The Extent of Trafficking in Nepal

It is extremely difficult to estimate the number of Nepalese women and children who have been trafficked. The difficulties arise partly because of a lack of reliable research in this area, and because of the difficulties described above of defining what trafficking is and at what stage along the migration path it occurs.

Certain figures have become accepted as conventional wisdom, but in reality, they are out of date and were unsubstantiated in the first place (Sanghera 2000). These figures refer only to women and girls trafficked into the sex industry. These include estimates that between 100,000 to 200,000 Nepali women are working in the Indian sex industry, and that between 5,000 and 8,000 young women are trafficked for prostitution into India each year. Many figures are prone to exaggeration. For example, one report notes that the "majority of the 40,000 prostitutes in Sonagachi (a red light area in Calcutta) are Nepali" (Pradhan 1996:34). Based on more reliable research, it is now known that there are in fact only a total of 12,000 sex workers living in Sonagachi and that the vast majority are Bengali (AIIHPH 1993). This is not to deny that Nepalese women and girls are to be found in many Indian red light areas. However, experts suggest that it is probably the case that a greater number of migrant Nepali women are employed in other sectors – including the industrial, construction, transport, hotel, restaurant and domestic service sectors – both in Nepal and abroad, rather than in commercial sex work (Seddon et al. 1999; Sanghera, personal communication).

4.3 Trafficking/Migration Processes for Women/Girls in Nepal

The discussion below on trafficking and migration processes is based on the observations and reports of NGOs in Nepal who are active in the anti-trafficking field (Rajbhandari 1996; Pradhan 1996; ABC Nepal 1996; Acharya 1998). These valuable observations are based on field-level experiences. However, systematic, comprehensive, and reliable research in this area is lacking.

Reports from women who have been trafficked suggest that, as in the case of men (Seddon et al, 1999), trafficking or migration operates through personal connections and social networks. For example, an aunt returns to the village and takes a niece back to the city with her. It also operates through unregistered brokers who may or may not be strangers to the locality. In terms of trafficking, neither source is ‘risk free.’ Women and girls are reportedly attracted by reports of wealth and fun in the city, and are apparently easily ‘duped’ into trusting the mediator. Likewise, some women are deceived into false marriages with the broker and are subsequently sold into the sex industry. It has been suggested that brokers are increasingly operating within organized trafficking networks. These brokers are said to be covering large tracts of Nepal and are developing increasingly sophisticated methods. For example, it is apparently becoming increasingly common for trafficking to take part in stages, with women moved around to work in different sites before finally being sold into sex work. Carpet factories in Kathmandu are known to be common transit points. However, further research is required on the extent to which trafficking is organized through formal networks, and the exact methods used.

The extent of familial involvement in trafficking is cause for much controversy in Nepal. In certain communities (such as the Badi and the Deuki), sex work is a customary practice and continues to this day. In other communities in a few districts, notably Nuwakot and Sindupalchowk, there has likewise been a tradition of sending girls to ‘service’ the ruling classes in Kathmandu that, in time, has changed into involvement in commercial sex. In these communities, female involvement in sex work is common knowledge and an important source of income. In most cases, however, it is suggested that though parents may sanction a daughter’s migration and may even accept money in advance for her labor, they do not fully understand her risk of entering the sex trade (or of otherwise being exploited). Likewise, parents may accompany daughters to the carpet factories in Kathmandu but may not be aware of, or involved in, any subsequent trafficking.

4.4 Perceived Causes of Trafficking

There is consensus among groups, internationally and within Nepal, that female trafficking is a complex multi-causal phenomenon (O’Dea 1993; Acharya 1998; ILO/IPEC 1998; ABC Nepal 1996; Rajbhandari 1996; Sanghera 2000). At the local level, trafficking involves deep-rooted processes of gender discrimination, lack of female education, ignorance and naiveté of rural folk, poverty and lack of economic opportunities in rural areas, with consequent marginalization of particular social groups. These processes are influenced by macro-level economic and social changes that are altering marketing traditions and labor requirements. These factors, combined with modern marketing techniques, are also changing (and perhaps unrealistically raising) people’s fundamental expectations of life and what ‘basic needs’ are. While some of these proposed causes can be said to increase vulnerability specifically to trafficking (e.g., women’s lack of empowerment or lack of information about what may happen if they migrate), the rest are part of changes happening globally that are leading both to the increased feminization of poverty and to increased female migration. Hence, they are factors that lead to the desire or need to migrate. Again, it is perhaps misleading to single these factors out as being fundamental causes of trafficking per se. Rather, these factors underlie the phenomenon of increased migration, with some people being trafficked as a result.

