Conversation with a petty contractor: Charikot
Outside of Charikot, we spoke to some labourers building a landslide resistant wall. Here, the petty contractor managing the labourers (and also the only woman working on that section of road that day), explained how she had to travel to Dolakha from the western part of the country. In the district that she was from, she claimed that people would have to “kill” to get a contract. And so she, like many of the other workers on site, travelled to Dolakha for road work. She explained that many workers are saving up money here with the intention of going to work in Malaysia. The workers on her staff at this location are here on short term contracts, and will likely not be in the same location in a month. Labourers here work for 12 hours a day, and 6-7 days a week in order to save up as much money as they can.
While outside of Charikot, we met a intern engineer who was supervising the wall’s assembly. He was wearing a blue collared shirt, grey pants, and shoes which were spotless. He claimed that he was responsible for overseeing the wall construction, and ensuring that all workers knew how to pile the rocks properly. I found this unlikely as he was still in university and had the hands of an office clerk. He criticized the workers on the bottom section of the hill, who apparently had less experience than the workers who were further up. The majority of the workers were younger men, with some older men (the oldest being around 50). From what I could tell, many of the older men, presumably those with more experience, were responsible for rock placement, while the young labourers were responsible for the heavy lifting.