The children, who cost pimps less than a buffalo, are paying a heavy price for the trade. Indian men are said to be particularly attracted to the pale skin of the Himalayan girls. Ignoring the appalling health risks to their own children, many villagers believe there is nothing wrong with what they do. Bishnu Tamang admitted selling two daughters into brothels. Kicked onto the streets of India's big cities when pimps noticed the signs of Aids, some girls were carried home by porters because they were too weak to walk up the mountain paths to their villages high in the Himalayas.
Nobody knows how many have been infected.
What is beyond dispute is that few received a warm welcome on their return. Even ancient burial rights are not granted to children when they die of Aids. People refuse to join in the ritual of the entire village washing the corpse, fearing they will catch the disease. News has reached the brothels of India's big cities about the hostility the children are facing at home. Some Aids victims among the 200,000 Nepalese girls working in India have chosen to die in poverty on the streets.