With an empty stomach and no work to do, there is least one can do. And things were getting really rough for Subedi, who had lived off just water for two days straight. He then packed his bags and started a strenuous journey back home – walking three continuous days to get back to his family.[break]
Subedi is one of the many porters working at Indra Chowk for the last two decades.
“Sir, who has time to think for people like us – poor and uneducated people like us?” The expression on Subedi’s face made it clear that he had suffered a lot during the recent six-day shutdown in the country.
Subedi’s swollen feet has still not recovered and the hunger pangs of last week are still taking a toll on his lean physique. Despite suffering from physical illness, Subedi says it’s not the physical pain that’s bothering him; it’s the mental stress that troubles him the most.[break]
“Physical wounds will heal as time passes by but these wounds of the heart of the poor takes a toll to heal,” referring to how the strikes called by different political parties affect their livelihood the most, Subedi expressed to The Week his sorrow of being overlooked and exploited from all corners of society.
While the whole nation came to a halt last week and while the country was observing the International Labor Day on May 1 with political figures claiming to secure the laborer’s future in Nepal, laborers like Subedi and other bhariyas (porters) were hard hit.
When many urbanites and Kathmandu locals were worried of running out of their food stock, many of these porters in town had nothing to eat at all. While many in Kathmandu were complaining that they could not get a cup of tea in the morning because even milk products were not delivered, Subedi and fellow porters who earn their bread on daily basis did not even get a glass of clean water to drink.
Surprisingly, when the political parties were celebrating to commemorate the International Labor Day , many laborers were unaware of the celebrations. In fact, all that mattered to them was that they did not get to work on the very day because it was declared a public holiday.
“Celebrations and holidays are like nightmares for us. Please don’t give us celebrations, give us work or we’ll start starving,” Buddhiman Roka, a porter who has been working around the Basantpur Durbar Square for half a decade now told The Week.
Roka, popularly known as Nag Raj among him friends, went back to his hometown in Dhading immediately after the nationwide shutdown was announced.
“I was fortunate that I just had to walk for a day to reach my home. My friends in this profession really suffered in Kathmandu because their villages were really far from Kathmandu,” he explained and added, “After I returned to the city, I learnt that many of my friends had nothing to eat and drink. They somehow managed to survive on a cup of black tea and some cigarettes.”
Roka and his friends in Basantpur hardly care about the current political impasse in the country. They are not bothered who the prime minister of the country is or should be. All that matters to them is that their backs should not stop carrying goods; they shouldn’t be barred from practicing their profession everyday. Forget about stocking up on food, if people like Roka and Subedi take a day off, they have nothing to eat the next morning.
“While politicians will keep their horns locked and claim that they’re fighting for us, porters will keep dying and no one will even know about it, no tears will follow our demise,” Roka concluded and left as he had to deliver goods to Indra Chowk on tine.
Raj Kumar Karki, another porter in the capital, spent his time in his rented room in Sundhara throughout the banda. A bit clever than his mates in the profession, Karki did not have to go through difficult circumstances as his friends did because he had some savings with him.
“We’re in a profession in which, if we don’t save, we’ll die eventually,” he made it loud and clear.
“It would be foolish of us to expect anything from the government, from the locals or from anybody. We’re namles (porters), the most overlooked and exploited ones in society. But we don’t want to complain to anyone. We don’t want any unions to fight for us because the bitter truth is no one will do that selflessly. Just let us do what we do for our survival,” Karki enunciated and made it loud that if anybody will try to take away their bread and butter for whatsoever causes, there are chances that porters will join their hands to destroy everything.
“Don’t take us porters for granted. We don’t care about anything but our work. If we lose our temper, nobody will be able to stop the destruction,” Karki seemed frustrated.
Lale Magarati, one of Karki’s friends and a porter, however told The Week, “Saving money for porters is like building a castle of sand.”
“We earn 150 to 200 Rupees a day. A plate of rice and curry is 60 to 70 Rupees. So, two meals a day come to cost approximately 150 Rupees. And what about the money that we’ve to spend on tea and cigarettes? There’s nothing to save than the pain we all have within ourselves.
“It’s us who have to suffer always. And there is not a single ray of hope from any political parties. When even God is so cruel to us, how can we expect anything from selfish human beings?” Magarati questioned and headed for work.
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