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The formal signing of a Mem­orandum of Cooperation (MoC) between Nepal and Japan this week on labor migra­tion has opened doors for Nepali workers to be employed in Japan. Thus far South Korea has been an attractive destination for skilled and semi-skilled Nepali work­ers. The opening of the Japanese market will help close the gap between the population entering the workforce and the number of jobs created at home. It is also significant in that it will expose our workforce to additional skills and best practices that can be transferred back to Nepal.

Understandably, there has been some criticism of this lat­est MoC—particularly on the eve of the second Nepal Investment Summit. Many find the govern­ment’s approach contradictory. On the one hand, it wants to bring in billions of dollars in foreign investment, but on the other, it is actively encouraging its skilled population to go abroad.

Faulty reasoning

According to this line rea­soning, if the plans to attract billions of dollars in investment are to materialize, Nepal needs to produce a skilled workforce to underpin a foreign invest­ment-fueled growth.

While this looks like a valid argument on the surface, it misses several points. One, an increase in investment flows does not hap­pen in one go; most likely it will happen gradually over several years. Two, investments such as in hydropower and infrastruc­ture, which will absorb a large portion of the money flow, do not necessarily create many jobs and often require international-lev­el technical know-how. Three, the argument that exporting workforce eats into a country’s ability to develop is not entirely true. In fact, returning migrants bring in lots of expertise just by being exposed to a differ­ent work environment.

Exposure to Japan’s sophisti­cated and efficient work environ­ment can only be a positive thing. Besides being a win-win solution for Japan’s problem of a shrinking workforce and for the migrant workers’ families, Nepal will also benefit. If there are opportunities back home, many will choose to return. After all, there is no place like home.

Is Nepal capable though?

But doubts remain about the Nepal government’s ability to timely meet its end of the obliga­tion under the MoC. Since this is a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement, there are fears that Nepal will be too slow to set up a system to send workers. Nepal is the only South Asian nation to be selected as a source coun­try, but there are other countries competing from South East Asia. Tokyo plans to take approximate­ly 70,000 workers a year for the next five years.

In early 2011, Nepal botched a similar opportunity when our bureaucracy sat on a request from Japan that would have created a potential export industry. In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, Japan faced severe shortages of food supplies as the twin disaster caused disruptions to its supply chains. To address the issue of food insecurity over the long run, Tokyo approached several countries to produce specific food products for its population. For a developed country, Japan already has a very low food self-sufficien­cy level. Several estimates suggest that less than 40 percent of food consumed by its population is produced domestically.

Tokyo had reportedly sub­mitted a proposal to Nepal to grow food in the Dang Valley for the Japanese population. Because there was no response for several weeks, Japan report­edly took the proposal to anoth­er East Asian country, given the urgency of the matter.

Another opportunity came up in early 2017 when Qatar approached Nepal for vegetable, spices and other supplies in the wake of a blockade imposed by its Gulf neighbors. While there was discussion between the private sector and government officials in Nepal, it did not result in any sig­nificant increase in Nepali exports to the Gulf nation. One reason was the lack of harmonization of food quality standards in Nepal in tune with global practices.

Not a long-term solution

This clearly shows that Nepal’s private sector can benefit from more insight and exposure from countries that are globally com­petitive in terms of production and services. One way to bring this expertise is by bringing in more FDI and the attendant know-how. Another way is to give more of our people opportunity to work abroad in skilled sectors.

Clearly exporting our workforce is not a long-term solution, but in the short to medium term, this approach provides tangible bene­fits to all the parties involved—pro­vided there is no exploitation and the working conditions are right.

As a teacher of sociology I am often quizzed by my curious students about contempo­rary issues they encounter on social media. This week one of them showed me a photo (printed alongside) on the cover page of March 15-21 edition of The Annapurna Express.

The photo is of a young girl stand­ing alone among tall bushes. The caption reads, “Nita of Oligaun, Ach­ham in Far-western province does not want to go to the cattle shed. But if she does not go there for a month or two, her family and the villagers start asking questions: “Why aren’t you menstruating?”, “What has hap­pened?”, “Did you have physical relations with some man?”, “Are you pregnant?” These questions keep her going to the cattle shed.” The conversation with students took me into a long, reflective journey of which this article is a part.

The picture represents stories of many women and girls from mid- and far-western Nepal, where, during menstruation, they have to live in cattle sheds for three days. In many far-western districts, there are sheds especially built to keep women during their periods when they are totally secluded from day-to-day activities.

They are forbidden from enter­ing their homes, touching kitchen appliances, fetching water, visiting holy shrines or performing any reli­gious activity. Only on the fourth day the ‘pollution’ caused by menstrua­tion is believed to go away. This day is marked by purifying baths and resuming normal household and religious activities.

