Karna Shakya opened my eyes today. Yes, we have to be optimistic and take a lead on sense of belonging. Nepal is one of the most place in the earth to live in. Let’s all make it happen - one step at a time. Let’s love our people, keep the law in place, propogate freedom and liberty and choose your good friend of the future - your leadership.. The year 2006 will be better for all of us… http://www.bbc.co.uk/nepali/karna_shakya.ram

At the risk of sounding codescending, the ‘manpower agencies’ seem to be taking a big bite out of all this. I mean, how steep do the fees have to be for a worker to spend three years paying it off? Besides, it’s not like they make fairly good earning that some part that going to the agencies don’t end up making much of a dent. A simple math tells us that even after paying off agencies after three years, a worker saves about $54 (Rs.3700) per month. Add to that inflation, oil prices, general strikes, Maobadi insurgency, Gyandendras control, (not to forget transit treaty with India about to expire in few months again), how is one to survive with what’s left? The country’s economic structure is at serious risk already and I don’t know what will happen if some resolution doesn’t come out to this crisis soon. The ominous month of February is at our doors.

First half-decent thing I have seen on this site that is otherwise occupied with some sophomore level pretensious postings.

‘They tell you one story at home and when you get here you realize things are very different. I will never come back to Malaysia to work.’

First half-decent post I have seen on this otherwise pretensious website.

But we could very well find pretentious of you to drop by and quote/use the ‘worker’s line’ while commenting on site’s ‘pretentions’. Besides, I believe it genuinely requests us to make little more effort (to see beyond their pretensions?) and participate rather than be a grump and abdicate.

It’s hard to believe that they make only $162 a month after working 16- hour days. When converted into Nepali rupees, their income is not more that ten thousand rupees — somehow that does not sound right to me because Singapore is a First-World country and they must pay them better than that. Am I missing something? I hear and read that people who go to Korea, Hongkong, or even the Gulf countries make 20-30 thousand rupees a month at the minimumn, and contries like Singapore- Malaysia are really coveted places …so it does not make sense to me. But then I don’t know the reality.

sorry to have confused Malaysia with Singapore, but the analogy still applies.

Did those on the photos know that they will be put up on a website accesible the world around? Or did nayantara just took the liberty herself? Sure, they may be pressed by situations but that is in no way reason enough to be subject of someone else seeking publicity on the web. Can samudaya also clarify in that respect? Thanks.

If the contributors have devoted their time and effort to bring cases out to the public, it is in no way attempts to gain or seek publicity at a personal level but to generate awareness among people who access the site around the world, I think. As workers migrate from Nepal and cases upon cases of labor exploitation and human perversion found in brothels of Mumbai to catering companies in Iraq grow at alarming rate, it becomes necessary of having people like Nayantara who make effort to show the reality that exist as is amongst the struggling Nepalis in foreign lands.

I like these new bits, it’s much more interesting to see real Nepali’s around the world than what somebody previous has called “pretention”.

I wonder if more people would do this?

as far as what you say about malaysia, i think you’ll find that it’s not a very good place to go to. my brother in law was offered this choice and then he found out that the job was standing in mud for 16 hours a day (Nepali’s previously having done it getting serious skin conditions)

also it’s nice to see the reality of what people do. if you go to nepal, everybody is trying to go abroad, but nearly 100% have absolutely no idea what they’re getting into.

The point I was making is not that the issue being raised in not important, but the procedure of doing it. By placing the photos and comments from those on the photos in a freely available website, Nayantara could be endangering their safety and job prospect itself. So again, does she made these guys understand beforehand where their photo and comments will end up? Addressing such issues is obviously important, doing it in a way without making a victim is much more important.

It still baffels me whether you are trying to portray Nayantara as an exploiter of issues by claiming that such portrayal will put the worker’s life in jeopardy. Why cannot you realistically understand that these are not corporate whistle-blowers but simple workers who already are the victims of circumstances? As for the procedural aspect, I’m sure it was followed to the satisfaction of the workers. Do you think the pictures were taken on the pretext of having it on Nayantara’s family album? I think not.

The question is very simple - So again, does she made these guys understand beforehand where their photo and comments will end up? There is no need to tiptoe around it if anybody (Nayantara?) wanted to answer it.

i dunno if she made these guys understand, but knowing her i am sure she did, I don’t know why you are making it into such an issue, it seems to me that you think that somehow this pictorial is making them look like they are doing something wrong? whats your point exactly?

concerned,
i am sure your concern comes from a good place but please don’t imply that nayantara is not responding to your comments because she somehow wants to hide something and does not want to respond. maybe she just hasn’t seen your comments/question

I have been on the road and haven’t had internet access since Thursday, thus the tardy response. My apologies. Glad to see this piece has generated some thought.

