According
to UNICEF, as many as 7,000 women and girls are trafficked out of Nepal to
India every year and around 200,000 are now working in Indian brothels. New York Times journalist Kate Orlinsky recently
opined
on the subject, observing that the world tends to think of Nepal as the country
with the earth’s tallest mountain and breathtaking natural beauty, not one where
the business of buying and selling women is profitable.
In
discussing her trip to Nepal last year, Orlinsky focused on an interview with a
woman who shared herstoryof being kidnapped and sold into prostitution:
{One of the
women I talked with was Charimaya Tamang, who 19 years ago went out to the
fields to cut grass in her village in Nepal. Typically she would have gone with
other women from her village, but that day she was alone. A group of men
grabbed her from behind, tied her hands and made her swallow “a powder.” When
she woke up she was in a city in northern India. “I had never seen tall
buildings before,” she recalled. It was a lot hotter than her village and the
men offered her a soda. “I didn’t want to drink it but I was so thirsty,” she
said. The heat and soda were her last memories before finding herself in a
Mumbai brothel under the care of a woman she called “Auntie,” where she
remained in forced prostitution for 22 months.}
According
to the latest figures, human trafficking in Nepal is a growing issue– as in, not an occurrence we can conveniently blame on
the shady morals of an ancient civilization. While Nepalese authorities have allegedly
attempted to staunch this flow of unwilling migration across the Nepal-India
border, the underpaid border officials are believed to be susceptible to bribes that
persuade them to look the other way.Realizing that support from their
government can’t exactly be counted on, women in this country are beginning to call
this injustice to attention and do what they can to protect themselves and their
loved ones.
Tamang eventually
filed charges against her attackers, becoming the first woman in Nepal to do so
and win. She has since moved on to raise
a family of her own and serve as an advocate for those who have gone through
similar horrors of forced prostitution. However,many Nepalese women who become ensnared
in this web of human trafficking (and are lucky enough to be rescued)have a
difficult time getting back on their feet. Similar to the rape culture*
prevalent in south Asian countries, many women are shunned after attempting to
resume their old lives – even told,after reporting their kidnap and sexual
assault,that they somehow deserved it.
Before
a group of15 Nepalese trafficking survivors started a coalition to
empower trafficking victims,they each experienced this ostracizing from their
families, communities and government.It would seem that the police raid that eventually
rescued them from their captors essentially released them into a world that no
longer knew what to do with them or how they fit into society.
As
if to show determination to carry on with their lives, these 15 women
named their advocacy organization“Shakti Samuha”,which is symbolic of the
fortitude they possess in being able to overcome their own physical and
psychological turmoil to reach back a helping hand for future trafficking
survivors. In English, “Shakti Samuha” means “Power Group”.
*CNN recently ran an opinion
article written by Ruchira Gupta, president of ApneAap Women Worldwide, an
Indian organization dedicated to ending sex trafficking, with a strong account
of what the rape culture is like in India.
By Sabrina Willard
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