Moonlighting with schooling
Mixing business with education, children sell farm produce at school
29 April, 2009 – Eleven-year-old Sherab Zangmo has more to do than merely study in school. For the second grade student from Ritsangdung, Kanglung, going to school is literally a family business.
Already weighed down by her school bag, Sherab walks more than two hours to school, carrying green onions, spinach, cheese and radish. She will return home only after selling these when her school closes for the day. Sometimes the walk home weighs heavier on her, as she has to carry essentials like sugar, cooking oil, dry fish and even a few kilogrammes of rice, bought with the money earned from the vegetables.
Sherab’s classmate Tshering Choden, 10, has finished selling a bagful of garlic and coriander leaves. “My mother’s busy at home and asked me to buy dry fish, soap, tomatoes, salt and flour,” she said, smiling at the success of her business.
This is not a daily routine, but students from the village under Kanglung gewog frequently help their parents sell farm products while they are occupied on the fields. Students can be seen running from door to door, selling vegetables after school. They target Sherubtse college staff and students staying at self-catering hostels. “I bring whatever I can carry. I buy the things my mother asks me to and I also get some commission to buy pencils and pens,” said Sherab.
This ‘business’ started after farmers stopped using the vegetable sheds at Kanglung town built at a cost of Nu 170,000.
Farmers said that selling vegetables at the shed was useless as they had to come early in the morning. “We planned to return to work after selling the vegetables but, when we tried to sell them in the shed, we had to wait the whole day,” said a Ritsangdung farmer, Jeetang.
Source: Kuenselonline