CHANGE IN FATE
by Jeneeya Suwal

Rita, a fifteen-year-old girl, lived in the Nuwakot district in the northeast part of Nepal with her parents and a brother.  As an elder daughter of a family, she had to take care of all the household work. She used to get up at five o’clock in the morning, clean the house, and bring water from the public water tap thirty minutes away from home.  After bringing water from the tap, she had to feed their two cows and four goats.  She used to take a doko (a bucket made of bamboo with holes all over) with her and go to a nearby forest to collect grass and firewood.  She had her meal only after returning from the forest.  She would be starving after all the physical work she had done the whole morning.  She usually got to eat only after noon.  Even though she worked very hard, she never got enough to eat. 

In contrast, her brother had nothing to do.  He used to get up at eight o’clock in the morning, have breakfast, and go to school. He had nothing to do at home. 

In villages, people still think a daughter as somebody’s property.  They think that since a girl goes to somebody else’s house after getting married and takes care of other people, they don’t want to educate her, treat her well and waste their time and money. People say that, “Why water a neighbor’s tree if the neighbor would be harvesting ripe fruit from that tree? But if we take care of a son, he will also take care of us when he grows up.”  So it is all about give and take.

Rita worked hard but her family did not treat her well.  She dreamed of an easy life.  She wanted to have fun in her life, not only work all day and all night.  She dreamed that one day someone would come into her life and give her all the happiness she had desired for.   Her dream came true when she met Harry.  He was tall, handsome, and charming man.  He was every girl’s dream.

One day while on her way back from the forest after collecting firewood and grass, Rita collided with Harry.  Harry was a new comer to that village.  Harry told Rita that he lived in Kathmandu the capital city, and had come to Nuwakot to spend his vacation.  Harry was so charming and his voice was so polite that Rita left her heart with him.  Rita took all the responsibility to show him the beautiful places in that village.  Their meetings became frequent.  Harry told Rita about city life and all the fun and happiness he had there.  Rita was spellbound by Harry’s stories.  She told Harry that she wanted to go to the city.  At that time, Harry told Rita that he had fallen in love with her and wanted to marry her.  She easily succumbed to Harry’s sweet words and agreed to marry him.  Unaware of Harry’s intention, Rita marveled at how easily her dreams were coming true.  They agreed to run away from the village.  They planned to get married as soon as they would arrive in Kathmandu.

The next day Rita got up earlier than usual, collected her belongings, and ran to join Harry, who was waiting for her in the public tap.  They boarded a bus on the highway and headed to Kathmandu, where married according to their plan.  Harry treated Rita so well that she believed she was enjoying heaven’s happiness.  After spending a week in the city, Harry told Rita that he had relatives in Mumbai, India, and wanted to take her there.  Rita was so excited to meet his relatives.  They took a bus from Kathmandu across the border and a train to Mumbai.

In Mumbai, they went to a strange place with loud music and lots of noise.  Rita was scared to be in this strange place with strange people.  Harry met a scary looking man there and introduced him to Rita.  His name was Mohan.  Harry told Rita that Mohan was his cousin and he lived there with his aunt.  Mohan then took them to the aunt’s place.  The aunt was very happy to see Rita.  She treated Rita very cordially and took her to another room, where she left her alone.  As Rita waited for Harry to come and take her away, seconds passed, and then minutes and then hours but Harry never came back.  She went out to see if Harry was there but he was not. Finally, she asked the aunt about Harry. At first, the woman laughed, and then she told Rita that Harry sold her for 25,000 Indian rupees.  The woman told Rita that now she was her property and she had to work as a prostitute to collect the money. 

Rita had been so happy to marry the man of her dreams.  Now her dreams were scattered like broken glass. Her sky fell down in front of her.  She could not accept the fact that now she had to work as a prostitute.  At first, she rejected to become a prostitute but she was tortured without any mercy.  She was burnt by cigarettes all over her body.  She resisted all the torture, but she could not resist anymore after the guards of that brothel raped her repeatedly until she agreed. 

The most trusted person of her life had deceived her.  A naïve village girl, her fate was to become a prostitute with all her dreams scattered. She felt like she was dying everyday.  She started to live as a prostitute cursing the day she met Harry. 

This is a story of a girl who was trafficked to India and was forced to work as sex worker.

Rita is only one example of girls being trafficked for prostitution.  Every year 5,000 to 7,000 women and children from Nepal are trafficked into India for forced prostitution. Twenty percent of this population is children below sixteen years of age.

Note:  When I was in Nepal, I used to participate in various kinds of training related to child rights and women’s rights.  In one of the training sessions, I participated in, a girl who was rescued from an Indian brothel told us how she was taken to the brothel and happened there.  Drawing upon her story, we performed street theatre in Nepal about girls, who are being trafficked to India.  This is a true story, but I gave imaginary names to the characters.  This is a bitter but true fact, which has happened in the past and is still happening. ***