By Gyanu Pangeni, Kawasoti, Nov. 20: Women of Baguban, Binayi Triveni Rural Municipality-1,  in east Nawalparasi, used to spend their days brewing home-made liquor.

But now they spend their days in spinning wool, and they are much happier with their new occupation.

When they were in homemade liquor business, they used to engage themselves from early in the morning in fetching firewood and managing things for liquor making.

 The alcohol making was the story of each household of Baguban.

Besides the alcohol making, which had become the part and parcel of their life, the Bagubani women used to take the home made alcohol to sellers as well.

However, with the changing context, daily activities of Bagubani women has changed now.

Nowadays, we can see the view of Bagubani women being busy spinning yarn in charkha/spinning wheel.

Charkhas are now seen in places where liquor containers used to be seen, in each and every house.

Yani Sara Kamcha, used to make the liquor and sell it to the local market in the past. But, now,  Kamcha’s profession has changed.

Kamcha said, “I am happy with the benefits of spinning thread. It was tedious to both find the woods for making liquor and to take it to the local market for selling.”

She added that there was a fear of being caught by the police officials in the liquor making business. Meanwhile, there is no fear in thread making business and can be engaged in spinning in spare time.

Kamcha said that both she and her mother in law are involved in thread making business, which earns them Rs 10,000 -12,000 a month.

In her home, her husband is a daily wage worker and Kamcha’s son is abroad. So, both women of the house spend their spare time in making the threads in Charkhas.

Currently, most women of Baguban are engaged in spinning the woolen threads like Yanisara Kamcha.

Of the total 181 households of Baguban, 141 are involved in yarn making business. Women of these households utilize their free time in spinning wool thread in Charkhas, with which, each household of Baguban earns nearly 10,000-12,000 a month.

The garment companies of Kathmandu provide wool to locals in the area for spinning threads.

Subsequently, women said that they are paid rupees 160 per kg for making threads in spinning wheel out of wool brought by the garment companies.

One family can make 3-5 kgs of thread a daily from the wool provided by the company. 

Then, the company takes the wool thread that the women make in spinning wheel after paying them.

Manu Kunwar also finds it easy to run the household from the income earned by the thread making business.

Kunmar said, “There are not many options of work as we have stopped making homemade liquor, so we are earning money out of the thread making business.

However, the economic condition of the women here will also improve if they can be connected with other such easy-to-work and income generating activities, added Kunwar.

For this, the local government needs to focus on skill based training, said Kunwar.