Damak (Jhapa) 26 January: 41-year-old Pitambar Khadka of Mangalbare, Kamal Rural Municipality-5, here is unable to walk. Despite his physical disability, he has now become self-employed. Having become disabled due to a problem with one of his legs at a young age, he found it difficult to meet his basic daily needs due to lack of income. Seeing his friends earning money, he also wanted to join in the income generation.
The institutional efforts of Kamal Apangta Samiti to fulfill the wishes of him and others like him have now taken shape. The committee is currently producing Kamal Organic Soap. The enterprise is operating as a micro-enterprise in Kamal Rural Municipality-2, Topgachhi and Kamal Rural Municipality-6, Lakhanpur.
Kamal Rural Municipality, in coordination with the Kamal Disability Committee, had taught the skills of making materials like soap, harpic, and phenol to the disabled just a year ago. Through the same training, the municipality has also provided seed capital of Rs 30,000 for entrepreneurship. From that capital, 50 disabled people have been professionally involved in entrepreneurship, informed Pitambar Khadka, chairman of the committee.
“We were confused about what kind of income we should generate ourselves? How to become entrepreneurs. After the rural municipality provided 15 days of basic training in this regard, we started the enterprise,” said Khadka. “This small enterprise has helped connect the target community like us with income generation, and the perspective on people with disabilities is also changing.”
According to him, household items prepared by institutionally disabled people have started reaching shops and markets. Consumers have also preferred the items produced by them. He said that soap has been prepared by collecting natural herbs such as basil and neem leaves found in villages and is being developed as a ‘branding’.
Lanka Bahadur Khadka, a resident of Kamal Rural Municipality-6 and secretary of the Kamal Disability Committee, is also unable to walk easily. Khadka, who is financially weak, had a different view from society despite his disability. However, in recent years, he has been driving an electric city safari with the help of his hands.
He complains that many passengers are reluctant to board the safari due to their physical disabilities. Along with running the city safari, he is also currently involved in the soap micro-industry. He says that this enterprise has inspired him to believe that people with disabilities can also earn an income in the society.
He says that the support received from the local government and various organizations working in the field of disability has encouraged them to become self-employed by joining the livelihood sector. They have been producing household items for daily use, including incense sticks, brooms, coconut brooms, harpic, fennel, and soap.
Similarly, people with disabilities in Damak Municipality have also started becoming self-employed by running various enterprises. Parbata Shrestha, who has been working in the field of disability rights in Damak-9 for the last ten years to make such targeted people financially strong, said. Shrestha, who is also the former president of the National Disability Federation Nepal Koshi Province, informed that she has been operating the Entrepreneurial Disability Hojiyari Micro-Industry for two years to make people with disabilities self-employed. She says that currently 12 people have been employed in her industry. The micro-industry is operating in Damak-8.
Mukesh Santaraj, who has been making stone tools and millstones in Damak-6 for over three decades, is another source of inspiration for people with disabilities. He has opened ‘Mukesh Shilalekh’ and has been making stone tools and millstones, providing employment not only to himself but also to five other people.
His entire family depends on this inscription and has been running a business from it, having built a house in Sayapatri Tole, Damak-7. He says, “We have the courage to say that we can compete with others by giving opportunities to the disabled, not mercy or love.”
According to the latest statistics, there are about 23,988 people with disabilities in all 15 local levels of Jhapa. Madan Kumar Bohora, coordinator of the National Federation of the Disabled Nepal, Koshi Province, says that the products produced by people with disabilities have to compete a lot to find a market.
He says, “Even if all three levels of government support people with disabilities, it is still a challenge for the target community to become strong until access for people with disabilities is ensured through policy.”
Kamal Rural Municipality Chairman Hukum Singh Rai said that the local government has encouraged people with disabilities to join the ranks of income-generating organizations in various entrepreneurial sectors. He believes that people with disabilities are gradually joining the society and this will help in social transformation. He said, “The local government has been providing support in various ways to economically empower and entrepreneurship these communities that are excluded from society.”
To ensure the right to life of persons with disabilities, the Koshi State Government, in collaboration with Karuna Foundation, is running a disability prevention and rehabilitation program in 30 local levels of Jhapa, Taplejung and Tehrathum. The program includes identifying the needs of such persons and distributing identity cards at the local level of the district to each ward, as well as conducting health examinations through technicians such as ophthalmologists/ophthalmotechnicians (to examine the eyes), audiologists/audiometrists (to examine the ears), physiotherapists, clinical psychologists and others, as well as measuring and checking the necessary assistive devices.
