In Nepal, the problem with numbers is not unique to counting emigrants. Newspaper columnists, activists and researchers routinely manipulate or exaggerate figures in order to demonstrate the supposed seriousness of a problem. The methodological rigour required in collecting and using data is lacking. It is, therefore, advisable to use Nepali data only with utmost circumspection, in whichever field, be it poverty, water resources, environmental degradation, bonded labour, child labour, sex workers in Indian brothels, or labourers who migrate between India and Nepal.
The numbers of migrant labour on both sides are without doubt highly exaggerated. According to reports (see P.P.Karan et al, 1996, the Gorkhaland Movement Report, 1985/86, and numerous newspapers articles) there are anywhere between 1.8 million to 3 million Nepali migrant workers south of the border. Likewise, the writings of Indian scholars such as Jain (1982) and Madhavan (1985) and even the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (1981) or its spokesman (1989) have variously reported that there are between 800,000 and 3.2 million Indians in Nepal.
In bandying about such figures, it is clear that the scholars themselves lack understanding of the subject of their study. In reality, there are two types of Nepali-speakers who live and work in India: first are those whose ancestors arrived a hundred to three hundred years ago and are today by definition Indian citizens even though they speak the Nepali language and celebrate Nepali rituals and festivals. The other group of Nepalis are the migrant workers who go to India to work for a period and return at their convenience. Similarly, two groups of Indians live in Nepal: one which is settled since well over a century and naturalised, and another made up of migrant workers and small-scale businessmen who shuttle easily between the two countries.
Coming to hard figures, a look at Nepalís 1991 national census is instructive: