’There is an old saying if you feed a hungry man for a day you feed him a fish but if you

teach him fishing you feed him for a life time.

But now that is not just enough.One cannot survive all his life eating fish only.However, one
can sell the fish to earn money to satisfy all his basic and social needs.What requires is
good net,access to the market and information about availability of quality fish.After that
even a hungry man can be an enterprenuer.’’

SCENARIO OF NEPAL

Nepal is a beautiful mountainous country rich in different natural resources and cultures. A
decade long Maoist insurgency made Nepal politically, economically and socially feeble
leading to different kind of social hazards.As consequences, different kinds of development
works, industries and employmnet opportunties came to a halt.

According to the data from Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal, the youth population
constitute about 40.2%, increase in unemployment is about 4.5% and the youths going
abroad are increasing at a rate of 3.4% per year. About 200,000 youths enter in the labor
market of Nepal every year, but only 15% of them are consumed by the market and most of
them end up in low-paying job or are semi-employed.There is less supply of job in the
market and more demand then definitely it causes stress.

CONSEQUENCES OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NEPAL

When the young blood goes wild and uncared then it will definitely create a lot of
tensions.Some of the problems that Nepal are facing are

Brain and muscle drain: A mindset has been developed in the youth that they do not have
career and future in this country.It has also been proved true in some instances as the
government is not able to address the youth unemployment issues.Most of the youths think
that going abroad is their first career option.This year only about 10,000 students applied for
student visa for different countries and about 50,000 for the working visa in the gulf
countries as labor.When the Nepalese youths are not concerned about the country then the
future of Nepal is at risk.

Frustration: Most of the youths are frustrated as they cannot meet their expectations form
the job.The increasing globalization, peer pressure and social trends are really demotivating
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them which ultimately lead them to drug addiction, depression and different kind of mental
diseases.They began to develop an inferiority complex in themselves which reduces their
confidence level.This also has helped in decreasing the productivity and their efficiency.

Probable terrorism: The Maoists insurgency tapped the unemployed youths of Nepal and
promised them a secured and prosperous life.On this basis the Maoist launched a decade
long armed revolution.After the ceasefire also the youth insurgents and other unemployed
youths have not been properly addressed.They are politcally mismanupulated and they are
doing different kind of criminal activites forming groups like Young Communist
League,Youth force.It has also been a good source of income for them as they
kidnap,murder and demand for extortion money.As they are getting good money from these
kind of activites, they are supposed to be involved in differnt kind of national threats like
smuggling,political riots and cultural clashes.

Cultural hazards

As most of the youths are suffering from the hassles of unemployment, they are not able to
get time to engage and protect different kind of cultural festivals like dashain, tihar, rodhi,
bhangre puja.These kind of practices strengthen the bond between the family members,
friends and other society members.It is also kind of emotional attachment and relation
between our dear ones.They are also our national heritages and identity.

Enjoying these kind of festivals require money and most of the youths when abroad or
without jobs are not able to cherish the moments with their family members which is really
a pathetic situation.There are families where their children have not been home for more
than four years.Some have not been able to celebrate the festivals whole heartedly with their
families and friends due to lack of money.

WHAT WE COULD DO NOW?

We should not always blame the government and its administration for not giving us the
unemploymnet.Like US President, John F Keneddy had said do not say what your country
does for you, say what you can do for your country.We also have initated a small project
that has helped a lot in the employment generation in the local level.Hope, it could be
replicated in other areas and probably be supported from the government level.

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About ourselves and our work

Our village Begnas is a beautiful multi-cultural village with the view of two lakes Begnas
and Rupa, in the outskirts of Pokhara city with a population of about 8000 and area of about
24 sq km. The traditional occupation remains paddy agriculture that is just enough for about
six months and most of the poulation rely in foreign employment and atleast one male
member in each house is abroad.It has been like a social compulsion that every youth son
has to be abroad to earn money.Most of the youths also prefer going abroad and earn rather
than working in their own village.It is not just beacause of social compulsion but also the
youths are not able to get good jobs in their own village or nearby city area. The
unemployment rate is also growing due to the different political instablility and improper
government planning.

Village Home Tourism

We had a small friends circle of 7 aged between 19-26.We were all wanting to secure our
career but due to different conditions we were not getting as we had wanted.We decided that
let us take a risk for a year when we waited this long.We have to do something in our
own…we formed an informal team named Shayatri.

We thought that instead of going abroad why can’t we work for ourselves in our village?
First we decided what could be the best enterprise that we could set in our village and the
easiest and the most effective seemed the village home tourism.

The concept was simple behind to promote the local resoucres of your village and earn
money.We also found that it didn’t require much capital in the initial level.

For this we made a team of 10 local youths and selected about 10 homes where each youth
had to make a room made in the local style and materials.They got to have at least two clean
bed and a clean toilet.Besides that the cuisine and all the entertainment was to be provided
in the absolute local pattern.The minimum package was of two days which included local
folk dance,getting invloved in the local agricultural harvest,Bhangre puja(local ritual) and
many more local heritages.The most important was that the visitors could stay there like a
family member having complete access in the household works like milking the
cattles,ploughing the field,searching the herbs in the forest and other lifestyles.They could
completely enjoy their vacation being a local villager.
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Druing the first three months we had different problems convincing the local community
and our family members but after it started generating money they were also supportive.

Now if we make a short study of our history than comparatively we are successful in our
project.The most important questions that arise are how did we raise the money for the
village home tourism?What were the resources required and how did we bring the
visitors?How did we make it sustainable and extend it for supporting other enterprises?

Donate a stick of cigarette for a day

At first we made a rough survey that 50,000 rupees ($700) was required in the initial
phase.This was enough for buying new bed sheets, making some publications,
miscellaneous and backup fund.To generate the money we started door to door campaign
asking the villagers to donate 1 cigarette or amount equal to that every day.

The concept was that on average one male in our village smoked about 1 packet of a
cigarette daily which cost about 35 rupees ($0.5).So for him to donate a stick of cigarette
which cost around (0.018 cent)was not a great deal.That means one would be contributing
almost a packet of cigarette in a month which was an easy collection.There are about 2000
male smokers in our village so in just around 30 days we were about to collect about 70,000
rupees($950) from the door to door campaign.It was about 20,000 rupees(200 dollars) more
than we had estimated.

The fund collection for the starting of our enterprise was comparatively easy.

Problems we faced and strategy for attracting visitors

But the most difficult part remained was in convincing the villagers that the village home
tourism could be really useful in generating more economic opportunites in the village
itself.They were unwilling in helping our team.

However, our 10 members from the working team worked really hard to convince
them.Some were convinced but some didn’t show any concern.We also had some problems
to satisfy all the visitors at first as we were quite immatured.So that we didn’t have to face
similar problems we sent some of our members to get a week crash course about
hospitality.We also made the visitors convinced that they were here for village home
tourism and they got to enjoy the real village life.We also publicized in that way.
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Our target group for the village home tourism were the people of the urban areas who didn’t
have much knowledge about the village life and the foreigners.So that we don’t have
occupancy problem we focussed on the school youths of the urban areas.

Most of the urban schools used to take their students on excursions to different other
cities.So we approached the school authority and told them that they bring their students to
the village home tourism so that their student will also gain knowledge about the village life
and the nature.This could also be fruitful for the students to improve their education
competency.About 2000 students have already visited the village in the last 14
months.Moreover, the number of tourists visited last year was 4000 which included about
500 foreigners.

Rather than focussing on media advertisement we thought word of mouth is the best so we
always focussed that visitors get to enjoy the real essence of village life.

Indirect employment generation

The village home toursim also has helped in the development of the village and promoted
other different types of enterprises as well.Different youths have started to make their own
enterprises by making vegetable farming, animal husbandry, poultry and so on.So the
village home tourism has helped in creating atleast 75 job opportunities for the local youths.

