MAKAWANPUR, Aug 27: In a small thatched hut at Bakaiya Rural Municipality-5 of Makawanpur district, a septuagenarian is found working actively from dawn to dusk.

Padmalal Bishwakarma, a 77-year-old ironsmith, heats and beats pieces of iron in a furnace, moulds them, and makes handy tools such as hammer, sickle, spade and knife.

He said he has given continuing to the profession his ancestors were involved in, since he was 13-year-old. Padmalal not only moulds metal but also does maintenance- honing and edging the tools manually.

At present, the elderly citizen is worried about his profession- it is facing a risk of extinction lately since there are no youths from his community taking interest in continuation of this job. None from his family of four is keen to pursue his ancestral work either.

His growing age is also the factor adding woes- he feels lack of energy to deliver.

Also, the development of technology and the availability and use of electric tools in farming and for other household purposes is making ironwork redundant. The decreasing number of farmers in the village is equally a growing concern for him. The farmers were the ones with whom he mostly dealt with for iron works.

Padmalal uses wood and coal to heat and melt the iron, and moulds them into different tools. The coal, these days, has become costlier and is not available easily. It is increasingly making it difficult to run his decades-long business, he shared the plight.

He cannot quit his current profession and adopt others at this age, he explained, adding he had no other skills at all. However, he vowed to continue the rigorous metal work even at low earnings.

Padmalal is willing to work as an ironsmith as long as his health permits. According to him, his ancestors including his late father used to barter iron-made tools with food items such as rice and maize.

Money has already replaced the traditional mode of payment, shared Padmalal.

 
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