Boon and bounty

RAJU LAMA

Within Village Nepal’s tiny communities interspersed here and there in the Himalayan region and the Tear-eye Plains, developmental perspectives apply broadly to the left behind or backward districts in the nation. Its inhabitants fall mostly in the category of women, dalit, and impoverished, unprivileged etc people dependent on agriculture; for this reason, INGOs and NGOs target this category.

Despite the fact that the majority of inhabitants are dependant on agriculture, arable land is minimal, therefore, produce from the fields is insufficient to meet demands. Depending on the monsoon rains, the food sufficiency scenario at present tides them through three to six months. The alternative means is to find employment locally and, if work is unavailable locally, people either migrate abroad as laborers etc. In secluded regions, the current conditions impel them to purchase air freighted food and goods from the District Development Centre at exorbitant rates through the hard earned money they bring in. Lack of nutritional food stuff and low food sufficiency scenario is responsible for the high mother/child death rate. Remoteness (geographically) and low accessibility/transportation means from relevant centers, poverty, minimal food security scenario, lack of education etc are the greater challenges.

Even though raising livestock, fruit farming, vegetable farming etc are in progress to some extent, the people in the VDCs need, even demand, economic opportunity and sustainable development and management thereto. The literacy rate of quite a few VDCs remains at 0. 2 per cent: the majority are illiterate. Even in this day and age, the children in the dalit community are sent to work in other people’s homes etc, thereby, discriminating them from acquiring any education. Add to this the plight of the people with very little or no land at all who pursue age old family trades, the condition conjured up is the hand-to-mouth situation with problems to provide for the next meal.

When few organizations conduct projects for the unprivileged, impoverished, dalit, women and left behind peoples in the more remotely located VDCs to bring transformation to the scenario, there is a great need to build an effective society through supporting the self dependence of local cooperatives e. g. collection of share fees and savings, mobilization of the already established revolving fund oriented towards entrepreneurial endeavor, thereby, targeting the community to acquire employment opportunities, development of health, education sector etc providing quality service according to the needs and demands of the people.