Migration of women

In a story published as far back as 2003, Nepali Times pointed to overzealous anti-trafficking interception work as setting back the new-found mobility and empowerment of Nepali women. The ban on women working abroad was in response to the reports of abuse of Nepali girls and women.

In another case of how the government never learns from its mistakes, it imposed another blanket ban on women's migration to West Asia following the cases of exploitation abuse among Nepali maids in the Gulf. Women are still migrating but are forced to take informal channels further jeopardising themselves in the process.  

Excerpts from the report published 20 years ago this week in issue #171 21-27 November 2003:

Criminal networks have widened: women and girls are not only being trafficked from villages but from the capital. They are taken to Mumbai, the Gulf states and South-east Asia, besides servicing the domestic market.

Two separate issues are often confused when it comes to trafficking. It does not refer only to exploitation through sex work, but any form of labour exploitation, and occurs indigenously as well as across national borders. The flow of migration, exacerbated by the Maoist conflict, means that it is very hard for potential rescuers to spot women who are being trafficked for exploitation as opposed to migrating of their own free will.

The issue of rights and interception is one that has created a divide in the NGO community. Many claim that a majority of women who are prevented from crossing the border into India are not being trafficked for exploitation, and that their interception is therefore an illegal violation of their right to migrate. Renu Raj Bhandari, a former Human Rights Rapporteur, is concerned that interception programs may also have a negative impact on how women view migration. "I am really concerned that the right to mobility for women, which took years to establish, is now being taken away in the name of welfare. Women are being forced to migrate clandestinely," she says.

For archived material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: nepalitimes.com