Labour Minister insists on accommodating probable workforce within home

Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Sher Bahadur Kunwar, has pressed an idea for creating a job atmosphere for domestic workforce within the country.

During a meeting of the Industry, Commerce, Labour, and Consumers Welfare Committee, House of Representatives today, the Minister said probable domestic workforce should be encouraged to explore work opportunities within the country. The meeting focused on issues concerning foreign employment and labour.

As he said, Nepal has been a good labour market for the people from India when Nepali workers have reached abroad. Workers here are needed to be made aware that they could find a labour market within the country and it could pay them as equally as the foreign employment.

He insisted on sending only the people with skills expertise to foreign jobs, suggesting for the management of domestic workforce internally.

Committee President Bimal Shriwastav was of the opinion of creating jobs for domestic workforce.

As he shared, during a monitoring at a steel industry, it was found that the number of workers from India was double than of domestic workers and the scenario suggested the possibility of managing probable workforce internally.

Secretary at the Ministry, Eknarayan Aryal said the Ministry is working to promote the internal labour market and at present, 145,113 are employed under the Prime Minister Employment Programme.

Director General of Department of Labour and Occupational Safety, Umakant Acharya, said industrialists said they preferred workforce from outside the country as they performed more responsibly than domestic workers.

Director General at the Department of Foreign Employment Shesh Narayan Paudel said there was a drop of Nepali going for abroad jobs during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic and the figure starts going up with the slowing down of infection risk.

As he said, 642 thousand people went for foreign employment in the fiscal year 2073-74 BS ( 2016-17) and this figure dropped to 166 thousands during 2077-78 BS ( 2020-21) and it rose to 621 thousands last fiscal year (2021-22).