Generally women involved in sex work or prostitution commonly face problems like increased risk of HIV/AIDS, risk of sexually transmitted infections, risk of unwanted pregnancy, vaginal tearing, vaginal cancer, rape and physical abuse, confinement etc which shows prostitution as a major violation of women’s rights, where a women is treated as an objects of entertainment or a means to satisfy sexual fantasies. The emotional pain of being treated this poorly can lead to depression and resignation.
The trafficking of young girls and women is linked to their low cultural status. Since they have limited economic opportunities, girls are especially vulnerable of being trafficked unknowingly and unwillingly. The lack of economic alternatives for girls and ingrained cultural beliefs regarding gender roles makes young girls particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Seventy percent of the trafficking women are thought to belong from ethnic minority groups such as the Tamang, Gurung, Magar, and Sherpa. Women and girls from Nepal’s Hindu majority communities constitute about 10 to 15 percent.
In Nepal different laws regarding trafficking are there as such,The constitution of 1991 clearly states in, the Right against Exploitation in Article 20(1) specifically prohibits any trafficking in persons: “Traffic in human beings, slavery, serfdom or forced labor in any form is prohibited. Any contravention of this provision shall be punishable by law.”
More over the Human Trafficking Control Act of 1986, which prohibits the trafficking of girls and women? Trafficking is defined as “An act of threat, incitement, and sale of women for the purpose of prostitution.” Those found guilty of trafficking face 5-20 years imprisonment.
The 10th SAARC Convention held in Kathmandu in 2002 passed a Convention on preventing and combating trafficking in women and children for prostitution 2002. These conventions are committed to protect and develop the rights of women and children. As a signatory nation Nepal has obligation to implement these conventions as a law of the country.
Today due to huge efforts of the government and other organizations has made progress in its efforts to prevent trafficking. The government has identified 26 high-priority districts as source areas of trafficking and established anti-trafficking “Vigilance Committees.”
Harka maya name changed was rescued 1 yrs back in a raid of police from the brothels of India, though currently after her rehabilitation and training, she lives happily in her home town but still when she was asked about the those days in brothel then her eyes got wet. Still today the shadows of those dark days haunt her. The evidence of the ruthlessness of trafficking can be seen clearly on her skin where one could clearly see the scares. Recalling those days she said life was doomed in the name of fate, with every day going through hell and endlessly waiting for a morning of hope, you feel helpless to believe Life is hell and you are cursed to live it.
Fourteen-year-old Urmila Tamang name changed is from a small village in Chitwan, Nepal. A woman from a neighboring district approached Urmila’s unsuspecting parents in 2002 with promises of a lucrative circus job for their daughter in Varanasi, a city in northern India. Ignorant about human trafficking, they sent Urmila without enquiring further about the nature of the job. There, Urmila endured a year of labor exploitation and sexual harassment as an acrobat and tight rope walker.
Women trafficking in Nepal day-by-day is getting to the stage of acute and grooming in various forms with the pace of development and movement of the world.
Currently in the conflicted affected areas huge numbers of people are migrating from their place to center headquarters due to security reasons, which has resulted to overcrowded situation. Moreover, these people are mostly not educated and if they are educated then the problem of unemployment is there, so usually they choose the easy way to earn money that is prostitution and some in terms of earning more money get trafficked.
Another major cause of prostitution is some are even forced into prostitution by their own parents in a desperate attempt to earn extra money. Poverty often creates intense desperation, and parents sometimes sell their children in exchange for food, shelter, and other necessities of life.
Paradoxically, the fear of AIDS has led to the ongoing search for younger girls, who are thought to be more pure and thus safer. “Awareness of AIDS among potential customers has driven the sex industry to supply more and more young girls, who can be sold as virgins and therefore AIDS-free. As a result, younger girls (ages 8-12) are being forced into trafficking. Another reason for the demand for younger girls is prevalent cultural myths. For example, many Indian and Nepali men believe that sleeping with a virgin will cure them of STDs.
The Government of Nepal is committed to tackling the problem of trafficking and the violation of children’s and women’s rights. The government has sustained its efforts to combat trafficking in persons. However, these commendable anti-trafficking efforts are hindered by political instability and lack of leadership.
Grasping the fact of growing problem of trafficking different laws are made for combating trafficking in Nepal which will be proven to be an effective tool for drive against trafficking. Moreover the establishment of different women activist organization like Forum for Women Law and Development (FWLD), Maiti Nepal, LAAC etc has helped government to realize the potentiality of the problem.
Maiti Nepal a leading INGO which has been helping women’s to rescue from different aspect of violence from both inside and out side the country. Maiti Nepal is presently engaged in protection, resc
ue, and rehabilitation of survivor of trafficking. They have been involved in awareness campaign among school and colleges, VDC and concerned agency. Currently this organization has been shouldering the community with its three prevention homes, ten transit homes at different boarder area and a hospice community outreach programme and community awareness program in different parts of the country. According to them the main obstacle to overcome the trafficking is at first the bailment on security should be cancelled, second the rule of property confiscated form guilty should be adopted, third the punishment should be increased to life imprisonment and then people will realize the value of law and punishment which would psychological divert them from doing such inhuman crime.
This problem has not only put question mark in the reality of women’s right by challenging the whole gender equality issue but has been seeking answer for those women’s who live out and feel the hell. We cannot deny this fact that still today the exploitation of women is in rise in the name of entertainment. The real thing is we can just talk this matter in conference and seminar sitting in a five star hotels with in an a/c room but the truth is we cannot even imagine of what is happening out there or happening it to us, as reality always bites.
Today the tourism industry is growing up with its full aptitude and within the tourism industries business like Massage Center, Dance restaurant, Cabin restaurant are also growing accordingly, which blind folded is giving brace to sex industry or prostitution. As a study shows that Nepal has also become a high risk for both tourist and from tourist, the tourist industry is at particular at risk from the pandemic because of the mobility of the work force, the presence of sex tourists, and the heavy reliance of the country upon its tourism revenues. Some people have contemplate that potential tourists’ fear of HIV/AIDS could discourage them from visiting this countries, while others have even suggested that tourism should be discouraged because of the growing prostitution as it contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other transferable sex disease.
Prostitution within the tourism is a complicated obstacle to overcome, especially because of its wide-reaching international scope so a heightened awareness of this atrocious violation of women’s rights may help to restrain this growing problem.
Mana Maya a cabin bar restaurant dancer at Putalisadak says that life of a dance girl is very hard for them as every day they are both physically and verbally abused and sometimes they are even sexually harassed by different people. For people like Mana Maya life is extremely hard as most of the women working in dance and cabin restaurant are not literate and they have to depend on whatever other say, and since they are uneducated they are bound to follow this path giving it the name of survival. Though women trafficking and prostitution is a problem but actually it deals with in our own society which cannot be underestimated and under marginalized. This type of problem cannot be solved with in an individual basis, where every effort from the civil society counts and in a society like our where no one doesn’t cares about anything until and unless we bear it our self has a far high scope for such heinous violation of women’s rights.
So today a time has come when we all realize that trafficking and prostitution is not a problem of an individual, it’s a problem of society which haunts each and every woman inside the society and if appropriate measures are not taken against it. Then it will be worst in future which would put a question mark on the identity of the 21st century women.
Shreedeep Rayamajhi
