with the prospects. They are also fans of Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh.

The four intruders were all part of a Facebook page called the Bhagat Singh Fan Club. “On the page they would voice their opinions about current affairs and post grievances against the policies of the government,” a senior officer said. It was perhaps because of their admiration for Bhagat Singh that they decided to copy the April 8, 1929 attack on the central assembly or the council house that sat in the old Parliament building. On that day, according to the biography of the then presiding officer of the Assembly, by G.I. Patel, titled Vithalbhai Patel: Life and Times, the public galleries were full. People had come to hear Vithalbhai’s ruling on the Public Safety Bill, a legislation passed to curb the activities of communists and socialists. The Bill allowed the government to deport “undesirable and subversive foreigners.” Vithalbhai’s opposition to it was known and the British government expected an adversarial ruling. “Hardly had Vithalbhai opened his lips when a terrific sound resounding and reverberating the entire Assembly sector stupefied the expectant audience,” G.I. Patel wrote. Bhagat Singh and his comrade Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs from the public gallery followed by red pamphlets that read, “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear, with these immortal words uttered on a similar occasion by Valiant, a French anarchist martyr, do we strongly justify this action of ours.” But none of the members hit the revolutionaries. Instead, they handed the two men to the police peacefully. [...] “He was not like this, some people disturbed him,” said Roshan Lal, a carpenter. To his mind, nothing else explains the events of December 13. The couple has found old diaries belonging to Sagar, which they have handed to the police. In one of the entries, in February 2021, Sagar wrote, “The strongest person in the world is not the one who knows how to snatch, but the one who has the courage to relinquish worldly comforts.” In another entry dated June 13, 2015, he wrote in Hindi, “I have pledged my life to the country... to free the country from slave mentality, I have done many an audacious work.” His social media account is full of quotes by Che Guevara and Bhagat Singh, but there is no mention of any affiliation to any political party. Neelam goes by the name ‘Neelam Azad’ on X. Her photo collection on social media shows that she was part of the farmer’s agitation as well as the women wrestlers’ protest in Delhi. Ramher Budain, secretary of the Khera Khap, said, “She would talk about unemployment. She always supported issues plaguing the poor and farmers.” Neelam’s family, who belong to an Other Backward Classes community, live in Ghaso Khurd village, in Haryana’s Jind district. Her father runs a sweetmeat shop and her brothers are milkmen. Neelam is well educated: she holds an M.Phil in Sanskrit and, according to villagers, had cracked the Haryana Teachers Eligibility Test seven years ago. She was a civil services aspirant. Five months ago, her family, who are self-confessed supporters of the BJP, sent her to Hisar to take another shot at the exam.

Whereas the Indian assembly members (they had only nominal status and did not have power to make laws) of 1929 did not hit the intruders, our current MPs hit them hard enough that one of them it appears begged for mercy.

What is interesting is that the families—irrespective of some of their support for ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—are all in for these youth. At least in this article and later comments, they seem to think that the protestors have done nothing wrong. (I sort of agree at the moment). As another article on security pointed out, they did expose the flaws in parliamentary security though.

The youth are from a multi-caste coalition (Brahman, Dalit, OBC but no Muslim—which is not surprising because they would have been deemed terrorist and the entire community hounded for that). I want to know if that was intentionally so.

As for unemployment in India, as Shoaib Daniyal says on Scroll’s India Fix, it is a major problem in India but not quite an election issue in national elections, which is unfortunate.

The fact that it took such a dramatic incident to bring unemployment into the discussion is unusual, given the sheer scale of the problem. Numerous studies and surveys have shown that India has a serious problem generating jobs. Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, for example, shows that the share of youth (aged 15-29) in the workforce dropped sharply from 25% in 2016-’17 to 17% in 2022-’23. In contrast, for those aged above 45, the share has gone up from 37% to 49%. Among emerging economies, India’s youth unemployment problem is one of the most acute. Data from the World Bank shows that Bangladesh and Indonesia did a much better job of employing its young men and women. Far from creating enough jobs, India finds it difficult to keep up with population growth and offering suitable employment to new adults entering the list of those seeking work. Pranjul Bhandari, the chief India economist at HSBC, estimates that while India will need to create 70 million jobs over the next decade, it will only end up with 24 million. Even worse is the fact that employment and education seem to have an inverse relationship. The State of Working India report 2023 finds that India’s unemployment rate is very high among its young graduates – at 42%. The men and women involved in the Parliament protest were, in all probability, driven by the specific fact that an educated young person in India has very poor prospects in the job market.

