Rautahat, Dec. 21 -- Approximately six kilometres south-east of the East-West Highway lies Chetanagar village, where a small thatched hut on the edge of the settlement tells a stark story of winter hardship.

Sixty-year-old Devratiya Devi Majhi, a Musahar woman, shivers under a thin straw mat, lying on the bare ground lined with straw and old sacks. "The cold has been unbearable. She has nothing to cover herself with. She spends the night wrapped in a straw mat. It is miserable," said Bir Bahadur Shrestha, Devratiya's neighbor.

A resident of ward 9 of Chandrapur Municipality in Rautahat, Devratiya has been unable to get out of bed until late morning as temperatures have plummeted sharply over the past two days. Her husband, Lal Govinda M...