How Nepalis Are Losing Their Lives In Abroad?
प्रकाशित मिति : पुस ४, २०७७ शनिबार
By Dirgh Joshi
Nepali peoples believe mother and motherland are superior then heaven. Who will not be heartsick in the situation when someone must leave their country, including old, sick parents and infant kids. It is ready to work for a long hour in an extremely hot climate. However, more than 10% of Nepal’s productive age group youths are still working in inconvenient situations with extreme climates in Saudi Arabia. Along with this sorrowful situation, the festivals are coming, and kids are demanding new clothes.
After all, how is all this happening? Among the 3 million migrant Nepali workers working in more than 100 countries worldwide, every day, more than two youths are losing their lives accidentally due to several reasons. Most of the deaths among these young people have occurred in Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, mainly due to heat stress, heart attacks, and dangerous construction sites.
In an agrarian country like Nepal, despite having many opportunities in agriculture and other fields, it is very unfortunate that thousands of young people are fleeing abroad in search of better opportunities. Among these active youths, most of them are going to Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Korea, and Japan.
Many youths from Nepal are forced to leave their studies in the middle and go abroad to pay the debt of expenses in the cities during their study taken from the bank by their families. In contrast, others must leave the country after completing their study still because they could not find job opportunities. Thus, they have no choice left behind, so they are ready to handle millions to brokers or manpower agents by mortgaging the remaining ancestral house or land.
Malaysia, Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have now become significant destinations for Nepali workers. Working in an extremely hot and unfavorable climate leads to a lack of water in the body. They are eating unhealthy foods instead of vegetables and fruits. The diet can lead to high cholesterol in the body, unavailability of regular checkups and health services. It may result in a heart attack. Due to compact and crowded living spaces, sometimes people get sophisticated and died while sleeping in the night.
Accidents are unpredictable and can be caused by various causes, but with reasonable safety and precautions, accidents can be reduced effectively.
Accidents often occur when workers do not understand the safety rules listed due to language problems or become negligent, and it sometimes leads to partial or complete physical disability but, in most cases, is fatal. Many of these workers have been killed by falling from ladders or railings, ceilings of high-rise buildings, bridges, and road construction sites.
Avoiding some unsafe habits, using personal safety equipment such as safety vest, hard hat, gloves, safety glasses, masks, oxygen filters, hardworking boots, earplugs, also operation of an oxygen cylinder, fire extinguishers and knowledge of exits in case of fire, storm and floods help a lot to save lives.
For the sake of workers’ occupational safety and health, the International Labor Organization has clearly defined the standard of daily working hours, rest, and mealtime, overtime work per week. Minimum wage rates for regular and overtime work, but, in some places, due to lack of supervision and effectiveness of existing labor departments, employers force their workers to work for long hours for more productivity, resulting in fatal accidents in workplaces.
In addition to this, drink alcoholic beverages, dehydration, drowsy, and distraction are also the leading causes of accidents in workplaces. Roads while operating machinery equipment and vehicles by impairing reflexes. In Australia, Europe, and the United States, many Nepalese have lost their lives in road accidents from time to time.
The important thing is that youths who return homeland after studying abroad or doing various jobs in different sectors can be a great source to know about the culture of foreign countries. Working methods, the importance of time, dedication to work. The country will not take long to develop if the government can identify and create job opportunities for the youths who have determined to work hard and sufficient knowledge acquired to run industries from foreign lands.