With the changing era, people's lifestyles have become busy. Everyone is in a hurry to reach home, office, school, hospital and their destination. Vehicles and transport workers have become the drivers of that hurry. Transport workers work day and night without saying a word of hunger or thirst to take passengers to their destination. However, they do not know at what point in their lives the final destination will be.

Their lives on the road are sometimes filled with accidents, sometimes government neglect, and sometimes unexpected crises. At these moments, if there is no responsible lender, they are forced to face prison life and financial crisis. The direct impact of which is not only on the workers, but also on the entire family.

The transport business itself is a risky profession and the most important one. Drivers who risk their lives on the road every time are at greater risk. The Far Western Transport Workers Welfare Fund has become a guardian for these risks and rights of transport workers across the country.

This fund, established in 2046 BS, was initially run with the simple mutual support of a few drivers. However, now, when there is a road accident in the Far Western, the first call goes to this fund. For the past 3 decades, this fund has been providing relief, rescue, legal assistance, and health services to drivers and co-drivers.

After hearing about a road accident, whether it is at midnight or on a difficult mountain slope, the members of the fund reach there. They are playing the role of coordinating with the rescue, police and family by reaching the spot.

‘We are always ready to help when a transport worker is in trouble. The welfare fund is a family for the driver and co-driver in trouble,’ says Muralidhar Bohara, president of the Far Western Transport Workers Welfare Fund.

In 2075 BS, Padam Dhanuk, a driver from Teghri in Godavari, died in a car accident. Padam had taken care of the family along with his wife and daughter. After his death, that responsibility fell on the head of Mrs. Manju Dhanuk.

Manju was more worried about whether she would be able to educate her daughter. But the Transport Workers Welfare Fund took care of this burden for her. Manju says, ‘The fund has been educating her daughter since the third grade.’ She is currently studying in class 10. The fund will bear all the fees till class 12. Her daughter studies at a local Jan Kalyan boarding school. Manju said she has also received financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh from the fund.

In times of tragedy, rescue is being carried out, and after that, the fund also becomes a guardian in relief and rehabilitation. The fund is continuously providing skill-based training to the families of drivers who have lost their lives in accidents, education of their children, and financial assistance to those who have been amputated.

The fund has arranged a monthly allowance of Rs 2,000 for workers who have become completely disabled in road accidents. Chairman Bohara says that such work has provided financial security along with livelihood to hundreds of workers plying on the roads.

Rajendra Amatya of Dhangadhi, who has been involved in the transport business for two decades, has also been associated with this fund for 20 years. Amatya initially worked as a co-driver and driver and later became a vehicle owner. His two buses transport passengers between Dhangadhi and Pokhara. He pays a monthly fee of Rs 4,000 for both vehicles and says that if he joins the fund, he will not face financial and legal problems.

Amatya said that the fund bore the legal and administrative expenses of a vehicle accident a few months ago. ‘The fund is important for the safety of drivers and transport entrepreneurs. The fee to be paid is not much. Those who understand will join on their own,’ said Amatya.

When the world was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, a nationwide lockdown was imposed. Neither transport vehicles were operational, nor were there any ways for the workers to earn money. During that difficult time, the Bhalai Fund distributed food to dozens of families of transport workers. It also arranged free ambulances for them. The fund is with the transport workers in every disaster.

‘Transport workers are always neglected. Neither the government has provided assistance, nor have they received wages according to their labor. In such a situation, if they are not affiliated with the fund, the lives of the workers and their families are at risk due to a single accident,' says Chairman Bohara.

He says that transport workers should be aware of the risks of accidents and must join the fund. According to Bohara, the fund provides occupational safety to the workers.

Not all workers have joined yet

More than 2,000 transport workers are affiliated with the Far Western Transport Workers Welfare Fund so far. Of these, 205 have received financial assistance in the current fiscal year, while 269 have used ambulance services.

This year, the fund is preparing to provide training on traffic and safety to more than 500 drivers and conductors. Bohara said that the fund also organizes health check-ups and free health camps for transport workers from time to time.

According to him, the fund has been providing legal assistance to drivers who have been jailed due to road accidents. Along with this, the driver is also provided with a detention allowance of Rs. 500 per day for the number of days he remains in custody. Along with this, the fund has also taken the responsibility of managing the expenses incurred in the legal process.

‘The fund provides 100 percent financial support to the driver no matter where he has to fight the case in the district, high and supreme courts. Our aim is to get the driver jailed after the accident out and rehabilitate him,’ said Bohara, the fund’s chairman.

However, it is certainly not easy for the fund to provide all services to the transport workers. Financial resource management is its biggest challenge. The fund’s source of income is the trip fee and membership fee voluntarily paid by vehicles plying on the highway.

The fund collects a monthly fee of Rs. 1,600 to Rs. 2,600 per vehicle. Chairman Bohara says that the amount will be determined based on the distance traveled by vehicles in all nine districts of the Far West and anywhere in the country.

Zero government support, high accidents due to weak road infrastructure, and insufficient knowledge of traffic and vehicle laws among workers have added another challenge. But despite these difficulties, hundreds of people have been getting relief from the fund every year.

Not all transport workers have been able to join this fund, which works for the occupational safety of transport workers. Due to this, they have been deprived of services. Workers must be mandatorily affiliated with the fund to receive services from this fund. But Ganesh Upadhyay, head of the Workers' Welfare Fund Kailali, says that not all workers have been able to join the fund due to lack of public awareness.

'There is a tendency to remember the fund only after a disaster strikes.' Not everyone has understood that this fund is for my and my occupational safety. We are trying to explain,' said Upadhyay. According to him, the fund has also included a public awareness program for transport workers in its annual program.

164 people died in two years.

The number of road accidents is increasing every year. According to the data of the District Traffic Office Kailali, in the last two years, 771 road accidents have occurred in Kailali alone. Of these, 192 occurred in the fiscal year 080/81 and 525 occurred in 081/82, which increased threefold. 1,154 people were injured in these accidents and 164 people lost their lives.

Sanghura Road, violation of traffic rules and high traffic volume are increasing road accidents, says Police Inspector Chakra Bahadur Deuba of the Traffic Office Kailali.

After a road accident, the social, economic and legal pressure on the driver is the highest. In this situation, transport entrepreneur Amatya says that emotional support can also provide relief to the driver.

‘A driver does not knowingly cause accidents . Nor does he knowingly overturn a vehicle . But everyone from the car owner, passengers, and police act as if they had planned to hit the vehicle,’ says Amatya, ‘This is a wrong trend, the driver has no desire to hit or overturn the vehicle .’ 

There are risks on every bend, steep, muddy and dusty road in the Far West . He says that drivers should join this fund to eliminate the compulsion to fight these risks alone . 

According to Ganesh Upadhyay, the head of the fund’s office, all private, public long and short distance vehicle operators can join the fund . There is also a provision for auto rickshaw drivers involved in passenger transport to join the fund . To get membership, one has to make 3 consecutive trips .