Kathmandu: Sixteen-year-old Srijana Nepal is limited to the circled confines of a tree.
Her parents used to keep her locked up at home for fear that she may run away.
She has, several times in the past, because she is mentally unstable.
However, while earlier she would be locked up in the safety of a bedroom, with the Nepals’ house — in Chandeni Mandan village, Kavre district — in ruins after the earthquake, Srijana is kept tied to a tree next to a cattle shed.
At night when she sleeps, her hands are tied to the loose end of her mother’s sari.
“It is heartbreaking to tie her up like this. We used to lock her up in a room. But I no more have a house to keep her safe,” Krishnaprasad Nepal, Srijana’s father told Gulf News.
Nepal has four children, between the ages of four and 16, and Srijana is the oldest.
She has been mentally unstable from a young age, and the father says he cannot afford medical treatment.
“I am struggling to feed my family every day. I don’t have enough money to pay for a doctor. But I am taking care of her in the best way possible,” said Nepal.
But Nepal is visibly disturbed and keeps tugging at the cloth that goes tightly around her chest.
“She does not like it and wants us to let her go. But what can I do?”
The family’s five-room house made of mud and brick came crumbling down in the earthquake, and they currently live in a temporary shelter made of tarpaulin. Most of their livestock has perished. The food supply from international aid agencies is keeping their hunger at bay. But without a house, Krishnaprasad says he has no choice, but to keep her tied to a tree.
“We have lost her many times in the past. She will just run helter-skelter if no one is supervising [her],” said the father.
— The writer is a senior reporter with Xpress, a sister publication of Gulf News.