A brief summary of the output of village home tourism in the last 14 months

Particulars
Time 14 months
Cost 50,000 rupees
Revenue 730,000 rupees
Back up fund after profit sharing(10% of revenue) 73,000 rupees
direct jobs generated 25
indirect jobs About 75
increase in income level 35%
Other extensions for village home tourism 32 homes

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Other positive impacts

Entrepreneurship culture is not that developed in Nepal and traditional mindset has still been
prevalent in Nepal that government jobs (sarkari jagir) is the only high status job that
ensures better career and financial security. The traditional caste system (jaati pratha) also
has made doing business and enterprises limited to certain castes like Newar, Madwadi and
Thakali. Moreover, in some communities if a young son doesn’t have foreign employment
(Laure culture) then he may have difficulty even getting a good girl to marry. The worst part
is girls are never thought of capable of doing business and most are confined to household
chores.
 Though the time is quite short we have evaluated some changes in the traditional
mindset of the local seniors.Other youths are also quite concerned in setting up their own
enterprsies.

PROBLEMS YOUTHS FACE TO ENTER THE LABOR MARKET

The youth’s access to credit and productive assets is inadequate because both formal and
informal credit institutions cater to property owners who can provide collateral. All formal
credit institutions seek tangible collateral for loans. Hence, youth are effectively excluded
from institutional credit since youths do not have access to inherited property that could be
kept as collateral. Village moneylenders are also more interested in earning high interest or
in acquiring the debtor’s property than in financing people in need.There is a paradox that to
need a loan you have to prove that you donot need a loan.It means bank requires lot of
collaterals for the loan they disperse. Some may choose to sell individual property inherited
through family right but this is not a choice available for the rural youth because most
middle and low income earning families have diminishing disposable income and have
fewer saving.

The information gap exists in the youth about the jobs they should do and the trainings and
subsidee they could get for starting any enterprises.They are always in a dilemma for which
career they should pursue.Most of them are interested in going abroad
 or seeking
governmment jobs as they feel that it can give a secured pay and a better social status. They
are not able to get right information about the ways of accessing resources, networking and
marketing if they happen to start any enterprises.The complex and the decreased confidence level
that youth face due to the lack of practical education are also hampering for the establishment of
youth based enterprises.General school curricula as well as certain vocational and training curricula

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have negligible room to inspire entrepreneurial vision and enterprising approach among school-
going youth. Absence of an authoritative organization also means that the standard of these training
programs, content etc go unchecked.

The governmnet has been manipulating youth just for their politcal issues and vote banks.
Besides that there are no any proper governmnet rules that can foster youth
enterprenuership. A decade long Maoist insurgency has made youth politically insecure
and the ongoing political chaos on the rise of identity based politics and religiosity are also
not inspiring for young entrepreneurs. There are almost no any young successful
entrepreneurs who have been able to portray as real icons for the youths. Moreover, the
established entrepreneurs who could give proper counseling of knowledge and experience
would indeed be a priceless basis of strength and light to most upcoming young
entrepreneurs but they are not much interested in bringing them up.

Our village is also not aloof

In our village also most of the youths have the same problems.However; things seem to
improve now with some hopes from the success of village home tourism.We hope to employ
about 65% of the youths in the village itself.The employment generated should be in a
symbiosis complementing each other’s employment.The main problem that youth have is
the generation of capital.We think that youth micro-finance could be one of the good
solutions to access fund in the local level.

We then made a multipurpose youth coperative named Begnas Yuwa Baduudsiya Sakakari
Sanstha with a committee of 17 youths which involved 7 females and 3 youths from
different underprevileged community.This involved an inclusive participation.

To be the member of the group one had to pay 1000 rupees and whatever back up fund we
had from village home tourism, we used it for the youth micro-finance through youth
coperative.

We decided that for the village home toursim to develop and make it more profitable and
sustainable all the resources should be generated in the local level.Even the smallest of the
consumption should be produced in the local level that could generate employment for
atleast a single youth.The daily consumption goods like vegetables, meat, milk could

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generate more employment and the surplus could be sold in the market generating more
profit.

We focussed in one thing youth micro-financing in diversified small enterprises.We decided

to invest in other youths who could be helpful in creating more job opportunites.So that
there will be less chance of default we invested in group of 5 for similar projects.

