Operating electric city safaris and auto-rickshaws has become a reliable source of income for many returnee migrant workers and former daily wage labourers in Saptari, helping them achieve financial independence.
Raman Raj Mudbhari, 55, of Rajbiraj Municipality-8, returned to Nepal after spending 17 years working abroad. He said he is happier and more satisfied earning a living by driving a city safari than he was working overseas.
Mudbhari bought a city safari for Rs. 270,000 just a month after returning home four years ago. He now earns between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 60,000 a month, compared to the Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 40,000 he earned abroad.
“Driving a city safari in my own town is far more enjoyable. Abroad, if you did not work for even an hour, your pay was deducted. Here, if I do not feel like working, I can take a day or two off. Living close to my family and in my own community is priceless,” he said.
Mudbhari spent 13 years in Saudi Arabia and four years in Malaysia before returning home. Raju Yadav, 47, of Jhalhi of Rajbiraj Municipality-11, has been driving a city safari for the past seven years. Before that, he worked as a daily wage labourer, struggling to support his family of seven, including two sons and a daughter, because work was irregular.
In 2019, he borrowed money to buy a city safari for Rs. 260,000. Since then, he has been earning between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 2,000 a day, making it easier to meet his family’s daily expenses.
Yadav said the income from driving has enabled him to send both of his sons abroad for work. One is now employed in Saudi Arabia and the other in Malaysia.
“My earnings support my wife, two daughters-in-law and my grandchildren,” he said. “My sons are saving the money they earn abroad and I believe they will have a financially secure future. All this became possible after I started driving a city safari.”
More than 2,000 people in Saptari have become financially self-reliant by operating city safaris and auto-rickshaws.
The growing number of electric three-wheelers has also made local transport more convenient for the public.
According to Kedar Deo, Chair of the Madhes Province chapter of the All Nepal Trade Union Workers’ Association, around 2,000 city safaris are currently operating across the district. He said about 80 per cent of the drivers are returnee migrant workers, while the remaining 20 per cent are former daily wage labourers.
“Many people who have returned from overseas employment, as well as those who stayed in Nepal, have found a stable livelihood by driving city safaris and auto-rickshaws,” Deo said. “As a result, the attraction towards foreign employment has declined.”
