thing. >> reporter: this man says he didn't do enough to prepare for old age in time. the question now is whether this aging society will be able to do enough while it still can. a reminder that you can keep up to date with all of the news all of the time on our website, aljazeera.com. >> slavery in nepal has been abolished, by law. but behind the high walls of many city homes here, young girls continue to serve as slaves. known as kamlari, they are the daughters of indebted farmers, sold to landlords for little to no money.

i lived in a big family. there were 24 of us. i told my father how hard my life was as a kamlari but he insisted that i had to go back and work. i was so hurt. my parents did not seem to understand or care. they were declared free in the year 2000. but kamlaris are still kept by nepal's elite - including government officials and decision makers >> these people have the connections. if a case is filed against them they are able to bend judgments to their favor. they are able to threaten poor families. they are the ones with land and if they do not get kamlaris, they could give the land to someone else to farm. >> but today some are fighting back against nepal's

feudal traditions. >> i'm subina shrestha. on this edition of 101 east we ask, if nepal's slave girls will ever be free. june 2013 - former kamlaris from all over nepal are protesting outside the government complex in kathmandu. just weeks before, 12 year old kamlari girl srijana chaudhary had burnt to death under mysterious circumstances at her owners house here in the city. outraged, these women, who have all worked in servitude, are demanding a full inquiry into srijana's death and an end to slavery once and for all. it was a lonely battle for them. political parties, human rights

groups, child rights groups, all stayed away from the protest. when the women try to enter the government buildings, police react with brutality. to find out more about srijana's case, we travel 450km west to the home where srijana grew up in the terai region >> i keep thinking of my daughter. i even see her in my dreams. the last time she came to my dream she wanted her sister - her sister samjhana. she kept saying, 'my mother,

send my sister to me. srijana, like all kamlaris, was from the indigenous tharu community. their history of subordination began 160 years ago with nepal's first social order ranking tharus almost bottom of the caste system, just above the untouchables. their land was taken away from them. and they became bonded labour on the land that once was theirs. srijana's parents rely on the goodwill of their landlord for access to land. and must give up half the produce they grow. they also gave up their daughter. >> we did not want to send srijana. but the landlady came to us and said that i should send my daughter to kathmandu. she said that my daughter would become clever in the city. she said that srijana would go

to school. i told her that we did not want to send her. but the landlady would keep coming back and asking for her. srijana left home at the tender age of ten. two years later, srijana's father got a call from the landlord saying she was very sick. he traveled to kathmandu to see her. but on arrival, he was told she was dead. they called srijana's father up in the terrace. they showed him a corner in the terrace and said, "this is where your daughter died, in this corner." from there he was taken to the police station. the police made him fingerprint on some documents. he did not know that he had finger printed documents acknowledging that srijana had committed suicide.

only after the fingerprints, he saw the body. they took him to the hospital to and asked him if she was his daughter. my husband said yes. she was burnt black.... all black. srijana spent ten years of her life in this house but when she left, she took the few of her belongings that she had with her. there are no photographs of her and this birth certificate and death certificate are the only things the parents have to remember her by. after public pressure, a government task force was formed to look into srijana's death. in early august, the government gave srijana's parents $5000 in compensation for the death of their daughter. the report has not yet been made public. for her parents, the anger and hurt are still raw. i can't help but cry whenever i remember my daughter.

my daughter is dead. she is never coming back. they've given me some compensation but the pain does not go away. the compensation they gave is so little. and my daughter is no more. what do i do now? srijana's death became a tipping point for nepal's kamlaris but there have been many others who have suffered at the hands of their landlords and owners. in the last five years, four other kamlaris have died under mysterious circumstances. twenty-seven are missing from the homes they worked in and eleven girls became pregnant. we asked a government spokesperson who is responsible for these girls

the government declared the kamlari system illegal more than 10 years ago, yet landlords still use their land as leverage to secure kamlaris. poor tharu families, often feel they have few other options and give up their daughters for little or no cash in return. for many girls, the work places becomes more dangerous as they grow older.... once a kamlari girl reaches 12 years of age, despite the goodwill of the owner or however well she is taken care of, she is in danger. our research shows that these girls can become targets for abuse or harassments by outsiders or people within the family.

>> across the tarai, we hear many stories of abuse and exploitation from kamlaris who have returned home. like 15-year old sharda

chaudary, who is back living with her mother and 4 siblings. >> i was sleeping in the bathroom. they used to make me sleep in the bathroom. so i was sleeping and he came over at night. he raped me. i was 12 at the time. the mistress asked me why i was standing outside. i said the junior master had come to me. i told her that he was in the bathroom, and i had come out. then he said to come back and sleep and i went i told them in the morning but they started beating me instead. they said that i was a whore and that i was ruining their son. i told them i hadn't called him in. >> she suffered so much. i ran around crying and asking for help from anybody but no one cared.

