Case Stories

Freedom from debt bondage: Rescuing a young girl from becoming a bonded labor

Lohana Sikai Kendra is located in Ward number – 25, Lohana of Janakpur Sub Metropolitan City, Dhanusha. Pooja Sada, a 13-year old student at Lohana Sikai Kendra (Accelerated Learning Program Centre). She comes from a financially downtrodden family from the Mushar community. In her family, she has her mother, elder brother, and grandmother. Her father died when she
was a child. Pooja’s elder brother used to earn a living for the family. The unfortunate and distressing thing that occurred to the family in 2019 was that they had to lose Pooja’s brother due to severe illness. The young girl’s mother has borrowed NPR. 50,000 for treatment of her son with a businessperson (Pratap Sah) from the same village at a high interest rate. Even though Pooja’s mother tried her best and did not leave any stones unturned, she was unsuccessful in saving the life of her son.

Now it was all on Pooja’s young shoulder to help her mother repay the loan (NPR. 50,000). Since, it was getting tough for the family to earn a living, repaying the loan was a big deal for them. The businessperson then convinced Pooja’s mother to let her daughter (Pooja) stay at his house and help in household chores. Doing so her mother would not have to pay back the loan to the businessperson. Pooja’s mother was compelled to give her consent and allow the businessperson to take her daughter at his house in a substitute for the loan amount – NPR. 50,000. The community educator (CE) Sabita Sah of Lohana Sikai Kendra came to know that one of the students of her center – Pooja is soon going to be child labor. The CE says – “It was devastating news for me. I was completely outraged at the brutality involved, as there was no surety of when will Pooja be back to her home and who will be responsible for any physical and mental torture that she had to undergo leaving her home and giving up on her childhood. At the moment all I wanted to do was to find a way out to rescue Pooja”.

The CE then reported Pooja’s story to her immediate supervisor – ‘Umesh Mandal’ – the project coordinator (BTB, MNM Project), and then went on to report the story to the Ward Chairperson of Lohana (Pooja’s village) – Umesh Yadav. The ward chairperson was supportive and agreed that this is solely a case of child labor and the life of the young girl’s entire life is at stake – unprotected, vulnerable, and at risk. However, he wanted the CE to write a letter of complaint against the businessperson. The CE said that this is the case of his (ward chairperson’s) village and area so; he should immediately initiate an action to save the young girl from becoming child labor.

The ward chairperson called Pooja’s mother and the businessperson to his office. Pooja’s mother arrived immediately; however, the businessperson sent his house help. The ward chairperson strictly asked the house help to send the businessperson to his office. The businessperson agreed that he has asked the young girl’s mother to send her daughter with him. To this, the ward chairperson strictly said that – do you know this is illegal and a case of child labor. You cannot take a child as a house help in a substitute of the money you have lent to her mother. You will be subjected to penalties as per the law. Not only this, the ward chairperson even warned Pooja’s mother to not take any such decision in the future, or else she will be considered guilty.

After the meeting held with the ward chairperson, Pooja’s mother decided to repay the borrowed amount gradually by taking a loan from the government under a scheme that lends money to women at a very low- interest rate. Hadn’t the CE and Ward Chairperson been supportive, Pooja’s mother would surely have made the unwise move of persuading her daughter to become child labor.

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