A Brief Introduction
Known as the land of Everest and being birthplace of Lord Buddha, Nepal is a land of sublime scenery, one of the world’s best and Archaeologically very important impels and some of the best walking trails on the Earth. In
contrary to its lean GDP growth rate, it is rich in scenic splendor and cultural treasures.
The country has long exerted a pull on the western imagination and it’s a difficult place to dislodge from your memory once you visit Nepal and return. This is why so many travelers are forced to visit Nepal again and again with a greater appreciation of its natural and cultural beauty, a stout pair of walking boots and a desire for improved leg-definition.
Nepal is the homeland of legendary world famous soldiers, Gurkhas, and the country of Great Himalayas. A developing, mountainous and land locked country; Nepal is situated between giant economies namely China and India. With a population of nearly 27 million people and predominantly an agricultural country with more than 80% of it’s population being engaged in agriculture. Nepal is abundant in natural resources and because of the natural beauty coupled with its unique culture and tradition, tourism is rapidly growing in Nepal.
The topographical feature of Nepal is unique as it stretches from the vast low lands of Terai to the legendary Yak and Yeti trails of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest (8,848) meter.
Nepal’s Foreign Employment Perspectives
Nepal’s major exports is labor, and most rural households now depend on at least one member’s earnings from employment away from home and often from abroad.
The economically active population is estimated to be 10.3 million. This includes 5.3 million males and 5 million females. The bulk of the economically active population is between the ages of 25 and 44. Every year, 3 Million (1.55 Male 1.45 Female ) new workers are added to the Nepalese labour market but the economy has not been able to grow fast enough to absorb them. As a result, unemployment and underemployment rates are very high.
Nepal has a long history of foreign employment in India, dating back to the beginning of the 19th century, when men from the hill areas of what was then known as Gorkha migrated westwards to the city of Lahore in the northern
region of Punjab. There they joined up as soldiers in the army of the Sikh Rajah, Ranjit Singh. Even today, those working abroad are popularly known as “lahures.” After a war in the Gorkha area with the British East India
Company (1814-1816), an increasing number of “Gurkhas” (mostly, but not exclusively from present-day Nepal) also joined the British army in India, starting a tradition that continues today.
Significant numbers of Nepali men were employed in the Indian Army through the 1950s and 1960s, and recruitment to the Indian police and other services, including the civil service, augmented the total of those employed in the
public sector in India. Towards the end of the 1990s, some 250,000 Nepalis were employed in India’s public sector, of whom perhaps 50,000 were in the army.
With the approval of the Labor Act of 1985, the government of Nepal officially recognized the potential value of foreign labor migration “overseas,” meaning beyond the Indian subcontinent. The government has done little since then to develop a coherent labor export policy or to provide any kind of training or support packages. The trade unions in Nepal are finally beginning to show an interest in overseas workers.
Increasingly, during the latter part of the 1990s, Nepalis began to migrate to the Gulf countries for work, particularly to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, and Qatar. Within a short period, the number of manpower agencies operating in Kathmandu to recruit and send Nepalis to the Middle East had soared, as had the number of Nepalis migrating. The government’s only contribution to this massive movement to the Gulf was to establish a consulate in Qatar to supplement the existing embassy in Saudi Arabia.
In the end of 2010 August, 95% of officially registered migrant workers (those recruited by recognized manpower agencies) were headed for the Gulf countries. An analysis of Nepali migrant workers over three million were
migrant in end of year 2010 — by the Nepal Institute for Development Studies for UNIFEM, the women’s fund at the United Nations — revealed that two-thirds of Nepalese working overseas were employed mainly in Malaysia (35 % ), Saudi Arabia ( 25 %), Qatar (20 %), and the UAE (10 %), and other countries ( 10 % ) . The total was estimated record from Labor department in 2010 (2066/67).