KATHMANDU: Frequent strikes by various political parties have deprived the urban poor their daily bread. The bandh has insidious effect on students who are on work-study in Kathmandu.

Tshering Sherpa, a 13-year- old student at Nandi Ratri School in Naxal of Kathmandu has spent many sleepless nights, often in hungry stomach, wondering how to pay school fee.

“Ops! I am fed up with these bandh every day,” he says, expressing a strong dislike for the strikes which seem to have no end in sight.

“Why don’t those selfish politicians allow us to work?” he asked. “Each time they call strike, it’s the poor people like us who have to pay the heavy price,” he added.

On a recent chilly night, following the nationwide strike called by the Maoists, Tshering had neither food on the table, nor sleep. He kept wondering the whole night, what to eat the next day. Tshering said his schoolmates who work the entire day and study at night, have begun to hate strikes.

Goray Shrestha, a porter in Putalisadak, said, “People who have money will stay home and sleep peacefully during these bandh, but I for one has to work each day just for one meal.”

Fighting his way through the simmering crowd, Goray carries luggages from a shop in Putalisadak to many different destinations.

Haunted by stray dogs and fighting his way through the creepy passages of the capital city, he has to reach the customers’ houses, spread across many divergent locations. The money he pockets at the end of the day is not enough to fetch him a full-stomach meal, let alone school fee. He adds, “What kind of government is this which only caters to the rich and don’t look after the poor like us?

Blaming on the political parties for the poverty he is facing, he says, “This is our country too, not only of the ones who protest.” “I am pained to see those people vandalising public properties during the strikes,” he added.

There are several of his friends who eke out their living like him and they shared the same feelings.

“Who gave them the rights to destroy mutual properties?” asks Parvati Shakya, a housewife. “They should protect these invaluable properties for our coming generation to see,” she said. “I missed my job appointment last time as I was stuck for more than an hour in a jam fuelled by agitators,” says Aarati Syangden.

“Alas! Such is the state of our country now. I see no law and order in this country,” she said, adding, “Anyone can do anything. No one to stop.”