After youth protests over corruption and joblessness toppled Nepal’s parliament and left dozens dead, villagers like Santosh Sunar see their own struggles reflected in the nation’s turmoil.
The 31-year-old is jobless and desperately seeking work, yet he dreads the day he finds it — knowing it will likely mean splitting his family further, leaving his daughter with his mother, with his wife already abroad.
“There are no opportunities even after education,” said Santosh, who lives in the rural settlement of Pharping, on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu.
He is far from alone.
A “staggering” 82 percent of Nepal’s workforce is in informal employment, one in five Nepalis aged 15–24 are jobless, according to the World Bank.
With few prospects at home, where GDP per capita is only $1,447, millions of Nepalis look abroad.
Remittances now account for a third of GDP, the world’s fourth-highest rate. In Pharping, nearly every second household has a relative overseas.
– ‘What can we do?’ –
Santosh’s wife Amrita, 22, is a waitress in Dubai.
“We really miss each other,” Santosh told AFP, who has previously worked in India’s tech-hub of Bengaluru.
“It’s tough being away from your wife — and tougher knowing I’d also have to leave my mother and young daughter when I find work,” he said. “But what can we do?”
More than 839,000 Nepalis left the country of 30 million to work abroad last year, according to government data.
Tackling endemic corruption and unemployment tops the agenda for Nepal’s new leader, 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki, who was sworn in as interim prime minister on Friday.
Her predecessor quit on September 9, as protesters set parliament and key government buildings on fire.
Protests began a day earlier, sparked by a ban on social media, but fuelled by long-standing economic woes.
At least 72 people were killed in two days of protests, with 191 still recovering in hospital, according to government figures.
Santosh didn’t take part, but said he backed what the protesters had done.
His mother, Maiya Sunar, 48, dreams of a time when the young don’t have to choose between food and family.
“We miss living like a family,” she said. “But I also understand that the young have no choice.”
– ‘No option’ –
Her neighbour, Kamala Sunar, 40, also faces the prospect of living without her children nearby. Her younger daughter Diksha, 24, works as a housekeeper in Dubai.
Now her older daughter, Rakshya, 27, a single mother to a two-year-old, hopes to follow in her sister’s footsteps, leaving her daughter behind.
“She has repeatedly warned me against the idea, as the hours are long and the living conditions tough,” Rakshya told AFP.
“But what life would I be able to give my daughter here? There is nothing here. If I toil for a few years, and save some money for her education, maybe my daughter would have a bright future.”
Sitting outside their one-room house, with unplastered brick walls painted red and white, Kamala said the thought of her daughter leaving fills her with sadness.
“Most of our people our age have no option but to leave,” Kamala said.
Shyam Bahadur Khatri, 69, an elected village official, said that Nepal is creating ageing villages where subsistence agriculture was the only option.
“There will be no young person left even to carry the dead,” he said, warning of the future.
bb/pjm/rsc
