From the 1,210 households in the Armala Village, more than its 1,700 young people are now overseas, according to the Village Development Committee’s (VDC) office. VDC Secretary Ram Chandra Poudel says, “There are cases where two to three siblings from a single family have gone overseas for income opportunities.”
Because the young have left, a lot of responsibilities are now being shouldered by the elders.
In Armala, which borders with Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City, there isn’t a single house from which the sons have not left for overseas work. According to the VDC office, there are a total of 6,996 villagers living in Armala.
This rising trend of young men leaving for overseas employment and income opportunities has hindered Armala’s development and educational infrastructure. With only minors and senior folks now remaining in the village, Armala hasn’t been able to keep up with the pace of development, nor has it been able to capitalize on its bigger neighbor Pokhara. And because most of the village’s youths are away, older villagers complain of difficulties in fulfilling certain tasks.
“In the entire village, one can hardly find any 18-year-old male,” says Poudel, “It’s either folks above 50 or girl children. This is an evidence of the lack of youth power in the village.”
According to him, young people go abroad after completing their School Leaving Certificate or Intermediate level. This has also created a dearth of educated workforce in the village.
But the exodus of Armala’s youth has resulted in a huge sum of remittance coming to the village. And in each household which receives remittance, there are both positive and negative effects.
Armala is gradually getting dependant since the money started flowing so easily into it. Villagers themselves claim that they are gradually moving away from their traditional works because of the remittance. According to Poudel, Armala receives remittance over 30 million Rupees a month.
And since a large portion of the workforce has left for overseas, foreign employment has obviously become the main source of income in Armala. From the remittance flowing to Armala, its residents are now building concrete houses, some have even left the village to settle in commercial areas, and their children are being sent to boarding schools in Pokhara.
“The income from foreign employment has uplifted the village to a certain extent,” says Poudel, “But it’s not being invested wisely. The village school is seeing less and less children since almost all are sending their children to boarding schools in the nearby cities.”
In the Jumleti Ward of Armala, 74-years-old Nahakul Acharya has shouldered the responsibility of bringing up his grandchildren and as caretaker of the house. Both his sons are in Qatar. He’s happy, though.
“It is not just my sons who are abroad,” Acharya says, “Almost all the other villagers’ children have gone abroad to earn money. So we have to take care of the families.”
With the money his sons have sent, Acharya has left the village and lives in a concrete house that cost Rs. 10 million to build. He has also sent his grandchildren to a boarding school in Pokhara. Acharya’s elder son Dharmadutta has been in Qatar for 12 years. His younger son Krishna left for Qatar two years ago.
Fellow villager Chandreshwar Acharya, 71, also sings the same song. His only son has been in Qatar for many years now. He is content with his expenditures and some savings that he manages from the three million Rupees his son sends him annually.
“Young people from each household in the village are abroad,” he says. “There’s not a single home without someone away.”
Acharya says that poor income generation from agriculture and the lack of employment opportunities in Pokhara are the main reasons for rural youth to go abroad.
“It’s better to go abroad and make some money rather than fooling around here, jobless.”
A large number of locals have left for Middle East countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
“Only a few must’ve opted for other countries,” the VDC Secretary says, “Almost everyone from here is in the Middle East.”
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