by Penny Jaye
‘My train will leave soon,’ Maa says as she stands up. A strange expression is on her face. Something Meena cannot read but Purna suddenly drops to the ground, her knees on the dusty shop floor. She joins her hands in the deepest sign of respect, to her forehead, to Maa’s feet, to her forehead again. Over and over. Purna makes the motion of gratitude, a soft strangled sob noise coming from her lips. Maa lifts her eyes to Meena; there is wetness in the old woman’s eyes. ‘You’ll take care of my little sister, won’t you?’ she asks.
Meena tilts her head to the side. She scoops Purna up from the floor. She uses the edge of her shirt to wipe the wetness from Purna’s face. Maa strides past them, her yellow sari swinging in the dust. Out, past the line of shops, back to the train, back to Mumbai and Leela and Kani and Sharmila ...
‘Let’s go. We’ll catch a bus to Sunauli. S.T.N. have a border home there where we can stay overnight. The staff are all returned sex workers like yourselves. They’re very understanding. Tomorrow we’ll catch the bus to Kathmandu.’
Kausilla takes Purna’s hand. She guides the shaking girl away from the staring tea shop faces, towards the bus park. She keeps talking when she can, to keep Purna moving. She tells them of the centre in Kathmandu, and the legal services available to ex-trafficked girls, and the cooking classes some girls have been taking to work in the fanciest tourist hotels in Nepal. But suddenly, Meena isn’t listening. Something has darted over the traffic and ducked into the branches of a single decorative tree. Meena squints around the heads of bustling pedestrians. The grey something stops and seems to tilt its head at Meena. Yes. It is a bird, a grey Indian roller bird. Meena stares, almost forgetting to walk. The bird is watching her, half afraid, half brave in the smoggy city. A taxi horn bellows, but the bird doesn’t flinch. It studies Meena for one more second then jumps from an outer branch. Its wings spread. Bright and brilliant blue swoops low over Meena’s head. She turns to follow its flight as it scoops and darts perfectly, ever north, towards the fields and open spaces. Onwards to Nepal.
One day, she knows, she’ll return to Mumbai. She’ll learn to read and write. She’ll paint the sign for Sharmila’s wedding, and she’ll go with Tarak and Maa and Leela into the brothels. She’ll find the girls trapped in secret cupboards and hidden rooms, and she’ll tell their story to the world until someone begins to take notice. Until Putali is free. Because people, like butterflies and roller birds, were never meant for cages.
Purna tugs her arm.
‘Jaum?’ The girl’s expression is paused, unsure, with questions she is too afraid to ask. Meena slips her arm around Purna’s thin shoulders. She is stronger already.
‘Jaum,’ she says. ‘Let’s go home.’
Glossary
Nepali Words
aama –mother
aau –come
baa –father
bahini –little sister
bajai-aama –grandmother
bhaisi –water buffalo
chaar –the number four
chha –the number six, also meaning ‘to have’
chitto –fast
chhya – eew!
dal –a lentil stew dish
dhaka –a traditional Nepali woven fabric design
doko –a large open–weave cane basket
dui –the number two
ek-dum dublo –very, very skinny
ek –the number one
guhar! –help!
gyani nani –good little girl
hario – green
himal –snow capped mountain
hoina –no
haus –okay
jaum –let’s go
timi-lai kasto chha? –how are you?
ke garne? –what to do?
khana –food
Machhapuchhre –a famous 6,997 metre–high, fish–tail–shaped mountain, clearly visible from the Pokhara valley
masu –meat
meri saathi pani chhaina –I don’t even have a friend
mero ke chha? –what do I have?
mo mo –a Tibetan/Nepali snack; steamed dumplings
na-jaau! –don’t go!
na-ru –don’t cry
Newari –a people group of Nepal, predominantly found around the Kathmandu valley
panch –the number five
pir na-garra –don’t be afraid
rani –queen
roksi –alcohol
tapaai-ko chha –you have
Terai –the plains of Nepal, closest to the Indian border
teen –the number three
topi –hat, usually a traditional Nepali hat for men
Hindi Words
aacha -good
aao -come
babu -informal word implying ‘sweetheart’
bahana -little sister
bhojana -food
bimara -sick
bindi -a decorative dot worn on the forehead. Traditionally a sign of Hindu worship, but also a fashion accessory
buddhoo - person with intellectual disability
carrom -a strike and pocket game, similar to billiards but without a cue
ghee -clarified butter used in Indian cooking
ghinauna -disgusting
kancho -youngest brother
kohl -a black eyeliner
kulfi -Indian frozen dessert
kurta -long shirt to be worn over trousers
kurta-suruwal -an outfit consisting of a matching long shirt and trousers
lungi -an article of clothing consisting of a length of fabric worn wrapped around the waist and legs
mehndi -henna paste, usually painted into decorative designs on the hands and/or feet
nain -no
Namaste -traditional Hindu greeting
Namaskar -a more respectful version of Namaste
paan -betel nut, lime and spices chewed like tobacco
paisa -the smallest form of Indian currency
puri -a fried Indian bread often served with curry
samosa -triangular pastries
sari -an outfit worn by women consisting of a short, cropped blouse and several meters of fabric wrapped and pleated around the waist and over the shoulder
suno -listen
thika -okay
Acronyms
AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a condition caused by HIV that results in the weakening of the body’s system for fighting disease, resulting in death.