As I say above, this does not translate into an election issue in national elections.

Why does this anger not translate into political action? Part of the answer is that it does: but only in the states. Youth unemployment, for example, was a major issue in the recent Assembly elections in Telangana. This was a significant reason why the Bharat Rashtra Samithi lost power and voters elected the Congress to office. Corruption in government recruitment – such as the SSC scam in West Bengal and the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh – create a significant backlash against state governments and often become major political talking points driven by the anger that educated, unemployed youth feel at allegedly being cheated out of jobs.

Yet the Indian states do not have the required power to create jobs at a scale that India requires. Only the Union government does.

In India’s constitutional scheme, the Union has almost all economic, financial and commercial powers. Hence, creating jobs should principally be its responsibility. Ironically, however, very little anger for youth unemployment has been directed at Delhi. The reason for this is the strong political grip of the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as Narendra Modi’s popularity. The national media, which needs to collect and focus this anger into pressure on the government, will not do this, given its close relation with the BJP. Moreover, given that the BJP commands significant upper-caste support, powerful and voluble sections of the citizenry will not attack the saffron party (even if they might also be suffering from a lack of jobs). Instead, much of the national conversation remains centered around issues that involve identity (such as temples) as well as national security. Apart from this political strategic play by the BJP, the absence of politics around unemployment is also a reflection of how intractable an issue it is. While India has done well economically since the late 1980s, much of this has been jobless growth, driven by sectors employ a relatively small number of workers.

There is no paywall and you can read the rest for why it is an intractable issue (mostly needs transformative vision that the BJP lacks and state government has no power to do much about).

But what has all this got to do with unparliamentary conduct?

Well, the BJP suspended around 147 MPs belonging to the opposition (mostly INDIA alliance) for demanding answers after the intrusion and then passed new bills that would transform Indian legal system in their absence. As Jasmin Nihalani demonstrates in the Hindu Data Point (written when 143 MPs were suspended), INC was most affected in terms of parties, and Kerala, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu in terms of states.

