At a time when the unemployment problem has been a major national issue, the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) has been instrumental in providing jobs to the unemployed youths. Around 175,900 youths have been employed in 6,864 community projects across Nepal under the programme. During one and a half months of the PMEP implementation, the local governments created 2.26 million working-day jobs for the youths. Introduced by the Federal Government last fiscal year, altogether 599 local levels have implemented the PMEP. Initially, the government had allocated a budget of 3.1 billion under the PMEP. The local governments began carrying out several development works such as roads, drinking water, sanitation, tourism, agriculture and irrigation following the release of the budget. Of the total number of youths receiving the jobs, 34,432 are from Sudurpaschim State, 31,958 from State-5, 27,448 from State-2, 25, 871 from Karnali State, 17,619 from State-3, 17,495 from Gandaki State and 17,447 from State-1.The scheme aims to provide 50 per cent of the minimum salaries of 100 working days as subsistence allowance to those listed as unemployed who should be aged between 18 and 59 years.

That more than 1.7 million youths from 728 local units had registered their names on the unemployed list indicates that there is a grave unemployment problem in the country. The highest number of unemployed youths was recorded in the State-5 followed by Sudurpaschim and State 2. About 336,557 youths from State-5 had registered their names, while 330,311 and 323,636 youths had shown their willingness to work from Sudurpaschim and State-2, respectively. Similarly, the number of youths who had registered their names on the list of unemployed included 259,880 from Karnali State, 199,068 from State-3, 164,556 from State-1 and 87,543 from Gandaki State. The Federal Government allocated a budget of Rs. 2.36 billion as conditional assistance in the third week of May this year. Under the programme, the local governments received the budget through the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security. The budget was allocated for the local levels on the basis of their number of poor households, population and remoteness.

Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista, said at a press conference on Thursday that the PMEP was successful in employing more youths although it was introduced in the eleventh hour of the last fiscal year. He added that the programme was implemented after going through 86 working procedures. It took about one year for the government to introduce necessary policies, directives and working procedures. It also had to establish information centres and select employment coordinators. Minister Bista hoped that the programme would be effective to create more employment opportunities within the country besides encouraging youths to respect labour and work. He called upon all the stakeholders to play a crucial role from their respective sides to implement the new programme successfully. The ministry aims to create at least 500,000 jobs for the youths under the PMEP in the current fiscal year.

Published on: 3 August 2019 | The Rising Nepal