REFLECT classes help prevent trafficking

Uday Bahadur Sunar, 65 and his wife Maili Sunar, 43 are the residents of Benighat VDC-8 in Dhading district. As their economic condition is not good, they earn living by working as agricultural waged labourers in the village.

The couple has three sons and three daughters. Among them, one of their daughters, Kabita, 19 (name changed) was married to a family in Rasuwa district five years ago. The economic condition of Kabita’s family is not good either. To add the trouble, Kabita's husband married second time some years after her marriage. Since then, she did not get any support from her husband.

In February this year, Uday's family heard that Kabita was going to abroad for job. Then, he called to his daughter and she informed that her family was sending her to overseas via India, however, she did not know anything, including the basic information like the country where she would go, how long she would stay, the kind of job she would do there, etc. She informed that her father-in-law had warned her not to disclose the information about the overseas plan to anybody else.

Uday discussed the matter in the REFLECT classes conducted by FOCUS Nepal with support from Oxfam in Dhading. Uday and his wife have been taking the REFLECT classes since December 2016. The discussion in the class concluded that Kabita was going to be trafficked as there is no provision to go abroad via India and Kabita is not provided any details of her travel and the type of work she is supposed to do in the foreign country.

The Sunar couple talked to Kabita and her family members including father-in-law and warned that they will report issue to the police as it was the case of human trafficking. After some days, the Sunar family came to know that Kabita was taken to Kathmandu by her father-in-law for trafficking. The couple went to Kathmandu and found that Kabita's father-in-law was making preparations to send her to India for trafficking. The couple rescued Kabita from Kathmandu on March 1, 2017. Kabita's father-in-law admitted with the couple that he had planned to traffick Kabita for money. He requested them not report the case to the police. He apologized for the mistakes he had committed.

“I have saved my daughter from the possible trafficking,” said Uday, adding, “I am thankful to FOCUS Nepal and Oxfam for inviting me in the REFLECT classes which opened the ways to different issues which helped prevent my daughter from trafficking." 

In the similar tune, Maili said, “I want to go to the REFLECT classes regularly in the future as well since the classes provide useful information. If we had not joined the classes, we wouldn't have known about the trafficking and been able to protect their daughter from being trafficked."

People of the vulnerable community take the REFLECT classes in which issues of gender-based violence, single women, citizenship, vital registration, legal documents, women trafficking, sanitation, livelihood, among others, are discussed.