Born into an impoverished family, Jhuma Lama (name changed) was married off soon after she passed the School Leaving Certificate examinations. 

Her initial days after marriage were fulfilling as she had been married off to a man from a well off family. While her husband ran a grocery store, he also had in possession a fair share of ancestral property. 

Life was blissful for Jhuma, who is now 20, as her husband, the only son in the family, loved her. Everything seemed hunky-dory until after eight months into their conjugal life, she insisted that both she and her husband make a trip to India. She thought their India trip would be something they would cherish throughout their lives. 

But her dreams turned into a nightmare as soon as they reached the Indian State of Assam, where she was sold to a brothel by her own husband. 

According to Jhuma, they stayed in a hotel after they reached Assam. “It was me who insisted on visiting India. We had left home and arrived in Assam via Raxaul and there was no reason I would have doubted my own husband,” she said. 

Jhuma, who burst into tears several times while relating her sufferings to this scribe, said when she woke up the next morning, her husband, who had promised her to take to new places in the India, was nowhere to be found. 

When she enquired, the hotel staffers told her he would return soon. They told her he was a regular guest at the hotel. It was only later that she learnt that her husband had sold her to a brothel. 

After spending six months in India as a captive sex worker, she was rescued with the help of some Nepalis staying in India and NGOs. She was brought to Nepal during the first week of December 2013 and handed over to Maiti Nepal office in Jhapa. 

“I am not in a position to decide what I should do next,” she said bursting into tears. 

According to Jhuma, her parents, who are still unaware of what she went through, are her only hope. She has called her parents to Jhapa, saying she was in a difficulty and needed their help. “My parents will be here in a couple of days and they will help me seek justice,” she said. 

After arriving in Nepal she had inquired about her husband and came to learn that he had been making a fool of her parents and relatives telling them that he has sent Jhuma for further studies in India. 

“My parents do not know the reality. I have just called them to come here so that I can tell them what my husband has done with me,” said she. “I will not spare my husband who destroyed my life and made a mockery of the relationship between a wife and a husband,” she added. 

According to Jhapa office of Maiti Nepal, the organization working against human trafficking, it has helped rescue 16 Nepali women from Indian brothels in various Indian cities in 2013. 

Govinda Ghimire, chief of Jhapa office of Maiti Nepal, said many innocent Nepali girls are sold to Indian brothels by their own relatives every year. 

 Published on: 10 January 2014 | Republica