Daily wage workers badly affected by curfew, strikes
Life of daily wage workers have been hit hard due to the strike and curfew order in Tikapur, Kailali district.
Balkrishna Chaudhary, a daily wage worker, of Tikapur Municipality-8, has been without work for the last one month. Chaudhary would remain busy with carpentry work before the Tharus launched agitation demanding a separate province for them in the new federal set up.
First the protests by agitators had deprived the local carpenter from his daily wage and still he has not been able to resume his work due to the indefinite curfew order in Tikapur.
Local administration has been imposing the curfew order for indefinite period in Tikapur following the killings of eight security personnel and a minor during protests.
Like Balkrishnna, hundreds of locals whose livelihoods heavily depend on daily wage are facing hand to mouth problems. They have to spend most of their time without food, they complained. "As there is no work due to the strike, I am losing Rs 500 per day," said Chaudhary.
Nearly 400 households are living in a settlement of freed bonded laborers in Bijaynagar. All of them would work for daily wage at Tikapur bazaar, which has worn a deserted look for the last one month.
Some of the laborers are forced to take loans while others have to spend days with empty stomach.
"I have already borrowed Rs 5,000 in a month," said another local Manki Chaudhary. She further informed that loans are hard to get in the village.
As curfew order is lifted for just four hours a day in Tikapur life has not yet returned to normal, according to locals.
Published on: 9 September 2015 | Republica
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