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.
Other Story
|