Ninety-seven MPs from the Lok Sabha and 46 MPs from the Rajya Sabha have been suspended during the ongoing winter session of Parliament. This is the highest number of MPs suspended in a single session in the history of Parliament. The record number was due to the Opposition’s demand for a statement from the Home Minister over the security breach in Parliament. Commenting on the suspensions, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of attacking Parliament and democracy. The highest number of MPs suspended from the Lok Sabha was previously 63 (during the Eighth Lok Sabha, on March 15, 1989, when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister). According to The Hindu archives, the entire Opposition was suspended due to its demand that the government discuss the Thakkar Commission report on the assassination of Indira Gandhi. That evening, Janata Dal leader V.P. Singh spoke to the media and accused the government of acting in a “brazen” fashion. Twenty-nine MPs from Tamil Nadu were suspended, the highest number across all States, which left just 10 MPs to represent the people of the State in the Lok Sabha for the remaining days of the session (Table 1). Eighteen MPs from Kerala were suspended, leaving just two MPs, and 14 from West Bengal were suspended, leaving just 27 MPs. A lone MP from Puducherry was also on the suspension list, which leaves the Union Territory without any representation. This is the case with Lakshadweep, too. Thirty-eight MPs from the Congress were suspended, the highest number across all parties, which leaves just 10 Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha (Table 2). Sixteen MPs from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and 13 from the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) were suspended, leaving eight and nine MPs from each party in the Lok Sabha, respectively. All three MPs belonging to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) were suspended. The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Kerala Congress (M) (KC(M)) were also left without an MP in the Lok Sabha as their lone MPs were suspended. After the suspension, bills on Indian penal code and justice system were passed (Hindu Bureau reports). The Parliament passed the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bills — replacing the Indian Penal Code-1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure Act-1898 and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, respectively — with Rajya Sabha clearing the three Bills on Thursday. The Lok Sabha had earlier passed the Bills on Wednesday. The winter session of the parliament then adjourned head of schedule. As the Hindu Bureau reports. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned sine die a day in advance after what is being termed as the frostiest winter session of relations between treasury and Opposition benches in India’s history. The session saw a security breach in the Lok Sabha, the suspension of 146 MPs, and the disqualification of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mohua Moitra from the Lok Sabha. The session, held against the backdrop of the results of the Assembly elections in five States, with the BJP winning the three Hindi-speaking States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh; the Congress winning Telangana; and the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) winning Mizoram, was expected to be stormy, with Ms. Moitra’s disqualification on December 8, following the adoption of a report by the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha. But barely had the sparks dimmed that the Lok Sabha witnessed a security breach, with two persons entering and setting off coloured gas cannisters on December 13, 22 years to the day terrorists had attacked the old Parliament House. While the incident fortunately did not lead to any casualties, Speaker Om Birla did not agree to the Opposition’s demand for a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and as Opposition MPs protested, carrying placards into the Well of the House, a series of suspensions began, with several MPs referred to the Privileges Committee. While Mr. Birla, in a letter to the MPs, said that the suspensions were the result of placards being carried, and “unruly” behaviour, the protests continued, as did the suspensions. In the end, since last Thursday, 147 MPs have been suspended from both Houses, with three of them suspended for the duration of the session. This saw 99 out of the 139 INDIA bloc MPs suspended in the Lok Sabha, and 46 out of 97 of them suspended in the Rajya Sabha. Among those suspended is Danish Ali of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is not officially with the INDIA bloc; Mr. Ali had recently been suspended from his own party. The Opposition’s protests continued outside the House, with a controversy erupting over the mimicry of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar by TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee. A protest march by all suspended MPs also took place outside Parliament on the last day of the session, with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge leading it. This was just a display of brute power. Even if the MP’s had not been suspended, the BJP could have passed the laws since they have the required majority in both houses. It is quite possible they are testing things out, and more of this will follow post Elections 2024.

Bengali Muslims in Assam

Don’t any of this talk about employment, elections, or casteism make you forget that Indian government is still aggressively going after Muslims, and in some regions, Christians. Arshad Ahmed’s field notes from his recent article on Assam for Article-14 shows you the lay of the land.

Each time I mentioned Dhalpur—and the violent 2021 eviction that killed Moinul Haque and 12-year-old Sheikh Farid—to people in Mangaldai, the district headquarters of Darrang in Assam, there was this eerie silence, an uncomfortable disquiet. Their tone changed, and this tacit hesitancy would force the conversation short. “Why do you want to go to Dhalpur?” an Assamese Muslim hotel staffer asked me, his face visibly stressed. As a riverine village on the bank of the river Brahmaputra and laced with many rivulets, Dhalpur is challenging to reach. The one way I could reach the riverine village was to go to Gorabhanda, a village about half an hour's drive from Mangaldai, and from then, an arduous journey on a peel peeli (an e-rickshaw) to reach a ferry wharf to Dhalpur, a woman in Mangaldai told me. When I reached Gorabhand, occupied by mostly Assamese Hindus, I could sense the prevailing bigotry and bitterness towards the Bengali Muslim community lingering in people’s conversations even two years after their eviction. “Eibur sob mati miya’e dokhol kori asil (Miyas were occupying all this land),” my peel peeli driver P*, an Assamese Hindu, told me.

What was bigotry towards Bengalis in Assam rooted in cultural anxiety was turned into bigotry towards Bengali Muslims by the BJP.

