Jagadish Ram of Banjariya-3 in Bara district has been relying on loans from village landlords even to manage his daily bread. As a laborer he used to earn up to Rs 500 per day before the ongoing Madhes protests rendered him jobless.

 

“I have not been able to earn a single penny in the past three months since the Madhes agitation started,” he said. “At present, daily wage laborers like me are struggling to even buy daily meals. I’m fully dependent on loans as I am unable to provide for my family of four,” he added.

 

Jagadish said he has also participated in Madhes agitation dozens of times. He opined that daily wage laborers would not have to go through such hardships had the government not taken Madhes demands lightly.

 

Similar is the plight of Gauri Shankar Mahato, another laborer of the same village. “Building materials including stones and cement are in short supply in lack of transportation attributed to the fuel crisis. Apart from that, the costs of building materials have increased drastically,” he said. “It is hard to find work, making it very difficult for us to sustain our livelihood.”

 

Mahato said, “I owe Rs 15,000 in loans, which wouldn’t have been the case had the Madhes demands been addressed timely by the government. Now poverty-stricken people like us are in deep financial trouble,” he added.

 

Likewise, a cyber-owner in Kalaiya, Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra said he is on the verge of shutting down his shop. “I haven’t paid months of rent and I have borrowed over Rs 200,000 since the Madhes agitation started to keep my business afloat,” said Mishra.

 

Despite the hardships and sufferings faced by people, leaders of the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) have made it clear that they would not withdraw their protests until and unless the government addresses their demands.