Some women’s rights activists have rightly criticized this tra­dition as being oppressive to women. While such opinions are gaining support from the govern­ment and the international donor community, the practice itself has not seen a significant drop. This is more so in far-western districts where, unlike in many other parts of Nepal, women are not even allowed to stay within the house throughout their periods.

Since this tradition has proven harmful to women, many have asked why it even began

The sheds where they are to stay are built quite far from the house so that there is less chance of acci­dentally polluting the kitchen or places of worship. Living in such sheds however has made women vulnerable in several ways. The cases of women being raped or sex­ually assaulted are not new, nor are the cases where they succumb to snake bites.

Since this tradition has proven harmful to women, many have asked why it even began. Although I am not aware of any studies on its origins in Nepal, studies from else­where in the subcontinent provides various justifications. According to one, this practice among the Madia Gond tribe in eastern Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh of India are based on their belief that a vagina is like a mouth and has teeth. The teeth, they believed, were removed, and the resulting wound makes it occa­sionally bleed.

Rather than going deep into myths about menstruation taboos practiced by various communities, I went to Hindu religious scriptures that are regarded as authoritative texts by large populations in the subcontinent. While going through them, I found contradictory justifi­cations. For example, the Brihada­ranyaka Upanishada argues that the menstrual taboo relieve women of domestic works and provide them free time for rest. During this time it is imperative for her to drink water from a bell metal pot and remain untouched. After spending three nights in seclusion, she should reclaim her purity by taking a bath and wearing new clothes. At the end, she should eat the thresh rice cooked for her by her husband.

This arguments makes it appear like the menstrual taboo could have first evolved to serve the interests of women, as menstruating women are not just exhausted but also prone to bacterial infections. Of course people were not aware of the organ­ism called bacteria then, but their empirical observations must have pointed that certain works or envi­ronment made women more vul­nerable. The taboo freed women of domestic chores and gave them a few days of rest.

On the other hand, Hindu treatise such as Taittiriya Samhita, Taittiriya Brahman, Jaimini Sutras, Parasara Smriti, and Vishnu Dharma Sutra discourage women from eating, rest­ing or keeping themselves clean during the periods. Taittairiya Sam­hita goes on to argue that menstru­ating women should not have inter­course or take a bath during her periods. She is also forbidden from combing her hair and maintaining her nails. Applying oil massage on her body is forbidden too.

The contradictory Hindu texts on this taboo forced me to search for other sources. The one that pro­vided an answer of a sort was the work of Beverly I. Strassmann, an anthropologist. Her ethnographic work on the Dogon tribe of the Afri­can country of Mali concludes that menstrual taboo was institution­alized among the Dogon so that they could monitor the chastity and reproductive status of the women.

According to her, the patriar­chal structure of the society made women do particular things during menstruation which they do not do normally. Visiting menstrual shed or remaining secluded from the socio-cultural life will signal their reproductive status to their husband and family members. This, she con­cludes, helps the male members and patrilineages avoid cuckoldry.

The agony of the girl captured in the photo published in The Annapurna Express hints that the study conducted by Strass­mann among the Dogon could be useful background information for researchers to explore the functions of menstrual taboos in Nepal.

Ever since the DC meeting between our foreign minis­ter and the American Sec­retary of State, Kathmandu, as news reports suggest, has had more than its fair share of sym­posiums, conferences and what not on Nepal’s foreign affairs and diplomacy. And we have had our experts suggest the same thing over and over: “It’s a delicate sce­nario and Nepal needs to cau­tiously balance its relations with all major powers.”

It makes everyone happy. The organizers keep on getting fund­ing for more such discussions and what not. The experts don’t need to think at all, and say the same thing again and again. The jour­nalists don’t even need to listen and take notes, and instead focus on lunch and drinks because they know exactly what is coming.

This is why nobody bothers to ask any of the experts what exact­ly is balance in our intent and how Nepal can balance its relations with all.

The answer to this simple ques­tion is: There is no way Nepal can balance its relations with all. It’s impossible. In fact the whole idea of balance is ridiculous. Nepal could pretend to balance if it had a strong economy and defense, but, for a poor and weak coun­try, balancing relations with the superpower and regional powers is like making a 5-year-old run a marathon with a 50-pound load. Unless the kid is a Hercules or Bhimsen or Pangu reincarnate, he will collapse in under a second.

For the record, no country has been able to balance its relations with competing and conflict­ing powers. And those who try become wrecks. Then how come our otherwise well-versed and intelligent experts are hung up on the impossible and quite laugh­able idea?

There are two major reasons. The first being the government does not fund think-tanks. So, the think-tanks, of which there are many, rely on foreign money to run their organizations and host the discussions. And they need to make everyone, most importantly their donors or the funding orga­nizations which have offices or operations in both India and Chi­na, happy by not rocking the boat.

