Cross Border Conference Speech:
Ms. Durga Ghimire
I am extremely delighted and happy to be here in this very important discussion on cross-border trafficking. When I received the invitation I was a little confused in which area do I have to speak as I am a non-practicing lawyer. I did my graduation in law but not practicing at all and I’m seeing three senior lawyers today who are and will be discussing about cross-border trafficking.
So I decided I have to speak on other issues related to cross-border trafficking. Some of the issues are the new trend, some are about major initiatives which we have been taking for the prevention of cross-border trafficking and finally some are just recommendations.
As Mr. Tripathi has already mentioned, trafficking is not a regional problem it is a global problem. It has been estimated that about two million women and children are being trafficked every year throughout the globe for sexual slavery. So when we talk about cross border trafficking we have to think about its various manifestation and like Mr. Tripathi said, we have to address the root cause of trafficking.
Working in this area for more than two decades, what I have personally observed is that there are so many contributing factors to human trafficking. This is not only social injustice but there are other political, social and economic issues such as extreme poverty, hardship, lack of education, awareness on gender discrimination, lack of implementation of existing law and most important is the open border to India. I think these are the very important contributing factors.
If you see the global context, due to social economical and political conditions and due to other contributing factors, the root, aim and the purpose of the trafficking has changed very recently. Globalization has already created new avenues for women and children, but it has made women and children more miserable because they start their journey with great hope but end with HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases.
They return with not only HIV/AIDS, but in many cases with sexually transmitted diseases and mental trauma which is very, very common. So when we talk about cross-border trafficking I think we have to think about various dimensions of the trafficking.
We have rescued until now more then one thousand four hundred (1,400) girls during the ten years. Not only from various brothels in India, but many were also returned from other parts of the world.
I always remember one of the remarks made by one of the girls rescued six years ago. She said that she was trafficked when she was 14 years of age and after 4 yrs in the brothel, she returns back with no money but with HIV/AIDS. I always remember her saying: “Mom I want to marry again, because my boyfriend is in Mumbai I want to marry with him”. And it was very difficult to explain and convince her about HIV/AIDS and how this disease will affect one’s lives, and how to prevent other people from contracting HIV/AIDS. She then remarked: “My life has been ruined by the devil person in the brothel, those people who are selling the girls, who are running the brothel and used us should be shot to death in the open theater.” This clearly indicates how much trauma and torture she had encountered in the brothel.
Let's talk about the new trend that we are now more concerned with because what we have observed and have been discussing with various organizations based in India. There is a great demand of minor girls in the so called sex industry. Why a minor girl? Because the new set of thoughts is that if someone has sex with minor girls they will not be infected with HIV/AIDS.
So this new trend in cross-border trafficking places more demand on the minor girls and this demand has increased. That is one of the very important things I think, and another aspect of the new trend is that the minor girls who have returned from the brothels are HIV positive.
When we rescued a large number of the girls and tested for HIV, we found that 50% were infected. If you see India, it has been estimated that about 5,000,000 (five million) are HIV positive, this is due to the new trend of the open borders between Nepal and India. Another thing is that previously Nepal was the place of origins and India the place of destination, but now what we have observed is that traffickers are using India as the transit point as well. They are sending girls to Saudi Arabia and other parts of the world, and they are returning with a lot of problems.
Two month ago, I received a Nepali girl who returned from Saudi Arabia; she was mentally disturbed. It was very difficult for us to keep her in our transit home and had to send her to a mental hospital, and after treatment she returned to the transit home. There are so many reported cases like this, so this new trend is being observed and has to be addressed.
There are so many initiatives which have been taken by the non-government organization to address the cross-border trafficking. They have been monitoring the border, doing a lot of campaigning on awareness building, a lot of sensitization programs to the border police, collecting data and providing helpline services to the victims of domestic violence as well as other forms of violence.
Some of the organizations have suggested legal aid services, which they have been providing. Likewise, some of the organizations have been providing shelter and transit homes on the border and also have also been providing economic empowerment programs and productive employment programs so that they don’t return to the place of destination where they had been.
The Government has been silent for many years on the issue of human trafficking but after 1996 the government is working actively as they have formed a national level task force that is represented by various sectoral ministries and also non-government organizations. They have now formed a district level Task Force. For many years there was a lack of national plan and policy related to trafficking and this has also been developed to prevent trafficking and Nepal has already signed various International conventions that have been discussed earlier. Nepal has also signed the SAARC convention related to cross-border trafficking.
As you can see there are so many legal instruments which were signed and have recently changed the law related to human trafficking which is very, very important. I think my two friends here will be speaking on the aspect of these legal instruments that I am not going to talk about. What I would like to say is that not only the law would prevent the cross-border trafficking, but there is a lot of awareness to be created and this should be implemented properly as Nepal has developed stronger laws, yet unfortunately there has been a lack of implementation.
There are laws related to trafficking that have a maximum punishment that was from 15 to 20 years, but mostly the convicted do not complete to the given number of years and are set free. But if you see the updated data of 10 to 15 years ago, there are very few cases that were registered with the police and whatever was reported was only the tip of the iceberg. So what I want to say is that only Law will not prevent cross-border trafficking, there is a need to create awareness and also many initiatives we have to do to address this most pressing issue.
My few recommendations, which are very, very important because the objective of this meeting is not only to discuss about issues as we are very much aware of it, but we have to discuss more on what is to be done on this cross-border trafficking. The most important thing is that for many years, we have been talking about the data though I think there is still a lack of authentic data.
