Girls trafficking in Sindhupalchowk district among Tamang Community.

Thesis Report.

SUMMARY: Trafficking of women and girls is one of the worst forms of the rights violation. Trafficking of women and girls is not a new phenomenon. It has a long history and background. Trafficking has become a challenging problem confined not only a specific country or a certain region, but for the entire world as a whole. Though trafficking has been taking place in Nepal since a long time, the problem of trafficking of girls and women is felt to be more sensitive today than ever before in Nepal. Day by day many girls and women are being sold by various coercive and deceitful means. It has been said that every year 10,000 to 12,000 women and girls are trafficked each year in sex market. The problem of trafficking is no longer confined to specific ethnic communities and certain district surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. The scenario has changed rapidly over the last decade; the problem of trafficking has known to expand to over 48 districts in Nepal. The objective of this study was to find out the causes of girls trafficking among Tamang community of Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal. Type of study design used was descriptive, exploratory, cross sectional and both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data. The study was conducted in Tamang community of Sindhupalchowk district and study population was tamang people of selected study site. The collected data was analyzed by using excel. Table statistics and graphics were also generated and quantitative data were provided with the details as well as real information. From the study, it was found that 90 percent of the respondents were aware of trafficking. 83 % of respondents heard about trafficking through Radio, 73% through television and 57% from news paper. On the other hand, 60% heard about trafficking from the program of local NGOS and 7 % got aware about trafficking from the incidence of trafficking occurred in their community. 90 percent of the respondents perceived that the young girls and women are generally deceived by the traffickers. The respondents generally perceived that girls and woman are trafficked to involve in sex work. 60% of respondent perceived that girls are trafficked by acquaintance where as 2% perceived relatives are the traffickers, 53 percent perceived strangers as traffickers. 50 percent perceived their so called 'boyfriends' are the trafficker and 73% of respondent mentioned that those who try to trap innocents by false promises are traffickers. 27% of respondents answered that traffickers can be identified by their dresses, 60 % mentioned that traffickers act as a good human being, 77% perceived identification of traffickers by their pretend of being rich, 47 %believed that traffickers act as a cooperative person where as 43% believed traffickers can be identified by their act of love and 27% respondents believe that it's very hard to identify traffickers. 83 percent respondents commonly emphasized on informing police if they identify someone as trafficker, 27 percent claimed that they should inform community leaders. 40 percent stressed that they should inform the local NGOS. Similar 47 percent mentioned that the traffickers should be punished by the villagers. Only 7 percent of the respondents were able to report that traffickers tried to take someone from their community. Those who did not show any initiatives in anti- trafficking activities cited the several reasons. 7 % of the respondents said that they could not identify the traffickers so they were not able to prevent someone from being trafficked. Fear of being threatened or killed by the traffickers was mentioned by 7 % of the respondents. 93 % were not able to answer were as 3 % said that it is better not to involve on other's matter. The respondents were generally aware about the possible causes of trafficking. For example, 93 percent cited illiteracy and poverty as the main cause of trafficking. 53 percent emphasized on desire to spend better life lead someone to be trafficked and about 40 percent of the respondents stressed unemployment as the main reason of trafficking. 87% of the respondent's emphasized on raising awareness on trafficking in the community. 30 percent emphasized that one should not believe strangers. Strangers were perceived as one of the main potential traffickers by the respondent, 43 percent stated that one should not be lured by promise of better life. 73 percent of the respondent considered that trafficking can be preventing by raising awareness at the community level. 27 percent mentioned that street drama related on trafficking should be performed more frequently in the community and 50 percent of respondent mentioned raising awareness through media is important to prevent trafficking. Furthermore; Sindhupalchowk is also clear district with high internally displaced persons, which could imply in potential vulnerability to unsafe migration turning to trafficking incidents. On the other hand, Sindhupalchowk is being more accessible than before. Latest evidences indicate that Sindhupalchowk is now much more used by traffickers as well. So, appropriate action should be taken from government in collaboration with different non-governmental agencies to prevent the incidence of trafficking.

Eng.