Nepal’s devastating earthquake in April has left millions vulnerable to forced labour and sex trafficking. The fact that every 26.28 minutes, a girl is being trafficked for as little as Nepalese rupees 104.63, makes the situation even more alarming. SHAlINI SAKSENA speaks to activists who say that poverty, illiteracy and an open border with India power this malaise
Poverty pushed two Nepalese women — one around 30 with two children and a husband who has cancer and the other 50, a divorcee — to take risks they would have never taken. On September 9, 2015 the two were rescued by the Gurgaon police from a life worse than death. The duo alleged that their captor, a Saudi diplomat, would abuse them, beat and rape them on a regular basis. They also alleged gangrape by the diplomat’s friends. The two were brought to India four months back — right after the Nepal quake — with the lure of a better future.
The victims were sold to an Indian agent for Rs1 lakh each and were brought to India in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake. The women were offered Rs30,000 by an agent named Kaplana and then sold to the Saudi diplomat, who they identified as Majid. One of the woman said that they were taken to Saudi Arabia where they stayed for only 15 days and were brought back to India. It was here that the violence started. They were raped every night.
Sapna (name changed), 15, still shudders when she thinks of how she was almost tricked into going to India. “I will never forget that day. It was the worst mistake I have made due to my desperate situation,” she told her rescuers. She was just 13 when she stopped going to school in her village Chhatiwan, in Nepal’s Makwanpur district not because she didn’t want to study more but because she had to support her family. She found a job with a carpet factory 130 km away in Kathmandu.
The working conditions were brutal. She laboured hard for 16 hours a day. Her day began at 4 am and ended late at night. If she or other workers fell asleep at work, chilli powder would be rubbed into their eyes to keep them awake. Though desperate for the money, Sapna wanted to leave, but the guards at the factory kept a strict watch over them, making escape impossible.
She was one of the lucky few who got rescued from bonded labour. Today, Maiti Nepal, an NGO that came to her, is helping her pursue a career as a beautician so that she can eke out a living for herself. But her worry for her 10-year-old sister back in the village continues. She fears that her sister will meet a similar fate or something worse — be sold for sex.
Two women who were lured with a promise of a better life and good money recount their horror and say that right after the quake in April which not only destroyed their home but left their village near Kathmandu in ruins, two men arrived in their village and narrated tales of how women were earning more than men in countries like India and Dubai.
“We had no money, no home. I wanted to earn enough to send back home to feed my family. So I said yes. We were taken to Delhi and from there we were told we will be put on a flight to Kuwait. The journey to Delhi was harrowing but we looked forward to a better life ahead. In Delhi, our ordeal started. We were kept in a small room, it was dark and stinking. There were other women as well. But the very next day, they were taken away never to return. The men who had accompanied us from Nepal told us we would have to work in a dance bar. This shocked us. We told them we wanted to go back home. That is when the beating started and when the truth came out. They told us we had to service men. They also said that we would be taken to Sri lanka and from there to Iraq. But we were lucky, we were rescued. later, we came to know that the other girls were trafficked to South Africa,” Rupali (name changed) says.
On July 25, 2015 a human trafficking racket was busted in Delhi with the arrest of two alleged at the IGI airport and 21 Nepalese girls were rescued from South West Delhi. The girls were to be sent to Dubai. In June, 245 children were saved from traffickers or being sent to live in orphanages unnecessarily or illegally since the first quake struck, a UNICEF report said.
Rashmila Shakya, national coordinator of girl power for Child Workers in Nepal, tells you that it is difficult to say pinpoint the exact number of women and children being trafficked out of Nepal after the quake due to less number of cases being reported. “However, there is evidence that trafficking in the country has increased after the earthquake as one reads news of trafficking in newspapers with girls being rescued on a regular basis,” Shakya says.
According to the International labour Organization, every year nearly 12,000 women and children are trafficked out of Nepal. They are trafficked in and outside their country — exploitation, unnecessary institutionalisation, inter-country country adoption, and forced marriage — are some of the reasons. However, activists tell you that the numbers are much more and the situation is an alarming one that needs immediate action.
According to 3 Angels Nepal, an NGO working towards stopping human trafficking in Nepal, 20,000 girls are trafficked out of the country each year which means that every 26.28 minutes a girl is trafficked for as little as Nepalese rupees 104.63. The National Human Rights Commission, Nepal, report of 2013 says that 13,000 women and children were trafficked in 2011-12.
The Global Slavery Index estimated some 2,28,700 Nepalese are in modern day slavery across the world, while a 2013 UNICEF report says some 7,000 women and children are taken to India to work in the brothels every year. Another statistics says that every day more than 54 young girls and women are trafficked out of Nepal and into India to enter a life of slavery. The reason why it is difficult to arrive at the exact number of girls that are trafficked out is due to the less number of cases being reported.
Though human trafficking in Nepal is nothing new, what is alarming is that there has been a spurt in young boys and girls being trafficked after the April earthquake in the country that has left the country devastated. Natural calamities like an earthquake increases the trafficking specifically of children who have been separated from their families or orphaned in a calamity.
