Chaudhari honored with ‘Global Anti-Racism Champion 2024’ of Dang
Kathmandu, October 23: ‘Have you climbed Mount Everest’? American Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Urmila Chaudhary. She replied that I haven’t climbed but have read it. She also said to him that as many people think, Nepal is country of mountains, but there are also many plains, I was born in that plain.
"He asked me how I would do such a thing at your age," Urmila said in a phone conversation with Kantipur on Tuesday about the recent interesting meeting with the US Secretary of State, "and also praised me for being a brave girl." Soon after, at a grand ceremony held at the Ministry of External Affairs in Washington, Blinken declared Urmila the winner of 'Global Anti-Racism Champion 2024' and gave her congratulation on Monday. Urmila's life has a long list of sorrows, shocks and successes and surprising achievements, which Antony, in a brief two-letter speech followed by a certificate, has served to inform the world at once. Urmila is receiving an outpouring of congratulations for being one of the first six winners in the world to receive this award, which was established by the US government last year. Hundreds of people from around the world were nominated for the award, which is given 'in honor of those who have demonstrated extraordinary courage, strength, leadership, and commitment to advance the human rights of members of marginalized ethnic and tribal communities'. Among them, Urmila is the first winner not only from Nepal, but from all over Asia. He is joined by five rights holders from Ghana, North Macedonia, Mexico, Bolivia and the Netherlands.
"I have never been as happy as I am today," she said in a phone conversation with Kantipur before going to another event at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Washington DC the day after receiving the award. How can you even think when she was made a slave when she was still a child and was forced to live as a slave for 14 years of her life? The fun memories of playing as a child will remain in your life. However, Urmila has no such playful moments in her memory. When she lived as a slave in the elite Rana family of Kathmandu for 8 years and in the house of relative of the same family for 6 years, Urmila never put a shoe on her feet. It was home for them, but hell for me,' says Urmila, 'I was not allowed to go out of the house, for them I had to cook dal, rice, pickles and various vegetables morning and evening but they used to feed me rice that was fed to pigeons.'
Once, while she was working, the glass broke. Even now, the owner's scolding that "you will not be able to repay the price of this glass by working all your life" still echoes in her ears. 'Free of slavery' the movement was speeding up, Urmila, who managed to escape from her owner's house after many struggles after seeing her brother on television one day, got to wear slippers for the first time after years.
