The Forces Behind Nepal’s Explosive Gen Z Protests

A recent ban on social media brought young people to the streets, but they came filled with grievances that have built up over years.

The protests in Nepal’s capital escalated as they went into a second day on Tuesday, as anger and disappointment that had built up for years among the protesters were ignited. The government’s ban on major social media platforms a few days earlier had only lit the fuse.

Declaring themselves to be the voice of Nepal’s Gen Z, the protesters were expressing not only outrage at the official violence that met them on the streets on Monday, but also at longstanding social problems that have afflicted Nepal during the 10 years since it replaced its monarchy with a democratic republic.

The country relies heavily on the remittances that an estimated two million workers abroad send home. The social media ban had the effect of isolating families from their faraway breadwinners.

The government repealed the ban on Tuesday after protests, and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and other ministers later resigned. But the unrest continued, as protesters set fire to government offices and to politicians’ homes.

Unemployment and Inequity

The country’s biggest slow-burning crisis centers on jobs. Getting one is a herculean task in Nepal, a mountainous nation of 30 million sandwiched between India and China. According to the Nepal Living Standard Survey published by the National Statistics Office in 2024, the unemployment rate was 12.6 percent.

Those figures tend to understate the severity of the problem. They represent only participants in the formal economy, leaving out a majority of Nepalis, who work without officially reported jobs, mostly in farming. And the unemployment is heavily concentrated among younger adults.

Finding no opportunities at home, more than a thousand young men and women leave the country every day to serve long-term contracts in the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf and Malaysia. Tens of thousands work in India as seasonal migrant laborers. Government data show that more than 741,000 left the country last year, mainly to find work in construction or agriculture.

The rest of Nepal relies heavily on the remittances those workers abroad send home. In 2024, the $11 billion they sent accounted for more than 26 percent of the country’s economy. That money buys food and medicine and sends children to school in Nepal.

Deep Corruption

If there were one thing to blame for this cluster of economic problems, many Nepalis, especially those active in this Gen Z protest, would point to corruption. They recoil at the spectacle of a small number of elite Nepalis accumulating vast estates for their children. Transparency International, an independent nonprofit focused on holding governments accountable, has ranked Nepal as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia.

A steady drumbeat of scandals, typically involving collusion among elected politicians and supposedly independent officials, feeds this resentment. Very few accusations result in successful prosecutions.

For example, a parliamentary probe revealed that at least $71 million was embezzled in the construction of an international airport in the city of Pokhara. Loans from the Export-Import Bank of China evaporated in a nexus among officials, elected politicians and Chinese construction companies. The probe recommended further investigation and specific actions against the accused, including the director general of civil aviation. Still, no one was booked.

In another case, Nepali leaders were caught collecting money from young people aspiring to find employment in the United States under the cover of refugee status that was intended for ethnic Nepalis who had been forcibly deported from neighboring Bhutan. Fake documents gave the unemployed Nepali nationals the identities of displaced Bhutanese. Politicians from all parties were named in the ensuing investigations, but only members of the opposition were charged.

Ordinary Nepalis are aware of the ways they could benefit from a better-funded government. Health and education expenses are high. Farmers lack critical fertilizer during rice-planting seasons. Inflation makes it tough for anyone to survive in Kathmandu, the capital, where young people move to pursue higher education and jobs.

An Entrenched Elite

Democracy was hard won in Nepal, but it has not met the aspirations that sent protesters to the streets this week. Many of the Gen Z protesters are fixated on the son and the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. They bitterly post images of them and other politicians’ children flaunting lavish lifestyles.

Ever since the new constitution came into effect in 2015, three leaders have rotated as head of the government: Mr. Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mr. Deuba. For younger people, this electoral game of thrones, in which each prime minister’s tenure has lasted just a year or two, is infuriating.

Mr. Oli, the current prime minister, is an avid social media user. People close to him say he personally reads the comments that pile up under the videos he posts. Other Nepali leaders are fixated on social media as well, though they may not use the platforms much. In November 2023, Mr. Dahal, who was then prime minister, banned TikTok, in order, he said, “to restore social harmony.” It was Mr. Oli, when he returned as prime minister, who lifted that ban, nine months later.

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