His voice soon hushed when I told him my name. My surname, Ahmed, must have also made him realise I am a Bengali Muslim. The more common surnames for Assamese Muslims are Hazarika, Chaudhuri, Laskar, Bhuyan, and Saika. When I reached the ferry point to Dhalpur, I met Taij Uddin. When I asked him about Sheikh Farid, Uddin, standing by the river, sat down rather unexpectedly. A long pause ensued, but he gathered his words. “Allah’e jane tar [Farid’s] poriyale kila soijjo korey (Only god knows how his family is coping with his killing,” he said, lighting a bidi and looking at the sky. Farid and Haque were allegedly shot dead by the Darrang police on the second leg of the eviction drive on 23 September 2021, which was first carried out two days earlier, on 20 September 20.

Neither the notes nor the article have paywall, so do take a look if you can spare the time.

Bhutan

Mindfulness City

Bhutan is planning a mega city project, which the king and his subjects hope will improve the economy. Suhasini Haidar reports for the Hindu: Bhutan to have 1,000-sq. km. green city along Assam border ‘connecting South Asia to Southeast Asia

Bhutan plans to build a massive “international city” in an area of over 1,000 sq. km. on its border with Assam, Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck announced to applause from a packed audience of 30,000 at the Changlimathang stadium in Thimpu on December 17, pitching the project as an “economic corridor connecting South Asia with Southeast Asia via India’s northeastern States”. “Around two billion people live in South Asia,” King Jigme Wangchuck said, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of India for agreeing to build the first India-Bhutan railway line to Gelephu, which would also connect with roadways and border trading and crossing points into Assam and West Bengal, and over time, he said, give Bhutan access to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Singapore. “It is a period of awakening and economic transformation in South Asia, a period of growth and immense opportunities,” Bhutan’s fifth king said, adding, “There is a road and a gateway that leads to new opportunities, to markets, capital, new ideas and technology… towards our future, towards our destiny.” The crowd roared its approval. The King’s announcement is the first official confirmation of what is known as the ‘Gelephu Smartcity Project’. It is expected to follow environmental standards and sustainability as a goal, and will aim to attract “quality investment” from “specially screened” international companies, the 42-year-old sovereign said. Apart from an international airport, which will be Bhutan’s second, and geared to land larger planes than its present airport at Paro, the plans for Gelephu are expected to include “zero emission” industries, a “mindfulness city” that plays to Bhutan’s strength in tourism and wellness, as well as infrastructure companies. Rather than a special economic zone (SEZ), the Bhutanese King said that the Gelephu project in Sarpang district to Bhutan’s south would be a “Special Administrative Region” that would be run under different laws to facilitate more international investment. “This is an inflection point, a moment in history that is very important for us,” the Bhutanese King continued, switching from the local Dzongkha language to English for added emphasis on terms he hopes to popularise about the Gelephu project, including “skilling projects”, “digital infrastructure”, and “economic hub”. “What we lack in numbers, we have to make up with the quality of our people in skills,” he added.

As per another article from Suhasini Haidar the project features in voter’s expectations for January elections.

The Gelephu “mindfulness” mega-city project or Special Administrative Region (SAR) announced by Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck on Sunday, as well as fixing the economy and reversing youth migration trends, will be the major tasks for the future Prime Minister, whichever party wins the January 9 elections, both the contenders for the position told The Hindu. The contenders — former Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, whose PDP (People’s Democratic Party) lost the last elections in 2018, and former top civil servant Pema Chewang, whose BTP (Bhutan Tendrel Party) is the newest entrant in Bhutanese politics — began their campaign last week for the second round of elections, after defeating former PM Dr. Lotay Tshering’s DNT party in the first round held in November.

It appears Bhutanese are hoping for a lot from the project; and it would be for the winning parties to deliver.

“The Gelephu project will be a big responsibility for the next government,” said Mr. Chewang, who was in Thimphu for the National Day. “His Majesty [King Jigme Wangchuck] has initiated it, and anyone who comes to power must give it their full support to realise the vision,” he added, when asked about the viability of the project, billed ambitiously as an economic hub on Bhutan’s southern border with Assam. “It is not only for Bhutanese but for all of South Asia,” he added. Calling the announcement of the 1,000-sq. km SAR historic, Mr. Tobgay said that the project’s big hope was to ensure that Bhutan’s youth see work and skilling opportunities in Bhutan itself. According to a study quoted by the Kuensel newspaper, the number of people leaving the country for longer terms increased from 3,000 a month last year to 5,000 a month this year. “The economy took a battering during Covid, and we have not been able to resuscitate it since, which has led to this out-migration by our youth. We have to reverse this trend by creating opportunities within Bhutan,” Mr. Tobgay said when asked about the benefits of the Gelephu project at a time when Bhutan’s three-billion dollar economy is facing a number of challenges.

