Middle Class Blues: Nepal's Youth Tread A Difficult Path

A recent report published by the World Bank (WB) has stated that the middleclass percentage of Nepal is now a meager 22 percent of the total population. Despite the gloomy outlook, the poverty rate has significantly reduced to 25.2 percent. The Achilles’ heel is that the Himalayan nation of Nepal suffers from the dependency on remittances given the current prospect of worldwide instability due to terrorism, the refugee crisis, environmental challenges, and instability on oil prices. The defining question is whether the middle class group is sustainable and its growth attainable?

Middle class is defined as “the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families. It is further epitomized as the urbanization and expansion of the middle class.” Nepal has been considered having the fastest growing urban population in South Asia. What the data provided by the WB doesn’t reveal is that Nepali youths now suffer from severe challenges in climbing the socioeconomic ladder. If a nation cannot promise a possible rise in the progress of youth, how can it expect them to stay back?

Nepali youth sooner or later realize that to survive or even secure a future, they need to get involved in four major sectors of the nation. First, it is politics. The surge in social media and disseminating of news in seconds have informed the youths that the safest and quickest way to become rich and have a decent life is by getting involved in politics. I vouch for this statement by simply referring to the lavish lifestyle and the riches most Nepali politicians have acquired. The problem here is: not every Nepali youth wants to be a politician, and not everyone in Nepal can cheat others and play the Game of Thrones-styled role to ensure their survival. The second method for survival would be illegal means.

It is with no doubt that scores of Nepalese have become rich overnight through the means of illegal business, transactions, dealings, brokering, et al. The list goes on and the misery we faced during the blockade also clearly showed the picture as how few sections of the societal structure have managed to hoodwink the masses and amass unthinkable money in a short span. Hence, the rise in illegal crimes. Nepali youths now are exposed to foreign nations via internet and the images of developed nations haunt us. We strive to be like them. We yearn for a better, expensive lifestyle. The realization that one cannot earn well in Nepal soon dawns in a youth and then crime follows. How can a nation expect its youths to live in a minimal salary (which gets them almost nothing but mere uncertain survival) when their desires are unprecedented? It is rather foolish for a state to estimate the desires of a single person according to its GDP and GNI. Not everyone wants to live a humble life with a high thinking. The third method for survival would be governmental jobs.

The current government of Nepal recently raised the salaries of government officials in its budget announcement. We have heard enough stories of how scores of Nepali youths vie for lucrative, security-guaranteed government jobs so that they don’t have to go abroad for jobs. The irony that most youths face is startling. They have to fight against each other large numbers for few government posts. But the ending is sweet if one manages to pass the examination and get the appointment. Then follows the corruption, and a happy, prosperous life with elevation to the middle class. Most people know that a blue-collared, salaried government employee working for meagre Rs 25,000 cannot build a house in Kathmandu or ride an expensive car. The reality is different. They are able to do what people think is unbelievable. Hence, the attraction to government jobs is unbearably high in the politically unstable nation. But not everyone wants to work for the government. The state cannot expect every single youth to sit for its examinations hoping they would pass the tough questions. Only few manage; rest turn their heads to the exit door.

The fourth way is to fall in the indigenous category or have the easy access to the quota system. The World Bank report suggests that if Nepal is to progress economically then every single Nepali youth should get the chance to move ahead irrespective of their surname. But what has happened in Nepal after 2006? The game of federalism and identity politics have been used by the government, political parties, INGOs & NGOs in order to acquire funds and donations from the western world in the name of promoting ethnic communities. In that process, youths of so-called higher castes have found their skills, and education invalid as they cannot get jobs in such institutions easily since their forefathers committed the misdeed. However, youths from the minority groups now know that having a degree in international development will secure a good job in a renowned INGO.

What happens when Nepali youths fail to attain a sense of security from the above-mentioned four paths? There are only three options left then. Firstly, Nepali youths go abroad for studies hoping to settle there and have a good life. Secondly, there’s the option to immigrate legally on various visas, particularly Permanent Resident visa and the Green Card. Thirdly, there’s the option to work abroad for a short-term, earn money and send it back home. Let’s remind ourselves that scores of our fellow brethren and sisters have lost their lives in doing this. At a time when more than 90 percent of Nepalese don’t feel secure, the future looks bleak. The only thing that most Nepalese share is the middle class blues—the elusive hope that one day we’d rise above our parents’ status. Not everyone manages it. Some of us have to tread the difficult path, as we bid farewell to our loved ones. Others just enjoy what they have through unmanaged, risky bloody remittances waiting for Godot to return.

(Cover photo: Nepalese youth line up to file job applications in Kathmandu)