सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Kanchanpur. After not finding employment in their own country, the Badi family of Gunyalphanta, Krishnapur Municipality-2, has locked the door of their house and set off for India. Since they have no skills to earn a living, they have set off for India with their children.
The Badi family, who had been working as alternative workers after their traditional professions were displaced, has been forced to work as porters and coolies in India. More than twenty families have set off for India in search of work, said Badi leader Padam Rana (Badi). “As a traditional profession, we used to make hookahs, sulpa, jugs, flower pots, pots, incense burners and other materials from clay,” he said. “After the forest area was protected, we could not bring clay, and the profession had to migrate as plastic goods became more popular than clay goods.”
He said that the traditional profession has completely disappeared due to lack of capital to produce and sell in the market on a large scale. He expressed dissatisfaction over the failure of the government to implement programs such as grants to protect the traditional profession of the Badi community.
“Indians have been earning a lot of money by producing various materials from clay,” said Duradevi Kumal. “Despite having traditional skills, there is no capital. The old profession has also had to be abandoned because people who work with clay are looked down upon in society.” After leaving their traditional profession, they had been working as laborers in agriculture, transportation, and construction sectors as alternatives and had been making ends meet for a few years. After the Corona pandemic, that labor was also taken away. He said that after it became difficult to find work, the people of the settlement migrated to India along with their families.
“There is only about six acres of land in the settlement for housing, and there are huts built on it that are starting to collapse,” said Keshav Kumal. “Some have migrated to India with their families, while only the elderly and women of other families remain in the settlement, while all the young people work as laborers in India, and that is how they feed their families.” He said that the Badi community should also be included in the allowance, just as the government has made arrangements to provide allowances to castes such as Kusunda, Raji, Raute and others from the time of birth.
“If the government had made arrangements to create skill-based employment opportunities and provide capital to the poor easily, no one would have gone to other countries to do risky labor,” said Padam Badi. “We have a contribution like others in bringing about federal democracy. As per the provisions in the constitution, arrangements for housing and cotton have to be made, but that has not happened yet.”
Discussing that caste discrimination has not yet ended, he said that the situation still exists where people of the so-called upper castes have to wash glasses while drinking tea in tea shops. “Leaders only make promises during elections, no one visits the settlements after the elections to understand the situation,” he says. “The mayor has forgotten the promises he made by repeatedly visiting the settlements. Even though the settlements are at high risk of erosion of the Banhara River, there is no interest.” He says that the ward chairperson understands the plight of the settlements. The agreements reached during the agitations in the federal capital have not been implemented, and people are still deprived of basic services. Due to the lack of housing, three families are living in one house. Some families have gone to India while others have returned from India.
“After breakfast, there is always a dilemma about what to do for dinner,” said Arjun Badi of the settlement. “If you get sick, there is no money for treatment, you are forced to live with your illness, and it is difficult to send your children to school due to lack of money.” The Badi community of the settlement complains that since the water in the settlement is contaminated with arsenic, they are forced to carry water from a distance when they start getting sick.
Although it has been almost three years since the work of laying pipes for the drinking water project has been completed, the construction of the drinking water project has still not been completed. There are 50 families living in the Badi settlement of Gunyalphanta. Of which, the number of families going to India with their families is more than 20.
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