It has been a week since a 14-year-old girl from Surunga Municipality-3 in Saptari went missing. The girl, who lost her father at the age of 3 and her mother at the age of 6, had been living in the house of local Rita Yadav for the past 8 years under her protection. A week ago, her disappearance was made public after relatives made inquiries.

Before her death, the girl's father worked as a housemaid in Rita's house. The girl's sister also worked as a domestic worker in the same house. Now she is married. Rita had kept the girl in her house after her parents' death by verbally agreeing to enroll her in school, have her do household chores at other times, and even arrange for her to get married when she reached the age of majority. However, Rita did not enroll her in school as agreed. Instead, she had been working as a domestic worker.

Last Saturday, villagers including her cousin's sister-in-law had reached Yadav's house to see the girl. But the girl was not there at that time. Yadav, who had taken her under her guardianship, was also not at home. The relatives went to the houses of local relatives and acquaintances and searched for the girl. But the girl was not found. When the girl could not be found and those who had taken her under their guardianship did not get in touch, they reached the Area Police Office Kadarbona last Wednesday and filed a complaint. But the girl's condition is still unknown.

Her cousin's sister-in-law told Kantipur, 'The girl had been working and living in Yadav's house for 8 years. Now she is missing. Rita, who had taken the responsibility of guardianship, and her husband are also not at home.' She complained that the police did not show any readiness to search for the girl even after giving all the information about the incident.

Rita, who had taken the responsibility of guardianship of the girl, is a government employee. She works as a buyer in the same ward office. Rita's only mother-in-law, Thakani Devi Yadav, is at home. As the old woman is also having difficulty walking due to problems with her legs, elderly people from Lahan Municipality-13 Pirabani, Siraha, who are relatives, have reached there to take care of her. But both of them said that Maheshwar and Rita are outside, but they did not want to say anything else about it.

Where are Maheshwar and Rita? Their neighbors could not tell anything about this either. They could not even be contacted on their mobile phones. Ward Chairman Kiran Kumar Pokharel said that the employee is on leave. 'He has not come to the office for 3/4 days. Now, I do not know what kind of workers he had at home,' said Ward Chairman Pokharel, 'Many people have asked me about it so far.'

Surunga Municipality is a child labor-free municipality. The municipality's mayor, Geeta Chaudhary, is aware of the issue of the employee keeping the girl as a domestic worker. She says, "I am aware of the fact that the girl was helpless due to the absence of her parents, and the employee kept her at home and supported her, but I am not clear about the incident." Mayor Chaudhary says that work is underway to understand what happened.