For hundreds of years the excessive Himalayas have retained the allure and mystique so related to its pristine valleys and pinnacle like peaks jutting into the azure blue skies of the Indian subcontinent. Inform me of a visit to the mountains when you haven’t sighed and longed for a house there. Let me paint it for you- a small rusty cottage with a garden and kitchen backyard, mist and clouds on the home windows with verdant greenery throughout.Effectively proudly owning a home or a cottage tucked away within the excessive Himalayas generally is a distant dream, however spending some high quality time is a mere a query of your will and data.
Historically the Himalayan terrain has been ensconced in all its glory certain by the myriad wildlife in addition to human beings which at the moment are below a severe menace of environmental onslaught wrought by fallacious practices by one and all. Your complete swath of Himalayas from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh is choc – a –bloc with mountainous individuals arising from ethnic tribes and shut communities just like the Bhutias, Lepchas, Ladakhis and the Jaunsaris to cite just a few.
Because the terrain acquiring within the excessive Himalayas is usually laced with difficulties for an honest survival, forcing the lads of us to trudge to the plains for his or her livelihood, a really piquant scenario develops again at dwelling the place solely the ladies of us ,young children and the outdated and the infirm keep behind. This phenomenon of girls being the lynch pin of properties within the excessive Himalayas has been the chief purpose for the propagation of matrilineal line of thought in locations like Jaunsar/chakrata of utrakhand.
Life within the armed forces of the nation typically makes you come head to head with such various realities of our subcontinent which you wouldn’t have dreamt in your wildest of goals.Since alternatives of a great employment package deal are usually lacking attributable to lack of assets in a mountainous area, lack of infrastructure , insufficient provision of water and electrical energy add to your woes all of the extra.Therefore the lads of us of the realm gravitate in direction of the armed forces of the nation as a method of their survival /employment. This places the ladies of the realm as talked about earlier in a good spot who must willy-nilly assist the household and are available out of their properties to generate that additional earnings.
Right here steps within the ubiquitous SEWA & AIRbnb the 2 primary protagonists to point out and in the end lighten the pathway to those girls’s monetary and social emancipation. Registered within the yr 1972 SEWA (Self-employed girls affiliation) is a commerce union of poor and self-employed girls staff. These are girls staff who be taught and stay by way of their experiences or small companies. They don’t acquire regular salaried employment with welfare advantages like staff within the organized sector. They’re unprotected girls workforce consisting about 93% of the entire workforce of India.With most of the males working power both within the armed forces of the nation or looking for employment within the plains of the nation the ladies in Ladakh for instance Phayang, a mountainous village about 15 kilometers from Leh city with nice views of rugged peaks and cloud laden blue skies are slowly coming into their very own as ‘Homestay hosts”. Most frequently the frequent chorus of those Ladakhi girls has been that attributable to very much less interplay with the surface world they’ve develop into fairly laid again of their perspective in direction of life typically which didn’t portend properly for his or her households as such.
However the on-line journey portal, “AIRbnb“ has made few inroads into Ladakh notably after the abrogation of article 370 and grant of a UT standing thereby infusing a brand new lease of life within the in any other case mundane existence of those poor hapless girls people. AIRbnb has tied up with SEWA for ‘Hum sab ek”an initiative that’s taking a look at empowering girls to develop into micro-entrepreneurs by turning their properties into ‘Homestays”. As a part of their “SEWA-AIRbnb” partnership, 10homes have been recognized in Phayang village and have been listed on the portal of AIRbnb with the quantity anticipated to extend solely within the coming days. I bear in mind throughout my Siachen glacier days in 1995, Phayang was the TCP (Site visitors test put up) from the place on all ingress /egress used to occur of troops and autos to and from Leh onwards. Since most of my troops was of Tibetan/Ladakhi origin, I used to be witness to firsthand expertise of the trials and tribulations which their impoverished households used to undergo in stitching collectively their insipid existence.However now no longer.
As per the officers of “AIRbnb” coping with south east Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and so forth they’ve been instrumental in extending their partnership with SEWA in Ladakh, and assist empower native girls hosts on AIRbnb to safe their monetary independence and produce these useful tourism {dollars} into their communities . In most households right here in Ladakh girls are the central determine doing all types of jobs to incorporate cooking, cleaningwithin their properties as additionally farming exterior if in any respect they’ve arable land. Their work very similar to family work all through the nation has gone unrecognized and unrewarded. However change is now afoot and the ladies visibly shy and below assured are taking a look at turning into arbiters of their very own lives and of their households. There are various like Tsewang Dolma whose world got here crashing down within the yr 2010 when her husband out of the blue handed away. Tsewang, now 50 years of age had spent a lot of her life by relying upon her father after which her husband. When her husband died, she needed to fend for herself and her three youngsters, the oldest of whom was merely 10 years outdated.She monetized the one asset she had and knew- cooking – however may make barely Rs 8000/ per thirty days which was meager for her giant household.
However then like a silver lining, “SEWA-AIRbnb – HUM sab Ek” stepped in like a proverbial knight within the shining armour to rescue her lot. As per her now she is happy about turning into a bunch in her new function of ‘Homestay idea”. The tariff for rooms at these dwelling stays in Phyang village is Rs 2000/ solely per night time. These include all the essential requirements of life as additionally the good views in addition to a possibility for travellers to expertise all that Ladakh has to supply. The kitchens and the eating rooms in these homestays are all the time stacked to the total with both Ladakhi or Tibetan meals together with the well-known sea buckthorn juices, conventional breads, native fruits equivalent to apricots, plums and so forth. ‘Dwelling stays in Phyang village comes as a welcome addition to the tourism scene in Ladakh which has dwelling stays in areas like Nubravalley, Alchi, and Pangong .
In response to SEWA, these homestays will permit the vacationers to have a day of relaxation to acclimatize to the altitude whereas planning additional their itinerary. The best USP of homestay idea is that they’ll give additional luxurious of resting with out having to spend so much on the resorts round. However the final yr standoff between the 2 Asian giants on the LAC has muddied the waters for this idea to fructify in its entirety with the vacationer influx getting checked to an extent.
One good facet for the reason that time Ladakh got here into its personal being after the abrogation of article 370 has been the sprouting of recent and new concepts to money in on the free environment of entrepreneurship that has gripped the area. However the moot level is that if Ladakh may do a turnaround what’s hampering the area of Jammu which is once more beset with a plethora of mesmerizing locations to boast of? Why hasn’t the idea of homestays caught on in locations like Bhaderwah, Kishtwar and so forth that are often called mini Kashmir throughout the Jawhar tunnel of the erstwhile state. I suppose the ruling dispensation ought to put emphasis on this facet with all of the sincerity it deserves so that individuals of this space can also partake within the fruits of improvement.
(The author is a Retired Military Officer and a Common Contributor to RK. He might be contacted on his e mail: slalotra4729@gmail.com)