May Day Celebration

Informal workers working on the bank of river at risk while the government unware about their responsibility

In Agrakhola, Dhading there is a residence of people who works on the bank of river. There are residence of around 500 people who have migrated from 26 different districts due to various reasons such as inter caste marriage, lost parents, unemployment, landless, poor livelihood situation etc. The people are from various ethnicity lives there and the majority of them are from indigenous and dalit community. They are residing since 18 years ago in Mahadevbesi VDC, ward no. 1 & 3 Dhading district on the bank of Agra khola nearby Prithivi Highway. The houses they are residing is like refugees settlements, made by bamboo wall, plastic roof and canvas bag made my jute with only one room and no toilet. The house is smaller thatched house. They do not own the house and are living in the land of contractor but they don’t have to pay. The land is provided to the labors only if they work for the land owner/ contractor and in some of the areas they have to pay rents for living in their land. They have to pay Rs. 1 per tin. The climate of the area is very hot in summer and cold in winter which makes them very difficult to work. In summer time people use to work only in morning and evening time because of hot temperature.

The main occupation of the people is to extract stones from the river called ‘Agra Khola’ and crush it into concrete. Mostly women are engaged in the crushing job where as male members of the family works in loading and unloading big stones directly from the river which is used for building walls. They work in the bank of agra khola Female members of the family are engaged in stone crushing where as male members are mostly engaged in extracting and loading big stones in team. Inspite of their hard work they cannot earn which is sufficient meeting their daily expenses. Women are earning about Rs. 55 per day. It takes about 600 tin to make one tip of the tractor and they have to work for 3-4 months. The total average income of a female is around 1600 per month while male members could earn NRs. 100 per day.

Due to hard working people suffer from various kinds of health problems such as Backbone pain, headache, fever, asthma, under nourishment especially children, get old very soon. And some people in the community have suffered from cancer as well and most of the male members have heart problems too.

There are labors who are aged from 10 years to 80 years but they cannot afford the sufficient food in spite of their hard work. Almost all people used to have meal 2 times a day in terms of curry and vegetable they used to have potato, Musur dal, Masyaura made by soyabean, rice.

The average family income is not more than 300 per day which is very difficult to manage their daily meal and other expenses like clothing, electricity (if they have), rent etc. However the different has supported their family for children education only but the children could not have his/ her meal at time because their parents goes to work for whole day and they have to cook by themselves. Due to this children are suffering from headaches, stomachache, lack of concentration in studies etc. as per teacher from Jana Jagriti Madhyamik Vidyalaya.

The condition of old aged people is pathetic as they cannot earn for their living and they have to completely depend upon their children. And in case they do not have children then they have to suffer from hunger situation. For example, Mr. Dhan Bahadur Ghale, who is 80 years old lives with his wife, has not been able to feed them rice since 2 months ago. Also he could not get the monthly old age allowance from government because he lost his citizenship card and he does not have made copy of it.

There is a program which is related to safe drinking water but it has not been completed yet and people have to depend upon the underground water. But water has not been tested by any authority whether it is safe to drink or not. And the community people said that the water is not safe for drinking and due to this they suffer from diarrhea often in summer season.

They do not have access to local forest and electricity. They are not allowed to take firewood from the adjacent village so they have to buy from the local market and it costs around 170-200 per bunch which is enough for 3 days.

The local NGO has supported for their children education, health campaign, women empowerment and sustainable income generation i.e. pig farming. According to the community people, since the pig farm and the family house is very much close about 3 meters which might be one of the reason for seasonal diseases. There is no any direct governmental intervention for supporting the community people and even the government has not information about their situation and record of labor workers.

It is observed that the people started migrate here from different districts since 18 years ago in search of employment. And it is found that most of the people do not have their citizenship because of this they are not eligible to get allowance widow and old age pension provided by the government. They are isolated from the other community and not involved in any development aspect of the local area. It is noted that there is less stones left in the river which could cause the lack of employment for the people and contractor ask them to leave this place but they are not in position to leave the place because their children are studying in the village and if they migrate from there their children have to leave the school as well.

It is also figured out that the payment rate to the labors and their effort in the job does not match. It can be said that they are being paid very low comparing with their effort.

Nepal is a state party to Economical, Social and Cultural Rights the state has duty to guarantee every citizen’s right to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions mentioned in Article 11 and General Comment 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Labour Regulations 1993 & Trade Union Regulations 1993 have also been fetching out to implement the objectives and provisions of the two Acts. Others are Bonus Act 1973 and Foreign Employment Act 1985 in this regard. The Labor Act 1992 is formulated only formal sector workers and hence the enormous workforce people working informal sector of the country in unorganized has been excluded & neglected.

A few provisions of social security have been included in the Labour Act 1992 in terms of formal sector like sick leave, maternity leave of 45 days, workmen’s compensation, provident fund & gratuity as the old age benefit, and some OSH provisions. Childcare centres, canteen and welfare officer in every enterprise are other provisions. Moreover, the responsibility of these provisions is solely left to the employers. The schemes of social insurance or security based on funds created by the tripartite contributions of workers, employers and the government is non-existent. Thus, we are in a phase of infancy with regard to social security.

Therefore the FIAN Nepal urges to:
• The government should an inquiry be conducted to realistically assess the living conditions, housing condition and paid and their social security and citizenship problem
• The Government should protect their residence
• The government also undertakes an inquiry concerning the functioning of the District Medical Officer (DMO) of Dhading in relation to the starvation health problem reported from the district.