If ‘Bandh’ was a living person, Nepalese would beat it to death. That’s how frustrated the Nepalese public is from the strikes which our leaders say are for the benefits of the people but never explained how. Disagreement is a natural human emotion and nobody says that everyone must agree to what others say or do but that doesn’t exactly mean that the entire nation must be shut in order to have your voice heard.

‘Bandhs’ give troubles to the the public in so many ways that we can’t even imagine. Many people who get involved in conducting these strikes and the security personnels get injured and even lose their lives which is very very unfortunate. But then there are people who have nothing to do with these strikes, just nothing at all – the general public are the ones who suffer the most from these. See the infographics below and read how badly the nation is affected by these ‘Bandhs’.

Photo Courtesy: FACTS Nepal

#1. During strikes; transportation is completely stopped leaving the students, employees, tourists and all the other people with no medium of transportation. Fortunately, air ways cannot be stopped but that alone doesn’t help tourists to travel efficiently as they would have no other option than walking with all their heavy baggages once they land. So, the ‘Bandh’ indirectly affects 58 international and 175 domestic flights during a single day.

#2. One of the most vulnerable to these ‘Bandhs’ are students. Around 7,542,393 students can’t go to schools and 569,665 students can’t go to colleges during a ‘Bandh’, making it a total of 8,112,058 students directly getting affected.

#3. Government offices, civil offices and industries too are badly affected. Around 278,609 government employees and 479,846 employees in industries are directly affected with these ‘Bandhs’. Around 5,646 industries don’t function efficiently because of these, directly affecting the nation’s economy very badly.

#4. As the road ways are completely stopped, a huge number of passengers are badly affected. Around 64,000 people travel to and from Kathmandu alone everyday.

#5. Among the most affected are the people such as day laborers and road-side sellers who have to earn everyday to be able to feed their families. One day of ‘bandh’ for them means that their children remain hungry for a whole day.

Photo Courtesy: Sumit KC

No matter how great the intention might be behind a ‘Bandh’ but there is no way that it is for the good of the people and the nation. Nepal suffered an accumulated loss of NPR 706 Billion due to the recent earthquakes and a single day of ‘Bandh’ adds upto NPR 3 Billion per day.

With all these figures, it won’t take long for Nepal to be the worst country in the world to live in if something is not done about these ‘Bandhs’. It’s time we say goodbye to these strikes. We hope that our leaders understand this and the public stops following them blindly. Long Live Nepal!!

Cover Photo Courtesy: Garima Bhandari