this is Monika.

When Monika was 16 years old she was living in Sikharbesi with her mother and father. One afternoon there was a Hindu festival in the local area and a man approached her, offering her a job opportunity in Kathmandu. Coming from a family of farmers and living in a village with few opportunities, she agreed to go with this man,

After a six hour bus ride to Kathmandu, her and her escort met with another girl, who had also agreed to the same job prospect in Kathmandu. Monika came to realize there was no job in Kathmandu, as they immediately went on their way to Delhi, India via bus.

Putting these two things together, a man traveling with two young females on public transportation, I asked Monika what he told her to say if the police asked who this man was. Though the police did not question either girl or man, Monika said he told them both to say, “He is my husband and we have work in Delhi.”

Upon arriving in Delhi, Monika was sold as a virgin to her new home and workplace for 2 million rupees.

Be it because of the need for a translator with basic English created for an uncomfortable, impersonal situation or the expressing of feelings about this time of her life was novelty, even though it was six years ago, Monika was reluctant to give many details about her living situation in Delhi. However, she described the brothel as something as livable and acceptable. Having around 32-40 girls in the brothel ranging from the ages of 14-32 years of age and receiving three meals a day, they each had their own room. At first Monika expressed that her landlady abused and forced drugs on the girls for cooperation, but then a few minutes later she denied this comment and described her landlady as very nice and never using abuse. The clients were the ones that abused the girls when they did not cooperate with the clients desires, mostly refusing sexual intercourse. Curious to how Monika was treated, I asked her if she had initially agreed to sex or if she was uncooperative. The only response I received from this question was Monika lowering her head and looking toward the ground.

After four years of living in Delhi, a man who Monika did not give much detail about, purchased her allowing her to return to her home village, Sikharbesi. Upon return to her village, she told her family what had happened and fortunately they accepted her back into their life. Monika married a man and now has a daughter and a son. She works as a farmer and her husband is a tailor. With asking about how her husband she immediately mentioned how he abuses her. Her facial expressions reconfirmed her low self-esteem and acceptance of this life.

With my two final questions I asked her how she would prevent her daughter from being trafficked as they live in the same village she was taken from and does the same line of work as her parents. Smiling, she said, even though “there is nothing that could have changed [me from being trafficked,] “I [will] know [that] he is lying, I know about this “job.”” Continuing, she began to laugh, “I will tell the police, even though they will do nothing.”

As the translator only had basic English, my questions became very limited. My final question though, very straight forward brought me to tears as I genuinely asked, “How do you feel now?” Monika only looked down, laughed and shortly responded, “I am not okay.”
Though she found FPAN, Family Planning Association in Nepal, where she has been provided medical and health support, she has lived the past 6 years without psychosocial, legal, or any other support that is necessary to learn how to heal from this past life. She has managed to make another life for herself, but as she has said, she is not okay, and daily lives with each memory of her four years in Delhi.

Monika with her son and daughter(in the pink)