CD4 cells - Immune cells in the blood. A person living with HIV can monitor the amount of CD4 cells in their body to determine the health of their immune system.
HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus is the virus that causes AIDS. Over time HIV weakens the immune system until the symptoms of AIDS begin to show and a person becomes sick.
OPD - Out Patients Department in a hospital.
STD - Sexually transmitted disease.
Places
Bhairahawa –A town close to the Indian border with Nepal. Very popular transit point for people moving in and out of Nepal.
Butwal –A busy town halfway between Pokhara and the border to India.
Delhi –India’s capital city.
Dhaka –The capital city of Bangladesh, east of India.
Gorakhpur –The first large city on the Indian side from Bhairahawa. There is a large train station there with trains running to various parts of India.
Kamathipura -Mumbai’s largest red-light district
Kolkata –Previously known as Calcutta. A major Indian City north of Bangladesh.
Mumbai –Previously known as Bombay. A major city on the west coast of India, home to the Bollywood film industry.
Pokhara –The largest city in Nepal’s wester
n district, seven hours bus ride from Kathmandu.
Sunauli –A town that straddles the border to India.
For more resources on child and teen trafficking:
www.destinyrescue.org.au
www.ijm.org
www.a21.org
www.stopthetraffik.com.au
www.oasisin.org
www.maitinepal.org
Map
Author’s Note
I began writing this story while my family and I were living in Nepal during the early 2000s. My husband worked for a non-government health and development organisation and we made our home in Pokhara. I remember falling in love with the country. Not just the beautiful mountains, but with its people. My Nepali friends welcomed me into their homes; they shared their lives with me; they shared their food. They let me bumble along beside them, calf-deep in the mud, planting rice and then returning months later when it was tall and golden and ready to be cut.
But it wasn’t just all good feelings. Nepal, just like every other nation on earth, carries heartache beside its beauty. Each year, thousands of people—women, men and children—are trafficked from Nepal into slavery. They are sold into India, China, Thailand, Dubai, some even make it to Australia, caught up in domestic service—visa-less, illegal and trapped. A significant proportion of young girls trafficked from Nepal are sold into the brothels of India.
As I researched the stories of such girls, I came to understand that trafficking is not simple. The networks and strategies used to entrap people are complex. The causes of vulnerability, upon which traffickers prey, are many and intricate. If it takes a village to raise a child, it will take nations to eradicate slavery. And that begins with me. And with you. And with the very real organisations upon whom I’ve based the fictional Little Sister Rescue Foundation and Stop Trafficking Nepal. These organisations risk everything to fight for freedom: they educate communities about the risks of trafficking; they organise raids; they pursue justice for traffickers; they advocate change in government policy; they offer hope and healing to victims of unimaginable abuse. Very often these same organisations are staffed by survivors, like Sharmila and Leela and Meena. They work tirelessly, unnoticed and without glory, because they have chosen to hope despite it all.
I wrote Out of the Cages as something of a prayer, that one day we might live in a world that no longer accepts any form of slavery as common place. Until that day comes, though, we’ve got a fight on our hands. A fight that has already begun, but a fight worth joining.
Acknowledgements
There are so, so many people behind this book. In particular I need to thank the staff at Maiti Nepal (especially Dhruba Gurung who went out of her way to assist me), Indu Aryal and the staff at ABC Nepal, Shanta Sapkota and the young women I met at SPK Kathmandu and in other rehabilitation centres. Thank you too to Oasis India, Vasu Vital, Carolyn Kitto, Stop the Traffik and the WOS India Team of 2013.
A huge thank you to Jyoti Nepali, Abigail Sherpa, Asha Nepali, Binu Pradhan, Ambika Baniya and Daisy George for their help with language related questions.
Thank you to my early readers: Susan Bosquanet, Jacqui Conlon and Katie Robert. Your feedback made all the difference. Also to Naomi Reed, Heidi Cassise, Lois Dingley, Janine Clarke and Sierra Hadfield. Thank you to Rosanne Hawke, for your encouragement and support.
To my publisher, Rochelle Manners, thank you for believing in me and in this book. I am so thankful for your courage. And to the team at Rhiza Edge, especially Emily Lighezzolo, for seeing the vision for this book and working so hard to bring it to print, thank you.
Thank you to my family: my parents Rob and Rhonda Hadfield for their unfading support, my children Lillian, Zachary and Patrick for not only putting up with having a writer for a mum, but sharing the ups and downs along the way. And my husband Richard, thank you for every time you told me this book would make it, and every little thing you did to help along the way.
I certainly didn’t write this book alone!
About the Author
Penny Jaye writes books for children and older readers. Although she was born in Ballarat, Victoria, she has lived in many different places since then including Arnhem Land, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and Nepal. She is currently living in western Sydney, with her husband and three children, and is studying towards her Master of Arts (writing and literature at Deakin university).
Penny enjoys the challenges and opportunities of juggling family life with writing commitments and author visits, and can also be found writing as Penny Reeve.
Family movie nights, sharing lunch by the river and being tucked up in bed to read a new young adult novel are just a few of her favourite things.