Police Corruption

July 2, 2011

Seventeen girls sought help from Raksha Nepal yesterday. Menuka sat with them for hours, hearing their stories and offering support.  Among them is a pregnant 23 year-old with a five year-old son.  Her husband left her for someone else and she never registered her marriage, which leaves her without a way to hold him accountable.  She is alone, uneducated, and does not have skills. She and her son will both stay at the Raksha shelter tonight while we figure out what to do.

Today, 100 girls were arrested in police raids at various establishments.  35 of those girls have been rescued by Menuka and will stay at Raksha tonight. I have spoken with some of them (through translators) to better understand what happened. The stories of the girls mostly go like this:

Civil war.  She was eleven, twelve or thirteen when the Maoists came to her village and tried to forcefully recruit her into their insurgency. She wanted to study in school, not fight in a war, so she escaped by leaving her village and traveling to Kathmandu.  She found herself jobless, uneducated, skill-less and vulnerable.  Someone (usually an acquaintance) came with a job offer (server, rug weaver, housecleaner) but after some time the girl is forced into sex work in restaurant bars, cabin restaurants or massage parlors and presented with threats when she tries to leave.  She is no longer able to leave when her children are born. How can she feed them if she cannot find a job?

I asked why girls and women are arrested, but not the “restaurant” owners.  As it turns out, the owners bribe the police officers to remain quiet.  As I continue to conduct research and interview girls, it becomes clear to me that not only are police officers accepting bribe money from owners who exploit girls, but they are actually complicit in the exploitation by frequently visiting these establishments as customers.  Raksha Nepal has requested meetings with the police on several occasions; however, they continue to ignore our attempts to meet with them. 

The more I speak with local people the more I learn that the entire government system here is filled with corruption, bribery and political misuse of power.  Last year a high-level Nepali government official visiting the United States was asked about the shockingly high number of trafficked Nepali girls imprisoned in Indian brothels.  The official responded by saying, “we have more pressing matters in Nepal!”  With this type of attitude from government officials, it is no wonder countless girls are unaccounted for.

In Nepal, as in many other places around the world, there is a link between poverty, lack of education, discrimination against girls, and sexual exploitation.  In addition, the ten-year civil war in Nepal displaced a large number of children and women, making them extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation and trafficking.