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Loss of a Nepali Middle Class

By Subindra Bogati

- Peace talks between the Maoists and government have come to a standstill. A parallel government set up by the Maoists, their continued extortions and threats of an urban revolt have made people confused, frustrated and scared. A silver lining of optimism brought to them by the April uprising is thinning fast.

A glance at Western Europe and North America unequivocally shows the fact that Nepal is losing a staggering portion of college educated and highly trained manpower to the West. The volatile political situation may force the remaining best and the brightest Nepalis to leave the country as there is a mounting demand and competition for foreign talent in OECD countries.

These qualified Nepali professionals (doctors, engineers, management consultants, teachers, IT experts etc) could have been instrumental in lifting Nepal out of its poverty and mess. The loss of these institution builders, in which Nepal has an acute shortage of skills, has resulted in our country being pushed towards further chaos and poverty.

The Maoists and the government should get the underlying message from this exodus of Nepal’s cream at a time when the country, badly run and economically dysfunctional, needs them the most. Whatever type of government we decide to have in the future or whoever or whichever party comes into power, these are the people Nepal will have to have to change the course of history.

We neither can institutionalize an egalitarian society just by a bunch of brainwashed young militias nor can we create a new Nepal by the help of the chattering classes, politicians without ethics and morals, and WGOs, sorry I mean NGOs. As we all know, the best decisions are made by better educated and better informed people.

It is high time we bring this civil war, which has bedeviled the country for the last ten years, to an end, and implement programmes and policies to reverse the devastating effects of the brain drain. With the right mix of policies and sustained international co-operation, Nepal may be able to transform the brain drain into a brain bank.

Not all the Nepali skilled migrants are in search of educational, economic or intellectual opportunities, but they have been forced unwillingly into exile as a result of civil war. Many of them long to return home and participate in the country’s development but their aspirations are thwarted by shaky politics with a strong tradition of ignoring the national welfare.

It is understandable that remittances help maintain households or build small projects back home. However, that won’t be enough to compensate for the loss of investment Nepal suffers because of its brain drain. The cost to the citizens left behind is huge. Let’s take Sub Saharan Africa for instance. To fill the gap created by the skills shortage, these African countries spend an estimated $ 4 bn annually (35% of their total official development aid) to employ about 1,00,000 non African expatriates.

This scenario may not be too far away for our country as well. Donors in Nepal are at times too quick to bring experts from outside rather than exploring the opportunities to employ qualified local or expatriate Nepalis. The latter would have been more efficient and cost effective and at the same time, they know the country very well.

Developing countries like India are better able to survive relatively smaller losses of talent, and even benefit from them when their skilled workers return or invest in their native lands. However, a widespread flight of educated people damages a small country like Nepal.

For instance, there are more than three hundred Nepali doctors practicing in the UK. 300 is a small number for the UK, but it means a lot to Nepal whose health care system suffers from a severe dearth of medical practitioners.

Most of the Nepalis who come to the developed countries as students or skilled migrants belong to the middle class. People of the middle class play an important role in the development of a society or country. To realize the enormous potential of Nepal’s middle class will first require an end to the war. Anything less will be a disaster.

The speed of the outflow of Nepalis to London, Auckland, Sydney and New York not only epitomizes the loss of professional and productive young people but also the loss of an essential Nepali middle class.

(Contact the writer at Subindra@gmail.com

I think he is right. Nepal is losing its middle class very fast.