Torture in [Nepal] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Nepal Street Children in [Nepal] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Nepal] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Nepal.htm
Nepal is a source country
for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual
exploitation and involuntary servitude. Children are trafficked within the
country and to India and the Middle East for commercial sexual exploitation
or forced marriage, as well as to India and within the country for
involuntary servitude as domestic servants, circus entertainers, factory
workers, or beggars. NGOs working on trafficking issues report an increase in
both transnational and domestic trafficking during the reporting period,
although a lack of reliable statistics makes the problem difficult to
quantify. NGOs estimate that 10,000 to 15,000 Nepali women and girls are
trafficked to India annually, while 7,500 children are trafficked
domestically for commercial sexual exploitation. In many cases, relatives or
acquaintances facilitated the trafficking of women and young girls into
sexual exploitation. - |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Nirakar Poudel,
Media for Freedom, Nepal, August 5, 2007 -- Source:
www.mediaforfreedom.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=3055 www.iccle.org/050807.php [accessed 23 February 2011] An orphan from an
early age, Madan Karki
(name changed),14, used to work at his uncle's small farm in Jeevanpur of Dhading District,
50 kilometer west of capital. Madan's job was to
take the cattle for grazing the whole day. One day, a family friend
approached him with offer for work at his home in Kathmandu with a promise
that he will be admitted in a school. However, the man
instead engaged him at a carpet factory in After working in
harsh conditions for about eight months in the factory, Madan
–who was not paid - fled the factory to work as a helper in a gas tempo. Now,
he earns about Rs 1000 (approximately $15) a month.
Madan's case is not a unique one as this is the
reality of many child workers in Nepal. Because Nepal's
dependency on child labor is so deeply entrenched, only half of the children
are allowed to complete the fifth grade of school. The ILO reports showed
that. Children are employed in eighteen different sectors like in brick kiln,
coal mines, child prostitution, mug house, leather processing industry, coal
mine, stone quarrying, match factory, house-hold helper, bonded labor, street
children, mine and carpet factory, drug trafficking, transport sector etc.
About 1.4 million children are not provided the salary for their work and
1.27 million children are working in worst forms of labor. Call for Global Action to halt Nepalese women
and girls trafficking Surya B. Prasai,
The American Chronicle, February 10, 2008 amchron.soundenterprises.net/articles/view/51873 [accessed 11 June 2013] The other alarming
fact of course is that Nepal has a unique cultural system known as "Deukis," whereby by rich zamindars
(feudalistic agricultural families) having no children through a legally
married wife, procure these young girls from poor rural Nepalese families and
after initiating them into the household through the temple rites are taken
as mistresses cum slave bonded laborers to produce offspring. Later on, as
the girl gets to be over 30 years and grows older, she is forced into
prostitution. There is no respite to what the poor Nepalese girl has to
suffer on in life once initiated into this system. In 2007 according to a UN
report, there werel nearly 30,000 deukis in Nepal compared to 1992, when there were 17,000 deuki girls according to Radhika
Coomaraswamy in the UN Special Report on Violence
against Women. Why Sanjaya Dhakal,
Kathmandu, OneWorld South us.oneworld.net/places/nepal/-/article/why-nepals-freed-laborers-want-return-slavery [accessed 9 December 2010] "Between 15
and 20 percent of the families declared free have returned to the same old
practice of slavery," says Dilli Chaudhary, president of an NGO called Backward Society
Education. Bonded labourers in Nepal are called "kamaiyas"
and belong to the country's backward Tharu
community. It is sheer poverty that forces the poor to borrow rice and food
from their employers - generally big landlords - and get trapped in slavery. Under the practice,
once indebted, the labourer and his heirs are
'bonded' to the landlord. They had to actually reside on the landlord's
property until the debt was completely repaid, which seldom happened. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/nepal.htm [accessed 23 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The government has reported a range of estimates for
the number of child trafficking victims. Some 5,000 to 12,000 girls may
be trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation annually, and as many as
200,000 trafficked Nepalese girls are estimated to reside in Indian
brothels. Girls as young as 9 years
old have been trafficked. In 2001, a local NGO recorded 265 cases of
girl trafficking victims, of which 34 percent were below 16 years of
age. While trafficking of children
often leads to their sexual exploitation, there is also demand for trafficked
boys and girls to work in the informal labor sector Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61709.htm [accessed 23 February 2011] CHILDREN
- Maoists
abducted teenagers and some younger children to serve as porters, runners,
cooks, and armed cadre. Most children abducted from their schools for
political education sessions were returned home within a few days, but some
remained with the Maoists, either voluntarily or under compulsion. The
Maoists denied recruiting children. In September the RNA estimated that 30
percent of Maoist guerillas were under the age of 18, and some were as young
