Excluded and Exploited: The Sexual Trafficking of Girls and Women From Nepal and India

The sexual trafficking of woman and girls from one country to another is a worldwide problem. At least 25,000 Nepalese girls, a third aged less than 15, are trafficked each year from Nepal to work in Indian brothels, where many acquire AIDS, enduring conditions of brutal confinement from which escape is difficult. The present study of 206 returned girls and women indicated their low educational status (80 percent were illiterate), and their lack of power which made them easy to exploit, with various kinds of deception inducing them to travel to India, where they were often sold or resold. On return to Nepal these girls and women were shunned because of their assumed poor health. Despite laws which formally prevent such trafficking, it will not cease until Nepalese girls have better education and more social power, and are better able to resist various forms of male exploitation