Kathmandu, March 26 -- Laxmi Chhetri and her husband have both not been to work for the past two days. Chhetri, who lives with her husband and two children at the squatter settlement in Sankhamul, works as a maid while her husband is a house painter. With the country under lockdown, neither of them has been able to go to work, and as daily wage labourers with few savings, things are not looking good.

"We have been sustaining our family with our daily wages," said 38-year-old Chhetri. "If the lockdown continues, we will die of starvation."

A nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 might be underway but Chhetri does not feel safe in the cramped space that she shares with 110 other households. Numerous households share the sa...