The same Himalayas have stood still for thousands of years attracting more or less the same number of visitors each year, our culture seems to be dwindling in the face of westernization as the likes of Rauteys dwindle in number, the portrayal of water as wealth is becoming a cruel joke as generation of hydroelectricity falls behind demand leaving us in hours of darkness and the consequential blow to our productivity, and the forests are facing continuous threat of wild fires and illegal chopping. The one resource that can save all these other resources and increase their productivity is also perhaps the most neglected resource in Nepal – its people.
Nepal has the 43rd largest population in the world. Given its geographical size and the fact that countries far bigger than it like Australia and Chile have a smaller population it is only fair to say that we have this resource in abundance.
Over the centuries, development has seen a shift from agriculture based economies to industrial economies and then recently information based economies. Standard of living on an average has increased, economies have expanded and purchasing power of individuals have gone up – all this is due to assets such as land, money, information and most importantly what humans did with those assets. Technical advancements, enterprises and improved living have all sprung from the genius and hard work of man.
In the context of Nepal, we seem to be almost blind to the importance and value of our people. Our human resource has been repeatedly used, misused and abused over the years but no considerable plan or action has been undertaken to develop or invest in them. Hundreds of thousands of our men and women go abroad to work; we are interested in the remittance they bring in, but the people themselves have not even been provided certain services to make it all smoother for them – difficulties related with acquiring visas and passports are atrocious, once on foreign soil, the country barely extends any assistance to them and once returned from foreign lands there is no move to accommodate them back in our economy.
Similar examples of neglect of human resource are abundant in Nepal. Tourism Year 2011 is being heavily advertised. Tourism ambassadors have been appointed, hoarding boards have gone up and the prerequisite "Welcome Gate" has been erected in front of the airport. Tourism Year themed programs and travel schemes have taken off. Amidst all this the question one ponders upon is – how is Tourism Year 2011 different from Visit Nepal 1998? The attractions are still the same – another new breathtaking mountain hasn´t sprung up in the country, Lumbini is right where it was decades ago, and Pokhara still boasts that one single beautiful lake. But have our services improved? In most countries, when they declare a Tourism or Visit So-and-So year they do not polish up their Taj Mahals or the Pyramids or the Eiffel Tower. Instead, they heavily invest to a large extent on the human resource within the tourism sector – more people are trained and services improved.
The state of our water resources tells a similar story. Big hydropower projects have been set up in the country – they generate hundreds of MW of electricity. More projects are in the pipeline. However, until and unless we train our engineers and our architects to handle such big scale projects on their own, we will continue to rely on foreign technology and human resource for all large scale development projects.
We are content to put pictures of sniffling young children with chapped cheeks on our postcards to show to the world; we have made a habit of bemoaning our plentiful resources that we have failed to harness, yet the one productive asset, that of our people who can make all other assets productive, has gone largely unnoticed and thereby under-invested.
Recent news headlines have trumpeted the crackdown on several noted personalities in cases of corruption and abuse of power. Such endeavors will hopefully contribute to discouraging this widespread disease of corruption. Stricter anti-corruption laws are being called for. However, at the same time one must understand that drafting and remaking new policies and restructuring institutional structure alone will not make major differences unless the attitude and thinking of the people manning the institution changes. This attitude change needs to be addressed. Corruption is often viewed as the byproduct of loose laws and institutional weaknesses, instead of being viewed as a flaw in the very moral making of a person. This needs to be tackled through instilling values and moral education amongst the people from the very start. Ask yourself why does a Japanese government official commit suicide even when a whiff of corruption touches him while Nepali politicians and officials alike practice it almost blatantly.
Perhaps the saddest example of our neglect of human resource development is the state of our education system. The recent SLC exam period was accompanied by the routine reporting of rampant cheating, teachers aiding in the cheating and one Constituent Assembly member´s involvement in the dishonesty thrown in. Not long ago, there was a news of how one teacher was threatened by a gang of students because he refused to let them cheat and yet another case of students protesting because they were not allowed to cheat. Such shameful state of affairs is an indication of how education, one of the vital bases of human development, is progressing or rather regressing in the country. Add to that the commonly known knowledge of students getting into and passing the mushrooming medical colleges in Nepal on the sheer basis of ´donations´ rather than academic strength, one worries about whether it would be safe to get oneself checked by one of these ´certified-but-for-all-sense-and-purpose-a quack´ doctor. Education for all is a must but above and beyond that ensuring quality education too is a requirement.
For years we have conditioned ourselves to believe that we are poor; content to be at the receiving end of donations we have spread out our hands for the funds instead of thinking how to put those hands towards productive work. The fact that we probably have more NGOs and INGOs in this country than enterprises alone speaks for itself. We are content to put pictures of sniffling young children with chapped cheeks on our postcards to show to the world; we have made a habit of bemoaning our plentiful resources that we have failed to harness, yet the one productive asset, that of our people who can make all other assets productive, has gone largely unnoticed and thereby under-invested.
Education and health are the two crucial investments that need to be made in the public. There must be an understanding that the people are not mere votes. Space must be given to positively and constructively engage and develop the people. The lack of this very space has seen Nepal suffer from the epidemic of myriad bandhs and protest rallies. Individuals are certain enterprises have developed in the country and that is very commendable and heartening. However, unless and until this realization is made nationally, we will continue to be mired in the category of Least Developed Countries.
mohan.manandhar@nitifoundation.org
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