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Nepal to India: Ending the Trafficker’s Paradise

The trafficking of Nepalese women and children into Indian brothels has been a part of life in Nepal for over one hundred and fifty years. Lack of judicial and law enforcement, and rampant corruption among officials has allowed this trade in human beings to flourish between India and Nepal in recent years. International agencies estimate that as many as 5,000 to 7,000 Nepalese women and girls are lured into trafficking networks each year with fraudulent promises of jobs or marriage, adding to the estimated 200,000 Nepalese women and girls who are currently working in exploitive situations of prostitution in Indian cities. While Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata continue to be the most common trafficking destinations in India, traffickers are recognizing Nepal as a lucrative source country for the sex trade in other countries of Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

It is not a lack of preventative programs that allows trafficking to persist at such a high rate. Trafficking continues because judicial and law enforcement institutions in Nepal have failed to systematically implement and enforce anti-trafficking laws effectively; indeed, they have exacerbated the problem. Official records indicate that only a small fraction of traffickers are apprehended, let alone prosecuted, despite the thousands of women and girls who are trafficked from Nepal into India each year. Police collusion and bribery appear to be a major part of the problem, making victims and community members reluctant to come forward as witnesses due to fear of reprisals.

Under Nepalese domestic law, trafficking is specifically prohibited by the Nepal Constitution, the New Muluki-Ain (the National Criminal Code), and the Human Trafficking (Control) Act 2043 (1986-87). Individuals who are convicted of trafficking face prison sentences ranging from five to twenty years. Moreover, the specific crime of "trafficking" often may be only one of several offenses committed against the trafficked person. Criminal offenses of more general applicability also may be relevant in many trafficking situations, including rape, assault, kidnapping, slavery or involuntary servitude, forced or bonded labour, debt bondage, child abuse or exploitation, and forced marriage and abortion. Nepal has also signed and ratified a variety of applicable international conventions that require State parties to curb, inter alia, trafficking, forced or bonded labour and forced prostitution.

Despite this legal framework for combating trafficking networks, it is clear that the police lack both the capacity and the will to undertake the kind of careful, intensive investigatory and prosecutorial work necessary to have a significant impact on trafficking rings. The lack of sufficient cross-border cooperation between Nepalese and Indian authorities compounds the enforcement problem. No passports are required at the Nepal-India border, across which free movement is permitted for Indian and Nepalese citizens.

The Government of Nepal has begun to take steps to address the trade in human beings that has been growing unchecked within and across its borders. In 1998, it developed a National Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Children and Their Sexual Exploitation in collaboration with several UN agencies and NGOs. The Plan of Action contemplates intervention in six areas: (1) rescue and reintegration; (2) income and employment generation; (3) health and education; (4) awareness creation, advocacy networking and social mobilization; (5) legislation and enforcement; and (6) policy, research and institutional development.

While this Plan is commendable for its ambitious and comprehensive anti-trafficking initiatives, two critical areas have not received the requisite attention since the Plan’s adoption three years ago: (1) law enforcement and adjudication, and (2) cross-border cooperation between Indian and Nepalese officials. Even though a variety of legal provisions already proscribe the activities of traffickers and their agents, existing anti-trafficking efforts in Nepal have not prioritized the apprehension and prosecution of these individuals, who are often known within their communities. Moreover, while India and Nepal have acknowledged the need for a coordinated response in order to curb trafficking, tangible cooperation in law enforcement has not taken place.

Under the status quo, therefore, trafficking remains a low risk and highly lucrative venture for those in control. These clandestine activities will continue to proliferate in Nepal unless the stakes are raised significantly. Law enforcement and the judiciary must act aggressively and comprehensively to put an end to this culture of impunity and to instill a real fear of apprehension, prosecution and conviction in traffickers, their agents and their supporters. Only once such disincentives are introduced to those profiting from trafficking will social support and mobilization programs that empower potential victims and change community norms be able to maximize their impact. In turn, this will encourage trafficked persons and others to come forward to report traffickers and serve as witnesses.

All of the root causes of trafficking must be addressed, but with finite resources available, Nepal needs to act strategically in approaching the problem. With this in mind, a UN multi-agency Millennium Joint Initiative Against Trafficking in Girls and Women (JIT) has been initiated. Strengthening the ability of law enforcement and the judiciary to investigate and successfully prosecute trafficking networks is a major component of the project’s overall objective to reduce the incidence of trafficking of women and girls in Nepal.

The Government of Nepal has recently established a separate Special Court. The Special Court has been principally set up to deal with cases arising from the Maosist Insurgency in Nepal. It remains to be seen whether the Special Court meets international standards of due process. This Special Court, it is understood, can also take up cases on trafficking in Kathmandu. However, much remains to be done before the Special Court can function effectively, including the drafting of rules of procedure, a review of existing legislation and the selection of gender-sensitive judges and prosecutors. Beyond efforts relating to the judiciary, the project calls for the establishment of special anti-trafficking investigative units within the Nepal Police. Particular diligence will be required in the selection of these units given that members of the regular police force have themselves been implicated in trafficking cases, whether by direct involvement or by turning a blind eye to the activities of traffickers. Coordination efforts within Nepal are to be supplemented with concrete cooperative strategies between Indian and Nepalese officials, particularly in relation to investigation and evidence gathering.

The judicial and law enforcement component of this project has the potential to strike at the heart of trafficking networks by drastically reducing the incentives that make the trade in human beings so attractive to traffickers and their agents. Countless previous attempts to address the problem by merely assisting the victims confirm that a more direct approach is needed. With Nepal’s children being trafficked into sexual subjugation by the thousands each year and the proliferation of AIDS reaching alarming numbers in this small country, the time is now to end the trafficker’s paradise.

-Human Rights Features

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