English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...
English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...
English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...
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The Remake of a StateThe socio-economic situation that produced migration <strong>in</strong> the first placeis still prevalent. Despite the peace agreement, the benchmark <strong>to</strong> peace,and follow<strong>in</strong>g the election <strong>to</strong> the CA focus <strong>to</strong> the forward the country<strong>to</strong>wards recovery, situations still rema<strong>in</strong> such that the country is struggl<strong>in</strong>g<strong>to</strong>wards res<strong>to</strong>ration of a sound political and economic situation. If we lookat the voice of migrants, then as raised by Giacconi (Br<strong>in</strong>kerhoff 2005), wewill still not be able <strong>to</strong> provide sound walls <strong>to</strong> our pa<strong>in</strong>ters <strong>in</strong> a very recentfuture. Thus we cannot assume that migration will pace down soon.Besides this, studies have found that migration mostly happens due <strong>to</strong>unequal distribution of opportunities. This for us means that migrationwill be an <strong>in</strong>tegral part of <strong>Nepal</strong>ese socio-economy even if it only meansgo<strong>in</strong>g <strong>to</strong> India or the Arab countries. This is because <strong>Nepal</strong> is not <strong>in</strong> aposition <strong>to</strong> compete with the opportunities they provide. Moreover, asdiscussed prior <strong>to</strong> this paragraph, <strong>Nepal</strong> has a grow<strong>in</strong>g trend of migrationfor educational and career enhancement purpose. This is also a partwhere <strong>Nepal</strong> needs <strong>to</strong> recover aga<strong>in</strong>st, else countries like the UK and theUS will still lure <strong>Nepal</strong>i students and professionals due <strong>to</strong> the high value ofthe academic certificates of those countries <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Nepal</strong>i labour marketas well as other implicit knowledge and skills, even if not for the overallsound academic and professionalism that these countries promise.In addition, migration is found <strong>to</strong> be embedded <strong>in</strong> the life cycle of people<strong>in</strong> some areas of <strong>Nepal</strong>. Studies <strong>in</strong> the far west of <strong>Nepal</strong> (Thieme 2006;Sharma 2008) show that be<strong>in</strong>g a migrant and work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> India is a part ofmale life cycle. It is assumed that this migration <strong>in</strong> the life of youth has asocial status that is better than the non-migrant male. Here migration <strong>to</strong>India is taken as a step <strong>in</strong> becom<strong>in</strong>g a ‘man’.In such cases where migration is culturally engra<strong>in</strong>ed and has primaryimportance over the pull-push forces centred on economic discussions<strong>in</strong> migration, migration cannot be s<strong>to</strong>pped suddenly by improv<strong>in</strong>g theeconomic and political situations even if it were <strong>to</strong> improve <strong>in</strong> the firstplace. Besides this, <strong>to</strong> the migrants of the western region of <strong>Nepal</strong>, due <strong>to</strong>previous his<strong>to</strong>ry of migration, the cities <strong>to</strong> India are far more nearer andhold networks than the ma<strong>in</strong> urban centres with<strong>in</strong> <strong>Nepal</strong>. In an answer<strong>to</strong> why he chose go<strong>in</strong>g <strong>to</strong> India, over cities with<strong>in</strong> <strong>Nepal</strong>- like Kathmandu,an IDP who was work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> India, said that the capital city of the country<strong>to</strong> them was like Ch<strong>in</strong>a. “Kathmandu <strong>to</strong> us is like Ch<strong>in</strong>a. We have noconnections there and it is very far from our place. India is nearer, moreaccessible and <strong>Nepal</strong>ese have our neighbours and other k<strong>in</strong>s who havebeen liv<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> India”. 6 Thus, we can see that what we term as migration <strong>to</strong>6Personal <strong>in</strong>terview with one of the authors <strong>in</strong> <strong>Nepal</strong>gunj, September 2007.175