Raute's life is being ruined due to alcohol, investment is being wasted

Om Shahi

Surkhet |

Eight years ago, in the year 2072, the young Kapil Shahi was seriously injured by burns. He was taken to Kathmandu and treated. However, the wound burned by the fire did not heal. It started to increase more and more. He resorted to alcohol to ease the pain of the wound. He had other health problems due to regular heavy drinking. Kapil finally died on 31 June 2077.

Route chiefs.

On 5 Jan 2079, Narayan Shahi, a young man from Raute, was seriously injured after drinking too much alcohol and sleeping near the fire. He died while being taken to Kathmandu for treatment.

Shivraj Shahi, another young man who got addicted to liquor like lychee available in the market, also lost his life in Baisakh 2078. In the last five years, 29 people from the Raute community have lost their lives in Anahak.

Nineteen children and 10 adults were killed. Most of them have died due to alcohol consumption of adults. Health workers say that the health of most of the route has started to deteriorate due to alcohol consumption.

Raute, who believes that touching money is a sin, used to not even eat food given by others. For Route, eating the ground is a fundamental characteristic. Since time immemorial, they have been making and consuming food from food left over in the camp. However, in recent years, they have become connoisseurs of low-quality wines available in the market, not made by themselves.

Alcohol addiction is increasing from children to the elderly. Death due to excessive consumption of alcohol has increased. Dr. who is studying the condition of the route. Lal Bahadur Pun says that if the use of poor quality liquor in the market is not completely stopped, the existence of Route will be destroyed.

The source of income of the Raute community, which prefers to be called the king of the forest, is the preparation of koshi, honey, pirka, etc., from the plants of Simal, Tuni species, etc., and exchanged for food. However, recently the profession of the Raute community is in crisis due to the protected forest under the name of various community forests.

With the help of various organizations, Raute has left his original profession and has been pushed towards dependence, and his existence has reached a crisis. Due to excessive consumption of alcohol, lack of nutritious food, lack of care for newborns, the danger of their existence has increased.

The population of Raute is decreasing every year. People from the young to the elderly are dying prematurely due to high consumption of alcohol, while children are dying due to lack of care and nutrition. Dr. Pun says, "Alcohol addiction should be stopped in Routé. There is a tendency in the Routé community to spend social security allowance on alcohol. It cannot be said that this will not lead to the extinction of the community. Therefore, social security allowance should be stopped in cash." 

The state should move ahead by declaring the Raute conservation area with a long-term vision and not a short-term plan for the protection of the Raute community. Pun suggests.

Instead of allowance, Dr. should provide nutritious food. Repeat. Pun said that in order to preserve the existence of the citizens of Raute community, the sale and distribution of alcohol should be banned. "Earlier, the Rautes used to live on wild fruits such as githa vakur, yam, but now it seems that unhealthy food has also affected their health," said Dr. He says again.

The Route community has introduced Nepal to the world. The role of this caste is also considered important in reflecting the cultural diversity of Nepal. Rautes live in the forests around Dailekh, Surkhet, Jajarkot, Salyan. However, sometimes they migrate to the edge of the forest and sometimes to the valleys of the mountains and the banks of the river. Known as the heritage of Nepal and the jewel of Karnali, the Raute tribe is one of the major nomadic tribes in South Asia.

Investment becoming unprofitable

The government investment on the route is not getting returns. Crores of money are being spent every year in the name of routes. When the money is spent on alcohol, no effort is made by the state to stop it.

A single family in Route is receiving allowances of up to one lakh rupees on a quarterly basis. Gurans Rural Municipality of Dailekh had distributed identity cards to the Routes for the first time on 31 Asar 2075. Since then, the rural municipality has been distributing funds for social security to the rural people. The identity cards distributed by Gurans Rural Municipality at the cost of lakhs have been lost by the route.

The government had started giving social security allowance since 2065 for the livelihood of route workers. At present, 4000 rupees per month is given as allowance. At present, 141 people of this community get a monthly allowance of 4,000. For this allowance, Gurans rural municipality spends 67 lakh 68 thousand annually at the rate of 5 lakh 64 thousand per month.