as 10. TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
– Local NGOs
combating trafficking estimated that 25 thousand to 200 thousand women and
girls were lured or abducted annually into Hundreds of women
and girls returned voluntarily or were rescued and repatriated to the country
annually after having worked as commercial sex workers in Traffickers were
usually from the country or Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3
June 2005 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/nepal2005.html [accessed 23 February 2011] [53] Given the
significant number of Nepalese children who are adopted by foreigners and in
the context of the current armed conflict in the State party, the Committee
is concerned at the lack of a clear policy and appropriate legislation on
inter-country adoption, which result in various practices, such as
trafficking and smuggling of babies. The Committee is particularly concerned
about the absence of due judicial process, including technical assessment of
capacity of the parents or guardians, in cases involving termination of the
parental responsibility. The Committee also expresses concern regarding the
practice of the so-called informal adoption, which may entail exploitation of
children as domestic servants. [95] The Committee
takes note of the various efforts undertaken by the State party to combat
child trafficking and welcomes the information that police officers are Nepalese man sues KBR on human trafficking
charges Agence France-Presse AFP, August 28, 2008 news.smh.com.au/world/nepalese-man-sues-kbr-on-human-trafficking-charges-20080828-44j7.html [accessed 23 February 2011] A Nepalese man and
relatives of 12 of his slain comrades filed a lawsuit in federal court
against the construction and services giant KBR on charges of human
trafficking, for allegedly tricking the men into working in Rescuing girls from sex slavery Ebonne Ruffins,
Cable News Network CNN, www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/29/cnnheroes.koirala.nepal/ [accessed 23 February 2011] The daughter of
Nepalese peasant farmers, Geeta -- now 26 -- had
been sold to a brothel in Seven Nepalese held for human trafficking
to India Press Trust of www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=060608091956 [accessed 23 February 2011] The women, who had
been sold to a brothel in Kolkota last year,
managed to escape from Dharamtala area where they
were locked up for three days, the police said. Stop AIDS, halt trafficking in Nepalese
women Surya B. Prasai,
The American Chronicle, February 22, 2008 www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/53039 [accessed 23 February 2011] The first known
case of AIDS in Call for Global Action to halt Nepalese women
and girls trafficking Surya B. Prasai,
The American Chronicle, February 10, 2008 amchron.soundenterprises.net/articles/view/51873 [accessed 11 June 2013] The other alarming
fact of course is that Nepal has a unique cultural system known as "Deukis," whereby by rich zamindars
(feudalistic agricultural families) having no children through a legally
married wife, procure these young girls from poor rural Nepalese families and
after initiating them into the household through the temple rites are taken
as mistresses cum slave bonded laborers to produce offspring. Later on, as
the girl gets to be over 30 years and grows older, she is forced into
prostitution. There is no respite to what the poor Nepalese girl has to
suffer on in life once initiated into this system. In 2007 according to a UN
report, there werel nearly 30,000 deukis in Nepal compared to 1992, when there were 17,000 deuki girls according to Radhika
Coomaraswamy in the UN Special Report on Violence
against Women. Govt to set up 3 rehabs
for trafficking victims Nov 24, 2007 www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=129247 [access date unavailable] "We have cases
in which children are trafficked to Human trafficking helps spread HIV/AIDS in
Asia: UN Ranga Sirilal,
Reuters, www.reuters.com/article/idUSL22325220070822 [accessed 23 February 2011] "Trafficking ...
contributes to the spread of HIV by significantly increasing the
vulnerability of trafficked persons to infection," said Caitlin Wiesen-Antin, HIV/AIDS regional coordinator, Major human
trafficking routes run between Nepal
and India and between Thailand and neighbors like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Many of the victims are young teenage girls who end up in prostitution. "The link between human trafficking
and HIV/AIDS has only been identified fairly recently," Wiesen-Antin told the International Congress on AIDS in
Asia and the Pacific. Nirakar Poudel,
Media for Freedom, -- Source:
www.mediaforfreedom.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=3055 www.iccle.org/050807.php [accessed 23 February 2011] An orphan from an
early age, Madan Karki
(name changed),14, used to work at his uncle's small farm in Jeevanpur of Dhading District,
50 kilometer west of capital. Madan's job was to
take the cattle for grazing the whole day. One day, a family friend
approached him with offer for work at his home in Kathmandu with a promise
that he will be admitted in a school. However, the man
instead engaged him at a carpet factory in Kathmandu. Working like a bonded
labor, Madan was forced to learn knotting wool rugs
on heavy wooden looms. His workdays started at 4 am in the morning till 11 at
night. The earthen floor of the factory was his bed. When the owner obtained
a rush order, he and the other boys would have to work throughout the entire
night. Despite his hard work, the owner always scolded and physically abused
him. After working in
harsh conditions for about eight months in the factory, Madan
–who was not paid - fled the factory to work as a helper in a gas tempo. Now,
he earns about Rs 1000 (approximately $15) a month.
