Birgunj Poor: Living In The Shadow Of Wealth

-Prem Khatry(The rising Nepal,National Daily) There is a saying in Kathmandu: Government officials in Kathmandu and other districts tend to like the very hot and humid climate of Birgunj and ask for a transfer there. Nay, they even use all means – good and bad – to have it done. The reason (let us hope) is: you can do hard work till mid-day break in Nepal and have a tea/snack in India and still can come to the desk within half an hour, without the knowledge of your hakim (Chief), that is. The growing feeling of insecurity may have its impact on the employees and visitors now. Yet, Birgunj has the reputation of being the largest revenue earner of Nepal. With an open border, the challenges are equally great for the revenue collectors. Yet some disturbances in the collection for some days or weeks, can keep the nation’s treasury thin. Birgunj is indeed the major bread-winner of Nepal. The Municipality of Birgunj itself writes a big pay check – 8 million rupees every month. It is a big amount indeed. Its huge work force is always on the move. The slums and squatters A considerable part of this work force lives in a very unhygienic situation – the slums and squatters and the city has many of them. There are very poor and dirty settlements right under the shadow of the well planned and rich Adarshanagar, the hub of modern market activities in the city, for example. How many slums (jhuggis as they call in Terai) are there in Birgunj, any way? It will take time and resources to do the calculation and the municipality may or may not have the updated data. But a cursory look of the city showed scores of them living in a very vulnerable, substandard situation. The PADECO and METCON teams working for an ADB TA/2009 found several in one ward, for example. The size of the household ranged from 25-30 with 150 headcounts to more than 200 households and 800 to 1000 population. As the city growth continues unabated and new rural migrants as well as foreigners land in the city, the poorest of the poor have no choice than to shy away from civilization and find new location in some neglected, unused parts of the city. This may be true of the squatters. Changing life Birgunj slums have their specific problems in terms of residential status. The case of Shanti tol was classic. The 150 dom population sheltered around the umbrella of an estate. The population must have been much smaller in the past. Over the years, they built about 30 little thatch-mud huts on the edge of the huge estate nearby. The estate owner finally decided to sacrifice about five kathas of land for their huts as their tenancy rights share. What was the size of the estate and what percentage of it was given to the tenants is another question. That the landless got the land and could find a roof above their head was the vital question. Now Lumanti, a Kathmandu based NGO is encouraging these people to give a new face to the new settlement through a very soft loan scheme to construct two- room brick houses – total 30 in a row – with a community building, a road link for the settlement, water pumps and a drain. Many other slums in Chhapkaiya, Bhagawati tol (Adarshanagar), Ranighat, Bhediyahi, etc. will have to wait longer for such a plan for the poor. With the concerted effort like the Lumanti’s and a good size budget can bring in some change in the quality of life of the poverty stricken population of the rich city. As far as improving the quality of life of the urban poor is concerned, Lumanti is doing extremely well and is very popular among the slum poor. It is doing more than just sharing the burden of the local, or for that matter, of the central government. At a time when these governments face uncertainty, instability, threats and confusion, non-government organizations like Lumanti seem to ignore the uncertainty and push the programme forward to let it take its due course. Lumanti here in Birgunj has made 100s of poor, destitute and marginalized households its target with life improving social and economic packages. Slum and squatter settlers have seen Lumanti as their true friend in need. "It wasn’t easy bringing these downtrodden people to the support package in the beginning," says Yagya Karki, the Coordinator of Birgunj branch of Lumanti, "But once the ice tip was broken, then the mutual trust and understanding not only formed but continued to develop rapidly, it made a quantum jump. People were enthusiastic to discuss and reflect on what could be done together, with their active participation. Today, these people are not afraid of small loan; they talk of future plans to educate their children, build a small house, or buy a horse cart or a rikshaw." "It is a revolution for them,’" adds Arati, who is accompanying Yagya to share his life and responsibility and is busy improving the transaction of their co-op. Now flawless and fluent in Bhojpuri, Arati is mostly observed in the middle of women whose life was behind the purdah until five years ago. Today, they talk business – small in quantity but productive in nature. A model fund Recently Lumanti and the municipality have created a joint fund - the Urban Community Support Fund (UCSF) - of 1.4 million rupees (putting 50/50 each) most of which will go for small credit. "And believe it, the return is highly satisfactory," Arati hastens to explain. Soon, the Dom of Shantinagar (the erstwhile dom tol) will have 30 new houses using 95 dhur (1 katha = 20 dhur) 5 in a row. Ram Chandra, their Mukhiya (Chief) remarks, ‘Fine and good, we are ready to replace all these damp, dirty looking huts with two-room pukka (brick) houses but in the process I will lose two dhurs of land, don’t I?’ To this, Yagya has a quick response – "Just think of the new life and compare that with what you all are at now. Are you still sad?" Ram Chandra lowers his head in shame. If slum and poverty problems are tackled gradually in the leadership of the people themselves and organizations like Lumanti and the municipality share responsibility to rehabilitate them taking a back seat with plans and guidance, all the slums and squatters of the city will have a new face in no time. Altogether, there are 17 such tols (blocks/settlements) in deprivation amounting to more than 8000 population according to one estimate. Lumanti is doing its best to bring about an observable change in their life. What Lumanti is doing is the best example of social mobilization and every town must have a social mobilization unit led by a qualified and trained persons in their administrative structure set. According to Prakash Amatya, a senior engineer of the municipality and now the acting CEO and the Lumanti Chief Yagya Karki, UCSF of 1.4 million rupees is in the form of a basket fund where interested organizations can also put their support in to further strengthening the municipality-Lumanti collaboration in the interest of the urban poor and slum/squatter dwellers. It is a model other municipalities may think of adapting to their situation for the welfare of the poor and the marginalized. With a little upward push, this population could be converted into a viable workforce to make the city clean, to run the industries and do host of other economically productive chores. This is the most appropriate way of reducing the poverty incidence in the city and could very well be an agenda of community development sub-project for the ADB and other donor agencies in the future.