Ruchira Gupta, founder-president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an NGO that works to end sex trafficking in India, tells you that the reason for an increase in trafficking is that there is complete breakdown of services and policing. “The villages are cut-off from cities, homes are destroyed, it takes time for the rescuers to reach out to far flung and remote areas. Roads are inaccessible. This situation is perfect for traffickers who are on the look-out for an opportunity. They lure women and children with a promise of a good life — away from their village which is already devastated. They show them a dream of working a big city like Delhi or even Dubai. They talk about tall skyscrapers and the luxury that people in the cities have. Nepalese are still very naive and gullible. So, promise of a world where there is money, attracts them and they fall into the trap. Once in the hands of the trafficker, the girls find themselves in a brothel in India or as a sex slave in the Middle East,” Gupta tells you. It is not just girls who are trafficked. Boys are targeted too — for bonded labour. Shakya tells you that in emergency situations like an earthquake, traffickers use it as an opportunity to recruit children for exploitation. “Children are most at risk as they are more vulnerable. Of these, children who have been orphaned or separated from their families are at higher risk of abuse. Even if the children are not separated from their families house displacement, loss of employment, destruction of livelihood or the death the breadwinner, increases the children vulnerability,” Shakya says.
It has been estimated that at least 9.5 lakh children in Nepal are living in tents, are on the streets or simply out of school and will not be able to return for months unless urgent action is taken. There is uncertainty of children’s education and getting back to the schools.
According to the Department of Education due to the earthquake 14,541 classrooms have been destroyed and 9,182 were damaged. This makes the future of school going children very uncertain making them easy targets.
“A quake like the one in April has had a big impact on the livelihood of people. Ninety nine per cent of houses have been destroyed in 14 districts. Schools are damaged. Job markets in urban area have also been closed. Most young people were working in informal sectors like hotels, restaurants, tea shops and as domestic labour. These structures have also been damaged. Nepal is highly dependent on tourism. The number of people visiting the country has fallen after quake,” Shakya tells you adding that girls are not just being sent to India.
They are sent to Gulf countries and other countries worldwide. However, number of girls landing to India is bigger than to other countries. India is also used as transit to other countries. This is because Nepal and India has an open border. Traffickers use innovation methods to traffic children from Nepal.
The border between Nepal and India is 1,000 miles long with just 14 checkpoints along the route. This makes it easy to smuggle girls (mostly aged between 12 and 25). The girls are taken from their homes and communities to work as sex slaves in the brothels of Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Siliguri or Kolkata. This is a life of abuse and fear; a life without hope.
Many of the women and children are from poor, remote areas of Nepal who are struggling to look after their families. The modus operandi of the traffickers is simple. They target the women and children in several ways: Some are abducted from their villages and drugged; others are offered well-paid jobs in the city that could support their entire family; girls are enticed with promises of marriage by wealthy businessmen, so her family allows her to travel to the city to be wed. Once, at the border, the traffickers use their family members to get the girls to cross the border. This makes it difficult for the authorities to curb trafficking or catch them.
Once in the city, the girl is taken to a warehouse brothel full of rooms divided by sheets. She is auctioned here. The younger she is, the higher the price. Virgins are the most valued. This is because it is believed that a virgin from Nepal can cure an AIDS victim in India.
This is the start of her new life. It is a life full of disease where she stands a high chance of contracting an STD or even AIDS. Murder is common, as is abuse and beatings. To her captors, she is a mere commodity, with a short shelf life.
Though, one is told that the Nepalese Government has taken some measures — has restricted movement of children from one district to another without Government’s permission, what is needed is an urgent plan in place.
“The Government have caught many people transferring children from one place to another without prior permission. Government has also restricted opening of new child care home,” Shakya says whose NGO is working closely with Child line India in repatriation of Nepalese children found in India.
Where the Government is faltering is in effective implementation of existing laws and functioning of authorities have been criticised a lot for this issue. Timely addressing of issues of earthquake have become more challenging due to political situation. Due to recent political situation in country, the Government is more focused on security situation than preventing trafficking.
What the country needs is immediate need of livelihood, food, shelter for families and making environment where children can return to school and have quality education is important. “In addition, logistics for schools for children have been destroyed so these will need to be made sure. There should be one door mechanism to address issues of missing children before they become trafficked children,” Shakya says.
One is also told that the historical and cultural factors are also to a certain extent responsible for the present state of trafficking. In south-west Nepal, women of the Badi caste were traditionally entertainers who offered cultural shows as well as sexual services to kings, religious leaders and landlords. Over a period of time, traffickers have capitalised on this local tradition and incorporated the community into a cross-border sex trafficking ring. Patriarchal social norms, values, attitudes and behaviours encourage trafficking and make women and girls vulnerable.
“Women have fewer education opportunities, job training and employment than men in Nepal; families value boys as assets and girls as financial burdens because girls will eventually be married off and the parents have to give a dowry. Poor families — husbands, fathers, lovers and boyfriends often sell their women to traffickers or send at a young age to work and send money back home. Because these women have very little exposure to the outside world, it makes it difficult for them to leave or seek legal recourse. Women who are divorced, abandoned, victims of rape, or sex workers face enormous social stigma and are ostracised by their families and society. This makes such women more vulnerable to trafficking,” Gupta says.
Aashish Dulal, media and project coordinator of Shakti Samuha in Nepal, tells you that Nepal is a developing country with more than 125 cast and ethnic groups with many language. “About 60 per cent of Nepal is covered by the hilly region. We frequently face political upheavals. We have an open border with India. The literacy rate is low and the population under poverty line very high. Because of these factors, people get easily lured by fake promises for better life,” Dulal explains.
The only solution he cites is to work in resource places. “Raising awareness is the main part; we should provide income generating programmes to the vulnerable people/community to create better livelihood options. The rule and regulation and the implementation of it should be strong against human trafficking,” Dulal asserts.