Salyan
Every day, a group of women gathers at the Jhirmare river near Tharmare in Salyan’s Tharmare-Badagaon-Chaurjahari Khadakkhand. They carry bamboo carriers (doko) on their backs and hold clubs and hammers in their hands. Every day they are busy breaking stones to make gravel.
It has been a long time since they crushed the gravel on the side of the road. Some have been crushing gravel for two to four years, while others have for two to four months. A group of 6/7 people is crushing ballast to ensure their next meal.
Kevali Bohra of Bagchaur Municipality-2 also has gathered for the same reason. Kevali works at home in the morning and evening and spends her afternoons crushing gravel.
Mankali Budhathoki, another local, says that up to four to five tractors of ballast can be made in a month by crushing stones daily. “There is not much free time for housework, sometimes it takes a month to make one tractor of ballast, but if you come every day, you can fill up to four or five tractors in a month,” she said.
They say that although it took a long time to grind the ballast, they did not get the price as expected. Now a tractor ballast is being sold for Rs. rupees. They have been earning a monthly minimum of Rs 3,000 to 10,000.
Another local, Maima Bohra, complains that they do not get enough price for the crushed stone. I have to sit all day to beat the ballast, my back and hands hurt, and the hands are full of water, not to mention the sweat, but the price of the ballast is not as expected, now everything is expensive, the price of a tractor of ballast would have been up to 4,000 / 4,500,’.
Women who break stones are proud of what they do. They are not ashamed of their work. A woman said, ‘What is the shame of earning your living? I am a person who has suffered since childhood. My time will be used well and the income will also be earned.’
Women here have become exemplary for individuals who think they can earn money only through foreign employment. Crushed gravel from here goes to Jimali through Tharmare, Bagchaur, Pipalneta, Damachour, Kharibot, and Bangelakuri. The money that came from crushing the gravel is used to buy meals to pay loan installments. However, the workers talk about how difficult it is to work when the system is unorganized. They say it will be easier if the government facilitates and prioritizes self-employment projects.