Indentured Daughters Program (IDP)
HOW IDP SAVES OUR DAUGHTERS …………………. RAISING AWARENESS FOR KAMLARIS …………………… THE FUTURE OF RESCUED KAMLARIS
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Daughters for less than $100… 20,000 girls from the Tharu community are still ’sold’ every year as bonded or indentured laborers in select Terai districts of western Nepal as a part of the Kamlari (servant) system. Parents receive Rs. 4,000 to 8,000 ($50 to $100 USD) yearly, with labor contracts renewed each year. Girls as young as six are bonded for quick cash they themselves will never see, to ease their parents’ poverty and give them one less mouth to feed. Very few, if any, bonded Kamlari (servant) girls are sent to school by their employers. They work from early morning to late at night, and only receive a sleeping space on the floor and any leftover food to eat. Parents may not even know where their daughters live, inviting abuse: some girls never return home, many are beaten or raped, and others end up as prostitutes. Labeled by the UN as “slavery,” we strive to end this inhumane practice through our Indentured Daughters Program.
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Our Indentured Daughters Program… Since 2000, with funding from NYOF, FNC has fought to eradicate bonded child labor, using a novel, but highly effective scheme called the Indentured Daughters Program (IDP). No money changes hands between IDP and the girls’ families, yet thousands of girls have been liberated and given education. IDP insures that these girls will not be bonded in the future through a very simple offering to her parents: a piglet or baby goat to raise and breed, which can be fed on kitchen scraps and sold at the end of the year for about the same amount as a Kamlari girl. IDP provides a scholarship to each rescued Kamlari to attend school, paying all education-related expenses. We provide intensive, three-month “bridging” classes are also provided for girls who are behind in school due to their years of forced labor.
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Eradication in Dang District… As of January 2008, IDP has succeeded in nearly abolishing bonded child labor in our target area of Dang, where we have been working since 2000. 4,500 young girls have been liberated, mostly by our program, and some by another program replicating ours. We are also active in the Bardiya district and plans are being made for possible expansion into other western Terai districts. 