Sex Trafficking in Nepal Faces Strong Resistance

By Greg Donaldson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KATHMANDU, Nepal – For many Nepalese women, who were forced to become sex slaves in their youth, help is on the way. Last Saturday in a documentary entitled “Nepal’s Stolen Children” the CNN Freedom Project uncovered the lucrative sex trafficking industry that has plagued Nepalese women for years. Hosted by actress Demi Moore, the program featured the 2010 CNN Hero of the Year, Anuradha Koirala, and her organization Maiti Nepal, which has rescued over 12,000 stolen Nepalese children from sex trafficking since its founding in 1993.

Anuradha Koirala (Photo Courtesy of CNN)
Demi Moore and Anuradha Koirala (Photo Courtesy of CNN)

Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International said, “This is a multi-faceted story, but each side does not carry equal moral value. Modern day slavery is wrong. It needs to be stopped…CNN has committed our reporters around the world for the year to investigate an end to this global epidemic.”

Each year thousands of girls are lured into following prospective employers to a large city only to be forced into prostitution.

In the documentary, Moore speaks with several girls that were trafficked when they were as young as eleven years old. The girls told horror stories of being tortured if they refused to participate in sexual activities. Traffickers would do anything from force-feeding these young girls growth hormones to make their bodies become more women-like to electrocution.

Radika, one of the rescued girls, recounted her stay at a brothel. She explained that if she refused to have sex with a man she would be burned with cigarettes on her body or hot water would be poured on her. She went to the brothel with her baby son, but was separated from him. If her child cried, his tongue would be burned with a cigarette.

In 2004, the cost to buy a sex-trafficked Nepalese girl was approximately 2,400 (USD) reports the WNN. Arresting traffickers can be difficult as adequate police enforcement generally does not exist in rural Nepal.

In the CNN documentary, Nepal’s Prime Minister, Jhalanath Khanal, cites the extensive poverty of the country as being one of the reasons why women of Nepal are suffering so much. The country’s poor economic situation leads many young girls to look for a better life. The WNN reports that Nepalese girls are cheaper to buy, much more cooperative, and are easier to control.  However, Prime Minister Khanal vowed to tackle the issue as part of the new federal constitution that will “provide every kind of right to women.”

Anuradha Koirala believes that the problem begins with the offenders’ attitudes towards women. However, she feels that male attitudes can be changed by allowing men to play major roles in preventing sex trafficking reports the Jakarta Post. Anuradha also hopes to globalize the issue.

“You and me and everybody, we expect this issue to be globalized. One day we hope this will end and that we have a traffic-free society.”

Through Maiti Nepal, Anuradha has provided more than a shelter for these girls and young women, she has created a home. It is a place for them to heal, go to school, learn a skill, and for some who are infected with HIV/AIDS, it is the place where they can spend their days surrounded by love, reports CNN.

Moore has also co-founded the “Demi and Ashton Foundation” with the goal of eliminating child sex slavery and human trafficking.

For more information please see:

CNN — ‘Nepal’s Stolen Children’ airs Sunday @ 8pm (ET) — 6 July 2011

The Jakarta Post — Anuradha Koirala: Stopping sex trafficking – 4 July 2011

The Kathmandu Post — Tracing trafficking trails — 13 January 2011

CNN — Woman fighting sex slavery named CNN Hero of the Year – 22 November 2010

Women News Network — Lost Daughters — An ongoing tragedy in Nepal — 5 December 2008

Author: Impunity Watch Archive