Fact Check: Minister did not say ‘80 percent of Kathmandu’s youth earn Rs 2 lakh’, confusion spread
साउन ११, २०८२ १२:१८
Kathmandu. News and posts have gone viral on various online media and social media after Education Minister Raghuji Pant was quoted as saying that “80 percent of Kathmandu’s youth earn more than Rs 2 lakh by staying at home.” Social media users are strongly criticizing the statement. However, a fact-check by TechPana Fact Check found that Minister Pant did not say this. His statement was distorted and spread misleadingly.
Claim
On July 26 (Saturday), 2025, a Facebook page named Shiksha posted a quote attributed to Education Minister Raghuji Pant. The caption read: “Currently, 80 percent of the youth in Kathmandu who are not employed. Yet, they earn more than Rs 2 lakh by staying at home. The reason for this is that they have taken jobs from various foreign companies and send them work from laptops. Nepal is earning 100 million rupees annually from such jobs. If we can develop it, we can bring it up to 800 million.”
As of writing, the post on the Shiksha page has received over 2,400 reactions, 367 comments, and 20 shares.
See original link, archive link and screenshot:
Research
TechPana Fact Check Desk found that this claim is going viral on social media. The Facebook page Taja Khabar, with more than 3.5 million followers, posted the same content on Sunday (July 27, 2025). The post said: “Education Minister Raghuji Pant says, “Currently, 80 percent of the youth in Kathmandu who do not have jobs still earn more than Rs 200,000 by sitting at home. The reason for this is that they take jobs from various foreign companies and send them work from their laptops. Nepal is receiving Rs 100 billion annually from such jobs.”
See the original link, archive link and screenshot of the post:
Similar claims appeared on several news portals. Ukera.com published a report titled ‘80 percent of youth living in Kathmandu earn Rs 200,000 per month by staying at home: Education Minister’ on Saturday at 12:38 PM. The news said: “Currently, 80 percent of youth in Kathmandu who are not employed earn more than Rs 200,000 by staying at home. The reason for this is that they take jobs from various foreign companies and send them work from their laptops. Nepal is receiving Rs 100,000 annually from such jobs,” he said. “If we can develop this, we can bring it up to Rs 800,000.”
See original link, archive link and screenshot of Ukera’s news.
Artha Dabali also published a report titled ‘80 percent of youth earn Rs 200,000 per month without a job: Education Minister Pant.’ See original link and archive link of the report.
Kalika Khabar ran the same headline: ‘80 percent of youth earn Rs 200,000 per month without a job: Education Minister Pant.’ See original link and archive link of the report.
Many similar posts with this claim are found across social media, where hundreds of users criticized Minister Pant.
During fact-checking, TechPana found that Minister Pant made the statement during the ‘SEE Toppers Honor and Best Wishes’ event, organized by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City-15 Ward Committee of the CPN-UML on Saturday, July 26, 2025. The full video is available on the Nepal News Bank YouTube channel. At 5 minutes and 46 seconds into the video, Minister Pant says:
“I tell you, now in Kathmandu, there are 80 to 100,000 people, such young people, who do not take any jobs, but earn 250,000, 300,000 to 50-60 thousand per month sitting at home. What does that mean, they get jobs from various foreign companies, companies, work here on their laptops and send them here and bring foreign money from them. And now, since Nepal has about one trillion rupees a year, and if we develop this sector, we can bring in 8-10 trillion rupees, people involved in this sector say.”
In the video, Minister Pant clearly says “80,000 to one hundred thousand” young people, not 80 percent. But the number in his speech was misrepresented as a percentage, and misleading claims spread widely.
Interestingly, even Nepal News Bank, which uploaded the original video, titled it: ‘80 percent of youth earn 2 lakhs per month without a job.’ This likely helped fuel the confusion.
See original link and archive link of the video.
Claim
Education Minister Raghuji Pant has said that 80 percent of the youth in Kathmandu earn more than two lakh rupees by staying at home.
Claimant
Facebook pages like Taja Khabar, Shiksha, Routine of Education, and online media including Ukera, Artha Dabali, Kalika Khabar.
Fact
On Saturday, July 26, 2025, Education Minister Raghuji Pant made this statement at the ‘SEE Toppers Honors and Best Wishes’ event organized by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City-15 Ward Committee. The full video is available on Nepal News Bank’s YouTube channel. In the video, Minister Pant clearly says “80 thousand to one lakh” youth, but this was wrongly presented as “80 percent” by media and social media. The figure was distorted into a percentage and spread as a misleading claim. Even Nepal News Bank, which posted the video, wrote in its title: ‘80 percent of youth earn 2 lakhs per month without a job: Education Minister’, contributing further to the confusion.
Conclusion
Education Minister Raghuji Pant did not say “80 percent” during his speech. He clearly said “80 thousand to 100 thousand” youth are earning by working from home. TechPana Fact Check confirms that the media and social media falsely exaggerated the number in his statement by turning “80 thousand” into “80 percent.”
पछिल्लो अध्यावधिक: साउन ११, २०८२ १३:४६
