Famine Hits Kalikot Villages Hard
Karnali Messenger-Karnali Forum for Sustainable development
THT Online
Nepalgunj, March 10
The shortage of food in the villages of Kalikot district has forced
youths to leave their homes in search of livelihood.
Except two youths, there are only children and elderly people at
Dhaulagaha village due to drought for the last 18 months.
Dhir Bahadur Bam, who arrived in Nepalgunj to ask for relief, said: "Me
and my friend Bishnu Raj are the only youths in the village; others
have gone either to urban areas or India. We are living in the village
to help the villagers in emergency," he said at a press conference
organised in Nepalgunj yesterday.
"Both the government and the Maoists have neglected our village," said
Bishnu Raj.
They have come to Nepalgunj in search of relief assistance after some
five VDCs in Patala area, 140 km away from Nepalgunj, faced shortage of
food because of drought.
Dhaulagaha, Khin, Thirpu, Ramnakot and Ranikot are the severely
affected VDCs, where 26,000 people live. Twenty-nine families at
Dhaulagaha have already been displaced due to starvation, they said.
The people in the region started facing food shortage after Thirpu Food
Depot of the Nepal Food Corporation closed in 2001.
At the press meet, they urged the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) to provide food for them.
They also submitted an application to the Regional Administration
Office (Surkhet) and NHRC Nepalgunj Office to provide food in their
villages.
Disease and starvation claimed the lives 45 children in Kalikot in
2003, said Devraj Rokka, coordinator of the Karnali Integrated Rural
Research Centre.