This Dashain, hundreds of daughters in Khotang did not have to worry about how they would reach their maternal homes. A group of youths in the eastern Nepali district provided a free motorcycle service to 642 daughters and sisters traveling to their maternal families for the festival, carrying out the drive under the campaign 'Dashain Tihar, Cheli Lai Upahar', which translates as 'Dashain Tihar, a gift for daughters'. The four-day initiative focused on women and children who face transport shortages and financial hardship during the festival season, and the organizers have announced that the service will continue during Tihar as well.
Four Days of Free Rides Home
The campaign ran over four days of the Dashain period, with volunteers using motorcycles to carry beneficiaries to the places where their maternal families live. What began as a simple offer of a ride grew into one of the district's most visible festival-season efforts, with the number of women taking advantage of the service climbing steadily from one day to the next.
The Daily Tally
The figures shared by the campaign show how participation built up:
- Kartik 3: 50 daughters and sisters received the free ride
- Kartik 4: 110 beneficiaries were served
- Kartik 5: 252 women traveled under the campaign, the busiest single day recorded
Kartik is a month of the Nepali calendar that falls around October and November and hosts the main days of Dashain. The three reported daily figures add up to 412 rides, while the campaign's overall count across its four days stood at 642, with the balance of the travelers served on the remaining day of the drive. The rise from 50 rides on the first reported day to 252 on Kartik 5 shows how quickly demand grew once communities learned that the service was available.
Easing Transport Woes and Financial Strain
The campaign was aimed at a specific group: women and children who face two difficulties at once during the festivals. Transport becomes hard to find at exactly the moment the number of travelers peaks, and for households under financial strain, the cost of getting anywhere during Dashain adds a further burden. The organizers identified women and children in particular as the beneficiaries, a group that often has fewer options when festival travel turns costly and crowded.
Dashain is the biggest festival in the Nepali calendar, and traveling to the maternal home, known as the maiti, for tika and blessings from elders is among its most cherished traditions. For daughters and sisters who cannot manage the trip, that tradition can slip out of reach. By offering the rides completely free of cost, the Khotang campaign removed both obstacles at once, allowing 642 women to celebrate with their maternal families instead of staying behind during the festival.
A Gift for Daughters, Delivered by Motorcycle
The name the organizers chose places daughters at the center of the festival's culture of giving. 'Dashain Tihar, Cheli Lai Upahar' frames the entire effort as a gift, and the form it took was practical rather than material: a seat on a motorcycle and a volunteer's time, offered at the moment of the year when the road to the maternal home matters most.
Community-run campaigns of this kind respond to a gap that opens up every Dashain, when movement across the country surges and transport services come under pressure. In Khotang, the response, measured by the 642 women who took up the offer within four days, indicates that the need the campaign addressed was a real one. The initiative also highlights the role played by young volunteers, who organized and operated the service themselves throughout the festival period.
Set to Continue Through Tihar
The organizers have made clear that Dashain was not the end of the effort. The free motorcycle service is set to continue during Tihar, the festival that follows Dashain and brings another wave of family visits, including travel by daughters and sisters to their maternal homes. For the women and children who used the Dashain service, the announcement promises the same support at the next festival, when transport once again becomes scarce and expensive for many households.
As reported by Nagarik News, the campaign in Khotang demonstrates how a straightforward idea backed by volunteer effort can carry hundreds of festival travelers to their families. With Tihar approaching, the youths behind 'Dashain Tihar, Cheli Lai Upahar' are preparing to do it all again, extending their gift for daughters through the festival of lights.
