Poverty Stricken Region

Martadi the district headquarter of Bajura in Far- Western Development Region is one of the most remote areas of the country. The region can be called as the dark place as the people around there have not been able to sense development yet. Only few people travel to these areas and people outside of this region have very little idea about these places. The rugged land-form, infertile soil, illiteracy and poverty has been has been acting as a curse for the people dwelling in this district.

The district is unexplored by many people hence this anomaly encouraged me to visit this place. It took three days and four nights of driving on a private vehicle to reach the place. Driving was fun but very tedious and hectic. The highway passes through deep and dense forest and occasionally there are mountains popping up at places. You can encounter wild animals crossing the highway. Women carrying fodders in their back with green hills as a background will catch your eye sight. At an interval of 5-6 hours of driving on the highway, you will see beautiful village. At every village there are people waiting in the highway and waving with an expectation to get a ride to next village. The bus service is there on the highway but they usually arrive at very long interval.

The driving is fun until there is black topped road. When the country road arrives that is full of stones, pot holes and dust, the rides get tougher. The narrow roads with steep cliffs on the side makes driving more adventurous. Being for the first time with no idea of which road leading where makes travelling ads more flavor to the adventure.

Once reached the village after 7 hours of hike from the road then you experience the real poverty. The village seems to be abandoned by the youngsters. All these people have gone to boarder cities of India to earn money. The women are working on the field which gives minimum or no yield. The children are lying unattended playing with some muds and dirt. The clothes that they were wearing were worn out and had patches. People had to walk all day to get cooking oil and spices. You can rarely see people wearing slippers as most of them walk without them.

The houses are small, dark and dingy with no electricity and drinking water. People had to walk for hours to get a jar of water. There are no toilets and open deficiency was long practiced and no signs of not doing. People still rely on superstitious doctor to treat them when they are ill.

The stay for 2 days was very difficult for us and imagined how difficult it was for them when they were living whole life in this style.