From Bitter past to pickle trade; Former MP Shanta’s Struggle

An average eight‑year‑old spends the day playing with friends, running about, going to school, hanging out with mum and dad, and playing mischief at times–typical childhood stuff. But the childhood of Shanta Chaudhary –now a business‑woman, and  formerly a Member of Parliament from the CPN‑UML, saw none of that.

Before she could feel the warmth of her parents’ embrace, it was snatched away. Like her  sisters , she was also sent to a landlord’s house as a kamlari (prevalent form of slavery).  With constant scolding, blows and humiliation, Shanta’s childhood got lost somewhere.

With little to eat, no kind words to hear and no chance of schooling, she endured eighteen years of bondage and deprivation. Even now, after finally breaking free and finding a new rhythm to life, the wounds still sting and startle her from time to time. “They still make my heart heavy,” she says nostalgically. “When I recall those days, I taste bitterness—my sufferings had no bounds.”

The government ended the kamalari  system following social and political  movements  eventually.  Many kamlaris like Shanta were free, but gaining what she lost all those ears was impossible.  Denied formal schooling herself, she vowed that she would do every thing to ensure that  others would not suffer the same. She plunged into the struggle for kamlari’s emancipation and rights. Her growing visibility attracted all three major parties of the day—Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre and UML. In 2010 (2067 BS) she joined the party she felt closest to, the UML, and went on to serve twice in the federal parliament.

After two terms her proportional representation route was closed; she stood in a direct race, lost, and her road wobbled. Identity and daily routine upended, she returned to her village and turned to business. “I’m not afraid of hard work,” she says. “I once carried sacks of cement and gravel to keep myself—and my children—alive. I can still do it, so I started a small venture.” Her determination towards work seems unreal.

With just a thousand rupees she launched “Shanta‑ko Achar” (Shanta’s Pickle). Patience, she learned, is vital: at times sales were so slow she had to throw away spoiled batches, yet she stayed calm. Today she runs two production points—Dang and Lalitpur—and her many pickle varieties reach Nepali kitchens at home and abroad. The enterprise has not only made her financially self-reliant but also bolstered her confidence.

Hoping to scale further, she appeared on Nepal’s first business‑reality show, Shark Tank Nepal, seeking an investment of 20 million rupees. The deal did not come through. “I didn’t know much about the show,” she admits. “I went thinking good funding would let me grow faster. It didn’t happen, but the goodwill and empathy the ‘sharks’ showed was itself a gift.”

Having refined herself through many turns of fortune, Shanta now wants to be as active in politics as she is in business—and largely finances that political work with her pickle profits.

Employing over thirty-five women, she advises ordinary folks who dream of politics to create their own income stream first. Only then, she insists, can one last in the political arena.

(A video interview conducted by Asmita KC for Desh Sanchar follows.)