Trafficking of Women
Bharati Pokharel (Nepal)
Women's human right violation has another face in Nepal: trafficking. Traffickers
commonly target young women and girls from rural areas to take advantage of theirinnocence and illiteracy. According to the 2000-2001 annual report of the Attorney
General's Office, 463 antitrafficking cases have been filed of which 132 resulted inconvictions and 95 in acquittals, while 236 remain undecided.
Majority of trafficked women and girls find themselves in sexually exploitative
professions. A few may end up as bonded laborers as well. A 2001 study by ILO-IPEC
found that 30 percent of sex workers in Kathmandu were below 18 years of age. Sadly,
Nepal has been one of the primary source countries in South Asia for women traffickers.
Women are traded and transited mostly via metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Kolkata,
Delhi and Chennai of India to Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, United ArabEmirates and Qatar and South East Asian hubs like Hong Kong and Malaysia. Many ofthe trafficked women's journey ends right next door in India at one of its brothels. AnNGO working towards combating trafficking estimated that 5,000 to 12,000 Nepali
women and girls are trafficked annually into India and subsequently forced intoprostitution. These women are lured with a promise of good foreign job. A few areforcefully kidnapped. The NGO report estimates that about 10 percent of trafficked
women are forcefully kidnapped.
A number of Nepalese youth have been migrating mainly to India for manual works.
Cross-border marriage is also very common in the border towns of Nepal and India. This
fact has been a golden opportunity for women traffickers to bring women forprostitution in India in the name of so-called marriage. Hundreds of girls and women
have been rescued and brought back to Nepal country annually after having worked as
prostitutes in India. According to some estimates, 50 percent of those returned are
HIV-positive.
Under the Article 20 (1) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1991, the rightagainst exploitation is guaranteed which explicitly prohibits the trafficking of humanbeings; slavery and forced labor in any from. Any act contravening this Article isregarded as a heinous crime and is punishable under the existing law. The HumanTrafficking Control Act 1986 has been enacted and enforced as a special Act. The Act

provides for strict burden of proof, which falls on the accused in some circumstances.
The penalty is up to twenty years of jail.
Nepal has ratified a number of international instruments, such as, Convention on theElimination of all forms of Discrimination Against women, 1979; Convention on theSuppression of Immoral Trafficking and Protocol, 1949; Convention on the Right of theChild, etc. As a party of international legal instruments, Nepal has a state obligation toadopt necessary measures to meet the objectives of the treaties. However, there havebeen many social and legal obstacles to successful prosecution and convictions are rare.
Border guards commonly accept bribes to allow traffickers to take girls out of thecountry to neighboring Indian cities.
The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MOWCSW) has introduced
legislation to toughen penalties against traffickers. The MOWCSW also houses a
Documentation and Information Center to coordinate anti-trafficking initiatives. Inaddition, a National Task Force has also been established at MOWCSW. The Task Force
has coordinated programs to train the police and worked closely with local NGOs torehabilitate and assist victims of trafficking.
Social worker Dr. Jamaika, while speaking with the Telegraph, said, “By disrupting
normal economic activity and destroying bases of economic support, armed conflict also
puts women at risk for trafficking and at greater risk for having to engage in survival
sex or sexual bartering through which many women are becoming infected with HIV.
Corrupt leaders, and a profound lack of political will coalesce to guarantee impunity for
traffickers and to exacerbate the suffering of their victims. In addition, women facerampant violence and discrimination. Rape and sexual assault against women are all
too common in conflict situations.”
According to the United States State Department Trafficking in Persons Report of2005,“The government of Nepal fully complies with the minimum standards for theelimination of trafficking. However, these commendable anti-trafficking efforts arehindered by political instability and security problems associated with the Maoist
insurgency affecting a large part of the country.”