In a hard-hitting report, the US State Department has charged Nepal with not complying fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. “Nepal is a source country of women and girls trafficked primarily to India for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and debt bondage.” It says Nepali women in the Middle East have worked in “slave-like conditions” in the past. Internal trafficking from rural areas to cities is on the rise, and poor families place children into debt bondage. The report, however, credits Nepal for making significant efforts to combat the scourge despite resource constraints.