Apart from this, the provincial government, local municipality, non-governmental organizations also spend lakhs of money annually for the Route community. However, when this investment became unprofitable, the existence of the route is in crisis. The citizens of Raute community spend all their allowance money on alcohol, tobacco and cigarettes. Raute Mahamukhiya Mahin Bahadur Shahi said that his community is trapped in the tyranny of alcohol.

"Earlier we used to eat jand made by ourselves, now everyone drinks alcohol from the market," he said. He says that all the children started dying as soon as they were born. Currently, Raute is living in Ward No. 3 of Mahabu Rural Municipality of Dailekh. Their number is currently 141.

Two babies have been born in the last one month in the community which is declining every year. During the last one month, a daughter was born to the young couple Hira Singh Shahi, Bange Shahi and Harak Shahi and Farina Shahi.

No children were born in this community since October 27, 2078. Two years later, with the birth of the baby, the population of Raute caste reached 143.

High child mortality

26 babies have been born in the Raute community in the last five years. From July 2075 to November 2078, 26 babies were born. Out of 26 babies born in a period of five years, 14 have lost their lives. This shows that the infant mortality rate in the Raute community is more than 50 percent.

Lal Bahadur Khatri, who was assigned to the project as a pair of teachers in Raute Basti, said that when parents drink alcohol and do not take care of their newborns, babies die within a week of birth. "Route's life is the same, they sleep on the cold floor, they don't eat nutritious food, on top of that, babies are dying prematurely when their parents get addicted to alcohol. The health condition of adult citizens is also deteriorating due to alcohol, he said.

The state government is reducing the budget

The Karnali state government has started reducing the budget for the route community. The provincial government allocated nearly one crore rupees in the financial year 2075/076 to 2078/079 for the main flow of routes. Out of this, 4 lakhs have been spent on food, migration management, and clothing in the budget of 20 lakhs allocated in the financial year 2075/076. 

Similarly, in the financial year 2076/077, 500,000 was allocated, 200,000 in 2077/078, 150,000 in 2077/078 and 900,000 in 2078/079, only 400,000 was spent. In the financial year 2079/080, the provincial government has not been able to manage the budget for the Routé community, and in the current financial year, the state government has not paid much attention to the budget targeted for the Routé community.

NGO's struggle over the route

Prior to 2065, the Routes were busy making traditional wooden utensils for domestic use for their livelihood. At that time it was not easy for them to make a living.

During the day, the men were found making materials from the wild kukath. Their daily routine was to go to the nearby villages and exchange the materials made from wood with food and vegetables. Rautes, who gradually started exchanging their materials for money, used to sell wood materials throughout the day and return in the evening.

They did not even eat food cooked by others. They used to say that touching money is a sin. No matter where he went in the afternoon, he always reached home in the evening. Journalist Hariharsingh Rathair, who closely observed Raute, says that after the Baburam Bhattarai-led government started giving social security allowance of Rs 500 to Raute, who was enjoying his own culture, this community was pushed towards distortion.

He said that the stipends given for livelihood were misused by the Routes who earn their living by working hard. For the first time, journalist Rathair collected details with photographs for social security allowance. Rathair says that the population of Rautes at that time was 168.

According to Rathair, after the government started giving free allowances, the Routes gradually forgot their profession, not only became weak but also lost their lives due to external consumption of alcohol, they were driven to dependency. Rathair, who has been active in journalism for almost three decades, says that it is because of the NGOs that have infiltrated the routes in the name of helping them, who are trapped in government allowances, that the routes have become extinct.

He claims that there is no return analysis on the investment made in the name of changing the lifestyle of the Routes who are not confused by their culture. He suggested that instead of cash money for this community, monthly quotas should be set and emphasis should be placed on food, clothing and medicine.

For the upliftment of the Raute community, non-governmental organizations called the Raute Endangered and Marginalized Class Upliftment Foundation Nepal and Sosek Nepal have been working. To socialize the Raute community, SOSEC has been conducting the (RAUTE) project to promote the rights to health and education and improve the daily life of the Raute people with the support of AEIN Luxembourg.

The foundation has been doing policy advocacy. The foundation has also been providing clothing, food, and health care with support from the government and the government from time to time.

