Nepali Girls Fight Indentured Servitude with Street Theater
In Nepal, a movement to end the centuries-long practice of kamlari, indentured servitude for girls from poor families, is underway. And kamlari survivors and advocates are leading the way, by taking to the streets with show-stopping demonstrations in the form of musical street theater. Can street theater end a form of slavery that's been entrenched in Nepali society for centuries?
Kamlari is a Nepali system of indentured servitude where young Tharu girls, a lower caste, are sold to wealthy landlords and brokers for a small fee each year. The girls, many of whom are as young as 6, are forced to cook and clean house and do other menial tasks for long hours with no breaks and little rest. Some suffer severe sexual, emotional, or physical abuse at the hands of the men who rent them. Often, kamlari girls' families sell them to pay off debt or as collateral for a loan from the same landlord who rents their daughter. This cycle of poverty and need has preserved the tradition of kamlari for centuries, trapping endless numbers of girls in the cycle of abuse, lack of education, and poverty.
But now a small group of girls who have been freed from kamlari are fighting back against the practice, and they're doing it with street theater. For example, survivors Sunita and Anita Chaudhary, 17 and 18, have been involved in several aspects of creating and producing street theater. Both of the young women have performed songs, acted, and written scripts which explore the poverty, gender inequality, and entrenched culture of exploitation that allows kamlari to thrive. The plays are often performed in tandem with real live rescue missions, where landlords and parents are publicly confronted and shamed into releasing girls from kamlari and re-enrolling them in school. Sometimes, the spectacle becomes so dramatic the audience forgets it's not real; an actor playing an abusive landlord has been beaten up multiple times. Maybe the audience is just enchanted by these young performers. Maybe it's because the portrayed abuse and exploitation of young girls in indentured servitude in Nepal is real.
What's even more surprising than the incredible strength and innovation these girls have shown, is that street theater is actually working as a tool to stop kamlari, a practice that has existed for centuries. Over a decade ago, an estimated 14,000 ethnic Tharu girls were victimized in the kamlari system. Today, the U.S.-based Nepal Youth Foundation thinks that number may be as low as 1,000. Most of those 13,000 girls are now in school or working in a trade, earning income to break the cycle of poverty and inequality which would have trapped their daughters as it trapped them. And it has been steady, grassroots pressure -- in part realized through street theater and other public demonstrations -- that has unseated centuries of sanctioned slavery in Nepal.
Can ending trafficking really be that simple?
Human trafficking is still a major problem in Nepal, and young girls from poor families are at the highest risk of being trafficked into commercial sex, domestic servitude, or other industries. But thanks to one local, targeted, and innovative project of survivor street theater, a major dent has been made in the steel behemoth that is modern-day slavery in Nepal. Now, thousands of Tharu girls have a chance to get an education and work to support themselves, not an exploitative landlord. And when they speak -- or sing or dance -- people hear their voices, and listen.
Photo credit: nromagna
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Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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