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

6.0 COUNTRY PROFILE: NEPAL
6.1 Research Findings
6.1.1 Country background
In the past 15 years, Nepal has undergone transitions that have dramatically changed the
social fabric of the country and damaged the traditional extended family ‘safety nets’ for
many thousands of children. Nepal is exceedingly poor, with more than one-third of the
population living below the poverty line and an increasing disparity between the rich and the
poor. A decade of civil war, ending in 2007, displaced tens of thousands of people, many of
whom moved to urban and semi-urban areas. With the civil conflict came political instability,
violence, governmental corruption and erosion of the rule of law.
Children make up nearly 40 per cent of the country’s 27 million people, 256 and nearly 40 per
cent of children between ages 5 and 14 are engaged in labour. 257 This is one of the highest
proportions of working children in the world. Just 20 years ago, the population of Nepal was
almost entirely rural, but massive internal migration has swollen urban areas to 16 per cent of
the population. 258 This has divided extended families and created large areas of poor housing
occupied by single or fragmented families. In addition, the country has become increasingly
dependent on remittances from Nepalese men working overseas, primarily in Malaysia and
the Gulf states. This out-migration has left more women-headed households and reduced
protection for children.
These changes have increased the vulnerability of boys and girls to sexual abuse and
exploitation. The conflict resulted in a massive displacement of boys and young men from
rural areas, many of whom fled to the capital or out of the country to avoid conscription into
Maoist guerrilla forces or punishment by government soldiers on suspicion of being Maoist
sympathizers. Recent years have seen significant growth in the number of boys separated
from their families and working in urban labour sites, as well as an increase in the number of
boys living on the street. 259 Both of these groups are known to be at high risk of sexual abuse
and exploitation. In addition, in the past five years the rapid growth throughout the country of
public sex access points such as dance bars and massage parlours has provided additional
venues for the sexual exploitation of both boys and girls. 260
256
United Nations Statistics Division, 2008, ‘UNdata Nepal. 2007’.
, accessed on 16 March 2010.
257
United States Department of Labor, 2008, ‘2007 findings on the worst forms of child labor: Nepal’. UNHCR
Refworld:
258
United Nations Statistics Division, 2008, ‘UNdata Nepal. 2007’.
259
ECPAT International and Child Workers in Nepal, 2008, ‘Out of the dark: The emergence of boys’
prostitution in Nepal’ (unpublished draft).
260 Ibid.
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