Photo credit: New York Times
As campaigning intensifies in villages and towns across the country ahead of the House of Representatives elections scheduled for March 5, political parties and candidates are busy canvassing votes.
The Kathmandu Post reports that at the border crossings in Sudurpaschim province, a different scene unfolds. Instead of election enthusiasm,men and women are hurrying across the Nepal-India border in search of work, unsure if they will return on election day to cast their ballots.
At Gaddachauki border point in Kanchanpur district, groups of young men carrying small bags waited to cross, their concerns centred less on politics than on survival. For most of them the choice is not between candidates but between earning and staying unemployed at home.
“I wish I could vote before leaving. But everyone from the village is going now. If we don’t reach on time, we may lose the work,” said Sushil Chaudhary from Geruwa Rural Municipality in Bardiya who was travelling with five other youths to India.
Sushi and his companions had returned home in the first week to celebrate Maghi, the biggest festival of the Tharu community. But they were now heading back to India for daily wage labour on bridge construction sites. According to Subas Chaudhary, one of Sushil’s friends in the group, more than 150 Nepalis from Dhukaniya and Shantipur settlements of their ward alone are working in Mandi.
For many migrant workers, the timing of the election has deepened a familiar dilemma. “We want to stay and vote in our own village. But leaders have not created jobs here. If we could earn in Nepal, we wouldn’t have to go to India or countries in the Gulf,” lamented Sohanlal Chaudhary, also from Geruva.
For the past few months, the Armed Police Force (APF) has been maintaining records at border crossings in Kailali and Kanchanpur of those people travelling to India, particularly workers heading to distant destinations i n search of employment. APF officials say the flow of labour migrants has increased in recent weeks despite the election fever gripping the country.
