Bajura locals returning home for festivals

By Sher Bahadur Sarki,Bajura, Sept. 17: Most of the villages in the Bajurar district, which were empty during winter and rainy seasons are now bustling after the migrant workers started returning home from India, targeting the upcoming festivals. 

Ram Bahadur Rokaya, a resident of Khapatad Chhededaha Rural Municipality-1, said that he returned to the village to celebrate the Dashain and Tihar festivals after earning enough to buy new clothes for children during the festivals.

He said, "I wanted to stay in my village, but it is difficult to earn a subsistence working in the village. I have to return to India after festivals to support my family financially."

"I work in India during winter and send the earned money back home to support the subsistence of the family and education of the children," he added.

Most of the youths from  Jagnath, Swamikartik, Budhinanda, Badimalika, Gaumul, Budhiganga, Triveni and Khaptad Chhededaha rural municipalities of Bajura districts go to different parts of India for employment, as they cannot find job opportunities in the district. 

These migrant workers return to the village during the paddy and millet plantation time and the major festivals like Bisu, Maghi, Dashain and Tihar. The time of festivities makes them return to their native place but lack of income source forces them to go back to India. Nothing much has changed in the district, the youths are doing the same that their fathers and grandfathers did. 

The agricultural land in the village is barren due to the lack of irrigation facilities, and the lack of youths to toil. It would have been easy to retain the youths in the village had the local government taken initiatives to resolve the irrigation problem and give a boost to agriculture.

Most of the settlements in the district have been devastated by landslides, so villagers have no choice but to go to India to work and support their families back in Nepal. Neither the local government nor the provincial and federal governments have worked to resolve this issue. 

There are no industries in the village to employ the youth, and the local produce too doesn't get the market. Although the local government has been running various agricultural programmes to generate employment opportunities, the exodus of youths has not stopped.

Lokraj Joshi, employment assistant at Khapatad Chhededaha Rural Municipality, said, "There are enough opportunities for youths willing to work in the village, but still they prefer to go to India for employment."