Titi Rokaya and Srikala Rokaya spend their entire day crushing stones at the old mining vicinity in Chobhar, Kathmandu. Originally from Humla, the Rokaya sisters came to Kathmandu with their husbands in search of a better livelihood.

The Rokaya sisters were subsistence farmers whose livelihood depended on their land back in Humla. They had to leave their homes because the food they were producing was not enough to last them the whole year. Srikala arrived in Kathmandu some three years ago while her elder sister, Titi, followed her some four months ago.  

The Rokaya sisters—both uneducated—shared that when they arrived in Kathmandu they had no skills. With the help of some friends, the sisters found the job of crushing stones after being unemployed for a while.

The Rokaya sisters take 15 days to crush a mini-truck full of stones for which they receive Rs 8,000. The labour work is tough, say the Rokaya sisters, and by the end of the day their bodies are sore and aching. The sisters also say that they frequently injure themselves. “But we can’t afford to buy safety kits, even a good pair of glasses. Sometimes. when we’re hammering the pebbles, shards of the stones get into our eyes and they burn,” said the Rokaya sisters. But there is nothing they can do.