KATHMANDU: Prisma Advertising, in association with other non-government organisations, today launched a social awareness campaign named ‘Going back home, study hard’ in some districts. The campaign aims at making people aware on and stopping the Kamlari tradition.

Kamlari — a practice of sending young girls aged between 7 and 16 to a landlord’s house for work — is rampant among the Tharu Community even in the 21st century.

Uttam Lama, accounts manager of the advertising agency, told The Himalayan Times that they launched the campaign to coincide with the biggest festival of the Tharu community, Maghi. According to him, Tharu parents take a decision to send their daughters to others’ houses on this very day.

“The Tharu community in six districts in the Mid-Western and Far-Western regions of Nepal, namely Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, Kanchanpur and Surkhet, practice the Kamlari tradition,” Lama said.

“We have been organising awareness programs in those districts along with NGOs and INGOs such as the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) and Friends for Needy Children (FNC),” he added.

“The campaign launched today will focus not only on the areas from where the parents send their daughters, but also in urban areas where landlords hire those young girls for work,” he said.

According to Lama, they would be organising media campaigns, launching TV commercials and writing articles for the city people to discourage the tradition. “Such programs will be based in urban areas such as Kathmandu, Dharan and Dhangadi where the young girls are sent for household work,” he said.

He also said that the NYOF and FNC had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government to take care of the rescued Kamlaris. These NGOs are running rehabilitation centres at various places in the six districts.