Kathmandu/rautahat, July 19 -- When Sehara Khatun needed Rs150,000 to cover her household expenses, the only person willing to lend her money was a local moneylender.

Seven years later, the 40-year-old from Jayanagar in Garuda Municipality-1, Rautahat, is still trapped in debt after the loan document she signed showed an amount four times what she actually received.

Her husband, a mason, had an irregular income that barely supported the family. Mahato agreed to lend her the money for a year at an annual interest rate of 36 percent. But claiming the loan involved high risk, he made Khatun sign a tamasuk, a traditional promissory note, by placing her thumbprint on a document that inflated the loan amount fourfold to Rs600,000.

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