REINTEGRATION OF VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF TRAFFICKING IN NEPAL A Thesis by Pooja Sharma Master of Arts, Wichita State University, 2014 Bachelor of Arts, Wichita State University, 2012 Submitted to the Department of Liberal Studies and the faculty of the Graduate School of Wichita State University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts May 2014 © Copyright 2014 by Pooja Sharma All Rights Reserved REINTEGRATION OF VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF TRAFFICKING IN NEPAL The following faculty members have examined the final copy of this thesis for form and content, and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Liberal Studies. __________________________________ Doris Chang, Committee Chair __________________________________ Chinyere Okafor, Committee Member __________________________________ Kyoung Lee, Committee Member iii DEDICATION To my parents, Sudarshan and Kamala Sharma, and my younger brother, Prashant Sharma, for all their love, support, encouragement, and sacrifices To all the victims and survivors of trafficking iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my thesis committee chair and advisor, Dr. Doris Chang for her scholarly suggestions, comments and guidance throughout my thesis. Also, I would like to thank my thesis committee members, Dr. Chinyere Okafor and Dr. Kyoung Lee for the valuable comments and suggestions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Deborah Gordon for being an inspiration throughout my academic career. Special thanks to all the NGOs, namely, Shakti Samuha, Federation of Female Sex Workers in Nepal, CWIN, and National Federation of Women Living with HIV/AIDS, social workers working at these NGOs, and all the victims and survivors of trafficking for allowing me to interview them. Without their help and cooperation, this paper would not have been complete. I would also like to thank the scholars for their research on human trafficking in Nepal and making their work assessable. Finally, I would also like to thank my parents and my brother for all their love, support and encouragement in every step of my life. Without my brother, Prashant Sharma, coordinating and facilitating the field visits and interviews, my research would not have been possible, so all the credit goes to him for his efforts and time. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1 1.1 Background………………………………………………………………………………..1 1.2 Overview about trafficking...………………………………………………….….....…….3 1.3 Legal framework for combating trafficking…...….…………………..………………..…5 1.4 Purpose of the study……………………………………………………………………….7 1.5 Research Questions……………………………………………………….…………..…...8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.……………………………...…………………….……9 2.1 Definitions…………………………………………………………………………………9 2.2 Influential factors in trafficking and exploitation.…………………………………….....11 2.3 Societal practices and impacts of trafficking on victims and survivors...……..…………13 2.4 Discrepancy between practices in laws…………………………………………...……...14 2.5 Victims with HIV/AIDS…………………………………………………………………15 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………………….17 3.1 Sampling Method………………………………………………………………………...17 3.2 Sample Selection………………………………………………………………...……….17 3.3 Data Collection………………………………...…………………………………...……18 3.3.1 In-depth Interviews………………………………………………………………18 3.3.2 Brief Overview on the Interviews………....…………………………………......19 3.3.3 Other Sources Used.……………………………………………………………...22 3.4 Research Ethics……….………………………………………………………………….22 3.5 Limitations & Challenges.………………………………………………...……………..23 3.6 Scope for Further Research………………………………………………………………24 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS…………………………………………….…...…25 4.1 Leading factors in trafficking…………………………………………………………….25 4.2 Trafficking victims’ and survivors’ perception about reintegration..…….……………...29 4.3 HIV/AIDS situation among trafficked victims...………………………………………...30 4.4 Role of GOs and NGOs in the reintegration process and their efforts towards social acceptance…………………………………………………………………………32 4.5 Anti-trafficking laws and judicial practices….………………………………….……….35 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Chapter Page CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..40 5.1 Social Stigmas attached to reintegration…………………………………………...…….40 5.2 Implementation of laws and policies………………………….………………...……….41 5.3 What’s next?......................................................................................................................43 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………..46 APPENDIXES…………………………………………………………………………………...50 Appendix A: Interview questions for the victims and survivors of trafficking……………..…...51 Appendix B: Interview questions for the key persons from NGOs……………………………...52 vii ACRONYMS ABC Nepal Agro-forestry Basic health and Cooperative Nepal CBOs Community Based Organizations CWIN Child Workers In Nepal GOs Government Organizations I/NGOs International/Non-governmental Organizations FFSWN Federation of Female Sex Workers in Nepal FIR First Information Report FY Fiscal Year GoN Government of Nepal HTTCA Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act MoWCSW Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare NCASC National Centre for AIDS and STD Control NFWLHA National Federation of Women Living with HIV/AIDS NHRC-OSRT National Human Right Commission - Office of the Special Rapporteurs on Trafficking NPA National Plan of Action SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation TIP Trafficking In Person UN United Nations UNIFEM United Nations Development Funds for Women USAID United States Agency for International Development viii ABSTRACT This study attempted to examine complications related to the reintegration process of victims and survivors of trafficking in Nepal. In order to do so, three main goals were set. First, to understand the situation of trafficking survivors and the way they are treated by the society; second, to explore the provision of anti-trafficking laws in favor of the victims and survivors; and third, to analyze the disparity between what the laws professes and what happens in reality. The resources used for the study consists of in-depth interviews with six victims and survivors of trafficking and five key persons representing four different NGOs working against trafficking of women and girls, HIV/AIDS and other related issues. This study also includes national and I/NGO annual reports, journal articles and books as supporting resources. This study demonstrates that there are many challenges that victims and survivors of trafficking in Nepal experience during reintegration. Social stigmas, discrimination, negative attitude of families and communities, mental, verbal, physical and emotional abuse are some of the major challenges. There are several laws and policies available to protect the trafficked victims and survivors. However, lack of knowledge and trust toward law enforcement system among the general population has caused ignorance and hence, increased the number of trafficking victims in Nepal. This study also found that contributions made by NGOs toward the reintegration of victims and survivors of trafficking are commendable. The NGOs has improved their lives by providing skills, opportunities and motivation to live independently in the society. At the end, this study suggests that community should work together toward educating people about trafficking, advocating to raise voices against trafficking, forming strong surveillance system, and combating corruption in order to combat trafficking. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The trafficking of humans is an organized crime, and a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide which relies on the fundamental principle of every business, which is supply and demand. The developed countries demand and most developing countries become the resource for supplying human beings. As a result, most people in poorer countries are susceptible to trafficking in desire for a better life. Nepali women and girls are transported from their villages to be sold in the urban cities in Nepal and the red-light districts1 in India for sexual exploitation. From Nepal alone there are 300,000 women and girls that are trafficked into sex industries (Ali 2005). Each year 5000-7000 women are trafficked from Nepal to India and at least 200,000 women and girls are currently working in Indian brothels (Kaufman et al. 2011). With more than a decade long armed conflict in Nepal, from 1996 to 2006, and ongoing political unrest, many people have been dislocated and many lost their jobs. Due to this situation, more people migrate to developed countries for a job and for a better life. With false promises of finding better job opportunities, innocent people invest every economic resource they have in order to travel to foreign countries. But the recruitment agencies, private recruiters or the employers at the foreign companies deceive them, mishandle the manpower, and many people fall prey to human trafficking. Victims are trafficked within Nepal, some are trafficked from Nepal to India, and some are then taken from India to other countries. In recent times, the number of girls trafficked from Nepal to Tibet, the Middle East and Asian countries including South Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia has increased (Thapa Ksetri et al. 2012). 1 Red light districts are the areas where brothels and sex oriented businesses are located. 1 Trafficking occurs for various reasons, exploitation in agricultural, entertainment, and manufacturing industries,