Where aged citizens await twilight years with loneliness

(Dhruba Sagar Sharma) Galeshwor (Myagdi), Nov 1: The five days during the Dashain remained special for octogenarian Man Bahadur Ghimire of Bagarphant of Beni municipality-2 in Myagdi. The 85-year-old observed a heartwarming family reunion as his son’s family from Pokhara visited him in this Dashain. His son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren came to Myagdi to celebrate Dashain, bringing immense joy to Ghimire. They spent quality time together, creating cherished memories. However, they returned to Pokhara after the festival celebrations. Ghimire’s joy gave way to a sense of loneliness. Ghimire, who is single after the passing away of his spouse, faces no difficulties in addressing his materialistic needs. Nevertheless, he feels a deep void in his heart for being alone at home.

His son and daughter-in-law consistently urge him to move to Pokhara with them. But his heart resists the call. He has as abundant love for the place where he grew up and spent his memorable days, believing that “home is where the heart is”. Khadga Bahadur Ghimire, 86; Bed Prasad Upadhyay, 88; Khadga Bahadur Thapa, 99, and Tek Bahadur Karki, 79, share similar experiences with Man Bahadur. Some of them have become separated from their children due to foreign employment, while others are living with the immense pain of losing their children. Bed Prasad is still grieving the loss of his 36-year-old son, who passed away from COVID-19 four years ago.

His son, who used to be involved in trade at Beni Bazaar, succumbed to the pandemic. Another son has been out of contact with the family for five years now. He had left for the UAE for employment but lost contact with the family during that time while his daughter-in-law resides at her maternal home. Ghimire, Upadhyay, Thapa and Karki are merely representatives of elderly citizens who are patiently awaiting the arrival of their twilight years in the village, with a heavy heart. Tek Bahadur Siuthani Magar, a resident of Malika rural municipality-6, expressed his concern that the village has been slowly turning into a community of senior residents.

The village, once vibrant and lively during the Dashain festival, with the influx of young people from urban areas and overseas, has now grown relatively calm as they have already returned to their respective places. One hundred nine people of 26 families reside in Chhisbang of Mangala Rural Municipality-5 in West Myagdi. Most of them are elderly and school-age children. There are 169 houses at Bagarphanta of Beni Municipality-2. There are infrastructural facility and many opportunities of agriculture, animal husbandry and self-employment in Bagarphanta village that adjoins the district headquarters Beni.

However, local youths seem uninterested and have flown to foreign countries including the United States, Australia, Japan and Canada for employments. Similarly, there are many local youths who have gone to the Gulf for employment opportunities. The remaining have left villages to cities in Nepal. The atmosphere in the village turned festive when a group of five local youths returned home from Japan to celebrate the Dashain festival, said a local Sunil Thapa. Thapa, who permanently returned home from a job in Japan, is engaged in a business. Now, only 12 youths including Thapa are in the village.

Of them, seven are arranging for going abroad for jobs, he said. The number of elderly people between 60 to 99 years of age exceeds 200. Women and school-age children are a majority in the village. The number of youths is low in the village, admits another local Tek Bahadur Karki. “Only elderly people are in the villages. There are not people in the villages during emergency when they are needed to attend funeral rites and take ill people to hospital,” he said. Most of village youths abroad despite facilities back home Myagdi saw a surge in its physical infrastructure development after the then CPN Maoist which was waging an armed rebellion attacked Beni in 2060 BS, the district headquarters of Myagdi.

It was after this that the construction of development infrastructures increased. Although the services and facilities mostly found in urban areas became accessible in the villages due to the expansion of roads and communication facilities, the exodus of local youths for foreign employment did not subside. As per the latest population census, the district has a population of 107,033 and the number of households is 28,830. In the previous census conducted in 2011, the district had a population of 113,641 and the number of households was 27,762. A comparison of the population size in the district in the two censuses shows that although the number of households has increased the population has decreased.

The number of males is 52,153 and that of females 54,880. The average size of the family is 3.71 and the gender ratio is 95.03 per 100 women. The population density is 47 per square kilometre. The annual population growth rate is minus 0.57 percent. The number of absentee population in the 2011 census was 8,320 and it is 10,766 as per the latest 2021census. These days the villages in the district are mostly populated by the older persons as the youths have left for foreign jobs or migrated to the urban areas in search of work. As the villages are devoid of the youth population, it is difficult to find farm workers and workers for other purposes as well. The villages are also losing their culture and traditions as there are almost no youths to give continuity to these.