INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, May 27
Padam Bahadur Thapa, 48 , who was spotted at Kaushaltar area of Bhaktapur at around 3:00pm, was riding a cycle cart to
reach a house where he was assigned some work
He was promised Rs 200 for the work.
Thapa is facing a hard time these days as his income has been limited to Rs 200 to Rs 400 on an
average.
This amount is not enough to feed his family two meals.
Things were not the same before March 24 (the date from when the nationwide
lockdown was imposed).
Earlier, he used to earn Rs 1,800 to 2,000 per day.
&These days, the maximum I can make is Rs 200 to Rs 400, that too
if I am lucky enough to get work,& Thapa told THT.
A similar plight is faced by the couple — Rohit and Sarita — who were spotted at
Sanothimi area working on an under-construction house
The couple told THT they were compelled to work for survival as they could not continue with their business due to the lockdown
The couple said they had recently opened a momo shop at Pepsicola, but a few days later they had to pull down the shutters due to the
lockdown.
&We invested all our saving on the shop, now we don&t have enough money to feed ourselves,& said the couple, adding that they were
thus forced to work as construction labourers.
&But, since we are not fit for that work, we are underpaid,& Sarita said.
Thapa and the
couple are among thousands of unaccounted daily wage earners employed in the informal sector, who have been hit hard by the over two months
of lockdown imposed in a bid to stem the spread ofcoronavirus
Thousands of wage earners have been stranded in city areas due to the lockdown
But, neither the local government nor the federal government has any record of these workers.
The local governments, who had started
distributing relief to needy people a few weeks after the lockdown, have now stopped distributing such relief.
&We realised that
distributing relief was not the longterm solution to the problem, we thus are planning to introduce some programmes for a long-term solution
to the problem created by the lockdown,& said Aanjana Devi Madhikarmi, deputy mayor of the Madhyapur Thimi Municipality.
She said that the
municipality was preparing to provide part time jobs to these workers in exchange for food.
Majority of local governments now have started
thinking of providing employment to daily wagers
A few days ago, Kathmandu metropolis had introduced a similar programme called ‘food for work& for the needy people.
Man Dangol, ward
chair, said around 350 families had benefited from the programme that started last Saturday
Dangol said needy people were glad to do the assigned work as they felt that they had earned food for themselves rather than depending on
others& mercy for food.
A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 28, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.
The post Wage earners hit hard
due to prolonged lockdown appeared first on The Himalayan Times.
