Salute to migrant workers
There is nothing to hide about the fact that the migrant workers play a crucial role in augmenting the country's economy through their remittances. As they sweat heavily in foreign lands, often doing hard and difficult jobs to support their families back home, their tireless sacrifices cannot and should not be undermined and understated. It is known fact that the remittances have helped a significant number of households in eliminating their poverty. Nepal is currently the fifth most remittance-dependent economy in the world. The current migration trend will continue until the government is serious in addressing their problems.
The government’s decision to increase from Rs 700,000 to Rs. 1 million as a financial support to the families of migrant workers who in case die in foreign lands was a praiseworthy step towards recognizing their hard works and significant contribution they make towards boosting the national economy. Such a provision will definitely give relief to those families coping with the emotional and financial toll of losing their bread earner and loved ones abroad. It was also commendable decision of the government not to impose them any additional charges on top of the existing fees “PM Dahal against imposing additional financial burden to migrant workers on foreign employment” (THT, January 9, Page 1).
However, the government's efforts to enhance foreign employment demands some serious homework to be done in order make it respectable and dignified jobs. For this, the government needs to formulate explicit programme to ensure that the migrant workers are given top priority in obtaining all the necessary documents in time in order to save their time and money. The government cannot continue depending on their remittances to support the national economy, which might be a short-sighted idea. It must thus concentrate on preparing the necessary environment for creating inland jobs in order to gradually reduce the exodus of migrant workers. For this, the government has to make a long term plan of gradually establishing more industries and other viable sectors with the aim of creating more jobs.
