Seventy-year-old Baburam Sapkota has spent the past 47 days waiting for news of his son, who went missing in the Bhotekoshi floods. He has neither found his body nor been able to raise the money to perform the traditional funeral rites.
A priest has advised the family to fashion a symbolic body from kush grass, which is used in Hindu rituals, and perform the last rites. But financial hardship has left Baburam unable to carry out even that ritual.
“My son, who earned for the family, went missing in the Bhotekoshi floods. The priest has told us to make a body out of kush grass and perform the last rites. Without money, I don’t know what to do,” said Baburam, a resident of ward 5 of Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City.
The family has no money left and has received no relief, he said. Baburam himself is in poor health. He broke his right leg after falling from a tree, suffers from asthma and has difficulty hearing.
On Monday, Baburam went to the Makawanpur District Administration Office seeking help with the funeral expenses for his 25-year-old son, Pradip.
“I asked the chief district officer to provide some money for the rites, with the amount to be deducted from any relief payment I receive later,” he said.
Chief District Officer Basanta Adhikari asked Sushil Ghimire, the ward chair of Hetauda-5, to arrange assistance that could be deducted from any relief payment the family receives later. Ghimire said the ward could provide up to Rs20,000 immediately.
The government last Wednesday decided that people missing in disasters can be declared dead after 45 days if their bodies are not recovered. The process has begun in Makawanpur, but completing the formalities at the ward level will take time, while the relief payments families may be entitled to remain uncertain, Adhikari said.
Pradip had gone to Rasuwa about six months earlier to work as a labourer at a hydropower project under construction. On the evening of August 25, he told his mother, Yam Kumari, that he would return home for Dashain.
“He said he would come home for Dashain, but now there is no trace of him,” Yam Kumari said. “We have been struck by such a tragedy in our old age.”
Baburam had two sons. Pradip was the elder, while his younger son is studying in Hetauda. The family has long struggled financially.
Many people from Makawanpur remain unaccounted for after the Bhotekoshi floods. With no bodies recovered after prolonged searches, most families of the missing have performed traditional funeral rites using symbolic bodies fashioned from kush grass. The Sapkotas, however, have been unable to do so because they cannot afford the expenses.
According to the District Administration Office, 58 people from the district remain unaccounted for following the August 26 floods.
Of them, 20 are from Thaha Municipality, four from Manahari Rural Municipality and three from Makawanpurgadhi Rural Municipality. Two people from Bhimphedi Rural Municipality remain unaccounted for, while one death has been confirmed there, the administration said.
Three people from Bakaiya Rural Municipality, two from Indrasarowar Rural Municipality, two from Kailash Rural Municipality and one from Raksirang Rural Municipality are also missing. The missing include 41 drivers, 15 labourers, one person from the Nepali Army and an engineer, according to the district administration.
Forty-five people from Makawanpur who were trapped in the floods were rescued from various locations in Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
The deaths of four people from Makawanpur in the disaster have been confirmed. Their families have recovered the bodies and performed the last rites.
The identified victims are Suman Gole of Hetauda-15, Uddhav Khadka of Hetauda-5, Ramesh Magar of Hetauda-15 and Sabin Rana of Bhimphedi-2.