Nepal Trafficking in Girls With Special Reference to Prostitution: A ...

A Rapid Assessment
and a majority of the girls targeted in the initial stages
of the RA fieldwork had died or migrated by the later
stages of the study. An overwhelming majority of the
reintegrated girls reported that they were not living a
normal life.
Factors contributing to vulnerability
Background literature as well as the responses
of key informants questioned, concludes that trafficking
is related to child vulnerability, exacerbated by
deprivation from education. In Nepal, education is
free but not compulsory. However, the statement that
education is free is misleading as households have to
incur half of the total public cost of education, and
the opportunity cost of going to school in relation to
work is too high for many households. Only one of
85 girls in the study was attending school at the time
of the survey.
Family vulnerability, which directly relates to
child vulnerability, is impacted by low education
levels of parents (mother more than father), insufficient
household income, mistreatment and physical
abuse, alcoholism, lack of food provision, mental torture,
multiple marriages, and remarriage associated
with large family size. Certain aspects of Nepalese
culture may work unintentionally as catalytic forces
for trafficking such as unmatched marriage, patriarchy,
and child marriage as well as excessive spending
at times of feasts, festivals and funeral ceremonies
that can strain many households economically. An
additional study finding cited as a cause of trafficking
in girl children was gender discrimination.
Finally, the study revealed that many key informants
stated that trafficking criminals are often protected
by political parties and, if arrested, are freed by
influential friends. As a result of this, there is an underlying
distrust of the police that has led people not
to file cases against traffickers.
Recommendations
The study suggests that trafficking is a complex
process with two distinct models operating in Nepal,
hard and soft trafficking. Effective intervention must
come in the form of a multi-pronged approach that
addresses the range of factors that contribute to the
problem of trafficking in Nepal.
Policy issues include the redesign of marriage
laws, culturally sensitive redesigns of expensive traditional
ceremonies, empowerment of women and
girls, expansion and support of rehabilitation centres
including coordination, monitoring and supervision
of activities, improvement of border security systems,
and the role of political parties in combating child
labour.
Suggested strategies and programmes
• MWCSW should coordinate NGOs/INGOs to
work for employment generation and coordinate
the Department of Cottage Industries and Federation
of Handicrafts Associations for generating
and providing employment opportunities for selfreliance
of the people.
• In coordination with the MWCSW, The Ministry
of Health should work effectively for STDs and
HIV/AIDS prevention and networking against
AIDS combining with creating social awareness
towards trafficking.
• The MWCSW should mobilize relevant Ministries
in supporting NGOs in the rescue operations
of survivors/transportation of girls from India to
Nepal/counselling, medical rehabilitation and
housing/compensation, empowerment for self-reliance,
rehabilitation and social integration/family
reunion and community reintegration.
For the action on information and communication,
the Ministry of Information and Communication
should coordinate the Nepal Journalists Federation,
NTV, Radio Nepal, and Nepal Press Institute for creating
awareness through the media and press.
The programmes must be focussed on social
awareness and mobilization against sexual abuse and
trafficking in women and children, to be led and coordinated
by the different NGO alliances. Their responsibility
on this matter should be lobbying and
pressurizing to the government and campaigning for
the civil society and other NGOs.
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