Earning for schooling by the roads

Many school children have taken up parking fee collection on the roads of Thimphu city this winter vacation. Our feature reporter Jigme Wangchuk follows some of them as they go about their job

Wednesday, Norzin Lam, 12.36 pm. Snowflakes fall like little chips of silver. The grey afternoon is gravid with imminent downpour. It is cold and the ground is wet.

Two little children are fighting. They have an issue to settle – who takes the parking fee. An elderly man in a white Prado looks on, puzzled. He gives them Nu 5 each and drives away.

This winter vacation, many school children are working as parking fee collectors in Thimphu city.

Sixteen-year-old Arjun Gurung studying in Lhamoizingkha Middle Secondary School in Dagana is one of them. His mother, who is a cleaner at Zilnon Namgyeling Police station in Thimphu, urged him to take up a temporary job during the winter vacation.

Last year, during the winter vacation, he worked in a wall building project for Thimphu City Jail. He earned Nu 6,000 in a month. This is the second time that he has taken up a job during the winter vacation.

He collects Nu 1,000 a day. Whatever amount he manages to collect, he has to give a good share to Thimphu City Corporation (TCC). He gives Nu 750 to the city and keeps the rest. He saves it for his school expenditure.

Every 15 minutes of parking by the city streets costs Nu 5. If a car is parked all day long, it costs Nu 120.

“Most of the time, people don’t give us parking fee when they leave. We have to let them go. But we make it up by reusing the same ticket. Otherwise we would be at a loss,” says Arjun.

Arjun brings lunch from home. Sometimes, he doesn’t. He eats Maggie noodles in restaurants. He looks after an area comprising 17 parking spaces.

A little way down near Tamu Courier Service office is thirteen-year-old Dophu Drup from Wangdue. He studies in Class V in Rinchen Kuenphen Primary School, Thimphu. “How much?” asks a man, who drives off a parking space. Before any word comes out from Dophu’s mouth, the man gives him Nu 5, smiles and drives away.

Dophu’s father, a driver at TCC, told him there was a vacancy for parking fee collector. He had just completed his exams. The very next day, he was on the street.

Dophu works from 9 am to 9 pm.

His area is smaller than Arjun’s. On the best of the days, he can collect Nu 900 comfortably. He keeps Nu 150 and hands the rest over to the city office.

“With the money I made on the first day, I bought a small plastic piggy bank. I put the money in it every evening without fail,” says Dophu. He has got Nu 2,850. He intends to do the job till the end of January. By then, he will have saved Nu 3,900 more, which will take the total amount to Nu 6,759.

Children employed by TCC get Nu 5,000 a month as salary. Dophu expects to have enough money to go back to school.

Dophu doesn’t take packed lunch. Sometimes, when he is too hungry to stand on the road, he goes to a nearby restaurant and buys a bowl of cooked noodles, which costs him Nu 35.

“Now I know the value of money. I want to help my parents as much as possible to meet household expenditures,” he says with a demure smile.

A car moves out of his parking lot and he runs for the fee. It’s Tshering Dema, his maths teacher. With a surprised look on her face, she hands out a crisp Nu 10 note.

“Oh, Dophu, good job! Good boy like you should work hard. I am proud of you,” she tells him and drives off.

Today, he is lucky to have come across his teacher. At other times, he meets his friends from school. They make fun of him and tell him to leave the road and have fun like them. This embarrasses him, but he knows what he is doing.

“They are rich people. But I must work to pay for my school. I never forget that,” he says.

Dophu wants to be a gelong (monk) when he grows up. That’s his only dream. His father thinks Dophu should study more, but he has decided to let Dophu pursue his dream.

Fourteen-year-old Dewash Gurung is from Samtse. He studies in Tendu Higher Secondary School in Class VIII. In Thimphu, he has a brother but he stays with his friend in Chang Gidaphu, popularly known as Kala Bazaar. He walks to work as early as 7 in the morning. He collects parking fees until 9 pm. But sometimes, when it is extremely cold, he heads home by 8 pm. But that is not often. Every day, his aim is to make more collection than the previous day.

He collects about Nu 1,200 daily and deposits Nu 900 to TCC. He considers his location the busiest and doesn’t swap his area with his friends like many of his friends do.

Dewash stumbled upon the temporary job when he came to Thimphu for winter vacation. He saw many boys his age collecting parking fee. He thought it could be a productive and interesting way to pass time while on vacation.

That evening, he met his brother to discuss the matter. His brother was more than pleased with the idea.

Early the next morning, Dewash got on the road with two wads of parking tickets.

“I am good in Mathematics and Sciences,” says Dewash. He wants to become an engineer.

A pickup whirs with a yellow ticket tucked between the wiper and its windshield. Dewash runs for the money but gets none.

“Hey, you got a change for Nu 500? Have you?” shouts the driver, and the white Bolero pickup zooms past.

“See, there are some such people who always bully us and try to get away without paying the fee. Taxi drivers are the worst,” says Dewash.

4 Responses to “Earning for schooling by the roads”

1. dechen says:

   January 20, 2012 at 4:25 am

   its very shameful how people reacts to this children who are working hard just to pay their fees or help their family with their daily expenses. i wish if our society could help them more. i am also a student and its really sad to see students of my age working in the streets in this cold winter, plus not having any respect for what they are doing.
   why cant they live a normal life like others.
   NCWC should seriously see on this matter and help these children.

   Reply
2. Kunzang says:

   January 20, 2012 at 12:47 pm

   This is the “Dignity of Labour” that we children must start to learn and accept to take. Till now having learnt only the “Dignity of Dashos” in our school days, we see many educated youths who are unwilling to take our available blue-collor jobs looking for white-collor jobs only.

   By working like this, we are contributing to the society in our small way. This is called Service to the Society.

   Reply
3. Samten says:

   January 20, 2012 at 3:30 pm

   Hats off to TCC for giving us the employment opportunity to we poor parents’ children who can gainfully earn some money for themselves during winter vacation rather than getting into gangs-fights and stealing of other’s property. We get engaged in good works and find no time to go into bad things to create problems to ourselves and to the society.

   We hear many news of spoilt youths of our age-groups. We need support from our society please.

   Reply
4. Lhamu says:

   January 23, 2012 at 11:39 am

   Please do not put down to the youths who works with dignity of labour to help themselves and to thier respected parents. BUT the society must look into the spoilt and corrupted youths who are voilent and bring social problems unruly and disrecpectfully.

   Reply