Rajbiraj, December 25

Most families of the Musahar community in Belhichapena Rural Municipality-5, Saptari, have been facing a hard time managing two meals a day. Many of them do not even have their own land and are compelled to live in temporary shelters.

Many Musahar people are landless. They have no other alternative than to go to the neighbouring country India for jobs. They mainly go to New Delhi and Punjab to work as labourers where they are compelled to work for minimum wages for want of education and skills. For many of the male members of the community, it has been a routine work to go to India for some months and return to their village with whatever they earn to fulfil their family needs.

Unlike hundreds of such youths of Musahar community, two siblings Manrup and Bachkun have emerged as successful farmers proving that it is not necessary to go to India or any other foreign country to make their ends meet.

Though these siblings didn’t have their own land, they worked as tenant farmers. With their hard work of more than a decade in a landlord’s farm they have been able to buy land for themselves.

Bachkun said that they purchased five kattha land last year selling their farm products. He also managed to collect money for the wedding of his six daughters from the agro produce. Similarly, his brother Manrup purchased eight kattha land last year. “Both the siblings worked on two-and-a-half bigaha land and proved that hard work paid off,” said Ward-5 chairperson Laxmi Narayan Thakur.

Hundreds of Musahar families in the district live as squatters and many youths of the community go to the cities of India with the hope of bringing better fortune for their families but lady luck has never smiled upon them in the last one decade.

“Why to bother about going for foreign employment leaving family and children alone? If we work hard here, we can harvest gold. We also worked for more than 15 years as sharecroppers. Now our situation has changed after decades of hard work and honesty. Our hard work and dedication has paid off,” said the elated Sada siblings.

They said that it was not good to leave cultivable land barren for want of workers. “Instead of going to foreign land to earn money at the cost of family and children, it is much better to work hard in our own country so that we can live happily with our family,” they said.