Twelve districts of  Lumbini province, bordering India, in Nepal have been under lockdown for over a month period now. Many laborers across the province now struggle to just feed their families.

“Me and my family can barely manage two square meals a day,” Pursha Bahadur Mahat, a laborer from Rupandehi district and father to three children, was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post. “It’s time to enroll my children in school. I don’t have any source of income because of the prohibitory orders. I feel hopeless,” he added.

The story of Usha Gurung, a woman from Nepalgunj district, is no different. A week ago, she move to Butwal, a neighboring district, in the hope of finding some work. “I left my town because I could not find any work,” she said. “There’s nothing left to eat in my house and I have no money or source of income because of the ongoing prohibitory orders.”

Usha, currently staying in Butwal district, along with her two-year-old daughter, in a facility provided by a social organization, is now planning to move to Kathmandu in hope of finding a job.

The situation this year is starkly different from the last year. Local authorities in 2020 had distributed relief materials, essential relief, including food grains, cooking oil, and other essentials, to the needy families. No such relief came this year.

Local officials in Butwal district have said they were planning programs to help the impoverished in the current situation. However, restrictions are likely to be ease in the coming days as cases of now receding fast. Desperate poor families that require urgent help would flock to big cities in search of jobs.