On Women's Day, nothing left to lose

Ram Kumari Bhattarai, 45, made the journey to Kathmandu from Surkhet on foot, walking for almost 27 days straight. In fliflops, the soles of her feet are cracked and bruised.

Bhattarai had taken a loan of Rs1.8 million, using her gold jewellery as collateral but did not keep a written receipt. Coupled with a steep interest rate of 35%, she has to now make seemingly never-ending payments to the lender. If she is not able to, the usurer harasses her through death threats, land seizures.

 

She is adamant about staying in Kathmandu until the government intervenes to help her and others like her.

In recent months, loan shark victims like Bhattarai from across the country have walked to the capital by the thousands to protest, demanding the passing of laws that will address the problems they have faced in dealing with extortionist lenders with political protection in their districts.

Victims claim that predatory money lenders have been duping them out of millions of rupees by calculating compound interests fraudulently. When the lendees cannot pay, they are subjected to mental torture and threats.

With their husbands away for work, it is the women who have taken it upon themselves to find a solution to the problem, working day and night to clear their loans.

 

The women, mostly from the Tarai, have literally been behind the veil, but now have undertaken journeys of uncertainty and hardship to fight for survival because they have nothing left to lose.