DHADNING: School students belonging to marginalised Chepang tribe in Dhading are

facing hardship to continue their education due to financial constraint.

Although the government has been providing scholarship to the Chepang students, the meagre quota is now not sufficient in proportionate to the increasing number of students. Consequently, only a few of them got the scholarship this year.

Jitendra Chepang, central member of Nepal Chepang Association said the fund of the scholarship has not been increased though the number of students has been increasing every year.

Due to lack of clear cut government mechanism and policy, uplift of the

backward Chepang community is merely limited to only a few programmes. A programme introduced by the government in 2034 BS is still on but lacks programmes in the changed context, he complained.

“A total of 4,200 Chepang children are enrolled in various schools in the district. However, the government has provided scholarship to only 300 Chepang students this year,” NCA former chairman Tilak Chepang claimed.

A total of 80,000 Chepangs have been enlisted in the category of marginalised community. They are living in Dhading, Makawanpur, Chitwan and Gorkha districts.

The government-provided Rs 75 lakh annually for the welfare of the community is too lessto carry out any programmes at the local level, said the NCA former chair.

“We had repeatedly urged the Finance Minister

Surendra Pandey to provide additional fund. However, our demands have fallen into deaf ears,” Chapang leaders rued.