Madan's case is not a unique one as this is the
reality of many child workers in Nepal. Because Nepal's dependency
on child labor is so deeply entrenched, only half of the children are allowed
to complete the fifth grade of school. The ILO reports showed that. Children
are employed in eighteen different sectors like in brick kiln, coal mines,
child prostitution, mug house, leather processing industry, coal mine, stone
quarrying, match factory, house-hold helper, bonded labor, street children,
mine and carpet factory, drug trafficking, transport sector etc. About 1.4
million children are not provided the salary for their work and 1.27 million
children are working in worst forms of labor. NGOs Work To Eradicate Human Trafficking,
Help Victims Press release submitted by
usinfo.state.gov, presszoom.com/story_134115.html [accessed 23 February 2011] U.S.-funded
nongovernmental organizations around the world are working to prevent human
trafficking, provide resources to victims and arrest and prosecute child-sex
offenders. From Africa to Europe to Asia, initiatives are raising worldwide
awareness of the illegal practice of human trafficking. PREVENTING HUMAN
TRAFFICKING
- Shakti Samuaha in Nepal is the first NGO in the
world formed by trafficking survivors, and more than 120 survivors attended
its conference in March to commemorate International Women’s Day. Conference
participants focused on preventing human trafficking of vulnerable
populations, particularly adolescent girls, and providing rehabilitative
services for other trafficking survivors. Of Serious Concern Editorial, Gorkhapatra
Sansthan - Dharmapath,
Kathmandu, Nepal, 2007-1-13 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 9 September 2011] [scroll down] Incidents of human
trafficking are on the rise in the country despite the presence of a number
of organisations, both in the private and
government sectors, and the powerful media that makes each incident of human
trafficking public. The latest case of human trafficking was revealed in Nepalgunj the other day when a suspected trafficker was
arrested while trying to traffic four boys and five girls across the border.
Thanks to Maiti Nepal, an NGO working for the
well-being of helpless girls, the police arrested the suspected trafficker.
Though there is no official record regarding the number of Nepalese girls
trafficked to Indian brothels, thousands of Nepalese girls are said to live
lives of untold misery in the Indian brothels. Action Plan Against Trafficking www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=9149 [access date unavailable] Although the
government, law enforcement agencies and social orgnisations
have been active in checking human trafficking, the unscrupulous brokers
continue to do the business taking advantage of legal and other loopholes. It
is also believed that there is a strong nexus between the brothel owners,
brokers, politicians and criminal gangs who aid in human trafficking. As a
result, checking and eliminating human trafficking have become a challenge. Update mechanism to check human trafficking 12/25/2006 www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=9055 [access date unavailable] Timely changes need
to be made in the existing national plan of action to combat human
trafficking and trade of human kind, participants at a national policy
consultation workshop said Sunday. Speaking
at the workshop jointly organised by the Ministry
for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Ministry for Local Development, WOREC
Nepal and Alliance working against the trafficking of women and children,
participants underscored the need to sign a extradition treaty to rescue the
victims of trafficking from the next country. Peace Won't Stop Human Trafficking Marty www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34720 [accessed 23 February 2011] Men also are
trafficked -- lured to a centre by the prospect of a certain job and then
kept in exploitative work situations. The report
estimates that 60 percent of trafficking from and within this South Asian
nation is for sexual purposes and 40 percent is to supply workers for labour,
such as toiling in garment factories. "Trafficking
for various purposes other than sexual ones still needs to be addressed
strategically...the lack of a definition has created confusion in formulating
acts, plans and policies" Human trafficking from Mohan Budhair,
Kathmandu Post, Paliya www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/news_archive/sep_06_sanepal.pdf madhuchandra.org/Women+atroticities/Human+trafficking+from+Nepal+on+rise.htm At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly also be accessible [here] [accessed 29 May 2011] [page 22] Trafficking of
Nepalese women and children into A large number of
women and children are being trafficked into India from checkpoints west of Butwal, representatives of several Indian and Nepalese
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and security officials stated during an
interaction on 'controlling cross-border human trafficking'. Prostitution of Nepalese girls rampant in
