I collect empty bottles, plastic and glass all day long. I go around the market with a sack from 9 am to 5 pm. I make 9/10 sacks of paper, plastic and glass a day. I earn 4 to 600 rupees if I work all day. They say that old bottles, plastic and paper are useful. I take the collected items to the contractor. They take them to Birgunj to make new items.

My husband, who was bedridden for a long time due to diabetes and high blood pressure, passed away 4 years ago. I am now 56 years old. My son is in a Gulf country (Saudi Arabia). My daughter-in-law drives a city safari. My daughter-in-law was injured when she was hit by a car from the front. The driver of the car that hit her fled the scene. Since my son's money earned abroad was not enough, I am taking out a loan from a cooperative to get my daughter-in-law treated.

I have one son and three daughters. All my daughters are married. Now, there are 4 of us, including my daughter-in-law, 2 grandchildren and myself. We live in a rented room in Buddhachowk, Triyuga Municipality-12, Udayapur. I did not own any land in my husband's name.

My family gave me 5 acres of land, so we built a small house on it. When my father-in-law fell ill with high blood pressure, we sold the house and got treatment. But she could not be saved either. The daughter-in-law used to earn 5-7 hundred rupees daily by driving an auto, but now she herself is sick. The granddaughter is in grade 4 and the grandson is in grade 1 in a government school.

I have to work to cover the expenses of my grandchildren's education. I cannot eat without it. If I don't work all day, I worry about what to eat in the evening. I have not been able to repay the loan taken during my husband's treatment. I have to pay the installments to the cooperative every month. My son's earnings are enough to pay all the installments. It is very difficult to eat sweets at home. I have to pay 4 thousand rupees per month for room rent, water and electricity.

My grandchildren want to eat fish. I have brought fish to my room once a week. School fees, textbooks, and clothes are all very expensive according to one's income. Even though one cannot study, one has to educate one's grandchildren in this day and age. Will they make some progress in the future after studying? If they do well, it will be for them.

We are now the sun on the mountain. We have to struggle to survive. Who can understand the pain of this sad life? We are now the sun on the hill. We have to struggle to survive. Who can understand the pain of this sad life? It is very difficult to meet household expenses with the money one earns. When I cannot carry the plastic, plastic bottles, and paper collected throughout the day to the place where they can buy them, sometimes I leave them behind a hotel/shop near my house and come back to my room. When I go in the morning, someone has already stolen them. Some people put them in the municipality's vehicle. Why steal plastic bottles? They do such injustice to me, the poor. I cry profusely when I can't find my belongings where I put them.

It seems better to work honestly and eat than to starve to death. Now my hands and feet are shaking. My head hurts. I feel dizzy. My body is like a lump. My eyes are swollen. But what can I do, I have to struggle until I die.

Now my daughter-in-law is also slowly getting better. If she had recovered soon, wouldn't it be a little easier for me? Should my son also help the poor? He should pay the cooperative installment himself. He has paid for my daughter-in-law's treatment. There are only expenses. The poor man doesn't have a single rupee in savings.

He couldn't afford to study much. He works in a motorcycle garage in Saudi Arabia. If he had studied a little, he would have gotten a better job. He would have earned a good income. Now, he has to make do with whatever he has. I hear that the ward is teaching skills to poor, suffering, and Dalit women. How many times have I gone to the ward office and asked, "No, everything is over." I must not have believed the poor man! I return with a heavy heart. And then I go to pick up the same bottles and plastic. Someone might even hire me to wash dishes and clean the hotel. But no one gives me work. I cough from the dust and smoke on the streets, I get sick. There is no money for treatment. After all, there is no one who understands the pain of the poor.