Galkot (Bagalung), 14 November: Santosh Bishwakarma has a small aran business in the ghumti of Madhyapahadi Pushpalal highway. 41-year-old Santosh, who has been doing aran business in Baglung Municipality-4 Upallachaur, is happy to be able to take over his predecessor’s aran business.
Santosh, who went to India for employment at the young age of 16, returned from there and joined the profession of his forefather and says that he is satisfied with it. “Even after working for a long time in India, I could not earn as much as I was told. I am currently working in Nepal. Carrying on the profession of his ancestors gives more satisfaction than money”, he says.
Bishwakarma, resident of Baglung Municipality-9 Tityang, said that he was earning good income by driving plows. He said that he earned money in the country by learning how to make silt for 10 years in India. “I worked in India for 10 years in a company that made silt. It was very sad to have to work for 16 hours. Earnings were not much but I learned how to work. I also worked in India for a few years as a seller of cement made of clay. After losing business, I returned to Nepal. There was no income in the village before due to pay corn(Balighare) system, but after the decline of Baglung market, I got the price of labor.
Santosh is happy to be able to work in his own country. He says that even though Saathibhai has gone to different countries for employment, he did not want to go abroad after returning from India. “I am very happy with Aran business, I can communicate openly with everyone here, there is a language problem in other places, even though I have not been to a big country, the iron, copper and silt produced by me have reached Japan, America and other countries”, Vishwakarma said, “Now copper is used for decoration. There is a lot of demand for rent, the practice of drinking water for copper rent has returned, the practice of buying and sending materials even abroad for gifts and relatives has boosted business.”
Santosh said that there is no shortage of market for the materials such as hasia, bauso, khukuri produced. It is his experience that there is no problem in the market if we can produce various materials of iron, copper and silt. Vishwakarma informed that most of the weapons and hand weapons produced by him are sold from Aran and Dadu, Panyu, Dab, Khukuri, Axe, sickle are sold more.
Vishwakarma complains that the local government is not very interested in his products. He said that the support of the government is necessary to protect the traditional profession and to attract the youth towards it. Vishwakarma expressed his concern that there has been a problem of not finding people to work recently and that the profession has become extinct due to lack of generational transfer. “Nowadays, there are no working people, the latest generation is infatuated with foreign countries, they say that they will go abroad to earn money. If the local government pays attention to the protection of traditional professions, modernization and encouragement of the profession, good things can be done here”, he said.