Indian brothel webindia123.com, Kolkata, Nov 20, 2005 www.stopdemand.org/afawcs0112878/ID=146/newsdetails.html [accessed 23 February 2011] ''Young girls are
trafficked from Women Trafficking And Conflict Kamala Sarup,
Telegraph, 14 March 2005 www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00100.htm [accessed 23 February 2011] "I got acquainted
with a boy who was 30 who said he loved me and promised to marry me. He
convinced me to go to Around 30 Percent Child Recruits In Maoist
Army UNICEF Child Trafficking Research HUB -- Source:
newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=65638, 27
January 2005 [accessed 23 February 2011] Around 30 percent of the "people's army" of 17,000 Xinhua News Agency, March 26, 2005 english.people.com.cn/200503/26/eng20050326_178321.html [accessed 23 February 2011] According to the study, the investigators talked
personally to the Nepali women in the brothels of The Saving of Innocents - The Satya Interview with Ruchira
Gupta Satya Magazine, January
2005 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 9 September 2011] An uncle or a
family friend pays the parent something like $30. There is the middleman in a
packed city, the border guard who takes a payoff, and the agent who takes the
girls across the border to the people who then transport them to Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/nepal [accessed 27 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 23 February 2011] Human Rights
Overview – 2005 Human Rights Watch World Report 2005 -- 13 january 2005 www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2005/01/13/nepal9821.htm [accessed 23 February 2011] VIOLENCE AND
DISCRIMINATION BASED ON GENDER AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION - Gender-based
violence—including domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking into forced
labor and forced prostitution—remains pervasive and deeply entrenched in Library of Congress Call Number DS491.4
.N46 1993 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/nptoc.html [accessed 23 February 2011] Press Release, CARE, 26 Jan 2005 www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/000248.html [accessed 29 August 2011] Watchlist calls for
immediate action to stop the spectrum of violations against children in the
context of armed conflict, including killing, maiming, torture, rape and
other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools, abduction, trafficking, forced
labor, underage recruitment into fighting forces, forced displacement, death
and injury from landmines, and others. Fighting to stop trade in sex slaves Kate Kirton, news.scotsman.com/nepal/Fighting-to-stop-trade-in.2532778.jp [accessed 23 February 2011] Girls as young as
13 are taken from villages and slum areas by traffickers - men, and sometimes
women - who lure them away with the promise of well-paid jobs in the
country’s capital, Kathmandu, or in the big cities of India and the Gulf
states. But what actually
awaits the girls is a life of forced prostitution in these cities’ brothels.
The girls don’t know how to escape - they are mainly uneducated and extremely
poor and too ashamed to tell their families what they are doing. Even if they manage to escape or get
rescued from the brothels, their families and communities often refuse to
take them back because of the social stigma the girls now carry. Why Sanjaya Dhakal,
Kathmandu, OneWorld South us.oneworld.net/places/nepal/-/article/why-nepals-freed-laborers-want-return-slavery [accessed 9 December 2010] "Between 15
and 20 percent of the families declared free have returned to the same old
practice of slavery," says Dilli Chaudhary, president of an NGO called Backward Society
Education. Bonded labourers in Nepal are called "kamaiyas"
and belong to the country's backward Tharu
community. It is sheer poverty that forces the poor to borrow rice and food
from their employers - generally big landlords - and get trapped in slavery. Under the practice,
once indebted, the labourer and his heirs are
'bonded' to the landlord. They had to actually reside on the landlord's
property until the debt was completely repaid, which seldom happened. Nepal rebels plan to train 50,000 Child
Soldiers Asian Human Rights Commission, acr.hrschool.org/mainfile.php/0169/284/ [accessed 23 February 2011] This week, The lost childhood Anita Pandey, Feb
18, 2004 -- Source: nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_7429.shtml At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 9 September 2011] In the past six
months, CWIN recorded 2,866 cases of child labour exploitation, child deaths
and murder, missing children, violence, sexual abuse, trafficking, forced
prostitution, children affected by armed conflict and children in conflict
with the law. Strengthening Women's Rights OXFAM in action - At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 9 September 2011] [scroll down] STRENGTHENING WOMEN'S
RIGHTS
- Life is hard for most women in Between 5,000 and
12,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked by organised
gangs to work in brothels each year.
