Seleghat, January 17:

Many villages in Ramechhap are deserted after villagers left their houses for work in brick factories in Kathmandu to make their ends meet. The villagers including children and elderly persons of different VDCs have descended to the valley since food produced in the villages is not sufficient to meet their demand for the entire year.

Villages look deserted especially after the dalits and indigenous people opted for work in brick factories in the valley.

“The numbers of kids in the schools has also gone suddenly down,” said a teacher of Seleghat Bhaluwajor VDC-8, Sri Bahadur Majhi. Majhi added that the number of students in the school had gone down by more than 50 percent after the children left villages with their parents for work in the factories. Seleghat is a Majhi community of over 50 families.

He added that the villagers would have stopped going to work in the brick factories if they had better opportunities in the village. The residents from the age group of 13 to 50 go to work in the kilns from mid-December to mid-May each year for employment. Sixty-year-old Lahari Majhi of Bhaluwajor VDC-8, said that a large number of villagers including school kids of her village had gone to work in the kilns. Majority of the villagers living in Pakarwas, Bhatauli, Manthali, Ramechhap, Rampur, Chisapani, Rakathum and Bhaluwajor VDCs are dalits and indigenous people who are very poor. Every year they head to the valley to work in brick factories.

Lahure Majhi of Pakarwas VDC-3 said all the 12 members of her family had been

working in the factory just to make ends meet.