The families who wait

In almost every village in Nepal, someone is missing from almost every household. A husband in Qatar. A son in Malaysia. A daughter in the Gulf or a brother in Japan. People who may not come home for years pay for the new roof, the school fees and the motorbike in the yard.

The economic story is well known. According to Nepal Rastra Bank, remittance inflows in fiscal year 2025/26 reached Rs2.363 trillion, equal to about 35.8 percent of GDP. The Department of Foreign Employment issued 792,187 labour approvals in the same year, down from 839,266 in 2024/25 but still enormous for a country of Nepal’s size. When a man migrates for work, his wife often takes on the jobs of two people. She manages the farm, the household, the children and his ageing parents, while living in her in-laws’ home.

She handles money that arrives irregularly and debts taken on to pay recruitment fees. She is watched closely by relatives and neighbours, and judged for how she spends or behaves. The evidence suggests that this weighs heavily.