The views of these two NGOs, which aim to uplift and socialize the route, are also different. Sosek's route project was implemented from 2075. Through this project, a couple of teachers and health workers have been deployed to teach the routed children. However, these programs are not very effective.

The Raute community, which uses traditional herbs, does not believe in modern medicine. Children are not interested in studying. After five years of the implementation of the project, instead of changing the condition of the route, on the contrary, the quality of alcohol is getting worse, the stakeholders say.

In the last fiscal year 2079/080, through a foreign fund called AEIN Luxembourg, SOSEC has spent Rs.

Aiming to spend a budget of 87 lakh 78 thousand five hundred 48.99 rupees in the current financial year, Sosek has proposed a budget equal to 96 lakh 56 thousand four hundred three hundred and 79 rupees for the next financial year.

Since the implementation of the project, SOSEC has spent 12.7 million in the first two and a half years through the promotion of the right to health and education and the improvement of the daily life of Raute (Route). However, the organization has not been able to show the return according to the investment.

Heerasingh Thapa, executive director of Sosek Nepal, says that since they are working in the fields of education and health improvement, they are working to preserve the culture of Route as it is. Thapa says that due to their own culture, they have not been able to achieve the desired results.

Similarly, Raute Endangered Marginalized Class Uplift Foundation Nepal, which has been working for Raute Upliftment, has also been providing various support from time to time. The investment of this organization has also become useless. The culture of the Routes is disappearing with the efforts of the non-governmental organizations that are claiming for the upliftment of the Routes.

The government does not have a mechanism to supervise whether the living allowance given by the government and the investments made by various organizations have been put to good use. Gurans Rural Municipality, which has been calling itself its people, has become like nothing in front of the NGO.

Limited route policy in draft

The route policy prepared by the state government in 2078 for the upliftment of the route is limited to the draft. The state government has been saying that the main objective of the policy is to increase the level of consciousness of every person of the extremely endangered Raute community and to protect the originality and participate in the streamlining of the state. However, since then, no effort seems to have been made to formulate the said policy.

It has been three years since the Karnali state government formulated a route policy to bring the endangered route into the mainstream of the state. The Ministry of Social Development of the state government prepared the draft of the Mainstreaming Policy 2078 for the highly endangered Raute community three years ago. The ministry also held discussions with the relevant bodies including the Social Development Committee and the Provincial Planning Commission to formulate the policy. However, the work of policy making has not been completed.

Issues such as providing permanent residence, providing citizenship certificates, documenting their language and preserving their culture have been included in the draft. The draft policy of Raute aims to create an equitable society by protecting the identity, originality and human rights of the Raute community, which has a history of human civilization.

The draft prepared by the Ministry of Social Development has been sent to Kathmandu University for expert opinion and suggestions. However, Anita Gyawali, Women's Development Officer of the Social Development Division, says that the university has not yet given an opinion on the draft.

State should be serious: Dhakal

Pitambar Dhakal, a human rights activist, says that the government should give first priority to protecting the lives of the Raute community. Stating that the state has not been responsible for the Raute community, Dhakal says that the protection of the Raute's costumes and culture should be emphasized by keeping their lives as the first priority.

He is of the opinion that special attention should be paid to health, hygiene, education and nutritious food to save the life of the route. "The state of sanitation among the citizens of Routé is critical, the use of alcohol is excessive," says Dhakal, "It is necessary to give awareness to the citizens of Routé for cleanliness, the use of alcohol should be stopped immediately."

Dhakal says that if the excessive consumption of alcohol is not stopped, the existence of Raute may be destroyed. Dhakal says that the government, various organizations, civil society and the community should not delay in changing their attitude towards Raute, even if it is by putting pressure on Raute or taking them into trust and emphasizing socialization.

A study conducted by INSEC, an official service center working in the field of human rights, titled "Route community from the perspective of human rights" concluded that instead of allowances, the Route should be provided with essential food and nutritious food and clothing. The study suggested that proper arrangements should be made for education, health, food and housing, and awareness should be raised about sanitation, nutrition and health treatment by creating a route policy with the participation of the route community. 

(This article written by Om Shahi is published in Shilapatra.com online news portal in the issue of August 19, 2080.)