Hope and Despair: Crossing the Border to India

In the ten months from mid-July 2023 to mid-May 2024, more than 600,000 Nepali young people left for destinations including Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia as migrant workers, according to Nepal’s Department of Foreign Employment. The money they send home—remittances—is a mainstay of the Nepali economy. The Asian Development Bank reported that remittances represented more than 22 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product in 2023.

Those figures do not include the many Nepali young people and adults who cross into India for work, education or medical treatment. A book by a Nepali researcher seeks to illuminate that less visible movement.

Crossing the Border to India: Youth, Migration and Masculinities in Nepal, by Jeevan R. Sharma, explores migration by Nepali youths across the open border. The book draws on field research undertaken for Sharma’s doctoral thesis.

Scholars have long written about a “culture of migration” connecting Nepal’s hills with distant Indian cities. This book examines the economic forces behind migration while also approaching the subject through gender and social expectations.

Sharma describes migration to Indian cities as circular, facilitated and sustained by social networks. This movement has supported subsistence agriculture and the livelihoods of marginal households, even as other destinations in the Gulf and Southeast Asia have become more prominent.

Crossing an open border

The distinctive border arrangement between Nepal and India was formalised by the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Citizens can cross without passports or visas, and the treaty sets out reciprocal treatment in areas including residence, commerce and movement.

For poorer migrants, however, the experience can be starkly different from the promise of open movement. The book documents interrogation, searches, ill-treatment and humiliation during travel and at border crossings.

The desire to leave the constraints of rural life can bring a sense of freedom, yet the crossing itself may expose migrants to new forms of control and insecurity.

Migration and masculinity

One of the study’s central observations is that crossing the border can discipline young Nepali men and turn them into compliant migrants. Their journeys are shaped not only by the prospect of employment but by expectations about masculine identity and responsibility in the hills of Nepal.

Many begin travelling before marriage. Decisions that can look purely economic are embedded in gendered social norms, meanings and expectations. Migration becomes part of how men are expected to provide for households and demonstrate adulthood.

The open border is also marked by a significant imbalance between neighbouring countries. Nepal depends heavily on routes through India for international trade, while communities on both sides of the border often share languages and cultural practices.

The treaty’s Article 7 commits both countries to reciprocal privileges for their citizens in residence, property, trade, movement and similar matters. The research asks how closely those principles correspond with the experience of low-income workers.

A journey to Mumbai

In one chapter, Sharma recounts travelling with three men from Palpa to Mumbai. Two were making the journey for the first time; the third was returning to work after three weeks at home.

The experienced traveller guided the group. On the way to catch a bus towards Gorakhpur, police questioned them. The journey continued by rail, where they sought seats for the long trip to Mumbai.

The episode captures the mixture of dependence, uncertainty and informal negotiation found throughout the journey. It also shows how experienced migrants and personal networks help newcomers navigate unfamiliar systems.

Rights, services and public policy

The book does not offer a detailed policy programme, but its findings point towards legal reform, accountable law enforcement and a more prominent place for India-bound migration on Nepal’s political agenda. Reporting in both countries can also help make workers’ experiences visible.

Many Nepali migrants in India lack the documentation or registration needed to use basic services such as health care, education and subsidised food. Language and cultural differences can expose them to harassment and political exclusion. Accounts gathered in Mumbai include violence, abuse and mistreatment at work and in everyday life that went unreported and unrecognised.

Despite helping cities such as Mumbai function and grow, migrants can remain outside basic protection systems. Structural inequality and weak access to justice reinforce marginalisation and poverty.

This exclusion is economic, political and cultural. Workers may be treated as neither fully foreign nor native, while insecure work and living conditions can increase health risks.

Nepali migrants in India remain comparatively absent from public debate in Nepal, where official attention often concentrates on labour migration to the Gulf and Malaysia. Low-income migrants maintain strong connections with Nepal but have little space for collective mobilisation in India.

Conclusion

The open border has connected Nepal and India geographically and culturally while providing employment for Nepali workers over many decades. Yet exploitation and exclusion remain largely outside sustained public discussion.

While migration to third countries has become a major political issue in Nepal, movement between Nepal and India receives less attention. By recording the realities facing migrant workers and examining the social expectations behind their journeys, Sharma’s study offers valuable material for researchers, policymakers and general readers.

This commentary discusses published research and historical data. Figures and institutional details reflect the periods identified in the article and should not be read as current estimates.