Humla, Jan 2: Since the federal, state and local governments have not been able to come up with any employment program for the youth, some villages in Humla district, a mountainous remote district of western Nepal, have become desolate and the youth have gone abroad in search of work. Most of them have migrated to India.
In the last one week, more than 1000 youth left the village and went India from Adanchuli rural municipality in the southern part of the district. Since there is no work in Adanchuli, most of the youth chose India for their first choice of destination. Now, the entire village have become youth-less.
Just like we see queue at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu with youth having passports in hand for Gulf countries in search of employment, young people from remote villages of Humla also queue up to go to the neighboring country like India. Every day 10 to 15 youth from Adanchuli Rural Municipality leave the village for work in cities like Kalapahar in India.
CPN (UML) village committee Chairman Budh Bhandari said that most of the villages in Humla’s Adanchuli Rural Municipality are becoming devoid of youth. Bhandari said that hundreds of youth from Adanchuli and Changkheli Rural Municipality started going to Kalapahad (India) to bring clothes and earn some money for their families.
According to the Kavadi police station located on the border of Humla and Bajura district, around 1000 young people left the village after celebrating Bhailo Purnima, a local festival in Karnali region on Tuesday. In the last one week, the number of people going to India by vehicle and on foot has been seen to be very high. A security guard of Kavadi police station informed that during checking and questioning, all those who went in vehicle and on foot said that they were going to India.
Bhakta Budha of Adanchuli Rural Municipality-2 said that young people are rarely found in the villages in the southern region of Humla.
According to him, most of the young family members were forced to go to India after a year without any means of earning in the village. He complains that it is difficult to find young people to pick up corpses even if someone passes away in the village.
He said that 23 people went to India from his village home alone on 13th of Poush.
For the youth here, who used to earn some money by doing development work, the development work has been stopped for the past one year, but for the first time in two decades, such a large number of young people have gone abroad.
Ram Bahadur Chhatyal of Adanchuli-5 said that hundreds of young people here, who have not gone to the neighboring country for a long time, go to the neighboring country India every day.
The youth of Adanuchali have chosen India as their winter work destination due to the lack of employment in the village. If we stay at home, there will be no money to collect kachho (amount collected for religious activities of the village), and after a long time, the choice of the youth of Adanchuli has become Kalapahad, as they have no choice to go to India.
Chhapki Budha, a temporary teacher of Mastadeo Primary School of Adanchuli-2, said that in previous years, at most five to seven people from each village went to Kalapahad for medical treatment and for some urgent work. A few days ago, after Adanchuli rural municipality paid the amount of social security allowance through the bank account, the youth here chose Kalapahad as their destination for two to three months after ‘reserving’ a vehicle with that amount.
A group of 22 people, including himself, had reserved a Balero jeep up to Martadi in Bajura, and only on the 13th of Poush 500 youths, who were about to go to Kalapahad, informed the young man.
Only the youth of Adanchuli, who are going to Kalapahad, are found in the jeeps that run temporarily in Karnali Corridor. Some jeeps are carrying young people from the village even late in the evening. The old man said that dozens of young people, who do not have a vehicle rental, even walk to Martadi in Bajura at night.
Rokaya of Adanchuli-3 Makai village said that after searching all over the village, he reached Martadi of Bajura along with some youths on foot after not being able to rent a vehicle.
“With me, a team of 12 people including Nain Rokaya, Khadak Rokaya, Banchaya Rokaya from the village walked for one day and one night to reach Martadi after not even getting the vehicle fare”, he said on the phone, “We have been walking day and night since we left home. It seems that it will take two days and one night to reach the border of Nepal and India from here.”
