Shanta Chaudhary | |
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शान्ता चौधरी | |
Member of Parliament, Pratinidhi Sabha for CPN (UML) party list | |
In office 4 March 2018 – 18 September 2022 | |
Member of Parliament, Pratinidhi Sabha for CPN (UML) party list | |
In office 28 May 2008 – 28 May 2012 | |
Personal details | |
Born | [1] | May 17, 1979
Nationality | Nepali |
Political party | CPN (UML) |
Shanta Chaudhary ( Nepali: शान्ता चौधरी) is a social reformer and former member of Constituent Assembly of Nepal as a proportioanl representative from CPN (UML) party. Chaudhary was a forced child labourer as part of the, now abandoned, Kamalari system.
Chaudhary was forced to become a Kamlari when she was eight. [2] She was leased for Rs 7,000 a year by her parents who had nine other children. She was sent to work for a family in Dang. [3] During this time, she was forced to work for 19 hours a day, and she lived in the cowshed. [3] She was reprimanded for her mistakes and sometimes beaten by the landlord's wife. [3] Chaudhary remained as a servants until she was eighteen, during which time she became active in politics. [2] She represented Dang in a forum for the lands rights movement. [4]
In 2008, Chaudhary was chosen to lead the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Means. [2] Her illiteracy was a problem in the CA and she started taking classes. [2] Eventually, in 2013, she published a book, Kamlari Dekhi Sabhasad Samma, about her experiences. [3]
In 2016, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer and is currently receiving treatment. [2]