Source::RSS
RSS
It is exactly two months since Ghanshyam Kori of Bankegaon, Nepalgunj-9 stopped operating his electric three-wheeler. Kori's family of five depends on him for sustenance and has been pushed on the verge of hunger due to the extended lockdown. The family lives in a rented room. This family, whose only means of income was the operation of the auto-rickshaw, is now on hand-to-mouth existence. With no earning in the last two months, Kori's wife, Laxmi, has started working as domestic help for other families. She has been doing dishes and washing clothes for others to make ends meet.
Kori's family is just another a representative case of around 10 thousand families of rickshaw drivers who have been left high and dry due to the lockdown. Nearly 10,000 e-rickshaws are in operation in Banke district, said Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City deputy mayor, Uma Thapa Magar. The extended lockdown has not only taken away their daily earning, the lockdown has also given them mental stress: how to feed the family.
"I have now run out of whatever money I had saved. Even the money I borrowed from friends and relatives is finished. My family will die of hunger if I do not operate my rickshaw," said Mohammad Hamid Idrisi of Nepalgunj-13, who was seen with his rickshaw outside on the road waiting for passengers. He had taken out his rickshaw despite the lockdown.
It is not easy even for the rickshaw drivers who muster courage and choose to operate their rickshaw as they are frequently stopped at many places by security personnel and also because the passengers are reluctant to ride on the rickshaw for fear of contracting coronavirus.
The rickshaw drivers say that although the ward offices of the local levels in the district provided rice, lentils, cooking oil and salt in the initial days of the lockdown, they have stopped providing it now. "We would not have to take risk and go out to operate our rickshaws if we were provided with food grain as relief support enough to last for the lockdown," Idris explained his predicament.
ALSO READ:
https://nepaltraveller.com/news/jumla-local-levels-having-hard-time-managing-quarantine
https://nepaltraveller.com/news/lockdowns-ease-across-europe-asia-with-new-tourism-rules
https://nepaltraveller.com/news/kmc-starts-construction-of-overhead-bridge-amidst-lockdown
https://nepaltraveller.com/news/25-coronavirus-recovered-discharged-from-hospital
