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

the boys and one-quarter of the girls had accessed pornography through the Internet. 266
Among boys living on the street in Kathmandu, over two-thirds had been exposed to
pornography by others. While the offenders were primarily male, a notable one-quarter of the
offenders were female.
6.1.5 Other forms of sexual exploitation
6.1.5.1 Prostitution
Historically, Nepal has had no designated brothel areas, with the exception of a short-lived
red-light district in the city of Nepalgunj, which was removed under public pressure in the
late 1990s. Until approximately 2003, prostitution, whether by males or females, was covert,
and sex access points were restricted to parks, tea stalls, roadside halts, small hotels and other
informal venues. In recent years, Nepal has seen a rapid growth in public sex access points, in
the form of dance bars, massage parlours and ‘cabin restaurants’ (venues in which patrons are
seated in private cubicles with their companions). These access points have spread throughout
the country, though they are concentrated in the Kathmandu Valley, and openly advertise the
availability of female companionship through signboards and distinctive coloured lights.
While it cannot be said that all females working in these venues are sex workers, the
availability of commercial sexual services is unquestioned.
In 2005 researchers estimated approximately 7,000 to 8,000 female sex workers in the
Kathmandu Valley, mostly accessing clients through dance bars and cabin restaurants and
over mobile phones. 267 In addition, ‘massage parlours’, which primarily provide oral sex for
local clients, have multiplied throughout the valley. The proportion of children in these
establishments is unknown but is considered to be rapidly growing. 268 Few of the venues are
intended to provide clients with the sexual services of men and boys, although some massage
parlours have male workers, and some bars in the tourist areas of Kathmandu are frequented
by child and adult male prostitutes. Generally, sexual exploitation of boys through
prostitution is conducted by informal personal contact on the street, in parks, in hotels,
through friends or through pimps, who include taxi drivers, rickshaw drivers and hotel and
restaurant employees. As in other countries of South Asia, restaurants, bars and public areas
adjoining bus parks are primary sex access points for boys being exploited through
prostitution, with nearby small hotels providing rooms for sexual congress.
6.1.5.2 Exploitation in travel and tourism
Until the recent advent of open commercial sex access points, the sexual exploitation of
children in travel and tourism was through the following means. Informally, men from India
for years have frequented the Kathmandu Valley and the tourist centre of Pokhara for the
sexual services of adult women, as an adjunct to business, tourism and religious pilgrimage.
Female sex workers have long been a fixture of the small hotels, restaurants and pathways
266
Child Workers in Nepal and UNICEF, 2005, ‘Violence against children in Nepal: Child sexual abuse in
Nepal: Children’s perspectives’.
267
UNAIDS, 2006, ‘UNGASS national report: Nepal 2005’.
268
World Education International Nepal, 2008, personal communication.
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