The meaning of youth is not universal. United Nations has assumed that the people with the age group 15-24 years are only youths. Unlike this, Nepal has its own definition of youth.
The National Youth Council Act 2015 has categorised the people of the age group of 16 to 40 years as the youth. As per this definition, young people comprise 40.35 per cent of the total population of Nepal. And again, every year this figure is increasing.
Youth force in every country is a dynamic, creative and optimistic force. If they are depressed or the government cannot use their power for the sake of country, the country will go down every year.
People of this age group in the political movement of 1951, 1990, a decade long political struggle and people’s movement of 2006 have played phenomenal role to make sequential political changes in Nepal.
If we study the scenario at the global level, every developing country across the world can achieve economic progress through the use of their mental and physical power for making quality of life of the people.
The fact is that Nepali youths are not getting meaningful space to serve the country.
In order to make the country prosperous, we have to create opportunity for children and youths in which they can feel free to get quality education, learn skills for making the desired level of changes in their economic and social sectors.
If the government of Nepal succeeds to achieve it in time, there is no doubt that the most active, energetic and dynamic group can use their potential to make a flourishing Nepal.
For this, education is the most important tool. Quality and equal education for all to make the coming youths more professional and skill oriented ought to be guaranteed by the government.
The bitter fact is unless we are using the physical power of youths, no country can go ahead.
It is high time to export services than to import them. Unfortunately, we are exporting human resources and receiving remittance that cannot lead the country towards sustainable development.
Nepal has to follow the pattern of global youth development indicator to ensure education, health, employment and social security for the youth. Only in this broad concept, Nepal can achieve the desired target of economic development and growth through the meaningful mobilisation of youths and building their leadership in the political sector.
The situation of the demographic dividend will remain for a few years but the State has not taken much advantage and has not invested in youths so that it could be more profitable to the nation in the coming years.
In dire need of economic opportunities, many youths went for labor migration to other countries and the crisis of brain drain hovered the nation. The out-migration of working people has posed great threats to the nation by slowing down the possibility of economic growth.
If these youths had stayed in the country and appropriately engaged in production and development, the country could have been self-reliant. However, these migrated workers have contributed to keeping our economic system stable; a larger portion of our GDP is composed of the money they have been sending to their families.
At present fighting with the COVID virus is the main concern but once it is over, engaging the youths including returnees should be the main concern of the government.
Any sort of pandemic and other humanitarian crises will create an immediate imbalance in the GDP of Nepal as 26% of our economy was composed of remittance sent by migrant workers back home as per Nepal Rastra Bank.
With the spread of COVID 19, the Nepali Government itself has halted the process of granting and re-issuing work permit visas for immigrant workers.
Most of the industries in gulf countries have either shut down or minimized production leaving many Nepali migrant workers jobless. Thus, they are not able to send money or the amount will be decreased.
In the face of a crisis of COVID 19, many economic and labor economists claim that the world economy will be highly impacted due to the world-wide lockdown and human casualties.
Many people will lose their jobs, and small businesses will have a hard time and face repercussions to bounce back recovering the loss. Our migrant workers working in foreign countries will be the first hits in this situation. Most of the economies that our state receives remittance from, they are likely to have a serious situation of economic crisis.
According to a projection, 15 percent of the GDP will get directly hit from this pandemic. Our youth working in those economies will be the first to have to leave the work consequently creating an economic crisis because of disruption in global supply change.
This will be further heightened with the possibility that gulf economies may introduce policies to promote employment for their own citizens in the sectors so far being occupied by migrant workers in their countries.
In this situation, it can be estimated that migrant workers will come back to the country. This will be an opportunity for Nepal to get prepared with policies and plans to hold these returnees in the country.
Similarly, many people have returned back before the lockdown, it’s up to the State if these people should be held back forever and redirect their skill, knowledge and energy to strengthen in county economic system. Since the Nepalese economy is in its early stage of development with the largest share provided by agriculture, there are various sectors for the engagement of migrant workers. Having said that there are many economic opportunities to be explored which will diversify GDP composition.
The use of their entire physical and mental power in a legitimate way gives a path for development of youth as well as the development of the country. This youngest federal democratic republic received the Constitution in 2015 and the country has got a-two-thirds majority government at the centre and the local level governments are in operation to ensure the rights of the people.
Now, it has been good moment to formulate new and sustainable policies and formulate strategies for the development of the country. The time has come for the government of Nepal to use the power of youths that only can show the way of country’s development towards appropriate direction.
Dr. Ramkrishna Poudel Student of Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur Chitwan ( M.V.Sc Pharmacology)