The nature of the vulnerability to being trafficked (as opposed to migrating safely) has not been explored in any depth in Nepal. Dominant representations of trafficked ‘victims’ in Nepal usually depict a happy, innocent, and naïve village girl who is suddenly tricked or kidnapped by a stranger and sold into sexual slavery. Some authors (Frederick 1998; Frederick and Kelly 2000) have challenged this picture as a myth and challenge the assumptions of village and family life underlying many representations of trafficking. Their work and the little research that exists seem to indicate that many (though not all) women are trafficked by people known to them. Like other women in prostitution, many of those who are trafficked into the sex trade come from disturbed and difficult family circumstances, such as divorce; alcoholism; sexual, physical or emotional abuse; or death of a bread winner (Sanghera 2000; ABC Nepal 1998; Pradhan 1996). Therefore, they may lack crucial social supports and may be particularly desperate to change their situation.

Other factors that create an environment conducive to trafficking in Nepal are said to be the open border between India and Nepal, inadequate political commitment to address trafficking, and a failure of the police and judiciary to enforce existing laws. It was not until 1995 that HMG/N formed a Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare (MOWCSW) with trafficking as one of its mandates.

5. Present Intervention Scenario in Nepal

Because of a workshop in 1998, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal developed an anti-trafficking National Plan of Action (MOWCSW 1998). Existing and planned anti-trafficking activities were categorized under the following six headings:

1. Policy, research and institutional development

2. Legislation and enforcement

3. Awareness creation, advocacy, networking and social mobilization

4. Health and education interventions

5. Income and employment generation

6. Rescue and reintegration

Twelve international agencies are providing support to the government and NGOs to develop and expand anti-trafficking activities in these areas.

It is difficult to assess how many NGOs are directly or indirectly involved in anti-trafficking work in Nepal. Many NGOs became involved in 1996 to help with the girls who were returned from India. Not all are still directly involved with trafficking issues though they may serve as referral points for other agencies that are. The two anti-trafficking networks, National Network Against Girl Trafficking (NNAGT) and Alliance Against Trafficking in Women and Children in Nepal (AATWIN), have at least 35 organizational members. A 1996 survey of NGOs identified 16 Kathmandu-based NGOs that were directly involved in anti-trafficking work (CFD 1996).

6. Trafficking Prevention

6.1 Prevention Programs: General Description

This and the following section present a general description and analysis of the different kinds of trafficking prevention programs. Programs in the three different sites (rural, urban and border) are respectively analyzed in more detail in sections 6.3 to 6.5.

ACTIVITIES: The most significant anti-trafficking activities fall into the following areas;

• Awareness raising, advice giving, and social mobilization.

• Improvement of livelihood opportunities through income generation/vocational training.

• Interception of potential trafficking victims at the Indo-Nepal border.

FOCUS: Interventions are spread among several program focuses (see Figure 1) with two NGOs addressing trafficking as a stand-alone issue and one focusing on rehabilitation of trafficked girls. The current research found that despite the variation in focus and emphasis, there is considerable overlap of process (for example, the strategy of group formation). Hence, the discussion below does not examine each intervention individually. Rather, general processes and content are compared.

TARGET GROUP: Interventions work with single or multiple target groups ranging from the politically and economically powerful (e.g., the police, District or Village Development Committee members, employers or community leaders) to the disenfranchised (e.g., low caste or landless groups or city migrants). At the grass roots level, activities are further differentially targeted towards women, children, schools, female migrant workers, or local men. Some interventions in the rural areas specifically target girls who they deem to be at particular risk of being trafficked. Without further research, it is not possible to comment on the effectiveness of targeting and this issue is discussed in more detail below. In general, however, experience in other fields shows that for any kind of social change to take place, all stakeholders must be involved to a greater or lesser extent.

APPROACH: Although there is some overlap, programs can be broadly classified as: (i) those that take a top-down approach with a welfare-orientation and (ii) those that take a bottom-up (or community-based) approach and have an empowerment orientation. The top-down/welfare-oriented programs are generally one-time activities that concentrate on raising awareness, with only minimal follow-up or subsequent community-level support. They tend to be prescriptive (telling people what to do) rather than facilitating a process of informed decision-making. Bottom-up/empowerment-oriented programs tend to be rooted in communities and usually address trafficking in the context of other needs and priorities with empowerment as an overall aim. They also tend to establish community or group support systems to help those in difficult circumstances and to address trafficking from a position of collective strength.

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