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Recommended reading on contributing factors

The movement of women: migration, trafficking, and prostitution in the context of Nepal’s armed conflict

Understanding migration and trafficking in Nepal

Authors: S. L. Hausner
Publisher: Human Trafficking, 2005

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This study aims to understand the patterns of girls’ and women’s movement in contemporary Nepal, especially in view of the conflict which is leading to serious threats in the lives of women and girls.

Main findings of the study include:

  • conflict is significantly increasing both external migration and internal migration
  • the number of women and girls migrating though borders to India in proportion to the number of boys and men is very low
  • women and girls migrating through land borders from Nepal to India do not appear to be at greater risk of being trafficked than women who remain in their home village
  • the conflict in Nepal has increased the number of women working as prostitutes in Kathmandu and in Nepali border areas, who are from all caste and ethnic groups
  • domestic violence causes many girls and women to leave home and move to the capital in search of independence and work
  • people migrating to India cite economic reasons more often than they explicitly cite conflict.

Some of the key recommendations from the report include:

  • the introduction of safe migration programming that includes basic life skills and information on migration in addition to, not instead of, anti-trafficking programming
  • the establishment of migrant resource centres and transit home
  • the creation of jobs and perhaps an increased value in employing women in rural areas of Nepal, so that the incentives to sell daughters, sisters and wives will be fewer
  • sn ongoing effort to prosecute traffickers.