Dil Bahadur Singh

Doti, Dec. 9: Women in the rural areas of the hilly districts in Sudurpaschim Province have formed groups to discuss and share information about the problems faced by the Nepali migrant male workers in India and other countries.

The tradition of men going to India for work is still prevalent there.

Nepalis working in India face various problems: They have to do risky works, receive meagre wages and lack knowledge about the legal provisions.

The women members of the families whose male members are in India and abroad as migrant workers have formed groups in different local levels of Doti district to discuss the documents to be carried during the journey, the persons and places to contact in case of problems, proper use of bank while sending money and others.

Devi Bohara, president of Durga Migrant Group in Adharsha Rural Municipality-5, said that they have been informing people about the problems faced by Nepalis while going to India for work. Stating that it is better to do something within the country if possible, Bohara said the group has been collecting updates from Nepalis while bidding farewell to those going abroad and welcoming those coming home.

Most of the members of the group are women, since many men had left their home for work. It has been collecting monthly savings, providing loans to those in need and engaging many women in income generating activities.

Chandrika Bista of the group said that it has been encouraging stay-at-home women to be engaged in income-earning activities such as goat rearing, chicken farming, vegetable farming, among other occupations, so that there would be no financial problem when their husbands return home without money.

Many men returning home after working for a long time abroad also have joined the group. Sher Bahadur Bhat of Bhadsain in Adarsha Rural Municipality-5 has joined the group after returning to the village. He had worked as a cook for three years in a hotel in India. He has been running an electrical store in the village since.

Sher Bahadur, who found himself unable to go back to India due to the coronavirus lockdown, said that he started his business at the local level after receiving a three-month house wiring training run by a non-governmental organisation ‘Needs Nepal’ in the village. He said that getting a job in the village had not been difficult because of the expansion of electricity line currently being done at the local level. He is earning more in his village than he did in India as many neighbouring wards and rural municipalities have contacted him for the work, he added.

The Needs Nepal has been carrying out various activities through 25 migrant groups in Shikhar Municipality and Adarsh Rural Municipality of Doti under capacity development programme for the migrant workers.

Published on: 9 December 2022 | The Rising Nepal