Also, the interest of foreign intelligence agencies in organiz­ing conferences and arranging visits of our experts abroad, or of foreign experts to Nepal, through various research centers and think-tanks cannot be ruled out. It’s the best and safest way to identify experts who can be used and to put words in their mouth. Many intelligence agencies have been employing this tactic as a way to influence the popular nar­rative which directly and indirect­ly influences government deci­sions. As everywhere some smart experts in Nepal know they are being used, and they want to be used, in exchange for material benefits.

We cannot blame the intelli­gence agencies as they are doing what is expected of them. Intelli­gence operations promote your national interests and one of the most gullible targets are the experts, as highlighted in Daniel Golden’s Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America’s Univer­sities. Suffice to say, some agen­cies have their own “national” interests in keeping us the way we are so that they can go on with whatever they have planned for us. If domestic politics is all about deception, then interna­tional relations are an even bigger deception, and journalists and experts come in handy in weaving the deception web.

Hence, the discussions end with “Nepal needs to balance” pre­scription and don’t even touch on how to achieve that balance. Because then you will need to touch on making Nepal stronger than it is today by focusing on defense modernization, strength­ening our intelligence and count­er intelligence capabilities, look­ing beyond the immediate neigh­bors, a proactive foreign policy and sensible economic planning, and many other things, even to achieve pseudo neutrality and balance.

If the government of Nepal is serious about what it needs to do in the complex regional and global scenario and wants some­thing doable and achievable than the “balance” solution, it needs to invest in think-tanks. If it has billions to spend on luxury for the VVIPs, it certainly has some millions to spare on think-tanks and intelligence. All countries have been doing it and we are late in the game already.

The ultimate buyer of knowl­edge is the government and when you find that your government has no interest in buying or valu­ing your knowledge, you have no option but to sell it to whoever wants to buy it or values it. And that has been happening in Nepal for the past 50 years.

Perhaps when our government learns to value the experts by interacting with them and buying their knowledge with money, din­ner and drinks, then they will talk the talk and we will be hearing and reading something refresh­ing. The government may start making sensible decisions too.

Barbara Kellerman, a lecturer in Public Leadership at the Har­vard Kennedy School and a famous author, recently called for a new approach to leadership studies and practices in an industry worth billions of dollars. Kellerman advocates a scientific approach and in a recent webinar for the International Leadership Association, she decries the fact that “leadership is not treated as a profession or even a vocation but merely as an occupation, taught quickly and casually”.

The industry is also expanding in emerging countries like Nepal with more leadership practitioners and an increasing number of training programs. Recently, Rice University in the US partnered with Leadership Academy Nepal to provide an execu­tive leadership training for CEOs and other senior executives.

But it is also important to think of leadership from a different perspec­tive, as a tool to develop the poten­tial of those at the bottom of society.

In Nepal, there is a small minority of students with access to elite schools who come from financially secure backgrounds, speak good English and have dreams to attend top colleges around the world.

Then there is a vast majority of youths attending public or mediocre private colleges. Among them, there are a few who are always on the lookout for opportunities for self-de­velopment. They should be praised for their effort and willpower to keep exploring. Yet most students in this category are not motivated to face challenges. Nor are they driven by a positive ambition.

And then there is another big cat­egory of youths who do not even think about going to college but rather about finding a precarious job in transport or other ill-regulated sectors. If you live in a constant state of vulnerability, for example, if you belong to a historically marginalized group, if you are a poor woman in a patriarchal society or if you live with disabilities, simply getting by every day could be a challenge. While there are exceptions, the vast major­ity of vulnerable youths are stuck, with constant pressure and fading hope for a better future. There are no easy solutions to turn the tide.

The state, with its three tiers of government, has a duty to offer better options to these youths. The private sector can also do its part by rolling out employability skills. Marginalized youths can defy odds through sheer resilience, strength­ened by their daily struggles. But we might need a different, more purpose-driven leadership, one that inspires, supports and builds the confidence of vulnerable youths.

The case of Dan Theengh, a Jawalakhel-based wheelchair basket­ball champion, is an apt example. If provided with the right tools, youths like Dan can thrive and become role models for others.

Finding a purpose in life is not easy; it might take years of hard work. It also requires consistent sup­port and a set of leadership practices that focus on the strengths rather than the weakness of youths. Lead­ership practices need to be more rig­orous and academically grounded. They should also be supportive of youths who are left behind. These youths can find exciting interests, and they can develop new skills and achieve amazing goals. More youths like Dan are needed for the develop­ment of the country.

A recalibrated mission of lead­ership practices and studies can make a difference. It can be a launch pad for higher social mobility for those youths who are otherwise con­demned to remain at the bottom.

Simone Galimberti is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, an NGO partnering with youths living with disabilities

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