Many of them have admitted that they were coaxed to convert their religion while others argued that they were compelled to change their religions after having suffered from various social ills related to livelihood, health and discrimination.Premlal Badi, a local, has been following Christianity since the last two years. By adopting Christianity, he expected to get rid of his financial problems.
"Is there anyone to take care of poor people like us?" he questioned, adding, "We converted our religion to Christianity with a view to get our financial problems resolved."
Some of them even said that they adopted Christianity due to various health problems. They have been given assurance that their illness would be healed by adopting Christianity. Many of them who are unable to afford their treatment have been lured to convert to Christianity. One of them is Shankar Nepali, whose four-year-old son Siben was born disabled.
"As my son could not walk, I was assured that he would walk after I adopted Christianity," Nepali said.
After some days, his son's health condition improved and started to walk. But his mental health is yet to improve and he cannot speak yet.
"It might be a coincidence that my son started walking after I converted to Christianity," Nepali said. "But I have no choice but to believe that all this happened after adopting Christianity." The Nepali family has been following Christianity since the last six years.
Owing to existing discrimination against their community, they have been attracted to Christianity, said an elderly Rudra Bahadur Badi. According to him, there is caste-based discrimination among those following the Hindu religion.
"We are not treated like humans. After being fed up with such discrimination, we changed our religion," he said. "Even Dalits discriminate us."
However, some locals denied that they have been induced to change their religion. "I've changed my religion into Christianity with a belief that we'll be free from every sin after death."
After the Badi community adopted Christianity, some positive changes have been seen in the community, according to the locals. Giving up bad habits such as drinking alcohol, smoking, playing cards and involvement in wrongdoings are some of the noticeable changes.
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