A local unit in Arghakhanchi, a hill district of Lumbini Province, has started providing education assistance to five students from this fiscal year with an objective to produce skilled human resources in the technical field.

Malarani Rural Municipality has selected five academically gifted students from Dalit and impoverished families for the education assistance scheme. According to the local unit, as many as 17 students had applied for the assistance to study various technical subjects.

A beneficiary receives Rs 100,000 assistance each year for five years.

Krishna Bahadur BK was selected for the grant for medical science; Prakash Paudel for engineering; Bishal Khanal for forestry science; Mahesh Acharya for agriculture science; and Sushil Khanal for veterinary science.

The financial assistance has come as a boon for all the selected candidates who come from economically poor backgrounds. Without the grant, they would not have been able to pursue higher education.

“My mother has been taking loans from relatives and neighbours to fund my studies so far. I need around Rs 150,000 a year for my MBBS course, which my family cannot afford. But now with the amount provided by the rural municipality, our burden has lightened,” said BK, who is pursuing MBBS at the Biratnagar-based Nobel Medical College.

Sushil Khanal of Khana, another beneficiary of the education assistance, is a veterinary science student in Bhairahawa.

“Our family is financially weak. I was very worried about how my parents would fund my education expenses,” said Khanal. If he hadn’t been selected as a beneficiary for the financial assistance scheme of the local unit, he would have been forced to quit, he says.

According to Ramesh Panthi, the chief administrative officer at Malarani Rural Municipality, the local unit will provide the financial assistance to the selected candidates from the current fiscal year.

“Any student born in Malarani and enrolled in a college in the technical stream studies is eligible for the education assistance,” he said.

A student receiving the assistance should work for at least three years in the rural municipality after completing his/her studies, according to the local unit.

“This will help us fill the void left by the absence of educated and skilled professionals in the field of technical science. If the students set up their practice in the rural municipality, the local people will benefit,” said Balkrishna Acharya, chairman of Malarani Rural Municipality.

Mahesh Acharya, another recipient of the education assistance, said that he would work in the agricultural field in his own local unit after completing his bachelor’s degree in agricultural science.

“Production of food crops is decreasing, as people leave their land fallow. I will focus on creating employment opportunities in the village through agricultural entrepreneurship,” he said.