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PROCURING SEX IN THE ENTERTAINMENT
INDUSTRY
Nepal’s entertainment industry provides means by which sexual
services can be obtained. However, not all females working in
the entertainment industry conduct sex work and not all men
who seek entertainment also seek sex partners.
Cabin restaurants, dance bars and dohoris can be considered
‘sex access points’ as well as entertainment establishments.
In almost all cases, customers are directly solicited for sex by
the female sex workers themselves. In cabin restaurants, this
is often done by code phrases such as ‘Do you want fresh
meat’ or ‘Would you like to go upstairs’ In massage parlours,
sexual activities are not solicited, but simply agreed upon. The
customer usually bargains with the girl or woman and/or the
owner for the acts of oral sex, masturbation or intercourse,
and pays in advance. In the other entertainment venues, the
sexual act and its price are usually determined directly with
the girl or woman.
In cabin restaurants, owners may or may not receive a share
of the payment for sex. If sex is conducted on the premises
or if the owner rents a nearby room for sexual activities, he/she
usually receive a share of the income. In this case, the fee may
be paid to the owner or to the girl or woman.
In general, the owners of dance bars and dohoris do not directly
receive a share of a girl or woman’s income from sex. However,
owners and floor managers may facilitate the connection of
girls or women with customers upon demand, particularly if
the customer is seeking a particular individual. At the same
time, many girls and women have reported that owners coerce
them into going for sex with customers. 53 It appears that this
is primarily to maintain ‘good customer relations’ – i.e., to
increase customers’ purchase of food and alcohol – rather
than to directly benefit from the sex workers’ income.
The girls and women who are sex workers make appointments
on the premises and maintain contact with clients primarily
through mobile phone, and sex work is usually conducted
after working hours. The owners of dance bars and dohoris
frequently complain about their waitresses soliciting through
cell phones, and making excuses to leave work early so that
they can meet clients. The system of ‘bar fines’ as is used in
Thailand – in which the customer pays a fixed fee to the
establishment for taking a girl from the premises during working
hours – has yet to be established in Nepal.
Although there are numerous mechanisms to procure sex
workers in the present sex industry, direct pimping on the
street is rare, except in the Gongabu Bus Park area. Here,
male children will ask passersby if they need rooms or if
they need girls. In Thamel, street hustlers have in recent
years added ‘girls’ to the menu of ‘hashish’, ‘change money’
and ‘brown sugar’ which they offer foreign tourists.
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