By Our Correspondent
Dhangadi, Feb. 3: On Friday last week, Moti BK of Mellekh Rural Municipality, in Achham district, packed his clothes and headed for the Gauriphanta Checkpoint, joining a long line of people waiting to reach across the border.
In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, he had returned home from India. While there, things got worse for him. Devoid of job, he had no money even to buy essentials, rendering him and his family helpless to make their ends meet. In an attempt to change this grim prospect for the better, he had no choice but to migrate again to the neighbouring country.
“We were able to get by for the last 10 months with the money I had managed to save,” he told The Rising Nepal before crossing the border, adding, “Financial difficulty has forced me to leave my family behind and move to India again.”
For over 10 years, BK has served as a security guard at a company located in Andheri, in Mumbai, in Maharashtra state. Despite the meagre earnings, it is better to be there than being jobless here, he said.
Like BK, Hukum Saud of Godawari Municpality-2, in Kailali district, who had returned home in April last year following the outbreak, has also crossed the border to New Delhi.
For the last few years, Saud has been living hands to mouth working as a driver in the Indian capital. “Following nationwide lockdown there, I was made redundant, being forced to leave the place. As the cases mounted and all the economic activities came to a halt, I returned home in the hope that I could make a living here. But that never happened, because the lockdown dealt an even severer blow here in Nepal,” informed Saud.
Faced with financial hardships, people like BK and Saud throng the nearby checkpoints seeking better life on the other side of the border.
“Despite the government’s assurance that it would ensure employment to those who returned following the pandemic, we weren’t provided with any opportunity whatsoever,” bemoaned Saud.
For many young Nepalis in Sudurpaschim Province, India has become primary destination for foreign employment. Over 35 per cent of its 2.5 million population have already crossed the border in the recent months.
Besides youngsters, senior citizens too are forced to undertake the difficult journey to India. Lal Bahadur Chaudhary, 60, of Lamkichuha Municpality, Kailali, has recently moved to Ratnagiri where he tends people’s gardens, mostly the mango groves.
Moreover, some people have been moving to India with their entire family. One of them, Jagat Bishwokarma of Tikapur Municpality, Kailali, has been living in Gujarat state with his wife and children for the last 13 years. “We came back fearing coronavirus contagion, but are going there again,” he said.
With mass exodus to India, village after village in the Province wears a deserted look. According to District Administration Office, Kanchanpur, 172,565 people have so far crossed the Gauriphanta and Gadda Chauki Checkpoint by Tuesday.