Since the government has not established basic schools with staff, children from the nursery class onwards are forced to leave their villages and migrate.
What you should know
Children from a village in Upper Dolpa are forced to leave their settlements just to learn to read and write.
Children from Phot village in Shey-Phoksundo Rural Municipality-6 of the district have been leaving their settlements for basic education. The child development center in Phot village, which has a total population of only 85 people, does not provide education. Children there have been reaching Bijjer village in the neighboring ward to start their formal education. To reach Bijjer in Shey-Phoksundo-5, one has to walk for a day from Phot. According to locals, one has to cross high mountains and reach Bijjer. No road has reached Phot village yet.
Residents of Phot, which has a total of 40 voters, say they are forced to live in the 'stone age'. According to Koizor Gurung, ward member of Shey-Phoksundo-6, although the municipality has built a child development center, classes have not been able to start due to the lack of a facilitator teacher. ‘The municipality has built a child development center building,’ he said, ‘but, due to the lack of facilitator teachers, children do not study.’
Since the government has not established basic schools with posts, children are forced to leave their villages and migrate from the nursery class. ‘Some children have reached Kathmandu and India for education,’ Gurung said, ‘It takes a day to reach Phot. There is no possibility of returning home after studying.’ That is why he said that since they have relatives and friends, they keep the children in Phot and educate them.
Phot has a problem with health care. The government has not even established a health post. Even if you have a simple illness, you have to walk a day to reach. Some ordinary people depend on Amchi (traditional Tibetan healing method) since ancient times. In case of emergency medical rescue, you are forced to charter a helicopter. If you charter a helicopter from here, it costs 8/10 lakhs.
There is no phone facility in the village. If you need to talk on the phone, you have to climb the mountain for about 15/20 minutes before the tower picks up. Potatoes, fenugreek, and yams are produced in small quantities in Fot, located in one corner of the mountain. Since there is no local market, if you need to buy salt, oil, clothes, and rice, you have to take a yak to Dunai, Mustang, and Chinese areas. It takes the locals a day to reach the center of the rural municipality. The main source of income for the locals is the collection of Yarsagumba and animal husbandry.
