SELLING SEX TO SURVIVE By LB Thapa
Prostitution is illegal in Nepal, but it is served everywhere and easily available throughout the country. If this is the case, then how can one say prostitution is illegal? It is illegal only for namesakes. Otherwise, the flesh trade is thriving right under the noses of lawmakers. Now many voices are heard who say if the state cannot control the flesh trade, then legalize it.
No official attempt has been made to register the number of commercial sex workers in the country so far. Nevertheless, various reports have confirmed that over 30,000 active sex workers are in the country.
Of them, over 10,000 prostitutes are believed to carry out their profession in the Kathmandu valley alone. A large number of minor girls below the age of 16 are also found in this profession. They sell sex to survive.
Although the law of the land prohibits prostitution, it is flourishing in cities and towns. There could be many reasons for spreading prostitution in the country. Unemployment, rampant poverty, a lack of job opportunities, and illiteracy, among others, are responsible for the rise in prostitution.
Widespread poverty and a lack of job opportunities leave many adults jobless. Finally, many boys are compelled to leave their homes and look for greener pastures, while the girls join the flesh trade, as it is an easy way to make their ends meet.
Poverty has to be blamed again for girls' trafficking to India. Poor girls from villages are easily lured for better employment in the neighboring country. It is believed that every year, around 10,000 Nepali women are trafficked to different Indian brothels.
More people have migrated from villages to cities in recent decades. In the past, many families fled from their villages to avoid the Maoists’ constant highhandedness. Many of them did not return to their villages and tried to settle down in cities. City life is harsh and replete with many difficulties. Due to illiteracy and a lack of skill, many girls found flesh trade the easy way to make money in cities.
Many prostitutes are actively engaged in massage centers, beauty parlors, discotheques, dance restaurants, cabin restaurants, hotels, lodges, and so on. More prostitutes are active in the hotels and lodges located nearby the bus park areas.
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Since prostitution is an illegal act, it is operated secretly. Hotel owners, pimps, and prostitutes work together so that they can dodge the police and continue their business clandestinely. In recent days, it seems that prostitution has reached an uncontrollable point.
Prostitution has become rampant to such an extent that now sex is being served on demand almost everywhere. Prostitutes are now available on highways’ thatched roofs in local Bhatti, beauty parlors, massage centers, hotels, restaurants, and posh resident areas. Moreover, prostitutes are also sent to entertain the rich and VIPs in their apartments and star hotels!
As prostitution is an illegal practice, it is being practiced in the most hotchpotch manner, where sex workers are more exposed to various sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) including HIV/AIDS.
Shanti (name changed), a Tamang girl from Dhading, spent nearly seven years in a Bombay (Mumbai) brothel. She was the fifth daughter of her parents. She said that in order to have a son, their parents went on to have daughters.
“I was just 14 when my parents sent me to India along with a local relative. I was told to work there as a housemaid. He took me via Sunauli to Gorakhpur. We stayed one night at a hotel in Gorakhpur, where I met five other Nepali girls. All of them were my age. From Gorakhpur, we boarded a night train to Bombay (Mumbai), where I was thrown to suffer a hellish life,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Shanti made a few unsuccessful attempts to escape from a strongly fortified brothel, and each time she was punished severely. Eventually, she gave up all efforts and made a compromise against her fate. One day she was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and was asked to leave the brothel. When she refused, one strongman dragged her out of the premises and left her at the mercy of God.
Shanti’s woes didn’t end here. Anyhow, she managed to reach her village, where her parents gladly accepted her, but not the village folks. She became an eyesore for the villagers. The circumstances turned so hostile in the village that she had to leave her village and go to Kathmandu, where she stayed with one of her friends.
In order to douse the flame of hunger, she jumped into prostitution, knowing that she was carrying a deadly virus. “I always advise my clients to have safe sex. And most of them follow as well.
“But some lahures on leave prefer to spend the whole night indulging in unsafe sex. Some use condoms, but after getting drunk, they refuse everything and get into unsafe sex. I really feel sorry for them, but I can do nothing,” she said.
Poverty, lack of job opportunity, and illiteracy, as mentioned above, encourage many to take prostitution. Unless such problems are eliminated from the country, the flesh trade will remain here.
Now voices are heard from different quarters about the legalization of prostitution. Many people might be offended by the idea of legalizing prostitution in a society like ours, but time has come to address this issue with adequate attention.
It can’t be avoided or left for tomorrow. It should be dealt with today. It would be wise enough to manage it in the most effective manner.
If prostitution is legalized, hundreds of thousands of prostitutes across the country can heave a sigh of relief. The first thing is that they can’t be exploited any more. The law will protect their rights. Their profession will attain legal status, and they can carry on prostitution as a profession like other professions.
This will, in addition, check the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) to a large extent. After the legalization of prostitution, they do not have to operate their business clandestinely. In cases of exploitation, they can knock on the door of the court for justice. One can stay in this profession as long as she pleases.
One should clearly understand that the legalization of prostitution will not encourage women to enter the flesh trade. It will draw respect for their labor instead.
In conclusion, prostitution has nothing to do with morality. It should be treated as a profession, like in many countries.
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| LB Thapa is the publisher and editor of The Hemingway Post, a literary magazine. |
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