One of the very first businesses to open in Chautara, Nepal, following the April 25 earthquake was Western Union. Along the length of the town’s rubble-strewed main street, remittance exchanges for overseas workers are as common as tea shops: they cluster in groups of four or five on every corner.
“I manage accounts for about 25 families and though we’ve not seen a big increase yet in remittances, I expect that will change,” said office manager Manoj Lamichhane. “At least one person in every family is working outside Nepal and about half of them have more than one person. It’s what keeps this area alive.”
By his estimates, one-in-six of the town’s 6,000 residents are currently abroad, a trend reflected in recent census data: in the five years before 2011, 50,000 people left Sindhupalchok, roughly 15 percent of the population.
Chautara is no exception. It is impossible to find someone in Nepal untouched by the country’s remittance economy and there are real concerns now about the impact of the earthquakes on the many households that rely on remittances to feed, clothe, educate and care for the sick in earthquake-affected areas.
“These remittances account for at least 30 percent of Nepal’s GDP and are the only thing keeping tens of thousands of families from slipping back into poverty,” says IOM Nepal’s chief of mission Maurizio Busatti.