Some research has been conducted but is based on secondary data so I must stress more about the collection of data, and second is to have a strong monitoring mechanism in the border which is very, very important. As we are all aware, Nepal has an open border of one thousand seven hundred and forty kilometers (1,740 km), there are sixteen (16) transit points and I remember that during my childhood in my hometown of Terai area in Biratnagar where I was brought up, we used to go across the India border to purchase vegetables and household goods.
Therefore, due to this open border it’s very, very easy for the traffickers or criminals to do their businesses and escape from the border to India. So I must emphasize that there should be a strong monitoring mechanism that we really need to develop. Of course some NGOs and the government take up some initiatives, but to the magnitude of the problem we have done very little.
Also if we have a strong monitoring mechanism at the border, it will not only control the cross-border trafficking but it will also control other social crimes like drug trafficking, which is also very common-- these are all very, very important. Also we have to develop proper travel documents, which are lacking because many of the girls cross the border without any proper documents, therefore they suffer having no knowledge of any document requirements. I would also like to give emphasis on a bi-lateral talk, as when we talk about cross-border trafficking, there should be a bi-lateral talk and initiative between the country of origin and destination.
These are the conventions we have been talking about a lot in the SAARC convention, and I think it has no legal binding unless we have bi-lateral discussions and agreements between the country of origins and destinations. This is very, very important and we need to pressure our government to discuss on these bi-lateral issues with both the countries and this should be a priority for our government.
We, the NGO’s, role is just to pressure our government to put this issue in the bi-lateral discussion in a priority agenda. I must also mention that since we have been talking a lot about the corruption on the border, I think what we have to do is to train the law enforcement officers at the border. But giving them training will not only be sufficient, we also need to provide them with equipment so that they can do their duty diligently. We also need to hold a nationwide awareness campaign, and need to find out “why there is easy access for women crossing the borders, and why the girls are being so easily taken to other countries”.
But we know that these are due to lack of employment opportunities, and therefore, we need to create employment opportunities in the country of origin mainly in the problem areas where the majority of girls are being trafficked. There are so many things that we have to do, as this is a multi-faceted problem and a lot of initiatives are needed to prevent these issues.
I have been thinking about the five major things to do and the first is coordination and cooperation among the various actors who are the government, the police, international donor agencies and the media. Because this issue was raised from various participants in the 1996 global conference in Oklahoma when member states participated in the conference. There were about 3000 participants throughout the globe who came together and the first priority they discussed was to maintain strong coordination and cooperation among various sectors because this is a big issue and cannot be dealt with in isolation.
Second is commitment, which is not only from NGO’s or we, the human rights activists. We are committed to this cause and as the women’s rights activists, we think this is a cross violation of a woman’s right and no woman should be sold as an animal in this 21st century. We have strong commitment and we have initiated this issue of trafficking and have been working on it for the last two decades.
Many organizations have been committed to working on these rights, but commitments must not come only from the women’s rights organizations, but must also come from the governments, medias, political parties, communities and from all segments of the societies, otherwise we cannot achieve our goals or stop the cross-border trafficking as it is so deeply rooted in our social values. One or two interventions will not prevent the cross-border trafficking.
As always, money or cash flow (funds) is also another factor that will greatly help in the prevention of the cross-border trafficking and other activities, otherwise we will not be able to run anything at all. So, we need funds to help run the shelter homes, create awareness and open more help lines.
I remember when we had organized a training program on street drama in western Nepal our main target was to work with the Badi Communities. They came forward and told us “that we should stop preaching at us as we know the work of sex workers is not good, but what are the alternatives for us? Are you bringing an economic alternative for us?” I was shocked. Same question was asked by one of the Badi woman in Nepalgunj. She said “if you give us Nrs.4, 000 (rupees four thousand) or Nrs. 5, 000 (rupees five thousand) per month, we are earning Nrs.200 (rupees two hundred) per night itself so are you giving us this much?” I was once again shocked. Its very, very difficult then to prevent this issue as there are so many issues for which we need a lot of cash to work on the prevention of trafficking.
The other most pressing factor is that we also need to control corruption. We have been talking a lot about the issue of corruption on the border and have not been able to control it. Why? Because the issue has already been rampant. Lastly, what I would like to say is that if we come together, commit ourselves for the cause, communicate and coordinate with each other then we can control cross-border trafficking.
Durga Ghimire is the Co-Founder/President of ABC/Nepal. Co-Founder of Tamakoshi Service Society. Women's Rights Activist Author. ABC/Nepal strives to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence againstwomen. The organization works along with other local nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs) to facilitate programs in areas like women's leadership, informal education, and increasing awareness of trafficking of girls. ABC/Nepal works to create a strong network against the trafficking of women and young girls by promoting self-reliance and self-confidence among women through self-development training and economic empowerment.
On April 19, 2006, Ghimire was honored by the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial with the Hope Award for her work with the Tamakoshi Service Society (TSS). Ghimire has done extensive research concerning women and development issues. Durga Ghimire is an active presenter at conferences throughout the world, and in 2001 she published the English version of "Staying Alive: Memories of Women in Prison." This publication relates the experiences of women in jail in Kathmandu, where Durga Ghimire was imprisoned in the early 1970s for organizing and leading a pro-democracy student's movement. In addition to her work with various development organizations, Ghimire's work has not only provided a voice for the women of Nepal, but her leadership has transformed thelives of marginalized women throughout the country.
