Thirty-year-old Kamala Khatri of Raniyapur-1, Soltipur, has recently returned to Nepal after three months of intense physical and mental torture in Kuwait.

Khatri, who went to Kuwati as domestic help, has returned with a shaven head. She was mentally afflicted by her employers.

“I don’t want to remember the tortures I underwent when I was inKuwait,” she said.Despite working from dawn till dusk, she was meted out with physical tortures for months.“When I was bedridden, my employer assaulted me and shaved my head,” she said with a shaky voice, adding that, she was hurt the most when she had to suffer at the hands of fellow Nepalis.Kamala’s return to Nepal was possible after her husband, Dil Bahadur informed the Safe Migration Rauniyapur’s Network – a womenorganization associated with women’s issues – about her plight. Chandra Kala Poudel, a local woman, also pressurised the local administration and filed complaint about her case. Saathi, an Non Government Organisation has formed Safe Migration Network and Paralegal Committees in 46 VDCs and municipality of Banke district.

“We are not sure whether her agent had sent her legally or illegally,” said her husband, addingthat, she was compelled to go to Kuwait after he was physically unfit to work.Khatri had gone to Kuwait through Balkrishna Poudel of Nepalgunj. According to her, Balkrishna’s son Binod was the agent in Kuwait.“But instead of helping, he took Rs 55,000 from me and I had to return empty hand,” bemoaned Khatri.

Kamala who collapsed at the International Airport in Kathmandu upon her arrival stayed in the shelter of Maiti Nepal for some days.“Thousands of women in the village have gone for foreign employment through unsafe medium,” said Safe Migration Rauniyapur’s Chairperson Poudel.She said that they have started counselling the locals after the agents were found to be taking Nepali women through illegal means.Agents have been sending Nepali women for foreign employment through illegally via India with attraction remunerations and other different facilities.

Published on: 18 October  2012 | The Himalayan Times