24 SAHAS – our fight against modern slavery
Learning from experience and helping young people: Jeeya “I got married to the guy of my own choice at the age of 16 against my parents’ consent and discontinued my studies. It didn’t take me long to realise what a mistake it was!” Jeeya (23 years old, name changed) lives in Nuwakot with her husband and two sons. Her husband is currently working in Saudi Arabia. She works in agriculture and takes care of their sons and the household, alone. Jeeya says that neither she nor her husband had any skills or livelihood opportunities when they got married. It was already stressful for Jeeya to leave her parents’ house and manage an entirely new one on her own, the financial challenges only worsened the situation. She could not turn to her parents
with her concerns as she had made this choice against their will. She had her first baby when she was only 18, and the second one at the age of 20. She came to realise her mistake and regretted getting married so early. In 2018, after the ward office referred Jeeya to CLAMP as a young adult at high risk, she was selected as a Youth Change Agent (YCA) by Shakti Samuha in its CLAMP project. She was passionate to work on the social issues concerning her community like child abuse, gender-based violence, early marriages, high dropout rate, and child labour. Given her own experiences, Jeeya focuses on addressing the issues of early marriage and school dropouts. As part of her training as a YCA, she has
