Utsab has been a graduated electrical engineer for a year now. Having been a topper in his classes with outstanding performance in extracurricular activities, he was looking forward to a career in marketing. In a year, he sent out more than 50 applications advertised in private sectors, firms and non-governmental organizations. Without luck, he was circumscribed within his little family business despite his huge potential and passion. “I always dreamt of serving my community and the country with innovation and new technologies”, he said. “But with the lack of a job in marketing, I am thinking of moving abroad”.
This is nothing new in the world that we are living in today. Huge investments made by families and parents are often questioned due to a lack of job security. The number of universities and student enrollments keep on growing but the job market is not moving at the same pace. This is shown by the 367,000 applicants for 9,661 vacant posts advertised by the Public Service Commission at a local level. Similarly, the rising number of students migrating to other countries is another example. Had there been a scenario where you could earn a fair share to live a decent life, without having to indulge in nepotism and favoritism while contributing to a sector that you excel at, the desire to move to a different country would certainly have been lower.
To analyze the problem, let’s look at the job market scenario in Nepal with a focus on the youths. The most sought-after jobs are in the government sectors, development agencies and private companies. The number of positions in governmental and development agencies are negligibly low. Then comes the private sector, which, is incapable of employing graduates. There has been quite an increase in startup and ventures, but because of a lack of initial support and investment, this option is not for everyone. Thus, it seems easier to fall in the fantasy of a developed world with boundless opportunities.
Secure Demographic Dividend by Attending to Nepali Youth Now
Together with the struggle to be independent, the youths are facing mental challenges of equal importance. The struggle for professional success amidst growing competition and shrinking job market with flourishing nepotism and favoritism has left a mass of youth with self-doubt and negativity towards the society and the government. With social media outbursts, this challenge gets even more heightened when we are flushed a lot of information about what’s happening. Not to mention, the rise in social crimes, violence and disputes that it can cause. Another problem lies in the exploitation of human resources. Minimum wages are not guaranteed and a larger supply than the demand for human resources exacerbates to this problem. Many of the youths that I interacted with confessed that they had to stay enrolled in their current position with no opportunities for personal and professional growth because they aren’t many other options.
This scenario for Nepal, while at a time going through a demographic dividend, doesn’t showcase a positive path. Demographically, Nepal is going through the important change of “the window of opportunity”. The number of youths is at its highest brought about by a decrease in mortality and fertility rate in the country. This window of opportunities was started in 1992 and is expected to remain until 2047 BS after which the proportion of the elderly population will be significantly higher. This means that more of the elderly will depend on the younger generation. The cost of social security investment will be higher for the government. Therefore, with the number of youths, half a part being over is extremely crucial to reap off the benefits.
Undoubtedly, it is the role of the government, directly or indirectly, to ensure the growth of the private sector and seeing that the issues of unemployment be resolved. What’s more, is that this is ultimately for the benefit of development. However, this again is a tricky issue as it fails to be the government’s priority. In fact, 90% of our national pride projects are related to infrastructure. Though these are likely to have ripple effects in employment and job security, how can the government not seem to come up with a definite plan to address and to utilize the growing youth diaspora? In the light of dismay, the Prime Minister of the Employment Program is another hoax that is condescending and fails to address the productive use of skilled human resources.
The education institution and the government must collaborate to address utilizing the young force. Using efficient human resources should not be the end, in fact, it should be the engagement of these individuals in a productive environment that the institutions seek. Rather than using pass percentage and GPA, it should be employability of the students that matters the most.
Within the universities, leaving our rudimentary mechanism of teaching, we should divert our attention from providing students with real-life experiences, and seek towards increasing their employability by collaborating with private and public institutions. This could be as simple as flexible subject structures and class hours, promoting the culture of work experience in forms of internships during the years in university. The role of student unions should come above protests and strikes and grow towards connecting students with a wider professional network, providing services like helping with opportunities, crafting resumes or personal development in the least. Developing a culture with entrepreneurship while also ensuring formulated policies to encourage professionalism will ensure the productivity of the individuals and institutions.
A major role, however, also lies among students to be responsible and focus on improving their technical skills. As the leaders of the next generation, it is time that we realize that we have a lot at stake. We should understand quality education as well as a fundamental right and make sure that it is qualitative. It is within us to realize the culture of nepotism. Influenced peddling or favoritism are extremely dangerous and are acts of corruption. Therefore, if we don’t act against this right now at an individual level, these behaviors will haunt us and our society for a long time.
The whole thing doesn’t look like a big issue when we see things at an individual level. We tend to brush off concerns shared by individuals by saying “this is just a phase and you will ultimately land somewhere”. But the problem is so much larger than this and the ultimate loss is to the nation and development process as we are wasting the hours, days and months of the potentiality of the resilient, hardworking and grounded youths of Nepal.
The innovative capacity of the youths should be encouraged, funded and their intellectual rights preserved. More importantly, the government must come up with strategic plans to address this issue and to reap the benefits of the budding youth population that we harbor, as an important resource. One of them could be attracting several international companies and/or national and international investors that aims to bring technology and uses the human resources that we have. For this, conducive and liberal investment policies are the keys.
