in Kathmandu

By Simon Gillespie

A Photo story

Most porters are seen working while wearing only sandals or no shoes at all. This can be potentially dangerous since the ground is never flat and it is very easy to trip over loose objects or rubbish on the streets

Most porters carry loads on

their head. Since it is the

traditional way of carrying

loads, most people do not

complain and adopt a

mentality where “why change

it if it has always been like

that.” According to the BBC

documentary Carrying the

Burden, carrying heavy loads

on the head is dangerous

for the neck. According to the

same documentary, having

such pressure points directly

on the head can also cause

brain damage, therefore,

porters are much more likely

to develop blurry vision and

other eye problems.

Urban porters are forced to work in a difficult environment. They have to work their way through very small crowded alley with big and heavy loads on their back. Because of the way they carry the loads, they cannot see properly where they are going which is always dangerous, especially when they have to cross a busy street. They also have a physically demanding work in a city where the air is polluted.

◦ Lack of regulation

There are no permanent associations or union of urban porters, therefore no regulations on minimum pay, working conditions or maximum load. For the trekking porters, they

are rules but these rules are not followed because there isn,tanyone to enforce these rules. Another big problem is the

fact that, in general, the porters themselves don,t mobilize to change their situation. Being very poor, they are not in a situation where they can refuse a job because it violates

rules. If one person refuses the job, many will want it and be ready to take it even if it is potentially dangerous. The

porters are in a situation where it is better to take a dangerous job than to have no job at all. Also, since there is no effective policy maker, the porters have nowhere to

report abuses.

If a porter was to get injured, there is nothing he can do. He will not get any type of compensation and it will be very difficult to get a job if he is injured/invalid

Trekking Porters also

have very difficult working conditions. Since they work in the mountains on a daily basis, they must be ready for any type of conditions.

One day they will be climbing stairs in a hot and humid jungle . . .

. . . while the next day they are portering in cold, windy, avalanche-prone areas

And if tourist are normally well (over) equipped to face these kinds of conditions, porters normally are not. They are often seen wearing fleece shirts in a snowstorm and the irony is that they are probably carrying warm jackets which are not even needed by the tourists

Because of the economic situation in Nepal, a lot of people are unemployed (over 40% according to the CIA worldfactbook). This high level of unemployment means that many people are forced to take poorly paid jobs such asporter. This creates another problem ; a very high number of porters. Having too many porters means that there is not enough work for everybody so porters are often forced to sit for considerable amounts of time and wait for a job to come.

And even though porters might have to compete and race with each other when a job offer comes…

…they are usually very social and playful between one another. They will normally fill up waiting times by resting, joking, playing cards or even sometimes wrestling between them

Urban porters from the Kathmandu area live in precarious conditions. A or porter might earn 7000 or 8000 rupees per month and with it, he is expected to provide food, housing, clothing and education to his family.

A whole family is often forced to live inside a very small one room apartment

These apartments building are generally unsafe. The old buildings can be very dangerous in case of fire and definitely not built to resist to earthquakes.

Most of these buildings are also unsanitary. Many families are forced to use the same toilet and water is often hard to come by.

Prepared by Simon GillespieUnder the Internship Nepal’s Photojournalism Program

Special thanks to :- Ram Humagai- Nardev Pandey- Mr. Raj- Laxman Karki

Thank you