Ten visually-impaired and two differently-abled persons gather in a ramshackle hut in Kirtipur, Kathmandu and prepare incense sticks."We just ignore our physical situation and concentrate on the work," said Ram Bahadur Mukhiya, chairman of the Nepal Disabled Service Committee (NDSC). "We earn at least Rs 8,000 every month by selling incense sticks door-to-door," he added.
The NDSC was established two years ago to encourage disabled people to be independent, according to them.
"Even though the government has ignored us, we doing our best to earn money and sustain ourselves," said 35-year old Mukhiya.
The business was established with a loan of Rs 400,000 and they have spent additional Rs 200,000 to build a five-room hut. They have been paying the installment on the loan from their monthly earning.
"It is hard for us to make more than 200 incenses per day. We faced different problems such as lack of disabled-friendly transportation and machines," said Subarna Manandhar, 32, a worker at NDSC.
He further said they travel to different places to collect raw materials. "We mostly manage to get the materials from Ason market in Kathmandu," he added.
There are many organizations working for disabled people but none of the NGOs and INGOs has come forward to support them.
Although they have taken part in several training provided by NGOs, they could never get a job based on that training.
"Since we could not get any job in the market, we started our own business and that has changed our life and made us happy," they said.
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