Urmila Chaudhary of Nepal won the Global Anti-Racism Championship Award 2024 which was presented by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. This award honours six civil society leaders for their exceptional courage, leadership, and commitment to advancing racial equity, justice, and human rights.

Urmila Chaudhary is an abolitionist and labour activist who was rescued from child servitude at age 17. She co-founded the Freed Kamlari Development Forum and established 42 cooperatives to empower former bonded labourers. She is currently studying law to further her fight against injustice. Urmila Chaudhary is honoured for her dedication to advancing the rights of marginalized castes and ethnic communities in Nepal and for combating systemic racism and intersectional abuses.

Under the Kamalari system practised in Western Terai of Nepal, girls and young women were sold by their parents into indentured servitude under contract for periods of one year to richer and higher-caste buyers. On 10 September 2006, the Supreme Court of Nepal affirmed that this practice known as kamlari was illegal, and that former kamlaris were entitled to governmental compensation, education and rehabilitation. However, the interim government of Nepal in 2006 failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling, and the practice continued to exist. The suspicious death of 12-year-old Kamlari girl Srijana Chaudhary in March 2013, revived the movement and saw mass protests taking place to demand the practice’s immediate end. In June 2013, the government officially abolished the Kamlari system and agreed to a 10-point plan involving compensation, rehabilitation and justice for victims of abuse.