Desperate Girls

The Badi Girls

Between 7,000 and 12,000 young girls, aged 9-16, are trafficked each year from Nepal; mainly to India. According to Nepal Monitor/On line journal, 2007, there are more than 200,000 Nepali girls in Indian brothels.

The Dalits(untouchables) are the lowest level in Hindu society, and the Badi community, in Western Nepal, are the lowest of the low. As a displaced hungry people group the Badi community has made sexual subservience a way of life. Young girls from this group “serve” other groups. This has become a tradition and means of livelihood. Many girls, even when they are unwilling, are forced to serve as sex slaves. Family members knowingly sell their daughters to traffickers.

Though prostitution is illegal in Nepal, the industry reportedly has links with highly ranked officials and political leaders. Large groups of girls are taken across the border with many police and government officials being in collusion with traffickers and brothel owners.

Traffickers and related criminals are often protected by political parties, and if arrested, are freed using political power. As a result, there is an underlying distrust of police that has led people not to file cases against traffickers.

Domestic action involves activities of NGO’s and other volunteer groups. These groups are playing a major role to address girl-trafficking and sex slaves issues. Some NGO’s are playing a very important role to improve the situation. From creating social awareness to rescuing and rehabilitation, they are providing services (and relief) to those that need it the most – the likely victims as well as the rescued ones. The Lighthouse foundation is one of these.

*See Chandra Kala’s story on this blog site.

Monday 22 April 2013

Home alone in Kathmandu

The team will be arriving from the West at lunch time tomorrow. They will be bringing two Badi boys and four ladies for the halfway house. It will only be an overnight stay as Grahame and Robyn, Raju and samita and katie will be flying to Biratnagar where there is a refugee camp for Bhutanese refugees.
Raju and Grahame will speak at a Bible school and we will be away two nights. Linda and liat will stay in Kathmandu and continue on the work of setting up the Voc. ed. program. Sujan has done a wonderful job on the garden. Not long after he finished planting the neat rows of vegetable seeds the sky open up as if on cue and it rained all night. We have great storms here with the thunder rumbling around the hills. Its awesome. There was a very pregnant cat lying on one of the mounds and I was hoping it was not going to give birth here, but fortunately it ran away when someone came to the gate. We can do without a litter of kittens. There are already so many starving animals around the place. There is a dog in the street with an eye ball like mince meat and every time I go out there he is "eyeballing me". Poor thing. I was being followed to closely by a cow today. I had an encounter once before with a bull and I don't want a repeat performance. Looking out our window we see clapped out taxis, motor bikes, funny little men with funny little bikes, with funny little things they are selling.Then the odd cow or two, then the very handsome rooster and his fat hen, women in their bright clothing, and the excruciating sounds of men expectorating. That I won't miss.
Robyn. 

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