Like if there were youths who wanted to do vegetable farming we encouraged them to do
different types of seasonal and unseasonal farming.So that each would get a better share we
asked them to do organic farming without coinciding the variety they produce.Suppose if
one produced carrot and cucumber other had to produce potato and tomato.

A brief summary of youth micro-finance project initated about eight months ago in
August 2008:

Particulars
Seed fund 73,000 rupees
Loan amount per group 5,000 -25,000 rupees
Maximum group 4
Group size 5
Interest rate 6%
Payment mode installment
Time period 1 year
Collateral No

The conditions were that each group had to work in group for at least a yearThey had to sell
their products through the coperative for the first year and contribute 3% of their profit to
the coperative so that other youths could also be supported.

If the youth wanted to work in their own they could do after the 1st year only when they
have paid their loan amount and they are going on profit.Incase they are in loss they cannot
leave the group.

We are just in eight months and we are getting good results.The 4 groups that we had
provided the loan are paying their installments in regular basis.The projects they are doing

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are poultry, vegetable farming, goat rearing and canteen.These are also aiding the
development of village home tourism as we need meat, vegetables, egg for the visitors.Our
toursim is becoming self–dependent now.This has provided direct jobs to about 25 youths
and indirectly it also has created about 22 more jobs like vegetable retailer,meat supplier.

So that they don’t lack capital in the near future we have also managed micro-savings for
them.We also enocurage them to register their enterprises in the local administration so that
it would be easier to get more loans and subsidee from other credit institutions.

What do we plan to do next?

Information crisis is the greatest drawback that most youth face.Right and specific
information can also be access to better resource generation.Micro-credits definitely helps in
the generating some funds for the business startups.It helps in a bit of employment
generation as well and local resource utilization.But, if we can have the information about
where we can get funds for our enterprise extension,the possible networks,different NGO
supports,governmant supports, funds from Corporate Social responsibility of different
organizations than we can get more capital to make our village home tourism and other
supportive enterprises strengthen.

So for this we plan to make Rural Youth Enterprise Information Centre that will have
about 3 computers with access to internet, newpapers, magazines.We will ask the Village
Development Committee to manage a room for us.All the youths could have the access to
that centre and we will keep a notice board where the youths should share the information
about what they learn and every body could benfit from it.

We plan to conduct SEC (Small Enterprise Clinic) where we will bring different experts,
businessmen and trainers so that we can get different relevent information of our business
expansion and other concerns.This will also help to build the confidence in the youths and
get to know the different technical terms and the processes that are essential in the
market.Different kinds of trainings and workshops that could be available will be arranged
that will help to enhance the competitiveness of the youths in creating markets.

The next we plan is to issue mini-shares of our youth coperative with minimum price of
about 10 rupees only for the local youths of the village.This may require some government
procedure but we think it will help in raising capital for some of the projects in the local
9




level itself.From this we will fund only those feasible projects which will have the ability to
employ maximum youths.

Coordinating with civil societies like mothers group, guthi, NGO and local clubs is very
important to bring about changes in the enterprenurial integration.We got to prepare a
generation that could form the habit of enterprenuership in the youths and handover it as
legacy in the next generation.No matter what we do if we do not get good support from the
community stakeholders than we cannot bring any changes in the youth enterprenuership
program.For this we will be launching different cordination and awareness program with
them.

Our expectations from other youth

About 35% of the local youths are abroad and some still prefer to go abroad for better
job.Retaining them in the village is a really difficult task as every body wants to be rich in a
short period with less labor.When these youths employed abroad return to the village, they
spend most of their earnings in unproductive assets like gold, expensive mobile sets, luxury
items which generate no employment and profit for themselves.After the money is finished,
they again go to the foreignland for earning.

What we will try is to motivate them to accumulate their fund and start some macro-level
projects in the village like dairy farming or herb farming that could generate maximum
profit and more local employments.If we could retain these youths and motivate them for
starting other enterprises than it will definitely help in the development of other startups.

Conclusion

Nepal really needs to address youth entrepreneurship seriously.A generation should be

prepared that could have the habit of enterprenuership and cotinue it as leagcy.Village home
tourism and youth micro-finacing by youth micro-credit could be one of the good solutions
for the access of capital at the local level.

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