5.2 Lila rescued trafficked girls from Mumbai
Ignoring his duty of having a citizenship certificate made for his 18-year-old daughter, a father left for Bombay to earn money. His daughter traced him and went all the way to Bombay by herself. How did a young lady, educated only till Grade 8 find so much courage?

That courageous lady who surprised her father in his workplace in Bombay one day was Lila Bhattarai, resident of Devibasti, Birtamod Bazaar, Jhapa district. Bombay is a city infamous among Nepalese for girl trafficking. “What would I do if my daughter had been sold?” he said to himself after. But his daughter was clever and courageous. Instead of herself being bought and sold, she freed two trafficked Nepalese girls! Her father was so proud of her that he effused she had done much more than a son could have done. He immediately returned to Nepal with her to make her citizenship certificate.

This incident took place in December 2005. Lila gathered so much courage after completing a 6-month training program at the Navajyoti Training Center in Kathmandu, with the help of Mahila ko Haat. The same training taught her to sometimes take risks while working.

When she arrived in Bombay, a local woman informed Lila that two girls had been smuggled from Nepal and were hidden in one of the shanty areas. When asked, they told her that they were there on their own will. Only when Lila warned them about the situation of other trafficked girls did they admit that they had fled their village with pimps. With the help of her father and the local woman, Lila managed to spirit the two girls away from the pimps when they were out for morning tea. She took the train to Gorakhpur and safely returned the two girls to Nepal.

One of the girls to be rescued was Devi Sarki, from the Sukumbasi[i] area in Khudunabari, Jhapa. When she was still studying in Class 8, a relative from the same village took her to Bombay, on the condition that he would find work for her. Another girl to be rescued was Nirmala Darjee. She is from the Mid-Western region but doesn’t wish to disclose her full address.

Devi’s maternal uncle and aunt live in Jhapa. Lila left Nirmala in their care. Devi now studies in Class 9. Lila soars with pride when she sees Devi going to school.

Lila was born in Pathari, Morang. Her parents moved from one place to the other seeking a better livelihood as they were financially weak. They moved from Morang to Budhabare and then to Shanischare, and finally settled in Birtamod, Jhapa. That unstable life hampered the studies of Lila and her elder sister, who got married at the age of 16. Her father went to Bombay expecting better pay. Her mother Krishnamaya set up a small hotel with the help of Lila’s sister and brother-in-law to earn a living for her three daughters and herself. However, the pain of living apart from her husband and pressure brought on by her responsibilities always kept Krishnamaya ill. She died when Lila was only 15 years of age.

After the death of their mother, responsibility for the three sisters fell upon the married sister Tika. It was difficult for her and her husband to earn a living for a big family of seven people – themselves, the three sisters and their two children. Realizing that the meager salary of a driver was not enough to sustain the big family, her husband Ramesh Khadka went to Qatar for work. Lila was studying in Grade 8 and her two sisters in Grades 6 and 3 respectively. Tika could not afford to send them all to school; Lila had to discontinue her studies and take care of her siblings instead. She cried a lot the day she had to leave school.

Understanding her plight, her neighbor Bindu Dhungana, a teacher of Deep Jyoti High School, suggested that she join the training supported by Mahila ko Haat. Her journey to Kathmandu took three days because of strikes that closed the roads, but her enthusiasm to join the training erased all the painful memories of her troublesome journey.

After coming to Kathmandu, Lila came into contact with Mahila ko Haat. This organization was willing to fund her expenses for the six-month training at the Navajyoti Women’s Training Center. “It was then that I felt for the first time that I should help other people in need, and I was inspired to get involved in social service,” says Lila.

When Lila returned home after the six months of training the otherwise pessimistic girl had turned over a new leaf. A timid girl of few words before the training, she rightly asked her father for a citizenship certificate upon her return. This was her first achievement after the training.

Her sister had taken on the responsibility of a mother after their mother’s demise. In April 2006, there came a turning point in Lila’s life. Her sister urged Lila to get married to Ram Bahadur Baniya, a resident of Chakchaki, Jhapa, at the age of 18, and she could not deny the offer.. Post-marriage, her dreams she had thought wouldn’t realize came true. Seeing her zeal to study further, her husband enrolled her in school, where she is currently studying in Grade 9. In her free time she does tailoring and teaches her skills to others. She has also started a small cosmetic shop. Lila already has a handful of responsibilities so has not started a savings and credit group yet, however she rushes to impart her knowledge to another group in a nearby village, established by Sahara Nepal, whenever possible. She wishes to start a group when she thinks she is capable enough.

Pleased with the progress made by Lila, her elder sister says, “When she returned after the training, I saw that she had become a new person. She had become a mature person in the way she carried herself, the way she spoke and worked and in everything else she did. I feel proud to have such a mature sister.”

Asked how she would like to contribute to society she replies, “After completion of SLC[ii] level, I would like to tutor stitching and tailoring to my friends in the neighborhood to make them independent. After tutoring about 9-10 women, I would like to start a small business. I hope Mahila ko Haat will continue to help the women willing to move ahead in life.”

Lila is marching forward to serve society. If man and woman are two wheels of a carriage, her husband is cooperating as the other wheel in order to drive the carriage forward. Wouldn’t this world be a better place if every husband assisted in his wife’s positive initiatives?

[i] Nepali word for ‘squatters’
[ii] Short for School Leaving Certificate, mandated by the government, at end of Grade 10