Youths embrace skill-based training to counter unemployment and migration

Abstract

For many, living away from their family is a necessary sacrifice just to gamble finding work that can barely sustain everyday living. Twenty-seven year-old Bal Bahadur Tharu found himself in the same situation. Hailing from Chhakapur village of Bardiya district, he spent most of his younger years travelling to various places in Nepal and India looking for work opportunities. All he got were struggles and hardships. Faced with similar circumstances, Rajesh Tharu, 22, of Godiyan village in the district, travelled all the way to Dadeldhura where he got his first job at a wholesale store. By an unfortunate twist of fate, he was eventually forced to return home due to bad health. Mangal Tharu, 26, of Bijaya Nagar in Kailali district also left home to seek better fortune. He used to work as a construction laborer in Surkhet until he decided to return home for good. Once seasonal migrants, these three Tharu men from far western Nepal have one thing in common: they are all now settled in their villages after acquiring skill-based training provided by the Practical Action's Nepal Flood Resilience Project. Bal Bahadur now works for a furniture shop in Rajapur, just a few kilometers away from his home. Thanks to the skills he acquired during his 52-day training in March last year, he has been able to bring modern taste to furniture designs like bed, bench, chair and staircase. Bal Bahadur, who used to receive a monthly wage of Rs 10,000 (1 USD = Rs 104) when he started last year, today earns around Rs 20,000 a month. The money is spent to meet the daily needs of his eight-member family and send his only kid to school. “I’ll get twice as much as I earn here if I move to big cities like Kathmandu, Pokhara or even Nepalgunj,” said Bal Bahadur. “But I don't want to go anywhere now. Working from home means I’ll be able to save much of what I earn and still have some time left to take care of seasonal farming.” He hopes to start his own furniture shop in the near future. Thanks to his training and newly acquired skill sets, his hopes have become a dream within reach. Bal Bahadur is one among hundreds of youths in Kailali and Bardiya districts who have stopped migrating after undergoing skilled based training. Mangal Tharu was working as a helper before receiving a 52-week mason training course in 2016. He used to earn a measly sum of Rs 300 a day before taking the training. Today, he now earns around Rs 700 to Rs 900 each day. “The skills and certificate I received after training proved very useful. Contractors started trusting my skills. These days, I don't have to rely on contractors to get jobs,” he said. Mangal’s income is only the source to send his two children to school and feed his seven-member family. With the added income, he said he has been able to save around Rs 200,000 which he hopes to use in acquiring some land. He said he would be able to further increase his income once he has successfully undertaken ‘marble training’. “There is a huge demand for workers who know how to fit marble since many people are now increasingly using marble in their homes. I am really looking forward to take the training.” Owing to his bad health, Rajesh, a high school dropout, remained bed-ridden for months following his return from Dadeldhura. “I was diagnosed with severe anemia due to blood passing from stool. Luckily, the doctor diagnosed the disease before it was too late,” he said. After recovering, Rajesh started looking for job opportunities to support his family but in vain. “Just then, I heard about the free plumbing course being offered by CSDR and applied for it,” said Rajesh. After his training was completed, Rajesh took Rs 5,000 in loan from a villager to buy tools to start the jobs. He and another colleague he knew from the training started looking for work in the surrounding village. The initial days proved difficult, as every beginning is. “It took some time for us to find our first work. Nowadays, the villagers from the surrounding villages themselves reach out to us with work offer,” said Rajesh, who has been able to save around Rs 60,000. The money Rajesh and his friends earned from their first few assignments was used to buy plumbing tools like Grander, Chisel, Hammer, Spirit level. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that Rajesh was able to successfully pay off his loan and move on to improve his craft further. “We now have most of the tools we need. We are planning to take more advanced training to be able to take one house," said Rajesh. Like elsewhere in the country, migration remains a problem in Kailali and Bardiya district for obvious reasons. A home to ethnic Tharu most of whom were subject to slavery and forced labor until two decades ago, many people in the district do not have adequate land to support their family. In the absence of land and major industries, migration remains the only option for livelihood for many people. The skill-based training programmes introduced by Practical Action seek to give stable alternative livelihood options to jobless youths. More than 1,000 prospective migrants who took training courses offered by the organisation are now successful masons, electricians, plumbers and tailors. Since people with these skills are in short supply, trained workers are getting work opportunities closer to home. While some of the skilled youths like Bal Bahadur are working for employers, few others are working on their own as freelancers. Either way they are making good money. Story collected by Roshan Sedhai. Photos by Lok Narayan Pokharel