Virginity for Sale: The Dark World of Forced Teen Prostitution

By Kamala Sarup and Lys Anzia, Women News Network. Posted December 17, 2008.

Trafficking Remains Easy

"Trafficking in persons means the recruitment, transportation, purchase, sale, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by threat or use of violence, abduction, force, fraud, deception or coercion (including the abuse of authority), or debt bondage, for the purpose of placing or holding such person, whether for pay or not, in forced labor or slaverylike practices, in a community other than the one in which such person lived at the time of the original act described," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan attorney and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence, at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

In 2007, the interim government of Nepal upheld sanctions against all human trafficking in Nepal.

THE INTERIM CONSTITUTION OF NEPAL, 2063 (2007)

29. Right Against Exploitation

(1) Every person shall have the right against exploitation.

(2) No person shall be exploited in the name of custom, tradition and practice,

or in any other way

(3) No person shall be subjected to human trafficking, slavery or bonded labor.

(4) No person shall be subject to forced labor.

Still, along the 1,740 mile border between Nepal and India, smuggling a girl is still very easy. Rescue agencies attempt to inspect cars for young girls who appear to be trafficked. But girls and traffickers still make it through, because these car searches and border interviews are usually done without the assistance of police or Nepal government agencies.

"Controlling trafficking has been compounded by the conflict of the last 10 years," Arzu Rana Deuba, Ph.D. executive chairwoman of Samanata Institute for Social and Gender Equality in Kathmandu, said in a September 2008 interview with photojournalist Mikel Dunham. "The communities (in Nepal) became poorer, and some of them had no recourse but to try to find a means for a livelihood. During and after the conflict, there was a lot of displacement, a lot of women came to the urban centers, and most were not equipped to get into jobs. They were not educated -- no skills. So a lot of them became 'dancers,' you know? So now, it’s like a phenomenon. Every town you go to, you have all these dance bars. It’s just a front for brothels.

"The government has made stringent laws, but again, the problem is enforcement. Most of the traffickers are very rich. They buy the lawyers. They have money to hire top-class lawyers. They may be even paying bribes to come out of it. And the other thing we have noticed is that most of the women who are trafficked are poor. So even if they come back and they file a case, eventually, they’re pressured by their family, who are paid off by the traffickers to keep quiet. And the legal system in Nepal takes forever for a case to be resolved. That has been one problem ... when the traffickers are caught, very few are brought to justice."

The following is a firsthand story about sex trafficking in Nepal:

Tamang used to come to Kathmandu at our house every year. He was a part-time tailor and full-time farmer who used to work in Kathmandu to make extra money to take home each year. He was a very poor man. When I saw him the first time, he told me he wanted to send his daughter, Tara, to school. I felt very kind toward him, so I gave him a small room to stay at our big family home in Kathmandu. But my parents did not like my decision, and our community criticized me because of his poverty and standing. This year, Tamang did not come to Kathmandu, so I went to see him and his family in his village.

The daughter of Tamang was lost. But for Tamang, it's not a new incident, because the loss of girls in Nepal is quite common in Sindhupalchok. (Sindhupalchok is a district of the Central Development Region of Nepal in the Bagmati Zone, 75 kilometers from Kathmandu).

Watching Tamang enter his house after his day's work, he consoled his wife, Sunita, as their worry about Tara mounted. These are the moments when Tamang should be sharing his pleasures and pains with his wife. He loves Sunita very deeply. He remembered well how he had sung love songs while going to the market in his youth with Sunita. But now, how can he console his wife? Tara was missing, and there was no one who knew where she had gone.

Tamang tries to control his hesitating and worried mind. He lights a leaf-wrapped cigarette, letting his mind burn along with the dark stick of cigarette. "This life just goes on burning just like a cigarette!" he sighed in dismay.

Sunita cast a quick glance toward Tamang. It was then he felt overwhelmed with love.

"What can you do now by crying?" he said to her. "Instead, let's leave this village and go far away, tomorrow right away! Could it be that our daughter went to Kathmandu?"

Tamang wanted to spea,k but he felt an unbearable pain in his heart. He thought it not at all proper to cry in front of his wife.

"I had suggested that we should get Tara married in time," said Sunita. "You heard my words in one ear and let it go through another ear. Now, who knows, someone could have taken her away and sold her!"

See more stories tagged with: violence, women, rape, sex trafficking, india, hiv, nepal

Lys Anzia is the director of Women News Network, an award-winning playwright, (2007) Pushcart Prize nominee and humanitarian journalist.

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