Two hundred and four families of Paswans, residing in Thadi Jhinjha village, Dhanusa were shifted to Netragunj in 1978 by the Government of Nepal. This new village was set after clearing a forest. Each family was given two bighas (3.36 acres) lands, but without irrigation, it turned into wasteland. Though the government had managed two deep tube-wells for irrigation, they were damaged and did not last more than two years. There was no alternative for irrigation except rainfall. The production was not enough to for more than six months a year.
Knowing about the food scarcity and trouble in the village, a Finnish Volunteer Markku, working with Uplift Program arrived in 2004. He started figuring out their needs. Villagers explained him the problem with irrigation. “I will try to collect fund in Finland for this,” he assured.
The villagers then wrote a letter to UP requesting fund support for irrigation, education, skill development and leadership trainings. Markku returned Finland with their letter with assurance of collecting fund from churches and the government.
Things started changing in a year. With UP’s support, Laxmi Paswan from the village received a nine months leadership training course in Social Work Institute, a Kathmandu based institution. Right after the completion of the training, Community Development Program was launched in Punarwas.
First, a survey on land ownership of the Paswans of the village was done. As there was no production due to lack of irrigation, some of them had already sold their lands outside the community. Though 47% was sold outside, majority seemed to own land.
Irrigation project was initiated with the aim of developing the entire village. A new institute, Samari Utthan Sewa, was established with the initiative of Uthhan program in 2008. With their cooperation, villagers could demand Agriculture Development Office and Division Irrigation Office of Sarlahi district to repair the deep tube-wells. With 85% of the total maintenance cost from the government and 15% from Samari, they repaired it. It was enough to irrigate 120 hectors of land owned by more than 500 families.
Next year, Samari added another deep tube-well and five other sallow tube-wells. The productivity of the land increased bringing drastic change in the lifestyle of villagers. They could not only cultivate the grains but also, seasonal vegetables. Now, the village is self-sustained. They are running their own Cooperative and local community-based organization.
Mr. Markku Voutilainen, initiated and involved himself in the implementation the Uplift Project (UP) – Empowerment and Community Development project focusing on the poor and oppressed communities (Dalit and landless) of Badarjhula in Chitwan and Punarbas in Sarlahi districts from 2005 to 2007. This project, in fact, laid the foundation for the establishment of SUS. Soon after the completion of the project, with the practical experiences of working even during the conflict situation and inspiration received from such a result-based project, a team of like-minded young and creative persons including the then project staffs was formed to establish this organisation, which later took the responsibility of continuing and accomplishing the project.
Additional information about Jhinja
Jhinja is a small village located in the eastern part of Dhanusha district in the Janakpur zone. The majority of the inhabitants of Jhinja village belong to the Dushadh community. Historically, most of the Dushadhs have taken to theft and dacoity as their main occupation. There is hardly anyone in the eastern Tarai who has not heard of Jhinja village.
A Dusadh wears a necklace of beads (Kantha). [Kantha]-wearing Dusadhs do not eat meat, and are called Dasas. Others belonging to the Dusadh community are called Paswans. The Dusadhs of Jhinjha blame the Rana regime for having compelled them to follow such an occupation for generations. According to them, local officials during the Rana regime used to detain and torture the Dusadhs of Jhinjha village whenever crime was committed nearby village. Even children were arrested and tortured, they allege. According to them, it was because of such exceeds that they took to theft and dacoity. The residence of Netragunj were migrated around 1978 from Jhinja. The government of Nepal granted the land to them under the Nepal Punarbas (Resettlement) Company.
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