Unemployed youths move to Taklakot

By Rajan Rawat,Humla, May 5: Locals from Humla travelling to Taklakot in Purang County of China have exceeded one thousand. Unemployed young men and women have headed to Taklakot in search of employment opportunities.

According to Ramraj Jaisi, Chief of the Yari Customs Office, since the 1st of Baisakh (mid-April), a total of 1,002 unemployed youths from Humla have travelled to Taklakot via the Hilsa border point. Among them, 299 are women and 703 are men. 

This marks the highest number of women to have ever travelled to Taklakot for work. “Most of those who have gone to Taklakot have done so for employment, while some have gone for small-scale trade,” he added.

 In Taklakot, Nepalis are engaged in work such as hotels, restaurants and daily wage labour. They typically stay in Taklakot for six to eight months at a time.

Taklakot has now become a key destination for unemployed youths of Humla for work.

Paljor Tamang, Ward Chairperson of Limi in Namkha Rural Municipality–6, stated that around 70 per cent of the locals from the trans-Himalayan village of Limi go to Taklakot for work. 

Due to Taklakot being a major employment destination, people from Limi have long been travelling there for jobs. Labourers there can earn between 120 and 300 Chinese Yuan per day.

Assistant Chief District Officer of Humla, Rajendra Kumar Chand, said that since the start of travel to Taklakot, 500 people have obtained new border passes from the District Administration Office. 

Over 300 individuals have renewed their passes during this period. More than 400 passes were distributed at mobile camps by CDO Narayan Pandey. As the season for travelling to Taklakot has started, there has been a surge in demand for border passes.

China permits permanent residents of border-linked districts to enter up to 30 kilometres into its territory based on these passes. 

Although the border point had opened earlier, Humla residents were unable to travel due to snow in Nara Lek. However, after the Hilsa-Simikot road project cleared the snow using excavators, transportation resumed, enabling travel to Taklakot.

The Chinese authorities have permitted Nepalis to travel to Taklakot five days a week, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM.