May 24 : Some 2 million Nepalis have lost their livelihoods owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent national lockdown. This was lately revealed by a study carried out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
“Since the imposition of the “stay-at-home “ order two months back (March 24), 1.6 to 2 million Nepali employees have been either rendered jobless or facing pay cuts. Of these employees, 1.3 million are males and the remaining 700 thousand females.
According to the ILO, these both male and female employees belong to the sectors hit hardest by the pandemic outbreak like tourism, construction, transportation, whole sales and retail etc. It may be noted that the tourism sector alone provides employment to around 600 thousand people in the country.
The ILO also says that some 1.4 million Nepali women who work from their own homes have lost the income sources due to the coronavirus crisis.
Moreover, it predicts that the menace of unemployment in Nepal will grow more alarming in the days to come. “As many as 3.5 million Nepali workers have gone to different countries for employment. Of them, many of them have already lost their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis. So, after these Nepali migrant workers return back home, the situation of unemployment here in the country will be simply dreadful.”
