For the past decade, economic growth rate in Nepal has hovered around 3-5 percent. At the same time, our friends in the region—India, China and Bangladesh—grew at an average rate of 8 percent. In addition, whatever growth we have achieved has been on the back of private sector investments, and very little public investments. Political instability in the last decade has meant that public investments were slow, inadequate and ineffective. [break]
As a result, in today’s Nepal, we have people struggling to find decent jobs; highways and roads are in need of repairs and expansion; other basic development infrastructures are crumbling; and electricity woes have all but destroyed our manufacturing industry. However, even amidst all this gloom surrounding our economy, there is a silver lining. Nepali women are faring much better than in the past. We still have quite some way to go, but, if the successes in female health and education are any indication, Nepali women have a bright economic future ahead.
PHOTO: FRANCIS DEPORT/FLICKS
Until late 1970s, Nepali women, on average, were giving birth to 6.2 children, the figure which has been lowered to 2.6 children today. This fertility rate—children per woman—is comparable to those of developed countries. For example: fertility rate is 1.9 in Norway and 2.2 in the United States. However, Norwegians and Americans took 75 years to achieve the same level of progress that Nepal has been able to achieve in only 40 years. This is a feat that every Nepali woman should be proud of.
Nepali females between 15 and 24 years of age have led the way for this progress. In 1981, literacy rate among our female youths was 15 percent compared to 45 percent among male youths. Today, almost 80 percent of female youths are literate compared to almost 90 percent of male youths. This shows that although we still have a significant gender gap in education, the gap is shrinking rapidly as evidenced from a 30-percent difference in education level in 1981 shrinking to 10 percent in 2011. Very few countries have achieved such a feat in such a short time.
The main factors that led to such progress have been private and foreign investments in health and education, especially after our government allowed foreign support to enter Nepal beginning in the 1970s. In 1980, immunization rates among Nepali children between 12 and 23 months of age were 2 percent for Measles and 8 percent for DPT (Diphtheria, Polio and Tetanus). Tireless work of numerous agencies and donors has been able to boost those figures to over 80 percent for both Measles and DPT. Soon, all newborns in Nepal will be vaccinated against Measles and DPT.
Once women in the 1980s noticed that vaccines were saving their kids, they started having fewer kids. Therefore, the fertility rates in Nepal today are comparable to those in developed countries. Although many children still die from a variety of treatable diseases, there is no doubt that foreign aid in health, and availability of vaccines, have saved hundreds of thousands of Nepali children since 1970s.
However, the worrying fact remains that of the total spending on health, the government’s share has always stayed below 30 percent in the last three decades. The remaining 70 percent has been covered by foreign donors and private investments. Similarly, government expenditure in education today is a meager 3.5 percent of GDP compared to 2.8 percent in 1996, showing the absence of political will to increase public commitments in the last 17 years. The democratic movement of 1990 promised us many things including higher spending on health and education, but all our governments in the last 23 years have been bitter disappointments in this regard. This just goes to show that whatever progress we have achieved in female health and education have been through foreign aid and private investments.
And, that brings us to the bad news. Until 1990, the labor market had to worry about providing jobs to only Nepali men as very few women competed with men for jobs. However, as Nepali women became more educated, and as fertility rates kept dropping, they started entering the job market seeking opportunities. Suddenly, our economy saw record numbers of Nepali women seeking jobs that didn’t exist, and still don’t. The economic sectors experiencing growth in Nepal are technology and banking, which call for very specific set of skills and training, and which do not actually need a lot of manpower. Jobs for both men and women have been difficult to come by.
As a result, even among urban youths—males and females—who have the best chance of getting jobs due to their high level of education and skill compared to the rest of the population, the unemployment rate is over 30 percent. Ten years ago, it was around 17 percent. If urban youths in this country have no job opportunities, there is little hope for those from the rural areas.
All this leads us to the ugly truth about Nepalis leaving the country in droves. Statistics shows that 65 percent of those leaving the country are aged 15 to 29 while the rest are aged 30 to 44. Some analysts and economists extol the virtues of remittance income, but “remittance economy” is not a proper description of a sustainable economy in the long run. Add to that the fact that Nepali migrant workers face harsh living and working conditions abroad. It is especially worse for female migrant workers who face all sorts of violence and violations inflicted upon them in the households they are employed in, as is often reported in Nepali media. All we are doing today is just sitting and watching as the best, the brightest, and the ablest of our population leave to break their backs for someone else.
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