”I sew torn hair to cure asthma”

”Most people of the Dalit community do not have much land, so they have to endure caste discrimination as they have to live on others.”

Ashad 29, 2082

Meema Damai

”I sew torn hair to cure asthma”

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As I have been suffering from asthma for five years, I cannot walk up and down. It seems that he spends time alone. As I was not able to go far, I spent 35,000 in the toddy market near my house and built a ghumti shop surrounded by zinc leaves. Sitting there, I sew the torn hair.

Because the wages are cheap, sometimes people come to sew new clothes. I am raising household expenses for the family of two wives, three sons and one daughter by doing this sewing. When I am suffering from asthma, I also use this same cloth to take medicine for sniffing . I sew torn hair to buy asthma medicine.

There is a house in Khadachakra-4, Damaibada . Now I am 52 years old. When she was only 19 years old, her mother died of asthma. Then the father brought in the younger wife . I was born from my mother's side. There are 5 siblings from the younger mother . Dad is now 73 years old. They live apart . Being the eldest son, I used to follow my father since childhood. When my father went to play the instrument, I used to go there . I didn't realize that I had to read it. As the school was in the village, I joined the then Janjivan School. 

Even when I went to school, I didn't know anything . I reached zenten 3rd grade . Scolded at home after failing. I would have studied if I could have been provided with anni (diva khaja, dalit scholarship, free books) in the school as it is now. I was hungry. I used to run away and come home . When I found out that my father had gone to someone's house in the village to play the instrument, he used to run away from school and reach there . After failing in school, I left school after my father told me that I could not teach.

I started playing the instrument in the Uchcha Maila (marriage, birth, fair procession and death) held in the village . At that time, there were no sewing machines like today. Learned to sew clothes with needle and thread . He used to play the instrument from a young age. I did the same thing for some time. 

After I was 13 years old, I chased away the 12-year-old Muga Nepali of Shubkalika-4 and married her. No children were born from him . Then I got married to Kali Damai at the age of 23. She has 3 children. I am teaching all my three sons with sadness. Eldest Raj 10th, Mahilo Daman is studying in 7th grade in Janjivan Mavi of the village .

The younger Darasingh is crippled in his legs . He is studying UKG at Advance Academy Boarding School near home . I rushed to Surkhet for 5 years to treat my youngest son's leg. Not sure . 5 lakh loan only. The business of Silaikatai only quadrupled . Eldest daughter studied upto 7th standard . After reaching 14 years, ran away and got married. Now a granddaughter and her husband live with me. 

It was difficult for me to feed myself while sewing clothes in the village, so at first I sat outside the clothes shop in Manm Bazar. Since then, after Karnali highway Surkhet-Jumla road came into operation from 065, I have been making my own tin tahro (ghumti) near the bus park of Tadi Bazar and working to sew new and old clothes . 

Before I used to pick and sew clothes by hand . Now the call (machine) has arrived . Earnings are good. Sometimes earning up to 2 thousand in a day . One day you have to settle for 500 . Petticoat 100, bodice 300, blouse 200, Daura-Suruwal 600 and stockcoat 500. Since the custom of Balighar still exists in the village, some of them even give grain instead of cash. 

I bought land near Khadachakra-3 Tadi Bazarmunt by sewing clothes. Build a house . While building a house and buying clothes, food and medicine for children, 11 lakhs of debt has been incurred. If some of the villagers would pay back the remaining loans and mortgages, the debt would be reduced by half. You have to walk down for two hours to reach Chiurela Damai village with old houses. After buying land and building a house, I became a resident of Pandey Tol. 

The land I bought for 40,000 now costs 5 lakh. Since there are no Dalits in Khadachakra-3, I have moved my family's voter list to this ward. In this ward, my elder wife Muga Damai won the election as a Dalit woman member in the local elections of 079 . Since most of the people of Dalit community do not have much land, they have to endure caste discrimination if they have to live on others. 

Presentation: Tularam Pandey

Meema

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