Kathmandu, February 6:

The highly marginalised indigenous Lhomi-Shingsa community is found to be disinterested towards the present educational system because of lack of job opportunities, a report revealed.

The study report, Rapid Appraisal on Livelihood Analysis and Need Assessment of Highly Marginalised Janajatis (HMJ), conducted by Janajati Empowerment Project (JEP) of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) states, only 38 per cent of the males and 18 per cent of female members of the Lhomi-Shingsa community are literate and only 2.3 per cent of the male and 0.3 per cent female have acquired formal education.

Lhomi-Shingsa community is one of the 24 HMJs not recognised as indigenous community by the NEFIN and the government.

According to the report many of the Lhomi-Shingsa who passed School Leaving Certificate (SLC), had managed to continue their schooling by taking education loans, but had to remain idle with no job opportunities. Around 30 persons have been teaching in the schools and five are working in nongovernmental organisations.

A very few Lhomi-Shingsas have joined the Indian Army and no one from the community owns a private enterprise.

The report also states that 50 per cent of the community members have food sufficient only for seven to eight months, while food is sufficient for nine to eleven months for the 40 per cent of the Lhomi-Shingsas.