Vanishing Bhutan |
For decades, Bhutan cultivated a reputation unlike any other nation in South Asia. It projected itself as a kingdom that measured happiness over wealth, cultural balance over reckless growth, and environmental preservation over industrial excess. Yet beneath this carefully protected image, a quieter crisis is gathering pace, one that threatens the country more profoundly than external pressure or border disputes.
Bhutan is running out of people. The problem is not merely a falling birth rate, though that alone would worry any policymaker in a nation of fewer than a million citizens. The deeper concern is the accelerating departure of young and educated Bhutanese to countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States. When teachers, nurses, engineers, civil servants, and trained professionals begin leaving in significant numbers, the consequences extend beyond economics. A small state starts losing institutional memory, administrative capacity and eventually confidence in its own future. This is not a uniquely Bhutanese phenomenon. East Asian societies from Japan to South Korea are confronting ageing populations and declining fertility.
But Bhutan’s vulnerability is greater because........