Laxmi Sharma

Sharma worked at the royal palace where she had to pick flowers during Puja, after that, she had to clean the room and spent time with the princess.[1] Sharma received about 20 Nepalese rupees a month.[1] After the queen passed away, she had to adjust at home.[1] She said: "It was difficult for me as a kid to adjust to such drastic lifestyle changes—from living in a palace, where people took care of me, to going back home, where I had to learn to cook and clean".[1]

At the age of 13, Sharma got married, with her husband she had three daughters.[2] At an early age she was not ready but she was forced to have a child.[1] She lost her first child as she was "not physically, or mentally, ready to mother a child".[1] She describes the process as "emotionally traumatising".[2] After fourteen years of marriage, they had a divorce because she was being disrespected by him.[2][3] She also didn't want her children to grow in a disrespectful environment.[1] To provide for her children, she worked as a housemaid for about 16 years.[2]

In 1981, Sharma bought an auto-rickshaw (Tempo) for about 10,000 Nepalese rupees (approximately US$80 in 2020) which she borrowed from her family members.[2] She also hired a man to operate the tempo.[2] Sharma took training as a mechanic, studying for eight months in Nepal and three months in India.[2] Since she wasn't making any profits from the tempo, she decided to drive the tempo.[2] She drove the Tempo for about four years without a license, unaware that she needed one.[2] She is credited as the first women to drive an auto-rickshaw.[3][2][4][5] Sharma later revealed that she was being insulted and harassed by her community for driving the tempo.[3] She added: "Men harassed her — making sexual innuendos, pulling her hair, even trying to touch her. Sometimes even female passengers refused to pay the fare because, as a woman, she posed no threat".[2] She later started to make 100 rupees a day (US$0.80 in 2020).[2] Furthermore, she bought five tempos.[2]

Two years later, after quitting driving, she opened Laxmi Wood Craft Udhyog, a button factory.[1] It was the first button factory in Nepal.[6] She hired four people to work in the factory.[1] They made the buttons from "bones and horns of animals, particularly buffalos".[1][7] Her buttons were exported to Germany, Switzerland, Zambia, Denmark and the USA.[1] She describes the sales as "they started selling like hot cakes" but not initially she remembers "haranguing tales of physical abuse when having gone to collect fruits of her labor".[8] The buttons are imported by major companies including Ralph Lauren and Zara.[8] The company has made about fifteen thousand designs of buttons.[6] Sharma had spent a lot of time in the library where she taught herself about "European art and craft and the equipment used".[9]