Pariyar´s parents were also elated when Yambahadur Nepali of Darbesa and Dilbahadur Bishwokarma of Kareshabari assured them that Kushum would be earning enough once she started working in the foreign country. [break]
Kushum wanted to reach Kuwait as soon as possible so that she could support her family. Her parents and a 9-year-old brother are differently abled and the dalit family had no source of income.
But while she was still dreaming of better days ahead, Kushum could not help noticing the suspicious activities of her agents including her cousin Samjhana Pariyar of Chisang, Kanepokhari. Once she became quite certain that she was going to be sold by her relatives, she began to cry out for help right from within a vehicle in the Jogbani area.
Then, with the help of Indian police she was sent back to Nepal. Upon her filing a complaint, police here soon arrested all three agents. Currently, Dilbahadur, Yambahadur and Samjhana are facing human trafficking charges. Dilbahadur absconded from the army in 2003 and Yambahadur is a local Maoist cadre.
“After I overheard something about their selling me somewhere I was shocked and began to cry out for help,” Kushum said. “I have now come to know that they have already sold many others like me,” she added.
Samjhana was to get Rs 20,000 for trafficking Kushum to Patna. Investigations also reveal that Samjhana had trafficked two other women to Patna some 20 days ago. Dilbahadur and Yambahadur used to seek her help for trafficking.
Yet in another case, Sandhyadevi Shah of Majhare VDC was arrested in Jojbani on 14 February 2011 while on her way to sell Maya Marandi, a tribal woman. A district court has sentenced her to five years in prison.
The Biratnagar branch of Maiti Nepal informs that Patna has become a new destination for women trafficking. As of last December, 52 women were reported missing, and of them eight were trafficked. “We think many of the missing women have been sold in Patna,” chief of the branch Binod Pokhrel said.
“A growing number of young girls are being trafficked to Delhi, Mumbai and Patna, and in 2011 alone we sent back 838 girls from the border at Jogbani,” he said.
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