COVID19
News
1 MIN READ
Due to the closed border, a migrant worker is unable to fulfill his funeral duties upon his mother’s death
Basudev Bhatta, a migrant worker, shares his condition as he is forced to mourn the death of his mother in quarantine across the border. As told to Kiran Dhami.
My name is Basudev Bhatta. I am a resident of Shailyashikhar rural municipality in the district of Darchula. For the last three months, I have been working in road construction at Ghatikhola in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand.
On 27 March, we decided to return as we had no more work due to the coronavirus. We weren’t getting paid and it was becoming harder to survive. I arrived along with several others on 30 March at the border to find that it was already closed. We pleaded with security personnel to let us in but they didn’t listen. We were left stranded without food or water and Indian officials came forward to help only much later. We have been kept in quarantine ever since.
Five days ago, my mother, Gautami Bhatta, died. She was 65 years old and passed away from a heart attack. Her health had been suffering and she was worried about me and my brother who still remains stranded in Bangalore. As soon as I found out about her death, I tried calling people up and requesting authorities to let me cross the border. So far, I have talked to our mayor and ward chairman back home and to many journalists. They said that I would be allowed to return, but I’m still here. I have even filed a complaint on the police helpline. No matter how many times I tried to call the chief district officer, he wouldn’t take my call.
I am the oldest of five brothers. With two of us brothers still in India, only the youngest three are at home to do the final rites. My mother carried me in her womb for nine months and raised me. Today, look at my condition. I couldn’t even mourn my mother’s death properly. Is it not my right to mourn my mother’s death?
I don’t know what to say to a government that doesn’t understand the plight of its citizens. I would like to thank the two-thirds government. Let them thrive and prosper as we suffer.
:::::::::::
Features
3 min read
Save for a rare royal Himalayan expedition, the mountaineering sector has seen next to no climbers during the Covid-19 crisis
Features
7 min read
Schools in Nepal continue to police gender, reinforcing the gender binary while promoting victim blaming and rape culture.
Opinions
6 min read
We don’t understand how China actually views Nepal-India relations
Perspectives
9 min read
Can the face of the Citizen’s Movement be that of the subaltern collective, one that disrupts the elite history of the nation-state?
Features
6 min read
A recently released parliamentary report points out many lapses in how the police handled the recent murders of Dalits in Rukum
Culture
5 min read
How a Facebook group called “Subtle Nepali Traits” is helping young people define what it is to be Nepali
Interviews
6 min read
Public health expert Sushil Koirala discusses concerns around Nepal’s plans for mass quarantining migrants
Explainers
2 min read
At least two memes are circulating on social media in Nepal praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for granting audience to a visually-impaired Russian teenager. Some of the claims made in the memes are false.
