NIRAJAN POUDEL

Case-1

Sharu Lama (name changed) was distraught after her mother left home to marry another man 10 years ago. As a child she missed her mother very much and longed to meet her again.

Last year, when Sharu, now already an adolescent girl, expressed her strong desire before family members to meet her mother, she was consoled by her own aunt, who also promised to take her to her mother.

On April 6, 2013, Sharu left her home in Samudratar in Nuwakot with her aunt in a cheerful mood and a high hope of reunion with her mother. Sharu, who was stepping outside her village for the first time, was unaware about the new places.

In the pretext of reuniting Sharu with her mother, the aunt took her directly to the Indian city of Mumbai, where they stayed for four days in a hotel. By the time Sharu learned about her aunt´s betrayal, she was already sold into prostitution.

She could not believe it when the hotel owner told her that Rs 400,000 was paid to her aunt to buy her. Nevertheless, after she spent around a week in at the brothel, she managed to flee and return home.

Immediately after she arrived home, she complained to the police against the trafficker aunt, categorically naming her. But, the cunning aunt has been on the lam ever since Sharu arrived home.

Case-2

Trusting their relatives blindly cost two friends, Shova Lama, 19, and Maya Lama , 18, (both names changed) dear. Shova and Maya, of Urleni-5, who had gone to a nearby forest to gather fodder for their cattle on August 19, 2012, disappeared suddenly. The families of both the girls desperately searched for them but to no avail.

After seven months, the families learnt that their daughters had been sold to an Indian brothel. With the news of the girls being trafficked to India, the girls´ parents registered a complaint with the police against Bibilal Tamang and Sampar Tamang, of Sundaradevi-7, holding them responsible for the trafficking. The two accused are relatives of the girls. Following the complaint, the police arrested Bibilal but released him immediately, bowing to the political pressure exerted by UCPN (Maoist).

Case-3

Pandey Tamang of Balkumari -8 handed over his daughter to a trafficker. Believing her father´s words of a better job in an Indian city, the innocent girl in January 2012 went with Surya Badhadur Tamang, who turned out to be an agent supplying Nepali girls to Indian brothels. She leant about the truth only on reaching the brothel in Mumbai.

Later, she managed to return home after she was rescued by some Indian organizations. On returning home, she registered police case against Surya Bahadur. During the police investigation, new fact came to fore--the girl´s father himself was involved in selling off his daughter. Pandey conceded that he gave away his daughter to the trafficker for Rs 10,000. District court recently convicted both Pandey and Surya Bahadur of trafficking.

There are numerous such cases in the district that show how innocent girls are being sold even by their own family members and close relatives. Parents themselves are found to be involved in selling off their daughters, let alone the unscrupulous neighbors and unfamiliar people leading the innocent village girls astray on the pretext of good job and better life.

According to the District Police Office in Nuwakot, the cases of relatives, family members, friends as well as neighbors´ involvement in girl´s trafficking is on the rise.

The weak enforcement of law against trafficking and delayed justice delivery system as well as human traffickers´ receiving political protection, have helped increase the trafficking cases in the district, according to the locals.

The police officers involved in the investigation of the trafficking cases opined that the families marred by illiteracy and reeling under acute poverty tend to hand over their daughters to human traffickers.

As the data in the District Police Office (DPO) in Nuwakot shows, Sudara Devi, Raut Beshi, Shikhar Beshi, Balkumari, Ghyangfedi VDCs in the district are the most affected areas in terms of human trafficking.

Victims trafficked by their kin´s feel reluctant to identify the culprits

Kushan Kumar Basnet

Police Inspector, Nuwakot

What kinds of human trafficking incidents are generally reported to police?

The incidents of girls-trafficking with the direct involvement of kin are generally reported to us. The traffickers in most cases are parents, who sell off their daughters for money, while others involve the neighbors, who take the victims outside the country via Nuwakot, Pokhara, Kathmandu and Sindhupalchowk border, after enticing them with the offers of better opportunities either by marriage or migration.

What are the typical characteristics of girls who fall prey to traffickers?

The victims are mostly illiterate and ignorant women whose husbands were in foreign employments and girls from economically poor families, who could easily be convinced by the traffickers. To be frank, girl trafficking has been the easiest means to make faster money. Most of the victims were the girls trafficked from Sundara Devi, Ghyamphedi, Balkumari and Rautbesi of Nuwakot.

Do those who are rescued share about the incidents openly?

No, they do not. The victims who were trafficked by their kin´s feel reluctant to disclose the culprits because of their rehabilitation in the same family.

In the beginning, the victims generally register their cases to the police with the support of women rights activists and organizations but later they feel afraid of the imprisonment of their own relatives.

What challenges do police face while dealing with such kind of incidents?

In most of the cases, the victim families were found sending their daughters with their relatives, just depending on the telephonic conversations, which ultimately lead them to the traffickers in Pokhara and Kathmandu.

The victims generally disclose the culprit´s names but without properly identifying them, which is not enough to arrest them. In some cases, political pressure for the release of their party members involved is another challenge for us. Due to reluctance in registering their cases and disclosure of those involved even after the registration, police have not been able to arrest the traffickers.

However, different organizations working in the district have not been successful to raise awareness and sensitize about human trafficking.

Published on: 22 February 2014 | Republica