Bajhang, July 2 -- A long line of women and children can be seen every day along the banks of the Bahuligad river in Chainpur, the district headquarters of Bajhang. Stretching nearly one-and-a-half kilometres from the suspension bridge near Khulamanch (open-air theatre) to the concrete bridge at Chaud, they spend hours crushing stones into gravel under the scorching summer heat.

Among them is 62-year-old Junkiri Bohara of Thakunnada in ward 4 of Surma Rural Municipality. Frail and suffering from illness, she no longer has the strength to swing a heavy hammer. Instead, she collects small stones washed down by the river, carries them in a doko (bamboo basket) with the support of a walking stick, and painstakingly crushes them into gravel w...