Nepal and India Slave Trade

Here in Spokane we see our fair share of homelessness. We see hunger and suffering and even abuse. Rarely however, do we see starvation, abuse of workers, and never do we hear of any type of slavery. Just because these things are not in our small culture does not mean that they don’t exist. The small country of Nepal is a target for all of these things. Nepal has such a high level of poverty that those who cannot put food on the table either starve or turn to human trafficking to survive.

            The country of Nepal is a small country that borders India. This mountainous country relies on agriculture for its economic success. However, according to Wikipedia, only 20% of the area of Nepal is cultivable. This makes agriculture a difficult trade for a majority of the population, causing mass poverty and hunger.  This problem causes even more severe problems for impoverished families trying to make ends meet. Some families turn to labor contract from wealthier families who pay for workers and maids. From many accounts these contracts are near slave labor and many of the workers are beaten, overworked, and mistreated.

            Worse than the fate of those who are signed on as laborers and maids however are those who are duped into or forced to sell their children into sex slavery. Faced with the starvation of themselves and their children, some parents are offered money to take their children away as slaves. Some of these children are taken to India to be sold to brothels. According to CNN many of the slave girls arrive in India due to the Indian Red-Light District customers favoring their lighter and fairer skin. Children from ages 6 to 16 face the horrible reality of sex slavery and risk of disease, pregnancy and beatings.

This terrifying reality is brought to light by projects such as the CNN Freedom Project which saves as many as five girls a day from sex slavery as they try to cross borders. This is nothing however, compared to the tens of thousands being sold each year. IT is uplifting to hear about these small victories over the sex trade and to hear stories of former slaves who have gone on to help free more and more girls from this horrible sub-culture.

No easy solution exists to Nepal’s problem. In Malaysia, the issue of the economy was similar, but instead of turning their own workers out, the government brought in factories and created a slave trade for workers to come into the country. It seems that impoverished nations are stuck in a vicious cycle of either not enough labor or too many mouths to feed. Donation organizations, relief workers, and philanthropists can help enlighten and to a certain extent protect individuals from the dangers involved in dealing with human trafficking. Most of the Nepalese workers are desperate and hungry though and that makes safety not the highest concern, especially when offered money that could feed or protect them.