Forty-nine year old Urmila Tamang of ward 1 of Bardibas Municipality struggled to manage her household expenses 11 years ago. She couldn’t even manage the cost of her children’s education. She had enrolled all three of her children in a private school thinking that they could get quality education there. “But I could not pay the school bills,” Urmila says. “I had no option other than going abroad as nobody would lend me any money due to my poverty.”

Things have changed now. Now Urmila is considered an exemplary woman in her society. She has built a house of her own and can now lend money to those in need, she says, proudly. Moreover, she has now turned into something of a green entrepreneur, running a commercial vegetable farm near her freshly-built house.

Urmila had gone to Kuwait some 11 years ago, aiming to provide a good education to her children and making a house of her own. Since she didn’t get any support from her family—her mother passed away when Urmila was still a child and her husband abandoned her and followed the path of monkhood—she was conscious of not letting her children face the hardship she did.

“I raised two daughters and a son alone by working as a daily wage earner,” she recalls.

In Kuwait, Urmila worked hard for seven years as a cleaner. She was paid Rs40,000 per month. “What I could earn is the education of my children,” she says, adding that she earned a total of Rs4 million during her stay in the West Asian emirate.

In her new four-room concrete house in ward 1 of Bardibas, Urmila now lives with her younger daughter and son; while her elder daughter is now in Dubai for work.

Urmila returned home in 2020 and received financial literacy training under the Safer Migration Project. After that, she started commercial vegetable farming near her residence. “I now earn a good amount of money by selling green vegetables,” Urmila says. “The same people who did not support me before I went abroad for work praise me now.”

Marsangmaya Bamjan, 55, from Khairmara in ward 10 of Bardibas Municipality, is another woman who after returning from foreign employment for good has made herself a name in society back home.

Bamjan went to Saudi Arabia six years ago to pay off the loan her husband took to go abroad. Bamjan’s husband died due to paralysis after returning from abroad.

“We took the loan to send him abroad, but he fell ill within a year of living there,” Bamjan says. “He died soon after returning home, and to repay the loan, I went abroad.”

Bamjan returned home with a decent amount of money from Saudi Arabia, and the society that never helped her suddenly started recognising her and acknowledging her with positivity.

“My husband’s family never accepted us or my two children, not even during the time when my husband was sick, but after returning from abroad, they approached me,” Bamjan says. “I felt proud of myself and pity at the same time for the biassed society.”

Like Urmila, Laxmimaya Tamang, a 41-year-old woman from ward 10 of Bardibas, also went for foreign employment in Kuwait, where she worked for 15 years. She got married to a Nepali man from Bardibas who she met in Kuwait.

Laxmimaya said that after returning home, life was not easy because everyone used to judge her for working in the Gulf.

“When I got married, my husband's family was not willing to accept me because I worked in the Gulf, but not even after two months, everybody was impressed with me and started appreciating me,” Laxmimaya says. “I have bought land in two different places with my earnings and have started a business in Bardibas.”

The society, which was frequently judging her while she was working, suddenly started appreciating her for her achievements.

“I have a happy family and am working as hard as I was in Kuwait, and I am happy that everybody is recognising me,” she says. “I worked abroad for my family due to financial troubles and made a living in Nepal with my experience, and I am happy with that.”

Bardibas Municipality is currently conducting financial literacy classes and providing psychological counselling to families who have returned from overseas employment or have family members in foreign employment under the Safer Migration Project.

However, the municipality has no idea how many women from Bardibas are abroad for foreign employment.

Kamala Karki, a financial literacy facilitator, says that she is conducting a class for every family to invest money they earn abroad in the right place.

“After getting financial literacy, investment in vegetable farming, poultry farming, goat farming, and other fields becomes easy for the people who return from abroad,” Karki says. “The Safer Migration Project also helps people who are interested in small and cottage ventures but do not have funds.”

According to the Bardibas Municipality, there are 102 people in the municipality taking classes for financial literacy and counselling under the Safer Migration Project after returning from abroad.

Published on: 29 May 2024 | The Kathmandu Post