Anil Chitrakar on Entrepreneurship for Youth Engagement

Embassy of India in Kathmandu and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation organized the 9th edition of VOICES on Thursday, January 09, 2014, a B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation initiative held at Nepal-Bharat Library, Nepal Airlines Building, New Road Gate.

Anil Chitrakar interacting with the audience at Voices

The ninth edition of Voices featured a noted social entrepreneur and a conservationist cum cultural historian Anil Chitrakar who gave a talk on Entrepreneurship for Youth Engagement.

Anil Chitrakar shed light on the scope of entrepreneurship for the youth in Nepal, the opportunities that lie ahead for them and the need for the youth to understand their potential.

Giving a metaphorical example on the trend of grievances of the youth in Nepal, Chitrakar said, “The general trend that I have seen in Nepal is that people fast on many occasions worshipping various deities to win the lottery. But they don’t think of buying lottery ticket first.”

He added -

“The youth should be willing to start from scratch and to step outside their cocoon. Imagine if all the youth would have migrated after the atom bomb explosion in Japan and the civil war in the US, those two countries would not have scaled so high economically today.”

Many young people in Nepal today have understood the scope of entrepreneurship and self-employment thus they are working efficiently to benefit the society they live in, explained Chitrakar showcasing a reusable eco-friendly hand bag available in supermarkets today. He also showcased other devices like a water-cleaner, chlorine producer and a GPS tracker.
He concluded, “The problem lies in us. We continue to rely on somebody else, most of the times the government and if not then on innovators. It’s time to start innovating ourselves. The laborers constructing the stadium for 2022 World Cup in Qatar will then probably be in his village in Nepal, watching the match live and telling their children that the third storey of that stadium was built by them. We need those skilled manpower here in our country.”

The event had a huge participation of youth in the audience who shared their own experiences of entrepreneurship, youth employment and the challenges they face.