Kathmandu : The government is set to provide free skill development training for women and sexual and gender minorities (SGM) aspiring to go for foreign employment.

A draft of the new labour migration policy prepared by an expert team led by Dr Ganesh Gurung has included provisions for this initiative. The draft has been submitted to the minister for the Labour, Employment and Social Security Sharad Singh Bhandari.

This is the first time that the labor migration policy has addressed the specific needs of the SGM community. The new policy aims to guarantee safety, health and rights of women and SGM workers, while rehabilitating and dignified-reintegrating those facing violence and exploitation during labour migration.

The special needs and challenges of women and returnee SGM workers will be analysed before their rehabilitation.

The draft highlights providing counseling services, legal assistance, health services, vocational training and psychosocial services for women and SGM migrant workers and their families.

To ensure their participation in the democratic process, it proposes allowing migrant workers to cast votes from their destination country.

Nepal has signed bilateral labor agreements with 12 labour destination countries, including Qatar, Jordan, UK, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Japan, Malaysia, Bahrain, Republic of Korea, Germany and Romania.

The draft points out the need for creating job opportunities within the country to reduce the reliance on foreign employment.

It also mentions that the employer will bear all the expenses incurred during the labor migration.

Members of the committee were Dr Amrita Sharma, Dr Keshab Bashyal, Juna Mathema, and Manju Gurung while Dipak Dhakal was member-secretary. The policy research team consisted of Chiranjibi Baral and Yubaraj Nepal.

Sunil Babu Pant, Asia’s first openly gay former parliamentarian of Nepal, and executive director of Mayako Pahichan Nepal, suggested to the Labour Ministry to make labour laws, policies and guidelines, and make workplaces SGM friendly.