TV and smart phones

Growing up in poverty sucks period. There isn’t any shade of hidden reliefs.  Last week I was in Gorkha and there I met an expecting couple; the wife is 19 and the husband is 21. This is the way here and in many villages of Nepal, opportunities get slimmer and slimmer as they age. Past 16 and all they can think of is earning descent. But that isn’t possible either. There are no jobs in the villages. Many people argue that if these youths were channeled to work the reconstruction jobs here at home which is happening at a snail’s pace they wouldn’t have to leave. But the fact is the government’s priority doesn’t lie in creating jobs.

The youths will leave because their friends and cousins have tasted the freedom to earn much more and the exposure it brings along – none of the labor jobs in Nepal will suffice.

The world is moving at a faster pace than we can imagine. The youths already dream of going abroad when their friends and relatives bring new flat screen TV and smart phones home along with hard cash. The migrants who on a hard-earned holiday bring these perks home and talk about the flying experience and slowly start erecting concrete two room houses, even the little boys’ and girls’ barley 10 imagine one day flying far away from home.

The fascination and the idea of being able to afford these materials and build a concrete home is perhaps one of the strongest condemnation that no matter how hard life is in a foreign soil their hopes of living a better life lies not in our soil.

The 21-year-old Janak I met was working as a daily wage laborer. He is a returnee migrant worker. He must have been barely 17 when he left the first time. He is tall and lanky and has been transporting stones all day long. I don’t ask him how much he earns. He needs to work because he is having a baby soon and soon he will have the responsibility to feed three mouths. He along with his brother have built a two-room home (one for him and one for his brother) with the three lakhs they received after the earthquake. The whole village has built either one or two room homes because there are only so much the three lakhs can build. When I inquired for their kitchen and bathroom, they signaled towards their old ancestral home, its lying half intact. Most of them sleep in the newly built rooms but do their cooking and bathing in their old homes.   

I sense that if he doesn’t work for the daily wage he has no other source of income. And he must work as hard as his friends and relatives but they earn 3-5 times more in the foreign soil. Often, we read negative stories about migration. We must know that the money our migrants send home has improved the lives of millions by giving them access to eat better food, build better homes, wear warmer clothes and send their children to schools for a better education. Because all they want is a future much better than theirs for the children. And one of few reasons why many parents don’t stop their children from leaving even if they have seen their neighbors or relatives receive their children’s lifeless bodies.

Many migrants also choose to stay back and have entered the diary and agriculture business. They are earning better along with the luxury to see their children grow up. But truly, not all can choose to stay back and do the same. Land is expensive, government procedures and laws for setting up businesses is complicating and torturous and bank’s interest rates are sky rocketing.  

I know Janak will soon leave. And Gopi will follow too. But the rest will have to wait until they turn 16.