With the emergence of a federal democratic republic, there has also been a major change in the internal migration scenario of Nepal. As the country moved from a centralized unitary system to a federal system, people should have been attracted to villages, but on the contrary, many people have left their homes. After 10 years of conflict, peace process, and restructuring of the political system, a large population has migrated to the Kathmandu Valley and other cities permanently.
Before the state restructuring, there were about 4,000 village development committees in Nepal. With the state restructuring, the village development committees were converted into 753 rural municipalities/municipalities. With the state restructuring, people have been leaving their hometowns and coming to urban areas in search of security and opportunities, says Dhundiraj Lamichhane, spokesperson of the National Statistics Office.
According to him, people have migrated to big cities in search of a comfortable environment, including education, health, transportation, roads, and information technology. The number of people leaving their native places in Kathmandu Valley alone is 60.3 percent. But Bhagwati Sedhai, an associate professor of population studies, says that instead of the wave of development and prosperity that should have come with political changes, people have left their native places. The federal system was developed to bring the centralized governance system and centralized development system to the villages.
“Development did not happen according to the thinking with which this system was brought,” she says. “Even though the government reached the villages, that government could neither provide development nor employment to the people. As a result, people were attracted to the center and cities. Moreover, international migration also increased.”
Many citizens were also forced to leave their native places due to the devastating earthquake of 2015. The earthquake that occurred on 25 April 2015 caused a huge loss of Nepali property. About 9,000 people died. 300,000 houses were completely damaged, about 300,000 were partially damaged, and 3.5m citizens were left homeless. The fear of continuous aftershocks after the earthquake and the uncertainty of the settlement situation in the hilly areas have led to an increase in the trend of migration to the valley and nearby urban areas. The population growth rate is negative in 34 districts of the Himalayas and hills. Increasing international migration has increased the trend of migration.
The trend of coming to Kathmandu for opportunities and then going abroad for work and study has increased significantly in recent times. The increasing trend of internal migration has brought about changes in the demographic, social, cultural and economic landscape of the country. High labor force participation is seen in cities. The population of rural areas is drying up. Due to this, the average family base has become smaller. It has brought about changes in the role of women. The number of elderly people is increasing. This has brought about a change in the social responsibility of the government and the community.
Recently, the population in the mountainous and rural areas has been thinning. In the mountainous areas, except for the main cities such as Kathmandu Valley, Chitwan, and Pokhara, there has been a sharp decline in the population. As the population is thinning in the mountains and hills, the trend of migration to the Terai has also decreased recently. Even though transportation access has been reached in the mountainous areas, the trend of migration to the nearby semi-urban areas is increasing.
According to the 2021 census data, 20 percent of the total population in Nepal has permanently left their original place. While this was only 4.7 percent in 2018. It seems that 18 districts have lost 20 percent of the population born in their districts. Lamichhane, spokesperson of the Statistics Office, also says that there is no situation where there is no migration from any district.
Less than 10 percent of the population has migrated to other districts from Parsa, Rautahat, Nawalparasi (East), Bhaktapur, Nawalparasi West, Lalitpur, Kanchanpur, Kathmandu, Kailali, Rupandehi, Banke and Kapilvastu. According to the 2021 census, 57.2 percent have migrated to Kathmandu. 50.2 percent in Bhaktapur and 46.2 percent in Lalitpur. This is the highest rate of permanent internal migration. Apart from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur, 16 districts including Sunsari, Morang, Rupandehi, Banke, Dang, Kailali, Kanchanpur have positive net migration rates.
A total of 2,142,363 people have migrated from one province to another in 2021. The number of women is 1,154,909. The number of men is 987,454. The number of people migrating to Bagmati Province is the highest. 1,150,626 people have come to Bagmati Province to settle permanently.
The district with the highest migration is Bhaktapur. 19 percent have come to Bhaktapur. 14.5 percent have migrated to Lalitpur and 14 percent have migrated to Kathmandu. Many people have migrated to Taplejung and Khotang, 17.4 percent have left Taplejung and 17.1 percent have left Khotang. However, Manang and Mustang are among the districts with the lowest migration. Due to their small population, Manang and Mustang are the districts with the lowest migration rate in terms of the rate of migration out of and into the district, according to the statistics office.
The data shows that migration for work opportunities has been observed in Bagmati and Gandaki. In Koshi, Madhes, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim, a lot of migration has been observed due to marriage. The report of the National Statistics Office states that marriage and dependency (55.9 percent and 17.3 percent respectively) are the main reasons for low-income or poor groups. As the income group increases, study and training and work opportunities (20.2 and 22.9 percent respectively) are the main reasons.
When comparing internal migration over a 50-year period, there has been a difference in the trend. According to the 1971 census, the rate of migration to Tarai was 71 percent and the rate of migration to the hills was 26.5 percent. In 2078, the rate of migration to the Terai has decreased, while the rate of migration to the hills, especially Kathmandu and Pokhara, has increased. By 2021, the rate of migration to the Tarai had reached 41.5 percent and the rate of migration to the hills had reached 56.2 percent. This difference in migration trends appears to be related to the state's development plans, according to the report of the Statistics Office.
