Foreign returnee enjoys self-entrepreneurship

By Gokarna Dayal,Baitadi, Mar. 27: Instead of enduring hardship and humiliation abroad, it’s better to raise goats in our own land, said Padam Bahadur Airi in his native Baitadi vernacular, expressing his struggle abroad. 

Airi, 50, of Jukepani, Sigash Rural Municipality-1, who once went abroad for foreign employment, chose to return home and till his farmland, instead of migrating again.

Sharing his experience, Airi said he spent years wandering through the streets of India in search of employment. The responsibility of feeding his 10-member family had forced him to migrate. 

Since the agriculture relies solely on rainfall, food scarcity for three months each year pushed him to work as a security guard in Delhi, India. He worked in India for several years to support his family, despite enduring humiliation and hardship. 

After returning home with some savings, Airi chose to work hard in his own village. He has now started goat rearing, investing Rs. 475,000 combining his earning from abroad and some loans to start his business. 

The rural municipality also provided him grant of Rs. 50,000 for the construction of goat shed. Currently, he owns 65 goats, including kids. He shared that the grant from the local government further motivated him to start his business in the village.

He believes that increased investment in agriculture and animal husbandry could create employment opportunities for youth within the village. 

Ward chairperson Ram Chandra Airi said that 80 per cent of the youth from 419 households across 

six villages in Sigash Rural Municipality-1 are engaged in foreign employment.

According to him, all Dalit youth of Bajkot’s Giwadikhola Settlement work as labourers in India. He further mentioned that, apart from The Prime Minister’s Employment Programme, no other budget has been allocated for employment generation in the ward. 

While investment in physical infrastructure is necessary, government funds are also being spent on non-productive sectors, such as temple renovations. 

Despite being connected to the Jayaprithivi Highway, which links Baitadi and Bajhang, the villages lack funding for commercial agriculture and livestock farming, resulting in increasing unemployment. 

However, some locals of those villages connected to paved roads have started potato farming. Ward chairperson Airi himself has started potato farming.