Human Trafficking in Nepal & India

Written By: Andrew Ehrensperger

Zurich International School G8 English J8 Summit 2012

Human Trafficking in Nepal and India Research Paper

For the most part, modern-slavery, also known as human trafficking is expanding in Nepal and India, and already has over 10,000 victims lured into the world-wide business, and yet only minimal attention is brought to the issue by the government. Furthermore, human trafficking is a top business for anyone looking to get rich, and brings in billions of dollars to the people who own an illegal group that runs that kind of business. The call for money is colossal and even relatives and family members get involved by using their own family to get the money required. Mainly, Parents should not be allowed to sell their children to strangers, due to the large risk of them being trafficked, leading to no opportunities for education, limited freedoms, and desperation. Victims are taken to countries with a completely different language to theirs, and other ways of life, causing them to have the only choice of staying with the trafficker. Chiefly, unknown men or women recruit young children and move them far away from home and family; what the victims do not know is that the unknown people are traffickers. Additionally, Soma Wadhwa interviewed from the University of Rhode Island explains, Theyre locked up for days, starved, burned with cigarettes, until they learn how to service 25 customers per day (Hughes et al.). However, the children on the way to their destination believe they are arriving to their new life, and guess they will be making a lot of money, until they end up in an Indian brothel; they have to service 25 men per day to repay their debt, meaning they are free to go when they are done, but by that time, the victims are already weak and sick from an STD, which would most-likely be HIV/AIDS. Besides, Mariam Khan from George Town University specifies: Traffickers prey on poverty, (Khan). In contrast, people in poverty have no education, and are willing to do anything for money; the traffickers see an opportunity to fetch their victims with bribes to guardians or parents, and job offers, they could even offer a large sum of money for a child in the family house hold, but in-return, traffickers promise the childs safety, and a perfect job, telling the victims parents to be proud, and that theyre giving their child opportunity to make money; parents give their child to the unknown person in hope of their child/children escaping poverty. Largely, Sanini from Pulitzer Center has experienced forced marriage at a young age, she explains I know the disadvantages of getting married early; I dont want my daughter to face the consequences I have (Ingber). Clearly, getting married at a young age

with force can take away long life privileges/oppertunities like education, since there are long farm working hours, and house hold duties which automatically remove school hours; there is no time to learn. Last but not least, Human trafficking deals with a stage to lure victims, and to know which person to pick, and later on there is the choice of where your victim will be working, whether its at an Indian brothel, or in forced marriage. Above all, families in poverty seek for a method of making a lot of money to escape life in poverty, and therefore parents hand over their children to traffickers hoping their children will receive money to support the entire family. Similarly, Tamang from Pulitzer Center specifies, The government in a resource-poor country like Nepal must create more female oriented jobs, even in rural areas, (Ingber). Additionally, women in Nepal must take care of the house-hold, and find it challenging to find a job since typically, the man in the house-hold would supply the money through-out the family; sadly when a women is widowed with children, she has no money to feed them, and desperately needs a job. Evidently, Suntali from Pulitzer Center shares, There is no chance of saving money, (Ingber). Likewise, in poverty money is scarce, especially when having to feed over three people, three times a day, rent is also expensive and has to be paid monthly, therefore children in house-holds begin working at a young age, and parents work most of the day trying to get a few pennies. More important, the large NGO (Non-Government Organization) Center for Research on Environmental Health and Population (CREHPA) empowers women of all levels in society, and helps them get knowledge and skills to make informed and mature choices, and teaches them to take safe actions. Last but not least, families in poverty seek for making quick money and therefore end up giving away their children to traffickers with the hope of their kids escaping poverty, and having a life they could bring back to their parents, even though the kids are trafficked to countries far from home, of where it will cost a lot to travel back where they came from. Principally, children are trafficked to areas with a large market for the product (the child), they are repeatedly sold and bought, and after a long time, they do not even know which country they are present in. Second, human trafficking transport can go from secret, to public. Obviously, it is only when the victim arrives to his/her destination, that they find out they are going to be trafficked and abused. Evidently, Robert I. Freidman from the University of Rhode Island states, Arabs bid against Indian men who believe sleeping with a

virgin cures gonorrhea and syphilis, (Freidman). Apparently, men do not buy and sleep with virgins (the young children) for pleasure, but mainly because for beliefs of luck, and cures from STDs such as syphilis; prices are bided up to USD 2,000 or more. In addition, Robert I. Freidman from the University of Rhode Island explains, approximately 50,000 or half of the women in Bombay that are in prostitution are trafficked from Nepal (Freidman). Clearly, Bombay has the largest amount of trafficked victims from Nepal, since the market there for trafficked Nepalese is large, and everybody demands more of them. In final analysis, children are only brought to areas/countries/cities of where they are most profitable to the traffickers; they end up bought and sold many times, which leads them to not knowing where they are, and what will happen to them next. Primarily, parents should be forbid to sell their children to strangers due to the high risk of the child receiving mental and physical damage from the mysterious trafficker, which leads to no educational opportunities, limited freedoms, and desperation. Last but not least, the future of the people in need depends on us, participate in the work of the world-wide NGOs, and encourage your relatives to take action; as a large group of people, expelling the business of human trafficking will be possible.

Work Cited Page:

"CREHPA : About the Partners in Research Collaboration Abortion in Nepal." CREHPA : About the Partners in Research Collaboration Abortion in Nepal. Social Welfare Council. Web. 22 May 2012. <http://www.crehpa.org.np/pr_partners.html>. "The Facts The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs." The Facts The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery. Turner Broadcasting System Inc. Web. 22 May 2012. <http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/category/the-facts/>. "Human Trafficking." Learn More About Human Trafficking. Iomzimbabwe.org. Web. 22 May 2012. <http://iomzimbabwe.org/ct/about.html>. Hughes , Donna, Laura Sporcic, Nadine Mendelsohn, and Vanessa Chirgwin. "India - Facts on Trafficking and Prostitution." India - Facts on Trafficking and Prostitution. Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Web. 22 May 2012. <http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/india.htm>.

Ingber, Hanna. "Early Marriage Precludes Education for Young Nepalis." Nepal: Child Marriage Limits Education for Women. Global Post, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/nepal-early-marriage-prevention-education-women>.
Khan, Mariam. "Sex Trafficking." Sex Trafficking. ELATED/Page Kits. Web. 22 May 2012. <http://www7.georgetown.edu/students/msk35/wipedout/sextrafficking.html>. Khan, Mariam. "WipedOut." WipedOut. ELATED & Page Kits. Web. 22 May 2012. <http://www7.georgetown.edu/students/msk35/wipedout/appeal.html>. United States. UNHCR. Department of State. 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report - Nepal. 27 June 2011. Web. 18 May 2012. <http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4e12ee5bc.html>.