The government announced a week-long nationwide lockdown from Tuesday in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, which has already infected thousands of people across the world.

However, in rural areas of Gandaki Province, locals are continuing with their daily lives just the way they were doing before the outbreak.

On Wednesday evening in Kushma, Parbat, Laxmi Paudel and her two sisters, Sita and Saru, were on their way to the field carrying compost on their backs. “Coronavirus is for people living in urban areas. In the villages, we can’t afford to stay indoors. We have to work for a living,” said Laxmi. “We have been hearing about the lockdown, but it hasn’t affected our lives here.”

The Paudel sisters, together with their neighbours, work the fields all day, share a meal and head home together at dusk. “Social distancing” is alien to their ears. “We feel fine. We can’t work alone in the fields; there’s too much work. We all have to work together,” said Laxmi.

According to data from various local units in Parbat, more than 150 people have arrived in the district from various Covid-19 infected countries in the last two weeks. Most of them are not on self-quarantine.

Sharada Adhikari, another resident of Kushma, said one of the people who recently arrived in the village from a foreign country is down with fever. “One of our neighbours returned from the Gulf recently. He’s suffering from fever now, but a couple of days ago he was paying calls to his friends and relatives,” she said.

Ramchandra Joshi, mayor of Kushma, said he has informed the respective ward chairman about the matter. But he agrees that villagers are not aware about the disease and precautionary measures needed during an epidemic.

Personnel from the Armed Police Force and Nepal Army have been patrolling Kushma bazaar. But their presence is minimal in the villages. In the last three days, the security personnel have booked three people for defying the lockdown in Parbat.

In Tanahun too, farmers are busy preparing for the paddy season. Hari Bahadur Thapa, a farmer from Myagde, said he’s heard that one has to build up one’s immunity to avoid contracting coronavirus. He said, “I heard it’s important to build immunity and what better way to do that than to work in the fields? Physical work is important to build immunity.”

While Thapa goes to his fields even during the lockdown to “boost” his immunity, Bishnu Bahadur Thapa Magar, from Upper Gunadi, heads to his fields because he has to look out for his family. “We won’t have anything to eat if we don’t plant our crops now. We will go hungry. We will stay at home after we are done with paddy,” said Magar.

In Syangja, people who were living in the cities are returning to the villages, not because of the threat of the pandemic, but because it’s time to prepare their fields for paddy plantation. Devendra Lamsal of Biruwa in Syangja, who runs a business in Pokhara, is currently in his village. “I am working in the fields, preparing for plantation. I come back to my village at this time every year to look after my fields and crops,” said Lamsal. “I know about the virus but I’m not scared of contracting it. I’m more focussed on my work in the fields right now.”

(Samjhana Rasaili in Tanahun and Pratiksha Kafle in Syangja contributed reporting.)