Do We Know about Money:

Sometime in my mind one question always strikes that Why are so many people unable to get out of their financial problems despite a ruthless struggle to make money throughout their lives? This question has been mystifying people across the globe, not only me. If you ask an average Nepalese person, he/she might reply that there are few earning opportunities in Nepal. I agree in that answer however this is a not a genuine answer only. The genuine answers of Nepal’s economic activities are at low which is going out i.e. the atmosphere is not favourable for business, Job opportunities are not being created and skilled manpower is being brain-drained every day to overseas and other countries, to say nothing of the dilemma of uneducated and unskilled.
Muglan is a popular Nepali everyday word that is often used to refer to any foreign destination where people go to earn money. The term “mass muglanization” has been used here to describe the mass departure of Nepalese youth to other countries in search of better earnings. It seems as if the queue of youngsters aspiring to go abroad is endless. Certainly, this situation has arisen out of rising financial desperation among people. The government is delighted that a sum nearly equal to the country’s annual budget is coming in, both officially and unofficially, as inward allowance every year. But I wonder if the government is worried about the fate of our young generation, which has a direct bearing on the destiny of this country. However, I believe that a good earning opportunity or a high paying job alone will not rescue a person out of financial distress. What people need is financial literacy and basic knowledge about money, which our education system fails to convey to our children. To earn a good income and to be financially safe and secure are two completely different things. Even if you earn a handsome salary, you can still continue to remain financially helpless or desperate. Financial education is the difference between making money and retaining money.
Pointless to say, the sole objective of many of those who are leaving the country to overseas today is to earn money. Only a few of the diaspora have been in hunt of higher studies or careers; many of them too would not spare any chance to convert themselves into permanent non-resident Nepalese (NRNs) – a lot hardly of any help for the nation as has been observed so far. Most of the people who has gone to other countries or overseas for employment are destined to end up as labourers in factories, construction sites, slaughter houses, gas stations, restaurants, convenience stores and so on. After working as unskilled labourer for some years, they come back home with the money earned but few skills or creativity. The best they can do with this money is to clear off their prior obligations/debts, to incur some social expenditure and to create new liabilities by acquiring a house, vehicle, etc. for personal use. Brainwashed and obsessed by years of unskilled labour, overtime duty and drawing weekly wages, they are neither left with any idea or skill for entrepreneurship nor with any knowledge about proper utilisation of their hard earned money. The government is a simple witness: it fails to address the root of the problem and to create opportunities for both careers and money back home. Neither has it got any clear/plain plans before it to have such allowance fund utilised for creative or development activities.

Adapted from Dev Raj Adhikari