From: psycho@MAKALU.STANFORD.EDU (Mr. Knotty Sycho)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nepal
Subject: Re: Nepali prostitutes
Date: 6 Apr 92 09:31:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: makalu.9204060931.AA22442



In article <1APR92.04460331@vax.clarku.edu> stamang@vax.clarku.edu writes:

>Hi, I just recently watched Salam bombay for the second time and was 
>thoroughly depressed again for hours.  Does anyone know of anyone who has done 
>any work of the prostitution trade of Nepali girls to the brothels of India?
>(Other than a woman at Clark).  I'd be very interested.  With the spread of 
>AIDS, and actually, just for the general development of Nepal, prostitution 
>and the exploitation of Nepali flesh, should be of concern for every Nepali.
>seira tamang.



jobless sycho writes:

Yes, it's depressing especially when one recognizes the
source of the problem. There simply isn't enough public awareness 
to force HMG to take serious steps to stop the trafficking and to 
protect and provide care to the prostitutes in Nepal and those who
return from India with HIV. Whatever little effort that HMG has put is 
due to fear of AIDS, and in no way a commensurable counter to the real threat. 
The problem of prostitution and women trafficking has been largely
ignored. Very little attention has been given to the real causes of 
the problem: the socio-economic conditions, oppression of women in 
general, tradition and prevalent attitude towards prostitution in Nepal.

Of course, the socio-economic condition and the oppression of women is
well known (i hope), but not the deep roots of flesh trade in 
Nepal's history. It's always difficult to incriminate oneself, 
it requires a lot of self-examination (a difficult task). 

Slavery was not abolished in Nepal until 1923 (yes!). While the
"rest" were exploited, only women were sold and bought. Our
visionary forefathers did not allow proselytism, but it was OK for
women to be sold as slaves and then coverted. This is precisely
what overzealous muslim proselytizers did to get Nepali converts.
Very little mention would you find of such practices in our
history texts. In fact, the erstwhile ruling class brought women from
outside Nepal to satisfy their appetite, the Baadi community in
the western foothills/terai of Nepal were originally brought (or bought ?)
from Kashmir area (??) for the royal courts of the remnants of Baaishay and 
Choubishay. Now, sex is the community occupation of Baadi. In the 
western  part of Nepal, Baadi is synonymous to a prostitute, and little
else do the people know about them (or care about them). 


Couple of years back, Tamil Nadu (a state in India) government sent a
train with police force to Bombay and "rescued"  Tamil prostitutes 
from the red light areas in Bombay. The HIV+ were quarantined (i.e prisoned)
in Madras. Nepal could also do something similar i guess, but how 
are we going to rehabilitate them? What is the public perception of prostitutes
in Nepal? Would they be welcome? and what about the ones 
with HIV, are we going to put them in prison like in Tamil Nadu, 
certainly there will be a lot of pressure to do that. If the prudish 
society in Kathmandu is any indicator, all this will not be acceptable.
Already there are plenty of voices (from women) to enforce ban on prostitution,
but not many talk of rights of prostitutes. Enforcing ban will only make
them underground, it will not solve the problem. The flesh trade also
obeys the rule supply and demand. 

The basic problem, in my opinion (i'm not a researcher in this area) is 
the state of women, not just in Nepal but the entire subcontinent. Like 
many thousands of Nepalis, who are abducted, or lured to brothels in
India, there are women from India in similar condition, some end
up in harem of wealthy Gulf-is. 
 
So it's not just  Nepal but the entire subcontinent, and it's not
just prostitution but the overall oppression of women.

I probably made you even more depressed, but since you raised the
issue and I didn't see any response- it's late night here and
i'm jobless- I thought you might like to hear other's opinion and 
concern (like yours). or at least I may have contributed a little
to the level of awareness among us.

I think if you are interested in pursuing this matter further,
you should probably try to contact the activist/organizations
in Bombay, talk to your indian friends.

As with other vexing issues in Nepal, there is a paucity of literature
on trafficking of women (many thousands per year)  to the sex industry
in India. 


By the way, have you seen this stanford thesis ?:
 
Enslin, Elizabeth Mary Winona: The Dynamics of Gender, Class and Caste 
in a Women's Movement in Rural Nepal (1990)

you should be able to get it through  inter-university lib loan, 
otherwise I can mail you a copy.



+sycho (naughty_general's shadow!)

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