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.

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Tuesday 29 December. Happy birthday

Today, we celebrated two birthdays.  One of our team member's and Nelson, the son of the young couple who manage our guesthouse.  We have half a dozen different classes going at once in different rooms in the guesthouse.  It is pretty full on every day.  All our team members are having a wonderful time, and, as is always the case, have fallen in love with the people.  I had a fun ride on the back of a motorbike again yesterday, though it was a bit chilly.  Many of the hostel girls are away at present visiting in their villages.  We have been having a lot of trouble with the power.  Usually, it is 12 hours without power, but today has been worse than normal.  We ran out of water in our tanks on the roof as the water has to be pumped up when the electricity is on.  We had to use a generator, as we have over a hundred people here each day and just flushing toilets uses lots of water.



Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)