we had nothing in my house - no food, no clothes. our house was falling apart. i had hoped that my daughter would find a better future and instead they destroyed her. now even if i have to share half a piece of bread or less, i will do that. i am never going to give my daughters away. at another village a couple of hours drive away, every single home gave away a daughter. there are 27 houses here. from each house, there was a kamlari. there are houses where two or three girls went to work as a kamlaris. manjita chaudhary grew up in this village and was a kamlari herself. she was sold to her family's landlord at the age of seven and had to work almost eighteen hours a day for almost four years. today she devotes her life to

putting an end to nepal's system of slavery >> what still hurts me is that, they never appreciated or trusted my work. they shouted at me all the time. nothing i did was good enough for them. and when they used to throw me leftovers from their plate to eat, i felt like i worked hard the entire day only to be treated like a dog. but manjita found strength through her hardships, making her determined to change not only her own fate, but that of all kamlaris. had i not suffered as much as i did, i might not have been able to lead this movement now. after i was rescued, when i used to go to school, people looked down on me and asked me what was the point of my studying.... and i would think to myself, "'because i can!' now that i am studying, i am capable of doing things too. i can be as good as your sons and daughters."

manjita has persuaded villages across the terai, including her own, to no longer send girls away. she's also working with families to help bring their daughters home. manjita is not alone in her quest to end slavery in nepal. man bahadur chettri has worked to free kamlaris for more than a decade from those who flout the law using power and connections. this is about their land, their power and the poverty that tharus live in. the tharus don't have any income source so even 2000 rupees or $20 a year is a big amount. so these landlords have all the power, money and the land. along with that, they are comparatively more well-informed than others. they understand law. they know which laws the government strictly regulates and which it doesn't.

they understand laws can get them into trouble in the future and what cannot. therefore, they have been keeping kamlaris and keeping the practice alive without any regard to laws. man bahadur with local ngos has freed more than 12,000 kamlaris. but once rescued, not all of the girls can return home. for some, their families can't afford to take them back, or provide them with an education. others have lost their parents.

chettri worked has helped build hostels for the girls around the terai. this one is called lawajuni, meaning a new life. girls like 9 year old sushila chaudhary tell me stories of hardship both as a kamlari and at home >> i was always told to eat the leftovers. whatever was left on in the plate was passed on to me. i was forced to eat it. i told my mother i didn't want to stay working as a kamlari but she was drunk. i told mum not to drink.... my sister and i were kamlaris >> some girls are left broken by their experiences, some find new strength. but here at least, they have a safe place to call home.

back in kathmandu there are still 100s of kamlaris locked away behind high walls - invisible and isolated but also out of sight, we find manjita and a group of other former kamlaris and ngo workers, working to free them. the team has received a call from a girl who wants to be rescued. they meet ridima at a park near her owners' house.

ridima agrees to go ahead with the rescue and we return with her to the house to confront the owner, who is a wealthy contractor, with political connections.

but ridima tells us she is not allowed to enter the house through the front door with the family and that the food cooked for her is of an inferior quality. in the same house, two worlds have been created. >> finally, the owner gives custody of ridima to the ngo at the police station. she is free to go home. >> the president of estonia rising tensions with russia... >> one country has decided it no longer needs to follow the rules >> european union under stress >> the framework that was set up is not holding anymore

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>> sundari chaudhary has come to kathmandu to find her daughter, richa. richa became a kamlari at just six years old. she is now fifteen. the landlords said we could work on their land and they would give us 8 dollars. but we had to send our daughter to kathmandu with them. we farmed their land for almost two years. but then they gave it away to someone else. i hadn't actually planned to send my daughter. i wanted to keep her home. but they took her. they said that they would send her to school and all she had to do was babysit. sundari has no idea where richa might be. she has never been to kathmandu

and finds the city overwhelming. all that sundari has is a phone number. we used to call but they would hang up in the middle. they didn't let us talk. we told them to send our daughter back. i have never been to kathmandu before and it is a big city and i don't know exactly where she is working. i gave birth to her and raised her on my milk. i miss her. >> after two long days of waiting in the city, trying to locate her daughter, sundari finally makes contact with the family keeping richa. sundari, and her husband, wait at a public bus stop where she has arranged to meet the landlady who took richa. as the hours drag by, the pressure mounts.

with every passing car, sundari's hopes rise and fall. just when it's looking like a failed mission, the landlady hema finally arrives and she agrees that sundari can see her daughter. at last, richa arrives. it's an overwhelming moment for sundari. but richa refuses to even look at her. under pressure from the rescue team, hema agrees to bring richa to a nearby police station. a heated discussion follows

like many other kamlaris, richa has spent her formative years away from her family. under influence of the owners, many initially reject their parents.

>> the police eventually tell the landlady to hand richa back to her mother. but richa is obviously reluctant. three days later, we return to the terai region to visit richa and her family and find out what happened. richa is like a fish out of water. she is renouncing her birth name and parents, vowing to keep the name that she was given in kathmandu.

we spoke to sundari about her daughter's return. >> well, people started saying that the kamlaris had been freed. and if the parents didn't bring back their daughters, they said they would take action against parents as well. so we went to look for her. or else, why would we care to find her? she's not willing to understand at all.. she's not listening to anyone she says she doesn't want to stay here, but go to kathmandu. she doesn't want to stay here at

all. her friends call and ask her to come there. i feel like killing her... after our visit, the local ngo decided to remove richa from the house. she was taken to a nearby hostel so that she can go to school. hema says she wants to keep paying for her education if she returns to the city. when it comes to kamlaris, nothing it seems is black and white. for the tharus, there is still no clear way for them to own the land on which they work. for their daughters, freedom from both servitude and grinding poverty - remains just a dream. and as long as the wealthy are willing and able to exploit the country's poor, this trade in human beings looks set to continue.

>> this is real. there should be a concern but contained to the specific family members and close friends at this moment. end quote. now by way of timeline how did we get here? the patient leaving