Sharda Gurung is a 37 year-old woman,who after six long years of being in prison, is now finally free and staying temporarily at the transit home of SETU Nepal. SETU Nepal is taking the role of a bridge and tries to refer her to another organization, where she can get suitable support in order to be able to live an independent life again.
Sharda Gurung got married at the age of 17 and same as her husband,was doing labour work during the time of her first marriage. However she left her first husband and married a man, who unfortunately has been involved in illegal drug trade. This forced her to also be partof the illegal activity and she got arrested, while transporting drugs from India to Nepal. She got sentenced to six years of imprisonment in Birgunj jail, since illegal drug trading is a serious crime in Nepal. Although her husband has been also involved in the drug trafficking, he wasn’t arrested due to lack of evidence. Sharda explained that life in jail had been really difficult, since she had to face a lot of discrimination. Even getting basic necessities such as food, water and toothpaste, was a challenging part and she oftentimes got deprived from it. However this was not an individual issue, since donations made by organizations, were oftentimes taken by the police and the workforce themselves and as such mostly only half of the provided products reached the prisoners. Even allowances that have been officially sent by the government, such as meat for Dashain or warm clothes for the winter were confiscated. Living a healthy life wasn’t possible in jail, since the food they received had no nutritional value and they only got meat twice a week. Furthermore, only people that were seriously sick were taken to the hospital and the others had to live with illnesses that they couldn’t properly cure, since they were only provided a limited dose of medication. Her second husband barely visited her 4 or 5 times during the time of two years and he eventually died, due to excessive drug usage and also because he didn’t seek help, when he found out that he is HIV positive.
Sharda confessed, that she had tried drugs 4 or 5 times as a result of depression of her second marriage. She had to face how her second husband slowly destroyed their lives, by dedicating his life to drugs. He used to sell all their kitchen items, so that he could spend the money on buying further drugs. Sharda had a hard time feeding her family, since the only income was the money she made from her labour work. This forced her to be involved in the drug trade too, which had been fatal to her.
During her stay in prison, Sharda had a lot of time to think and had nobody to whom she could tell her thoughts and as such suffered under her own mind. She believed it had been her fate to be in prison, since she has been involved in illegal activities. At the same time, she thought that if her second husband had also been punished, he may have given up on drugs and lived a longer life. Furthermore, she has been haunted by regret and she wished that she had stayed with her first husband, because life would have probably been not only easier but it may also have prevented her from going to jail. However, she didn’t lose hope and was dedicated to work hard in life and wanted to live together with her daughter Hetauda, when she leaves jail.
However, even after Sharda left jail ,she still had to face assault. The husband of a friend picked her up and took her to his home, where she became a victim of sexual violence, while her friend was abroad in India. It was at that moment, that she contacted SETU Nepal’s director Ranju, whom she met a few times, when she conducted prison visits. We suggested Sharda to come to our transit home and stay there temporary until further help from another organization has been found. We dearly hope that she will receive the necessary support, that she deserves. Until now, she has spent a great time with the children of SETU Nepal and she has some experience in sewing and hopes to participate in a formal training, so that she could improve her skills in tailoring and hopefully build herself a good life. We wish her only the best for the future!
After living in SETU Nepal for 5 months its our great pleasure to share our well wisher that she has been rehabilitated getting a cleaning job at a renowned hospital in Kathmandu. During discharge from SETU she was very grateful to SETU for getting a peaceful place to rethink about life and get forward with a dream to live a respectful life in the society.