SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

situations such as domestic labour in which they are sexually or physically abused; they enter
prostitution after leaving employment.
The circumstances and number of boys trafficked out of Nepal for sexual exploitation are
even less known. Few boys appear to be directly trafficked into situations of sexual
exploitation. A recent study on the cross-border trafficking of Nepalese boys, while listing
sexual exploitation through prostitution as a possible outcome, provided no data regarding
that outcome. 275 At the same time, informal evidence indicates that some boys are being
trafficked from Nepal to Indian cities for labour in restaurants and tea stalls, with
traffickers/purchasers having the additional intent to exploit these boys through prostitution
arranged from those labour venues. 276
The armed conflict in Nepal has resulted in many thousands of boys and young men
migrating to India, in part to flee recruitment or harassment by the opposing military forces.
Today, thousands of young Nepalese males work in hotels, restaurants and other public
venues in all the major Indian cities. This large migration of boys has likely resulted in sexual
abuse and exploitation, though it remains to be formally verified.
Today, the primary trafficking concern in Nepal is internal trafficking. The rapid growth of
public sex access points and the brothels and short-time hotels that accompany them has
stimulated a demand for many new girls and women for the sex industry. While some of these
persons enter sex work knowingly and voluntarily, a large proportion are trafficked into the
industry. Sometimes they are held in thrall through debt obligation from ‘advances’ to parents
on promised ‘honest’ employment and provision of food, lodging and amenities to the
child. 277 Research indicates that one-third of the females in dance bars, brothels and cabin
restaurants are children 278 and that the age of children being trafficked locally has
significantly decreased in the last several years. 279
For boys, trafficking is likely not the primary mechanism for direct entry into prostitution,
whether inside or outside Nepal. It also appears that boys are seldom physically or
psychologically coerced into entering prostitution within the country, with the exception of
boys who are forced into it from a workplace or while residing in an orphanage or children’s
home. Data on the scale of this sexual exploitation are lacking.
6.2 Legislation
The Government of Nepal has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the
Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography; ILO
Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour; and the SAARC Convention on
Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution. It adopted
275
International Labour Organization and Women Rehabilitation Centre, 2002, ‘Cross border trafficking of
boys’.
276
World Education International Nepal, 2008, personal communication.
277
World Education International Nepal, 2008, Personal communication.
278
Shakti Samuha, 2008, ‘A study on the condition of slavery among women and girls employed in the
restaurants and massage parlours of Kathmandu Valley’.
279
World Education International Nepal, 2008, personal communication.
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