35 years old Pramila Devi Sada originally comes from Aurahi Municipality, Mahottari District. She is a Dalit woman from the Musahar community. She currently lives in her maternal home. Pramila was forcibly married as a child with Shankar Sada. She has 3 sons who currently work as laborers in India. Their economic background is very poor and their main source of income is agriculture. Her husband is an alcoholic. He had returned home a year ago from Kuwait. Shankar (husband) had been living at his in-laws’ house for the past one year. According to Reshma (Pramila’s mother) Shankar had been sending money home from Kuwait. She shared “with the money he sent, Pramila bought 5 katha of land and built a three-room house at Timkiya Mahottari. Everything was fine until he was at Kuwait but after he returned home, Shankar started demanding an account of the money. He came home drunk every day and constantly demand his money back.”
Shankar suspected that Pramila had given his hard earned money to other people. The couple often had quarrels regarding the money. A week before the incident, Pramila and her husband had rented a vehicle to go to Sultanganj (Babadham) India. When she asked him to pay the fare, he got very angry and the couple had a quarrel. Pramila had shared that he had threatened to set her ablaze.
“The couple often quarreled and fought and when he threatened to set her ablaze, we thought that he was speaking under the influence of alcohol and would never do such an abominable act. I felt that interfering in this could precipitate his violent behavior. If we had been careful, my daughter wouldn’t have suffered.” shared Reshma. Earlier, Pramila and her parents had approached the police after her husband had beaten her up. But the police initially settled the dispute between the couple and had given them counseling.
On 6 August 2022 at around 12:00p.m., after having dinner, Pramila was sleeping on the bed while Reshma was sleeping on the floor. Shankar was under the influence of alcohol and poured diesel over his wife Pramila as well as his mother in-law and set the fire on her clothes. He then immediately locked the door from outside and ran away. “I was famished after a laborious day and didn’t realize that Shankar had splashed diesel all over my body. I woke up to Pramila screaming. I froze when I saw her ablaze. I quickly grabbed a cloth nearby and tried to put out the fire. I rushed to get the bucket in the kitchen but somebody had locked us in. I screamed for help and some of my neighbors rushed to help us. They immediately helped us reach Janakpur Provincial Hospital where Pramila received first aid treatment.
According to the doctor her wounds were very deep. Despite the poor financial condition, Reshma managed to pay for her daughter’s treatment. With the help of Burn Violence Survivors Nepal (BVS-Nepal) on 7 August 2022 she was brought to Kathmandu for further treatment. Initially, she was brought to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital but due to the lack of Burn ICU (intensive Care Unit) Bed, she was referred to Kirtipur Hospital the very same day. She was undergoing Treatment. in the ICU (intensive Care Unit). Pramila’s health condition was critical. Shankar fled the scene soon after the incident. Search is underway to nab the perpetrator, said police.
