Nepal’s Gen Z revolt: Deep crisis laid bare

This week’s protests in Kathmandu, Nepal, as put by The New York Times, show a generation’s frustration erupting into the open. What began as anger over a sudden ban on social media platforms quickly transformed into a broader reckoning with the country’s long-festering problems — corruption, unemployment, and political stagnation.

The resignation of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and his ministers on September 9 may have been dramatic, but the article underscores that Nepal’s challenges run much deeper.

Jobless generation

The core of Nepal’s malaise, the report highlights, lies in its jobs crisis. Official unemployment stood at 12.6 per cent in 2024 — up from five years earlier — but that figure masks the reality of widespread underemployment in farming and informal work.

For young Nepalis, the prospects are especially bleak. Hundreds leave every day to labour abroad, mainly in the Persian Gulf, Malaysia, and India. The country survives on the remittances these workers send home — $11 billion in 2024, equal to more than a quarter of the economy. The government’s social media ban struck an especially raw nerve here, cutting families off from their breadwinners abroad.

Corruption and scandals

According to the NYT article, if there is one factor that unites the protesters’ grievances, it is corruption. Nepal consistently ranks among the most corrupt countries in Asia, and scandal after scandal reinforces that perception.

A probe into Pokhara’s international airport revealed $71 million lost to embezzlement involving politicians, officials, and Chinese companies — yet no one was held accountable.

Another scheme saw politicians exploiting refugee programs by selling fake documents to desperate young people seeking US jobs, with opposition members targeted for charges while ruling elites escaped consequences.

Democracy in Nepal was meant to deliver opportunity and accountability after the monarchy was replaced a decade ago, but the reality has fallen far short.

Health and education remain expensive, farmers lack fertilizer, and inflation squeezes life in Kathmandu. Young protesters, the NYT notes, often direct their ire at the wealthy children of politicians flaunting luxury lifestyles online — vivid proof, in their eyes, of how unfair the system has become.

Political carousel

Since the 2015 constitution, Nepal’s leadership has rotated among three figures: Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and Sher Bahadur Deuba. Each has held power briefly, in what many young people see as a self-serving “game of thrones” that ignores ordinary citizens.

Social media, ironically, is central to this discontent: leaders ban and unban platforms, all while using them to shape their own images. Oli himself is said to read the comments under his posts closely.

As the New York Times piece makes clear, the protests are not just about one government decision or one prime minister. They are the culmination of years of unmet promises, economic struggles, and public distrust.

Nepal’s Gen Z has grown up under a republic that promised more than it delivered, and their anger suggests they will not be content with cosmetic changes. Oli’s resignation may be only the beginning of a much larger reckoning.

By Sabina Mammadli