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Abstract
Sexual trafficking is a priority issue for many governments and has increasingly become a focus for debate within the academy. Despite this, many aspects of sexual trafficking remain poorly understood. In this article we focus on an area that has received scant attention in the literature: the situation of trafficked women when they return home and, specifically, the livelihood opportunities available to them as they experience differing notions of citizenship. In addition to the fact that there has been very little attempt to document poverty alleviation strategies post-trafficking, within the mainstream development literature little attention has also been given to questions of sexuality and how they relate to development and poverty reduction strategies. The aim of this article, therefore, is to seek to highlight a new research agenda and to develop an interdisciplinary framework to understand what we have termed ‘the sexual politics of poverty’. Bringing together distinct literatures on sexual citizenship and sustainable livelihoods we develop our analysis of these themes through a focus on the livelihood opportunities and strategies of returnee trafficked women in South Asia, drawing on policy analysis at national and regional levels and qualitative research carried out in Nepal. In particular, the Nepal case study highlights problems with skills training for returnee women and examines the relationship between marriage and sustainable livelihood opportunities.
El tráfico sexual es un tema de prioridad para muchos gobiernos y cada vez más se vuelve un tema de debate dentro de la academia. A pesar de esto, muchos aspectos del tráfico sexual permanecen poco comprendidos. En este artículo nos enfocamos en un área que ha recibido escasa atención en la literatura: la situación de las mujeres víctimas del tráfico cuando retornan a sus hogares y, específicamente, las oportunidades de sustento de que disponen, mientras experimentan distintas nociones de ciudadanía. Además del hecho de que ha habido muy pocos intentos por documentar las estrategias de reducción de la pobreza de las mujeres luego de ser víctimas del tráfico, dentro de la literatura convencional sobre desarrollo también se le ha dado poca atención a las cuestiones de la sexualidad y cómo se relacionan con las estrategias de desarrollo y de reducción de la pobreza. El objetivo de este artículo, por lo tanto, es buscar destacar una nueva agenda de investigación, y desarrollar un marco interdisciplinario de trabajo para entender lo que hemos dado en llamar la ‘política sexual de pobreza’. Utilizando diversas literaturas sobre ciudadanía sexual y medios de vida sostenibles, desarrollamos nuestro análisis de estos temas enfocándonos en las oportunidades y estrategias de sustento de mujeres sudasiáticas que han retornado luego de ser víctimas del tráfico, basándonos en un análisis de políticas a nivel nacional y regional, y en investigación cualitativa llevada a cabo en Nepal. En particular, el caso de Nepal remarca los problemas de capacitación para las mujeres que vuelven del tráfico y examina la relación entre casamiento y oportunidades de modos de vida sostenibles.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the support from our collaborators in Nepal Shakti Samuha, ABC/Nepal, Nava Jyoti Centre and Gramin Mahila Srijansil Pariwar (GMSP); and to the returnee trafficked women who were willing to share their time and experience. We would also like to express our thanks to those who offered constructive comments on this article, including the anonymous reviewers, Linda Peake and Janet Townsend.
Notes
1. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework is a methodological toolkit for identifying the complex ways in which the different factors that contribute to people's vulnerability to poverty in a specific setting interact and overlap. It has been championed in particular by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British government in its research and policy making strategy in rural areas.
2. Article (7) of the (1950) Treaty of Peace Friendship between the Government of India and the Government of Nepal, Ministry of External Affairs, India states that: ‘The Government of India and Nepal agree to grant, on a reciprocal basis, to the nationals of one country in the territories of the other the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and other privileges of a similar nature.’
3. Over the next few years issues of citizenship will be debated in the new Constituent Assembly prior to the introduction of a new formal constitution.
4. Article 3 (a) of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, which supplements the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime 2003, states: ‘“Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability [interpretative note (63)] or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation [interpretative note (64)], forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.’ See University of Minnesota, Human Rights library at http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/trafficking.html (accessed May 2007).
5. The US annual TIP report published in June 2006 stated that Nepal is Tier 2 as its measures to prevent trafficking did not improve significantly from 2005 when Nepal was categorised as Tier 1. The report states that Nepal made modest improvements in its efforts to protect victims of trafficking on their return by expanding the number of Women and Children Service Centres throughout the country from 15 to 20, in 18 districts. Also, that Nepal granted limited funding to local NGOs providing victim assistance and that the police provided legal aid to approximately 700 victims in 2005. The report concluded by stating that although the government budgeted funds for travel and lodging expenses for trafficking victims testifying against their traffickers, funding was rarely made available. The US policy on trafficking suggests sanction on non-humanitarian aid, if countries are not able to address the problem of trafficking. Countries defined as Tier 3 have been threatened with having sanctions imposed.
6. Office of the Human Rights and Social Justice Committee of Parliament, The Government of Nepal, personal communication, July 2007.
7. Shakti Samuha (SS) is an organisation formed by trafficked returned women in 1996. It is the only NGO set up and led by trafficked women in Nepal, and offers training, counselling and temporary shelters for returnees. Based in Kathmandu, SS has branches in four districts in the central region. Although it was set up in 1996, legal status as an NGO was only granted in 2000 due to government resistance to give legal status to an organisation set up by trafficked women.
8. ABC/Nepal is a non-profit human rights organisation founded in 1990 by women activists with a special focus on the trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The organisation advocates gender equality by promoting women's education and economic empowerment: http://www.abcnepal.org.np/abc/index.php (accessed September 2007).
9. Nava Jyoti Centre is a non-profit-making NGO founded by a Christian missionary. The aim of the centre is to educate those with learning disabilities, offer services to returnee trafficked women and help them to achieve some measure of personal independence and happiness by providing self-help and language skills and recreational activities. Source: Nava Jyoti Centre, Kathmandu, personal communication May 2006.
10. Gramin Mahila Srijansil Pariwar (GMSP) was founded in 1994 as a women's rights NGO, working at grassroots level in the Sindhupalchock district of Nepal, coordinating free legal support, promoting social re-integration and counselling for returnee trafficked women. GMSP also helps rural women in the district to get interest free loans from the local bank to do income generation programmes. Source: GMSP office Sindhupalchock, personal communication May 2006.
11. Taped interviews were undertaken in Nepali and local dialects, then directly translated and transcribed into English.
12. Research, including fieldwork, adopted the key principles outlined in the statement of ethical practice formulated by British Sociological Association (Citation2002), which stresses professional integrity, the nature of the relationship with research participants, anonymity, privacy and confidentiality, and by the World Health Organisation Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked Women (WHO 2003) which highlights ‘Do No Harm’ strategies to avoid re-traumatising trafficked women and obtaining informed consent.
13. An Indo-Bangladesh anti-trafficking programme of the European Commission and Groupe Developpement.
14. See Tamang (Citation2002) for a critical discussion of Pateman's ideas in relation to Nepal.
15. Article 9 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990 relating to gaining and termination of the citizenship provides the following:
‘(1): A person who is born after the commencement of this Constitution and whose father is a citizen of Nepal at the birth of the child shall be a citizen of Nepal by descent. | |||||
(2): Every child who is found within the Kingdom of Nepal and the whereabouts of whose parents are not known shall, until the father of the child is traced, be deemed to be a citizen of Nepal by descent.’ | |||||
16. However, a recent draft of the Interim Constitution of Nepal has suggested a provision stating that ‘citizenship shall be provided to a person applying for citizenship after the age of 16 years, in the name of father, mother or both’ (Article 8(3) 2006).