As the Bhutanese report on the announcement suggests, the king made this announcement on National Day.

His Majesty The King’s 116th National Day Address focused primarily on announcing the Gelephu Special Administrative Region called the Gelephu Mindfulness City. His Majesty said South Asia is experiencing an unprecedented economic transformation. This is a period of growth and a period of immense opportunities for our region, which is home to around two billion people. The land connection from Gelephu or Samdrup Jongkhar through Assam and Northeast Indian states, to Myanmar, Thailand, to Cambodia and Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, is a vibrant economic corridor linking South Asia to Southeast Asia. “We are in a unique position to reap great benefits if we seize the opportunity, make good plans, and work together diligently,” said His Majesty. The Special Administrative Region (SAR) in Gelephu as the economic hub will have the autonomy to formulate laws and policies that are needed. It will have executive autonomy and legal independence. The purpose of establishing this SAR is to create a vibrant economic hub. There are economic hubs elsewhere that invite foreign investment by providing a conducive business environment and compelling incentives. Bhutan’s economic hub will offer all that and more.

It will be one-of-a-kind, anchored on the vision and values of GNH. It will be a Mindfulness City, encompassing conscious and sustainable businesses, inspired by Buddhist spiritual heritage, and distinguished by the uniqueness of the Bhutanese identity. His Majesty said there will be screening process to ensure that the companies and people who come to Gelephu are sensitive to Bhutanese culture and traditions, respect Bhutanese identity, and shares Bhutan’s values. All businesses will be based on invitation, and Bhutan will select those that are most beneficial for the country and people. The Gelephu Mindfulness City will cover an area of 1000 sq kms, or 250,000 acres. This is only 2.5 percent of the total surface area of Bhutan.

Well, I do hope it works for Bhutan and for the region.

Nepal

Illegal Mining

Sabina Devkota reports for The Thirdpole about illegal mining in Nepal.

A few months ago, Dilkumari Nagarkoti’s family left their ancestral home in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. They moved about five kilometres, from Tikabhairav ​​Dhunge in Lalitpur to a rented room in Tikabhairav ​​Bazar. The reason for their migration was the unbearable disturbance and threat posed by the stone crusher industry, which is in operation just metres from their old home. “The house often shakes and has developed cracks,” says Nagarkoti. “It’s better to stay away than to [live] a sick life here.” Her nine-year-old son Ashiq fell ill with pneumonia multiple times, exacerbated by the fine stone dust, which also subjected the family to irritated, inflamed eyes and constant headaches. Their daughters would leave early for school, skipping breakfast to avoid the trucks carrying cobbles and pebbles. One day, Nagarkoti’s eldest daughter Jenisha tearfully pleaded for an end to their suffering. The family is now confined to one room and pays NPR 3,000 (USD 25) per month in rent. To meet the financial burden, Nagarkoti’s husband Junga Bahadur has moved north to Kathmandu for work as a driver. Though they have moved, Nagarkoti regularly visits their former home to feed the animals they couldn’t bring with them. The family used to have 35 goats and 500 chickens, but the limited care Nagarkoti can now manage has forced her to reduce their numbers to seven and five respectively.

They did complain to local politicians but got no response because the companies doing the mining belong to the politicians.