Only 27 per cent of women are literate compared with 67 per cent of
men. A Nepalese woman
cannot apply for a job, passport, or bank account without permission from her
father or husband. And with low female literacy rates, it is difficult for Nepali
women to use public courts to challenge abuse and discrimination. Trafficking from Devesh K. Pandey, The Hindu, The contents of this article had appeared
under a different title and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 9 September 2011] The survey found
that apart from Combating Trafficking In USAID from the American People, May 29,
2009 transition.usaid.gov/stories/nepal/fp_nepal_trafficking.html [accessed 2 September 2012] Fourteen-year-old Urmila Tamang (name changed to
protect her privacy) is from a small village in Sanjaya Dhakal,
OneWorld.net, January 08, 2004 web.archive.org/web/20050830222523/http:/www.kurakani.tk/Article84.phtml [Last access date unavailable] Even though Take the example of
Tirtha Rai (name
changed), a girl in her mid-20s from the district of Sindhupalchowk,
east of Kathmandu valley. She had been sold to a brothel in India by her
aunt. Similarly, Bhawana Sharma (name changed), a teen-aged girl from Nuwakot, a district west of Kathmandu, was lured by a
promise of marriage and taken to Pune in India, where she was sold to a
brothel. Labour migration and human trafficking in
Nepal OneWorld At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 9 September 2011] US blames turmoil for prostitution in Nepal Indo-Asian News Service IANS, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 9 September 2011] The report holds
the eight-year-old Maoist insurgency responsible in many ways. The rebels
themselves are perpetrators, it says, abducting and forcibly conscripting
children. Since September 2003, the
insurgents have abducted about 950 children, the report says. In rural areas,
insurgency activities have led to the withdrawal of police, resulting in a
remarkable decrease in trafficking related investigations. The government, grappling with the rebels
on one hand and political parties on the other, has been unable to combat
trafficking. Since the
dissolution of parliament in 2002, no elections have been held. As a result,
legislation that would have cracked down on trafficking-related offences
remains in limbo, the report says. Bhagirath Yogi, BBC
correspondent in news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2648525.stm [accessed 23 February 2011] Police in Combating Trafficking of Women and Children
in Regional Synthesis Paper for www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Combating_Trafficking/Regional_Synthesis_Paper.pdf [accessed 23 February 2011] [page 110] With regard to trafficking for sexual
exploitation, the Government of Nepal has become increasingly concerned,
particularly about the trafficking of adolescent and young girls to The Enslavement of Dalit and Indigenous
Communities
[PDF] Discrimination on the Basis of Work and
Descent, UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,
February 2001 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 9 September 2011] SUMMARY: - This paper
describes the gross and continuing violation of the rights of millions of
people in Slaves To Lust Lesley Downer, The Sunday Times, Weekend
Magazine, July 18, 1999 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 9 September 2011] She confides that,
in reality, she was sold by her friends, who tricked her into going to
Mumbai. The madam paid 35,000 rupees ($750) for her, a sum that took her four
and a half years to repay. In India, prostitution is not illegal, so long as
it is voluntary and the girls are not underage. None the less, the police
have been cracking down on Nepalese underage girls. So the girls lie about
everything – their age, their nationality, their names. By the time Kanchi had repaid her debt she had forgotten the traffickers.
Falkland Road had become her life and her home. She began to make money. She
charges, she says, 35 to 50 rupees (75c-$1.10) a customer, out of which she
pays rent for the bed and the regular requisite bribes to the police. Not
long ago, she went back to Kathmandu in Nepal. She told her sisters she was
working in a hotel, washing dishes. “I’m the only one in my family who’s gone
to the bad,” she says. “I don’t like this life, but what can I do? If I don’t
do this, I die. What else is there to do?” Because she is beautiful, many men
have offered to marry her. But she is too canny for that. “So many men try to
seduce me. But I know they’ll just sell me back to the brothel.” RAPE FOR PROFIT - Trafficking of Nepali
Girls and Women to Human Rights Watch/Asia Report, Vol. 12,
No. 5 (A), October 1995 www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/India.htm [accessed 23 February 2011] INTRODUCTION - Trafficking
victims in Tulasa and the Horrors of
Child Prostitution - Sold And Resold Body And Soul Rajedar Menen
reports from Kathmandu and At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 9 September 2011] Tulasa was abducted from Thankut village in Bagmati
district near Kathmandu and then smuggled to All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
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Torture in [Nepal] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Nepal Street Children in [Nepal] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Nepal] [other countries]