Internal and external migration have been strong trends in Nepal in recent decades. Rapid urbanisation has become a necessary tool for development and modernisation. Growing cities have pulled people from villages, where the opportunities for quality education and employment have been few and far between. The concentration of facilities constitutes a crucial factor behind internal and out-migration. People from villages prefer to live in cities and those residing in the urban centres go abroad for study or settle there permanently. The villages have been emptied as youths have left for work in cities and foreign destinations. Farmlands remain fallow; houses are left in ruins. Only the old and physically challenged are in the custody of rural society. This is the story of many villages across Nepal.
A news report published in this daily the other day depicts a similar picture of villages of Baitadi, a remote hill district in the far-west region. Villages such as Dehimandau, Shahilek and Dewalhat are now wearing a deserted look as the people migrated to Tarai for better prospects of education and employment. These villages have been connected to the roads and national highways but the people’s needs have not been met by the road infrastructure alone. The national pride projects, including the Mid-Hill Highway and Mahakali Corridor, have made Baitadi accessible for people from far and wide. All 84 wards of the district have been linked with motorable roads. But fewer vehicles are plying owing to the shortage of passengers. Baitadi district’s population fell from 250,898 in 2011 to around 242,000 in the 2021 census. Nearly 10,000 people left Dasharathchand Municipality in the past decade.
When the villages are depopulated, the social, political and economic fabric gradually suffers from disintegration. Education, agriculture and social activities decline. This scenario has also been observed in those villages. The number of students has decreased at Jagannath Multiple Campus by 60 per cent. Now only 240 students study at the campus, down from 600 five years ago. Six schools in the district headquarters, Dasharathchand Municipality, have been merged with other schools due to a shortage of students. This has posed a risk of merger or closure for 114 basic-level schools across the district. In the absence of people, even modern infrastructure goes to waste. For instance, Patan of Baitadi was envisioned as one of the country’s 10 cities. There are roads, a modern bus park and a park constructed at a cost of tens of millions of rupees.
Baitadi Airport in Patan was built with Rs. 180 million but no aircraft has landed at the Airport since March 2020. It has turned into a recreational venue for people to make TikTok videos. High airfares have been attributed to the absence of regular flights. Over 75,104 ropanis of fertile farmland in villages, including Devalhat, Pallachaudali and Baskot, have been left uncultivated. The flawed development policy has been attributed to this situation. The government has allocated budgets for projects in the hills. On the other hand, it has encouraged the locals to buy plots of land in Tarai. This has converted the fertile plains of Kailali and Kanchanpur into concrete jungles. So there is a clear gap in policy and laws that link development and migration. The pace of migration can be minimised to some extent if the provincial capital of Sudurpaschim were established in the hills rather than in the Tarai. Moreover, job opportunities should be generated to retain people in the hills.
