By Our Correspondent
Siraha, Nov. 22: A small and poor locality situated around 200 meters south of Siraha road of Musaharniya Chowk along the East-West Highway is popularly known as a Musahar settlement.
Anyone who reaches the small settlement of Dhangadhimai Municipality-9 feels that he/she has arrived at a remote place.
The settlement is not connected with the road facility even though it is located near the East-West Highway. Facility of electricity and drinking water are still beyond the imagination of the poor people.
The people have to walk through the farm land of a landlord to reach their settlement. The Musahar settlement developed 35 years ago has 32 households of Musahars and a house of Mochi (cobbler).
In the lack of road connectivity, even a rickshaw cannot reach the village to carry a patient to the nearby hospital.
Showing the soil coated wall and thatched roof of his house, 59- year-old Kusma Sadraya said that the landlords utilized them as their bonded labourers.
“There is no facility of drinking water in the settlement and we have to fetch water from a neighbouring village. The houses in the neighbouring villages get illuminated as they have power supply, but we need to use oil-fed lamp in the night,” he said.
Working as farm labourers in the landlords land is the only means of livelihood for all people of this village.
They urged everyone who reached their settlement to provide the facilities of road, drinking water and electricity, but in vain.
“The political leaders have cheated us, and the municipality has done nothing to improve our living standard,” said Prakash Sadaya, a local.
They are also deprived of the common facilities provided by the state.
Under the Haruwa Charua Empowerment Programme, some adults got citizenship certificates. Community Development Munch has organised a door-to-door programme to register the names of the villagers for citizenship and birth certificates. It was during this campaign it came to light that the adults here were without citizenship certificates.
Under empowerment programme, the Community Development Munch had launched a campaign for goat-rearing and income-oriented skills. After starting the income-oriented business like goat-rearing, many people stopped visiting the landlords asking for loans.