No Boys on the Street

By: Prem Prasad Sigdel

Today I have gone for an evening walk. I have crossed almost 4kms distance from my residence to the famous Swoyambu area, an UNESCO recognized cultural heritage site. I have gone with one of my friends who has been living with me and we have same profession. He said that he hasn’t seen boys on the street only the girls.

The issue strikes me so much that I have felt it sometimes before as well. While walking on the street we see the number of girls exceeds boys. We can have various questions why the number of boys is less in comparison to girls. A report by the scientist reveals the truth that the number of boys is less than girls by birth. Or the ratio of boys to girls is 95:100. It may be one of the causes but I have scarcely seen boys on the street so the issue comes to light.

Firstly, we should go to the social construction of our society. The friends have also argued that the boys would go to foreign countries. I can agree to some extent with his views. Mostly, the boys from Nepal have gone to foreign countries when they have completed class 12. Or some of the boys have dropped after SLC and go to foreign countries.

Secondly, we have seen that boys aren’t serious in study rather they have been running after money instead of education. These days the boys have been attracted to money rather than education in our context. So they have thought to go to foreign country when they have crossed 18 years of age. On the other hand, I have seen a status on the facebook that the master’s degree of the country has been replaced by the 50 degree (50 C) of Arabian country.

It can be a joke to some extent but it reflects the reality of our nation. Mostly the young generation, mostly boys have gone to foreign countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai and so on. Some of the youths have gone to European and American countries. Among them, 70% of the youths have gone to India for employment. The above scenario proves that Nepal has been the country of ladies not the lads.

I have realized some facts of the less number of boys on the street. Either they may be busy in house hold works; or they have gone to foreign countries; or they have been addicted; or their population is less as scientist proves; or they may be busy of doing some jobs; or they mayn’t get freedom from home; or they mayn’t like to go out at evening time.

The population census of 2011 showed that almost 2.5 million of youths mostly boys have gone to foreign countries. It makes us think at least about the uneven social structure of the nation. When the number of women’s population is only high, it will challenge the natural rule of the society. Certainly the consequence is not good. It will disturb our social structure. It may be beneficial form the point of view of remittance but it will ultimately lead to imbalance in the social structure.