KATHMANDU: A middle-aged married woman is standing in front of her house in a photograph and she looks content. A description about her is written in the same photo. There is an audio clip in which you can listen to her telling her story. She is 41-year-old Shanti Bhandari who currently is living in Bhandup, Mumbai. Originally from Dhangadhi, she lives in India with her family and works in a garment factory.

This and more such stories of Nepali women — who are living and working in India, and those who have returned home from India — have become a part of the audio/visual exhibition ‘So far from home: Nepali migrants tell their stories, voices of women workers from the informal sector’.

The exhibition along with panel discussions and conference began on December 8 at the Nepal Art Council, Babermahal. The conference and discussion focused on the impact of migration on migrants — especially women migrants from Southeast Asia — lives, and its policy implications. In the exhibition, listening to the featured women, it is interesting to know that some women enjoy and have adapted well with the atmosphere of different places like Haryana, Bangaluru, Mumbai and more places of India. Meanwhile, there are some who still are struggling and want to return home, while few who are back home still long to go back to India for work.

About the exhibition, Shreya Singh, Regional Communication Officer, DanChurchAid expressed, “The discussion and exhibition has been designed to help raise awareness on migration and migrants’ rights issues, and to provide additional platform for amplifying advocacy concerns and promoting linkages among civil society groups.”