Anti-Trafficking Drive

LAX laws coupled with other social and economic factors have been attributed for the large number of girls trafficked to different Indian cities and the Middle East every year.

Nepal does not have the dearth of laws to oversee and check trafficking. Anybody whose offences related with trafficking are proved in the court is liable to get from 10 to 20 years of imprisonment as per the existing legal provisions. But so far it appears that offenders have never been booked and even the few of them who have been caught have been skirting the punishment. Estimates reveal that a close to two hundred thousand Nepali girls have been working in brothels in different Indian cities. About 5,000-7000 of them are known to be landing in the Indian brothels every year. All this clearly calls for immediate steps towards addressing the problem of trafficking in person, especially for flesh trade, which brings additional health hazards such as HIV/AIDS and STDs. Experience has revealed that stringent laws alone cannot address the problem of trafficking. The root cause of the problem lies in the fact that women and children in the villages are not being able to lead decent lives. Their share of labour is not valued irrespective of the fact that they work for longer hours in the fields than men.
Women and children are always being subjected to gender discrimination in the villages where the literacy level is shockingly low. The poor status of women, lack of respect for their genuine labour be it at home or in the fields, and lack of vocational skills have always made women prone to fall prey to trafficking. Hence it is very evident that if we are to check trafficking we need to address the problems of rural women. The government needs to launch awareness campaigns and literacy classes in the villages besides introducing income-generating activities that make the women self-reliant. The fact that Nepal has not been doing all this with the needed degree of seriousness was clearly revealed when the regional US legal advisor for South Asia said recently that Nepal still had a lot to accomplish in the area of implementing the anti-trafficking measures. This message needs to be heeded seriously so as to ensure that the country keeps on receiving aid, which is vital for its development.

Fighting Diseases

IT was just the other day that the disclosure was made that at least two hundred people die of rabies in the country every year. This comes as an alarming piece of news in a country where other diseases too take their toll in big numbers. Nepal as such has been included in the list of countries where rabies presents a big problem. Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital revealed this at a public awareness programme regarding the disease, the other day. It is known that the bite of infected animals like dogs, cats, horses and other such animals including the wild ones can lead to the spread of the disease. Rabies is fatal in the sense that a person can die within ten to twenty-one days after an infected animal bites him/her unless anti-rabies vaccine is administered. The vaccine is the only way to save a person from succumbing to the disease. It has also been said by the director of the hospital that the supply of anti-rabies vaccine is insufficient to meet the demand as the number of patients is increasing in recent times.

It is not only rabies that has created health problems in the country. There are various infectious diseases like typhoid, malaria, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, etc. which are affecting the health status of the people who for the most part are poor. It is the eleventh hour syndrome which plagues the Nepalese people. Though precaution against diseases is the right strategy, the people with their low economic status are not aware and thereby do not avail treatment at the early onset of any disease. It could also be more due to the lack of knowledge about the causes and effects of the various diseases. The government is trying its best to make health care facilities available to all but there are problems like the shortage of funds, medicines and trained medical personnel all over the country. Howsoever that may be, the foremost need is to raise the awareness of the people regarding various diseases which is taking a heavy toll as far as the people are concerned.