Bajura women make a living by crushing stones

BY SHER BAHADUR SARKI

Bajura, Oct. 9: Most of the women of Bajura have been making a living by crushing stones into gravel on the banks of rivers due to the difficulty in finding appropriate jobs in the villages.

Single woman Ramkali BK from Budhiganga Municipality-10 said that she had been earning livelihood by crushing stones as there were no jobs for single women in the village. Though it is said that the local government has been conducting yearly programme to uplift the condition of single women, many women like me have been working as gravel crushers, she added. 

She said that earlier it was easy to make an earning as a porter by carrying loads from Sanfebagar of the neighboring district Achham when there was no road to the village. Since many women of the district do not have skills, their condition has become more miserable than before, she said.

Ramkali said that the governmental and non-governmental organizations working in the field of women in the district and the local level had conducted some programmes for single women in the village, but they have not been able to bring many programmes to change the lives of single women.

Every year, the local government has been proposing to introduce programmes that are suitable for single and victimized women in the village and city assemblies, but these things are limited to paper. Most of the women of Bajura are now coming to the river bank every day to crush stones for their living. 

Even though the local government has brought pride projects in the village for the women, they have been just for propaganda and not effective. The physical infrastructure construction work started by the local government in the village has given most of the women the job of pounding gravel, but they have not been able to bring any skill-based programmes in the village that would be easy for women. Shanti BK of Chededaha Rural Municipality-5 said that there were many programmes for men in the village but no programmes for women. 

She said that the local government had been investing a lot of money in infrastructure development in the village, but the women had been limited to stone-crushing jobs. 

Although the infrastructure development work conducted in the village has made it easier for the women to arrange their household expenses, the local level has not been able to bring a programme to change their finances.

As soon as winter comes, most of the women of Bajura will go to India for employment. Shanti said that they did not have any other choice than going abroad for jobs to take care of their children's education and household expenses since there was no environment to work in the village. She said that although the implementation of physical infrastructure works in the village had made it easier for women to get a job in crushing gravel, there were no possibilities for jobs.

On the other hand, the local level said that they were resuming agricultural programmes such as sewing, harvesting, goat rearing and vegetable cultivation for the livelihood of single and disabled persons.