The concern is valid and appreciated. Migrant workers battle exploitation from many sources and a ‘web expose’ that would put their work prospects in jeopardy would indeed be unfortunate. The intension of this piece is in no way to ‘expose’ the individuals who are its subjects; I should perhaps include disclaimers with future projects.

Mr. Indra Bilash and Mr. Dhurba Shrestha, along with one other co-worker with whom I conversed with at Restoran Sri Nirwana Maju in Bangsar Baru were fully aware of my intentions behind the interview. I was very kindly given 90 minutes of their time for this particular interview and full permission to photograph them at their workplace. The photographs, information and quotes for this piece appear on this website with full permission and cooperation of those being photographed and quoted.

Concern for responsible journalism and the security of the subjects of publication is highly valid and appreciated. The insinuation that the sole purpose of this piece is to seek self-promotion is not valid, not appreciated and hopefully not worthy of further discussion ☺

This piece appears here as an independent piece. It is also part of a longer-term project for which I am in continued contact with the subjects of this piece.

So, the natural extention of this issue is to look at or investigate manpower agencies that charge exorbitant amount to cover not only their costs but exploit the income-fee ratio. What are the fees based on? Certain percentage of worker’s earning or cost incurred plus a profit margin (wide it must be)?

nayantara, thanks for your response. call on us when you pass through sf again.

Kudos to nayantara and Samudaya for covering a very important issue, that seems to have been forgotten in the pro-democracy, anti-king, pro-king debates, both in Nepal and in diaspora. I hope this will generate more discussions, and writing by people from other parts of the world.

I think the concerns raised by “concerned” are very valid because good itentions and wanting to help are not enough when people are identifed in public, especially with pictures, but seems like nayantara has taken that into consideration. Keep up the good work!

investigating manpower agencies is definitely an extension of the issue. there is no reliable data that tells us how many nepalis leave the country daily, where they end up, what kinds of jobs they hold, what their work conditions are, how much they earn, etc other than personal accounts.

ofcourse there is a lot of resistence in being able to understand this ‘industry’ in figures. from various sides- agencies would rather not talk about it since that would require them to publicize profits and procedural details, the government would rather not talk about it since- oh wait- what government? there are some benefits that any government would not completely shut down such as remitance that presently keeps the economy afloat, and the fact that the sheer volume of nepalis travelling back and forth creates jobs within nepal and keeps airlines, banks, manpower agencies, “pre-departure orientation providers” and other sundry beneficiaries alive. not to mention that the exodus of the rural disenchanted can quite directly mean less recruits into opposition forces. and ofcourse migrants hesitate to talk less it puts their job prospects at risk.

regardless of the size of paychecks or poor conditions of work, there is no doubt that migrant Nepalis are a valid constituency as Prawin suggests in his column piece. a valid constituency at least in the economic sense. question is — - are migrant workers mere mules upon which this ambigious yet booming industry rides on and are they the last ones to benefit?

some other extensions of the issue:

how do families sustain themselves in the absense of the traditional bread- earners? what happens to villages that are emptied of the young and the able? what happens to the education and healthcare of children? increasing numbers of female- lead households?

what has happened to the various financial agreements the government has engaged in with receiving countries such as the extension of transfer services and money transfer rates for? do migrants actually benefit from them?

if migrants save, what are these savings used for? investment? basic consumerism? payment of loans?

do returning migrants bring back new skills? are these skills employed in nepal upon return?

what can be done to train prospective migrants pre-departure so that the prospects of higher paying jobs are more viable and would raise savings? more….?

You are talking about ‘generational shift’ or transformation that change the existing social structure of families, society and eventually the country. Even if the goal is strictly economic, the outcome of the process return much more than money. Like you mentioned, specific skills, individual reliance, torn families, detached relationships, emptied hinterlands etc. Certainly lot of ground to cover. Then again, I am preaching to the choir.

People in Nepal who are planning on doing the same will definitely have to think twice. How do we spread the word to the targeted people?

We majority of Nepalese living outside the country for the sake of money ,good
earning and also compelled to do so have no choice then facing the circumstances.

“what can be done to train prospective migrants pre-departure so that the prospects of higher paying jobs are more viable and would raise savings?”

here’s an example how this can be done..
refer to this website:
http://www.himalayanhealers.org/

himalayan heelers is an attempt to train the nepali work force..especially from the ‘untouchable’ castes in ayurbedic,tibetan and ingenious nepali message therapy..and find work for them in reputed spas and resorts overseas…

DEAR SIRS,
I AM SERGEY FROM THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN, I STUDY AT ERICAN EDUCATION CENTRE IN MALAYSIA, I WANT TO WORK ON MY LEASURE TIME, IS IT POSSIBLE TO WORK?
IF SO IN WHAT SPHERE CAN I WORK IN MALAYSIA?
BEST WISHES, SERGEY.