No youths to carry village dead to cremation

MIRLONG, Tanahun, Jan 9: The locals of Mirlong Village Development Committee in Tanahun district face a unique problem. They are not able to cremate their dead on time due to a shortage of local youths to carry the bodies to the cremation site.



The elderly in Mirlong VDC, following the acute shortage of youths in the village, have carried out funeral processions using a motor vehicle. Locals pay up to Rs 12,000 to hire the vehicle for taking a dead body to cremation. They have already held five funeral processions in this fashion. The dead have to be taken 20 kilometers for the cremation. [break]



“But sometimes we don´t find a vehicle and have to leave a body uncremated till a vehicle is available,” a local activist, Hari Prasad Ghimire, told myrepublica.com.



Several attempts by elderly folks to carry the dead themselves have failed. “We cannot carry dead bodies as we are physically weak and it is a long distance to the cremation site,” said elderly Hem Bahadur Neupane.



To add to their worry, even hiring a vehicle has become a problem for poorer families who cannot afford the only jeep available. The dead of such families have till now been taken to cremation with the support of well-off locals. But the few well-to-do in the village worry for how long they can extend such help.



“Hundreds of youths have left the village. Most of them go abroad in search of work. We have also heard about vehicle use for funeral processions,” said Surya Badan Pandit, planning and administrative officer at the District Development Committee, Tanahun.



Mirlong village has 1,496 households. According to DDC data, the total population is estimated to be 9,111.



“About 600 youths have gone abroad for work,” Pandit told myrepublica.com.



Many have gone to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. “The village has been left without any young people and important occasions like funerals are badly affected by their absence,” said another elderly man, Dan Bahadur Gurung.



According to government data, the number of youths seeking foreign employment is rising. “Our rough data shows that nearly 600 people leave the country every day for foreign employment,” said Mohan Sapkota, Director General at the Department of Foreign Employment. He added, “Most of them go to Gulf countries.”

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