NCJ Number
156599
Date Published
1995
Length
90 pages
Annotation
This report examines the nature of and governmental response to the trafficking of girls and women from Nepal to brothels in Bombay, India, where they comprise up to half of the city's estimated 100,000 brothel workers.
Abstract
This report is based on interviews conducted with trafficking victims, most of them Nepali women in their twenties who were brought to India as teenagers or older women in Bombay who were still involved in the industry. The interviews were supplemented with case material and interview transcripts provided by social workers, human rights activists, and representatives of other nongovernmental organizations who work on trafficking and AIDS-related issues, as well as interviews with government officials and police officers in Nepal and India between March and September 1994. Findings show that hundreds of thousands of women and children are used in Indian brothels, many of them lured or kidnapped from Nepal and sold into conditions of virtual slavery. Victims of this international trafficking network routinely suffer serious physical abuse, rape, beatings, arbitrary imprisonment, and exposure to the HIV. Held in debt bondage for years at a time, these women and girls work under constant surveillance and intimidation. Escape is virtually impossible. Both the Indian and Nepali governments have been unresponsive to the abuses suffered by trafficking victims. The willingness of Indian and Nepali government officials to tolerate and, in some cases, participate in this sex trade exacerbates abuse. Even when traffickers have been identified, there have been few arrests and fewer prosecutions. These abuses are not only violations of internationally recognized human rights, but are specifically prohibited under the domestic laws of both countries. This report concludes with recommendations to the Indian and Nepali governments as well as to the international community. Recommendations pertain to law reform, law-enforcement training, improved border checks, and priority to the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenses. Chapter footnotes