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Shakti Samuha Wins Ramon Magsaysay Award
By KTM Metro Reporter
July 25, 2013: A Nepalese NGO called ‘Shakti Samuha’ won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for its persistent efforts on fighting against the human particularly the women trafficking.
One of the founding members of ‘Shakti Samuha’ is Chirimaya Tamang that had under gone the suffering of human trafficking. Speaking to the anchor of the ‘antar-samad’ program of the Radio Nepal today morning, she told how she had struggled to register ‘Shakati’ at the Kathmandu district administration. The officials did not registered the ‘Shakti’ thinking Chirimaya and his colleagues would not able to run the NGO (Non-governmental organization). Their persistent efforts forced the district admin officials to register it.
Talking to the Radio Nepal anchor, Chirimaya told how she was taken to Mumbai and sold her to a brothel in Mumbai, and how she got back to Nepal after two years in Mumbai brothel.
Chirimaya had gone to a school and completed the primary education means up to the five grades. Thereafter, she could not go to a school because her village had not a middle school, she could not travel a long distance every day to go to a middle school. So, she became engaged in the domestic work.
She said that one of the villagers known to her used to bring various types of women in different dresses such as school dress, wedding dress, regular household dress, and some even in the dress just returned from grass-cutting work. They used to stay there for several days and weeks and then they suddenly disappeared. The men used to come back and hold parties in the village, and distribute various gifts to the local people.
One day when she was cutting grass in a forest, a group of men came to her, and asked her to go with them. She refused, and told them she would rather die than going with them. They forcibly held her, bound her hands behind her back, and then they inserted some stuff in her mouth. Thereafter, she did not know what happened to her. When she opened her eyes she was already in Gorakhapur. She could understand reading the signboard. Thus, she could use her five years of schooling.
Again, she went to sleep because of the drug given by her male companions, and her eyes opened in Mumbai when they were getting out of a train. There, a woman was waiting for her. She took Chirimaya to a place where Chirimaya was to be acclimatized. Then, she was taken one of the brothels in Mumbai where she spent two years.
Then, the Maharastra Government decided to release all the women under eighteen from the brothels in 1996 (?). Accordingly, the police raided all brothels, and released all the women under eighteen. Among all the women from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, 200 were the Nepalese women.
The government of Nepal did not want to take back all the Nepalese women. Chirimaya and some other women came back to Nepal with the help of a NGO. She went back to her home but her brother and his spouse did not accept her for fear of the social backlash.
She came back to Kathmandu, and underwent rehabilitation training. At the end of the training, Chirimaya and her women colleagues decided to set up a NGO to fight against the women trafficking. For four years they ran it unofficially. When they went to the Kathmandu district administration to register, they had to face the insulting comments on them and their NGO from the district admin officials. However, they continued their efforts on registering it, and ultimately succeed it.
Chirimaya Tamang has continued her study to enhance her academic career. She is currently doing 12 grades.
She received ‘Hero Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery Award of 2011’ from Hillary Clinton: former Secretary of State of the USA.
Congratulation to ‘Shakti Samuha’ and Chirimaya Tamang on receiving the award, and successfully coming back to the home country and running the NGO against the women trafficking from Nepal.
