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Abstract
Over the past decade, girls' trafficking and the sex trade industries have intensified in contemporary South Asian nations, particularly in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. The sex trafficking of Nepali girls and women into Indian brothels has been widely discussed on both local and global levels. In this paper, I examine cases of Nepali girls and women who were trafficked and sold into Indian brothels and illustrate how trafficking of girls and women has occurred within the intersections of larger structural conditions and micro level factors. By using gender, intersectional, and globalization/transnational perspectives, I analyze the processes and conditions under which sex trafficking occurred and women were forced into prostitution. The paper draws on an earlier study, follow-up research, personal communications, and secondary data to explore why, how, and under what circumstances women are forced into prostitution; what factors make them vulnerable or susceptible to sex trafficking; and how do globalization and transnational practices, Nepal's political economy, women's roles and position in Nepali society, gender socialization and perception, gendered culture of oppression, and kin and ethnic relations contribute to the trafficking of Nepali into the Indian sex industry.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and feedback on the earlier draft of this paper. I would also like to thank all the non-governmental organizations and their staff (in particular ABC/Nepal, Maiti Nepal, and Santhi Purnasthapana Kendra) and the children's and women's cell of Kathmandu Valley Police Station in Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu for allowing me to conduct this study and for their help during the process. I am also thankful to Ms. Durga Ghimire, Anuradha Koirala, and Bishwo Khadka for sharing their valuable perspectives with me concerning sex trafficking and gender issues in Nepal. I would like to dedicate this article to those girls and women who shared with me their experiences with great courage and hope. Each time I conversed with them, they reopened old wounds. This study would not have been possible without their strength and vision.
Notes
[1] Exploring these challenges is beyond the scope of this paper.
[2] I use the terms ‘victims’ and ‘survivors’ to refer to those girls and women who were trafficked and coerced to work as prostitutes in Indian Brothels. They were victims because they were forced to sell their sexual labor; they were also survivors as they were trying to rebuild their lives in the safe homes provided by the NGOs.
[3] Amount of time spent in the Indian brothels was one of the main criteria for selection for narrative collections. Those who were spent at least 2–3 years in the brothels were selected.
[4] The majority of the actual victims/survivors of sex trafficking and sex trade were being rehabilitated in the safe homes in ABC Nepal and Maiti Nepal. This was the main reason why I chose women from these NGOs for narrative collections.
[5] Since 1959, Tibet has been occupied by China.
[6] Actual victims/survivors refer to those who were trafficked and sold into the Indian brothels. Potential victim refers to those who were intercepted and rescued by the NGO workers and police during sex trafficking process.
[7] In recent years, young girls are also being trafficked from the dance and cabin restaurants in Kathmandu; some of them are trafficked from circuses as well.
[8] These husbands, however, turned out to be sex traffickers who were fishing for young and naïve girls. They used love and marriage as means to trap the girls in the sex trade.