Generations of Nepalis from Sudurpaschim went to India to work. It’s likely to continue for years

Tek Bahadur Kathayat from the Dipayal Silgadhi municipality in Doti only comes back home every Dashain. For the rest of the year, he is in India working to make ends meet. Sometimes, he works as a waiter, other times he either works as a labourer or a construction worker or a cleaner. Even though he is 60 years old, he goes to India every year in search of better jobs. He is been doing this for the past 46 years.

“My relationship with my family wasn’t that great. We didn’t have the funds to sustain ourselves financially, which is why I had to leave for India,” says Kathayat. “I left Nepal when I was 14 and went to India to work as a dishwasher but as years went by, I started to do other things.”