As families across Nepal prepare for Dashain by cleaning their homes, buying new clothes and making plans to celebrate, residents of two settlements in Saptari are facing the festival without homes to return to. Fires have destroyed their houses and belongings, forcing them to live under tarpaulins and leaving them uncertain about how they will rebuild.
For Anjali Kumari Paswan of Badgama in Kanchanrup Municipality-10, the fire wiped out years of hard work in a single night.
“When our house caught fire, nothing was left. Even the anklets I had bought for my daughter with money earned from daily-wage work, along with my gold jewellery, were lost,” she said. “All our food and clothes were burnt. The relief we have received is enough to get us by for now, but our biggest worry is how to build a house again. We are living under a tarpaulin.”
Her family has neither a home to return to nor the money to build another.
Manju Devi Paswan, another fire survivor in Badgama, faces the same uncertainty. Rice, cooking utensils and other relief supplies have helped her family meet its immediate needs, but they have done little to ease her anxiety about finding permanent shelter.
“MPs and other political leaders have given us rice, utensils and other essentials, so we have enough to eat for now,” she said. “But our biggest concern is how to rebuild our home. This disaster has struck just as Dashain approaches. We hope the government will help us rebuild. Otherwise, how will we protect ourselves when the cold sets in?”
For families living under tarpaulins, the approaching winter adds urgency to an already difficult situation. Food aid can keep hunger at bay, but it offers no lasting solution to the loss of shelter.
The District Administration Office in Saptari said a fire that broke out on Wednesday night in Paswan Tole, Badgama, destroyed the homes of 14 families. Those affected were the families of Pachu Paswan, Dinesh Paswan, Manju Paswan, Rajkumar Paswan, Gajendra Paswan, Pawan Paswan, Khikhari Paswan, Lallu Paswan, Mahendra Paswan, Manoj Shah, Dipendra Paswan, Amod Paswan, Naresh Paswan and Daropati Paswan.
A separate fire on Wednesday evening in Mainakaderi, ward 2 of Tirhut Rural Municipality, destroyed the homes and belongings of four families: those of Bhagwat Mandal, Yogendra Mandal, Bechu Khang and Sanichar Khang.
The local administration has put the preliminary damage from the two fires at more than Rs10 million.
Rebuilding will be a formidable challenge for families who depend on daily-wage work and already struggle to cover basic expenses. Having lost the homes they spent years working to build, they now face the cost of replacing everything from the ground up.
“We are poor Dalit families who worked hard to build a home. Now that too has been reduced to ashes,” said Bechu Khang, a fire survivor in Mainakaderi. “We cannot rebuild without government support. When hardship strikes, the government is the only place we can turn to.”
Sanjiv Yadav, chair of the ward in Mainakaderi, said the local government had arranged food supplies for affected households but acknowledged that emergency aid was only a first step.
“The fire has left these families in a desperate situation. We have arranged food through the local government to meet their immediate needs,” he said. “But the bigger question is how to rebuild their homes. We are coordinating with the Red Cross, the district administration and other agencies to seek support.”
Saptari Chief District Officer Shyam Krishna Thapa said relief materials had been provided to the fire survivors. He urged the public to help families left homeless during the festive season.
“I appeal to everyone to help, as much as they can, those who have been left homeless by these fires during the festival period,” he said.
The fire-hit families in Badgama have received lentils, rice, tarpaulins, cooking utensils, flour and other daily necessities from federal lawmaker Khagendra Karn, Kanchanrup Municipality and the district administration.
The supplies have helped ease immediate shortages, but there is still no clear plan for rebuilding the destroyed homes. For families facing Dashain without shelter, the pressing question is how to turn temporary relief into a permanent roof over their heads before winter arrives.