At a time when a large chunk of Kathmandu´s population was enjoying World Cup football matches at home on TV, a huge number of youths like Laxman had spent a sleepless night in the queue along the road. [break]
Fed up with scores of attempts to get a job, 25-year-old Khabas decided to test his luck with a job in South Korea. Khabas was among thousands of job aspirants in the over-one kilometer queue to buy a form for the Korean Language Test (KLT).
“I decided to vie for work in South Korea after several attempts to land a simple job to support my family failed. How can I remain in the country where unemployment is skyrocketing and there is no job prospect in sight, said the Intermediate in Commerce.
The story of Sunita Shrestha and Deepak KC--an inter-caste couple from Bhaktapur-- is similar but also different.
“We have decided to go to Korea if we find employment there, leaving our only daughter at home as we don´t see any chance of getting jobs here,” she said, pointing toward her husband.
The scorching mid-June sun couldn´t deter the thousands of youths from different academic backgrounds kand social strata. Some dozen and a half points were set up at Dasharath Stadium for applicants to submit the KLT forms.
Most of the youths lining up for exam forms were worried about their future within the country where prospects of employment are growing slimmer. They complained that there was a common line for both male and female applicants.
According to the Labor Survey 2008, 2.1 percent of the total population is completely unemployed. However, the survey also showed that one-third of the total population is under-employed.
Deepak Subedi, joint secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM), said a total of 12,728 application forms were submitted on Tuesday-the first day for distribution of the forms. “We also simultaneously distributed exam admission cards to the job seekers,” Subedi said.
He said some 4,000 out of those qualifying in the KLT exam will be placed in the job roster of the Korean Human Resource Department (HRD) for employment in South Korea.
As per the EPS (employment permit system) agreement, the Korean government will offer jobs in five sectors--agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, construction and services. Local employers will approach HRD with demands for workers and HRD will forward the contract papers to job aspirants included in the roster.
The Korean government has allocated a quota of 4,000 jobs for Nepali workers, out of a total of 22,000 workers estimated to be hired from 15 countries that have signed EPS agreements with Korea. Nepali workers are being offered around US$ 900 per month excluding other perks and benefits in the fourth-largest economy of Asia.
A total of 6,768 applicants out of 32,000 who appeared in the KLT test held on March 29, 2008 had passed. Of the total who passed, 6,586 were listed in the job roster at HRD.
According to the EPS-Nepal office in Kathmandu, 4,078 workers have already left for Korea since the government begun sending workers in August 11, 2008. Of those included in the HRD job roster, 6,053 have signed job contracts with Korean employers.
Korea has recognized Nepal as the best source country for sending workers with comparatively good moral character and its shortest process for selecting employees.
Nepal and Korea signed the EPS agreement on July 23, 2007. The Korean government introduced the EPS in 2004, allowing domestic companies to hire foreign workers for meeting a shortage of workers in that country.
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