| Sangey |
Posted
on 15-Aug-02 08:46 AM
I always wondered who is behind Maiti Nepal. Here's an article from Ktm Post. I know I am just copying and pasting here, but thought the subject matter is worth sharing although it is already in the news media.
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Anuradha’s odyssey
A woman almost unknown ten years ago is now famous around the globe. She has shown to the world what a woman can do to fight the evils in society. Anuradha Koirala, Chairperson of Maiti Nepal tells Dilip Dhakal her story of hard work and sacrifice
The Kindergarten children from the
1965 class of New English
Boarding School (now known as Amar Adarsha School) at Old Baneshwor still remember the ‘strict ma’am’ running after them with a stick in hand. Upon seeing her, newar students would hurry to their classes saying "Haran Wola, Haran Wola." Later she knew what they meant—In Newari Haran means Chhuchchi (Mean) and Wola means ‘came’. She readily admits that she is Chhuchchi. That may be because she was strict.
The same chhuchchi ma’am is now a towering personality. Maiti Nepal and Anuradha Koirala are synonymous to women’s emancipation, famous all over the world. A mere school teacher until 1992, she catapulted into the limelight after she chose social service as her career. She rubbed shoulders with famous personalities like Prince Charles and Princess Anne of England. Last year Princess Anne gave Anuradha an audience at the Buckingham Palace. A moment worth remembering. "Not even in my dreams had I ever imagined this. It just happened," says she.
It was around 1992 and she was still a teacher. A regular visitor of Lord Pashupatinath and Guheswori, everyday on her way she saw able-bodied women begging. One day she asked why they beg instead of doing some work. They said that no one gave them work. "Will you leave begging if I give you work? She asked. They agreed. So she bought eight women each of them a Nanglo, a Doko and things to sell like toffees, cigarettes, tobacco and nuts. It cost her 800 rupees each. A few days later those women complained that their children were being spoilt on the street. Now with her monthly income of 6,000 rupees she took a challenge of nurturing and educating 10 children. This was how Maiti Nepal was started.
Over the years, the organisation grew. Now there are nine offices of Maiti Nepal, most of them on the Nepal India borders. The mission—to save sisters from being sold. ‘Interception’ they call it. There are two more offices in Mumbai and Delhi and they rescue our girls from brothels at Nepali Gullies in Mumbai, Poona and Calcutta. Her achievement so far—700 girls rescued, hundreds intercepted, 15 women traffickers behind bars, 150 cases in court. Different donors and INGOs showed interest in her and started providing assistance. Hence, funds are not a problem. UNICEF came first, then Save the Children, UK and Save the Children, Norway and ILO. But it was Dr Winfried Kill, a Good Samaritan from Germany who bought the 1.25 acre of land at Gaushala and constructed the complex at a cost of about 130 million rupees in memory of his daughter who died an untimely death. There are women’s rehabilitation homes, child protection homes, a school, a primary health care centre and administrative offices in its five buildings. And Dr Kill still bears all the expenses of the Kathmandu office. The complex is no less than a deluxe hotel. Koirala remembers Kanak Mani Dixit, the editor of Himal Magazine jocularly suggesting her, "Anuradha Didi why don’t you give this complex on lease to a five star hotel and run Maiti Nepal elsewhere?"
What if these funds stop? How would you run Maiti Nepal? "Yes, I am quite aware that these foreign funds can stop at anytime. But I won’t resign. I have the guts to run this institution. If I ask every Nepali citizen to contribute five rupees a day in the name of their sisters then they will readily give me," says Koirala with determination.
Born to an army man as Anuradha Gurung 53 years ago, her father took her to Kalimpong and admitted the four year old in a Convent school. And it is the Convent where she learnt about discipline. When talking about this she remembers her father. She was still a school student and the family was in Assam as her father was in the Indian Army. On vacation she had come home. Together the family was having dinner and Anuradha stretched for salt on the table. The army colonel got up and came behind her where there was a cupboard. Without rhyme and reason he smacked her on the head. Everyone was surprised. Then mom asked, "Why did you beat the child for doing nothing?" Her dad said, "I invested so much on her, and sent to a Convent but she didn’t learn courtesy and discipline. Without even asking how dare she pull that plate?" This was discipline she learnt at home. "I was angry with my father at that time but now when I see today’s youngsters going astray then I feel how necessary it is for the parents to control their children from an early age. It is not violation of their rights. It is for their good," she says in her special pedagogic style. "You go to a modern school and speak English but it doesn’t mean that you forget your culture and walk on the street naked," she says.
And her Maiti Nepal is no less than a convent school in terms of discipline. Toddlers in line, bid you Namaste as you enter the complex. Under the rule of this strict ma’am are 130 children and 70 girls. Getting up in the morning, eating, studying, playing, and watching TV, everything has proper time. There is a monitor in every dormitory. For girls, backbiting is a punishable offence and no girls wear pants and T shirts. Kurta Suruwal and a shawl on the shoulders is the dress code for girls. No one goes out without permission.
These unfortunate children, abandoned on the street, and the sisters, mothers and wives who were abandoned by their own family members or sold to Indian brothels for a few thousand rupees, have found a home in Maiti Nepal and a loving sister (Dijju they call her) in Anuradha Koirala. But the woman who cares for every less fortunate kid as her child doesn’t have a family of her own. The son lives separate and it was a long time back when her marriage broke up. Her life is like a candle that gives light to others by burning itself, and she is like a coconut that has a hard shell from but soft at heart. What if others call her Budmash and Chuchchi? "Wherever you are you have rivals and enemies. I have not wronged anyone knowingly in my life," she swears.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 15-Aug-02 09:28 AM
Sangey,
Anuradha Koirala is an inspiring person and a role model.
In Kathmandu, I have had my share meeting many
a) "NGO hakims"
b) "Gender queens"
and
c) doctrinaire women's rights activists (whose living-room activism seems suspiciously
biased in favor of donors' dollars and NOT toward really understanding and then doing something about DIVERSE women's issues in Nepal.) For more on these "gender queens", please read Seira Tamang's variouslu brilliant essays!!
anyway, all of whom are insanely jealous of AK's well-deserved success, and would do
anything to tarnish her reputation by gossiping negatively about her . . . you know,
the pathetic losers who can't stand others' well-deserved success.
Then again, you know you've made it in Nepal and among Nepali communities when
your success is unbearable to more than a few people who -- interestingly-- can't
speak ill of you in front of you but have to trash you behind your back.
As Jerry Seinfeld -- whose show Seinfeld everynight at 10:15 pm on Star English
channel in Kathmandu -- would say: "Ah, people!!"
Hats off to AK, and may she daringly go on to rescue more Nepali women from the clutches of Mumbai's pimps and more.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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