Research such as Tribhuvan University’s 2007 paper, Status of sand mining and quality in northern Kathmandu, cites protests and concerns about the illegal exploitation of rivers and minerals from as far back as 2005. However, it seems these problems have often been amplified since the passage of Nepal’s new constitution in 2015, which installed federalism. Then in 2017, parliament passed Nepal’s Local Government Operation Act, which granted municipalities the authority to issue contracts for the extraction and collection of river materials. Before 2015, this power had rested only at the central government level. A complicating factor is that many politicians are themselves involved in mineral extraction. More than 200 representatives elected in Nepal’s 2022 municipal elections had “a direct or indirect stake in local businesses, particularly construction-related contract businesses”, which are dependent on mining and crushers. This was out of a total of 753 mayors or chairpersons, 753 deputy mayors and chairpersons, and 6,742 ward chairpersons. During Nepal’s 2022 federal elections 275 parliament seats were contested. The Federation of Contractors Association of Nepal claims that 17 of those seats were won by contractors, as were 18 of the 550 provincial seats that were also being voted on; the association shared lists with The Third Pole that support these claims. Those contractors include mine and crusher owners. For most politicians, there seems to be little understanding of this inherent conflict of interest. For example, Maharjan asks The Third Pole: “Why can’t a representative make cash out of their business?”

No paywall. Please read the rest.

Unemployment and the Russian Front

Sanjeev Saitganya writes for the Hindu about the unemployment problem in Nepal that is forcing Nepalese youth to join Russian army.

On December 11, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” said that around 200 Nepali youths could be working in Russian forces fighting against Ukraine. Mr. Prachanda shared the information, albeit without disclosing the source, at a meeting of his Maoist party. [...] In a Facebook post on December 14, Diamond C. Myagdeli shared that he is among thousands of those who once fought the Maoist war but were left to fend for themselves and look for jobs in different parts of the world. He also shared, along with an image of him in camouflage fatigues carrying a gun, that he joined Russian forces voluntarily despite knowing the high risks involved. Though some social media posts back in May suggested that Nepalis were fighting for Russia, the Prachanda government was in complete denial. Only after an uncanny silence did the government on December 4 admit that six Nepali nationals had died while fighting Ukraine over some time. And that Nepalis are working as mercenaries in a far-flung country like Russia has once again exposed the grim reality of the high unemployment rate in the country, which is forcing youths to take unprecedented risks. Researchers on employment and outmigration say that though Nepalis going abroad for employment is not a new phenomenon, the trend has intensified in recent years. Dr. Ganesh Gurung, an expert on labour migration, says it sounds like a paradox that the number of people below the poverty line has drastically come down in Nepal, but the foreign employment rate has spiked. “Remittance sent by those working abroad has lifted people out of poverty, but in the meantime, the job creation rate has been too slow,” said Dr. Gurung. “Nepal lacks avenues and policies to absorb its workforce, fuelling outmigration. Youths risking their lives to fight on the frontlines for an alien country is also a result of a lack of jobs at home.”

The condition seems to be rather bad especially among the youth.

The employment crisis appears to have hit the tipping point. Hyperbolic it may sound, but the saying “labour is the major export of Nepal” is a common refrain. As per the 2021 census, Nepal’s working-age population in the 15-64 age bracket is 65%, which puts Nepal in an advantageous position to reap demographic dividends. But for a lack of employment, better income, or dignity at work, a large number of the working-age population, especially the youth, have been seeking overseas migration. According to the International Labour Organisation, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15–29 in Nepal is 19.2%, compared to 2.7% for the entire population. “The common psychology among Nepalis, especially the youth, is that their future in the country is bleak,” says Dr. Gurung. “There is peer pressure and social pressure as well. If a neighbour goes abroad and earns better, why not them? If a neighbouring friend chooses a better college in the U.S. or Australia, why not them?” Government data show as many as 7,45,000 Nepalis left the country as of mid-July this year to work in foreign countries. Experts also point out the social divide in Nepalis’ overseas migration, with those from poor backgrounds, a majority, seeking jobs in the Gulf and Malaysia, and others in the United States, Australia, and European countries.

Well… Some day, Americans might understand that hurting the world to make yourself better would come back to bite you. But unlikely that that day is today.

That is it for today. We might see each other again, next Friday. Until then, everyone. Stay safe. Be well.

Merry Christmas if you celebrate.

Even if you don’t, remember that people seeking refuge should not be turned away nor an alien be considered a nuisance in your land. No land is after all permanently ours. We are all sojourners in this world and it is only chance that keeps us from being refugees. No, not merit. Chance!

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