here a story of a women who was sold to india by her husband... maybe the grl you slept with was sold by her own dad when she was 10 but gr8 job though bravo on your actions MM we r so proud of you Sold daughters of Nepal "Between 5.000 - 7.000 girls and women, mostly belonging to ethnic minorities, are trafficked mainly to India and other countries from Nepal every year. In India alone there are at least 200.000 Nepali women serving as commercial sex workers." This was published on the frontpage of the Kathmandu Post on 16th June 2001. These numbers are shocking and alarming but maybe for most of us (at least for me) they are truly inconceivable. As long as we are not directly affected, these numbers might be taken more as a statistic figure rather than the sad accumulation of desperate individual fates. But just imagine one of those girls would be your daughter, sister or close friend and suddenly the entire perspective will change.This is what has just happened to me after I got personally involved in the repatriation of two young Nepali girls who have recently been rescued by Maiti Nepal from a brothel in Pune/India. When they told what had happened to them and how they were taken to India I was deeply shocked. It was the first time that returnees directly told me their stories. Even after I have been working for Maiti Nepal for more than 2,5 years it was touching to listen to their stories and to realise what they have gone through. It is a vast difference in comparison to read about the fate of a victim or to hear it through others. This time I could see their eyes, their faces and I could feel each and every word they said. I have tried to write their stories exactly like they were told in order to give you an insight into what this much too nice sounding word "trafficking" really means, how it takes place here in Nepal and how it is possible that still so many girls are getting trapped. Sold by her husband Renu* got married when she was 16 years old. Together with her husband who works as a mechanic and her 11 month old son she lived in Kathmandu. They had been married for almost two years when one day her husband told her that they would go to Bhairawa, a city in the Terrai (southern plains of Nepal) close to the Indian border, to make his driving licence. Together with her son, a friend of the husband and his wife they took the bus to Bhairawa where they stayed in a hotel. In the hotel room the husband showed her a package of white powder and told her that it was heroine. He explained her that he had started to work as a smuggler and that they had to go to India to deliver the heroine to the buyer. He forced her not to tell anybody and to keep quite throughout the whole journey. The next day they crossed the border to India without any difficulties. From Gorakhpur they took the train to Mumbai. Her husband took her to a house and said that only ladies could go there. She should go in there together with his friend's wife and wait until he and his friend had delivered the heroine. Later he would come to collect her and they all would go out for dinner. Renu did as her husband had told her. But her husband never came back. With a false excuse the husband's friend's wife left after some time. When she had waited for a couple of hours she realised that something was wrong. When she raised the question where the lady who had come in with her would be she was told that she was in a brothel and that her husband had sold her for 80.000 IRs (3.900 DM / 1.770 U$). She could not believe what the brothel manager had told her and tried to leave. But they took away her son in order to make her submissively obeying. For the next 6 months she saw her son only twice. They could easily blackmail her with her young child so that she had to fulfil all their demands. After one month she was sold from the brothel in New Mumbai to a brothel in Pune. In February 2001 her brother who is a lawyer reported her case to Maiti Nepal in Kathmandu and handed over her a photo of her. Maiti sent the photo to their Rescue Centre in Mumbai from where all the rescue and repatriation operations in India are co-ordinated. An informer working for Maiti in Pune who regular visits the red light district detected her and reported about "a young Nepali girl who had newly arrived". Staff of Maiti regularly visited her as customers and started with counselling. They informed her about the work of the organisation and showed her photos of other rescued girls. Only very slowly she started to gain trust. When Maiti wanted to arrange the raid she was scared of her son and told the staff of Maiti that she would rather stay and work as a prostitute for the rest of her life than to risk the life of her son. He was kept together with children of other victims in a house 60 km outside of Pune. In this situation Balkrishna Acharya, the president of Maiti Nepal (Mumbai) worked with a trick. He guaranteed that he would manage to get her child once she had been rescued. Long time she was sceptical before she finally agreed to the raid which was arranged with the help of the Indian Police. When I asked Balkrishna how he could guarantee the safe return of her son he looked at me and smiled. "You know Gereon" he said, "I told the brothel owner (a Nepali woman) that the police will not file a case against her, if she hands over the child to us. So she was satisfied and the police as well as in this way they could earn some money extra. If the case was registered Renu would have never seen her son again. So what is the position of the mother then?" I must have looked at him with some wonder because he added, "This is the reality in our work. Sometimes human feelings are more important than punishment!" Then he told me about Kalpana a similar case, who was rescued by Maiti in April 2001 and whose 5 year old daughter has not been found until today. In an interview after her rescue Renu was saying that she would never be able to trust anybody again for the rest of her life. She had known her husband from her village since they were young. According to the Nepali tradition their marriage was arranged by their parents. He had been the most trustful person in her life. If you think about it you get puzzled. How can a husband sell his wife? This question seems unanswerable already. And then how could he even sell his wife together with his at that time only 4 month old son? Up to 35 customers a day... In the same brothel in Pune another young Nepali girl was exploited as a sex slave who Maiti Nepal could manage to rescue in the same raid. Reeta's* story is different and similar at the same time. She comes from a middle class and well known family in a small village in Sindhupalchok (a district severely hit by girl trafficking north of Kathmandu). She lived together with her grandmother whom she had to take care of in another village close by. Because of this duty she could never visit a school, so Reeta with her 18 years is still illiterate. A week before she was going to be married she became sick and needed to go to a hospital in Kathmandu. Her parents did not agree to send her to Kathmandu fearing that she might not be back in time for the marriage. Everything was arranged already and they did not want to take any risk. Her brother tried to help her and send her to Kathmandu together with a couple who were friends of their uncle. This couple had to go to Kathmandu anyway and offered to take her. Her brother gave her 4.000 Rs (120 DM / 55 U$) for the medical treatment and told her to be back for the wedding in time. When they arrived in Kathmandu the hospital was closed and the couple invited her to a cinema. She did not want to spend her brother's money for that and refused to go. But the man told her "I am like your brother, don't worry I will pay for you". During the pause she had a coke where they must have put something in. She became sleepy and until today she is not able to recall all the details which happened after that. She remembers that the same man later asked her, whether she would get travel sick during bus rides. She said yes and he gave her a big capsule which she took. Soon after she lost her consciousness. The next time she woke up they were in Naranghat, which is around 150 km from Kathmandu on the way to the border. Here she became suspicious and asked the couple where they were going. The man got angry and shouted at her that she would not trust him as her brother. He ordered her not to talk any more. Reeta had never been out of her village before so she had not idea where she was. They crossed the border to India illegally and continued travelling on a bus until they arrived at a train station. It was the first time in her life that she saw a train. Now she became scared and asked the couple whether she was going to be sold. The couple reacted very sad and disappointed and asked her how she could put such a question. Again the man told her that she should not worry, he would treat her like his sister and that she should not speak a word during the train journey. When they arrived in Mumbai they went in a hotel and the man left to make a phone call. Reeta became again suspicious as she had seen a phone in the room. But this time she did not dare to raise a question. When the man did not return for hours, the woman left with her and went to a house of a friend where she had to wait during the two women talked. Soon after all three left in a taxi. On the way the woman who had brought her left the taxi and told Reeta, that she had to buy something and that they would meet later. "You go with this lady" she said, "I will come later". When they arrived at the house of this "lady" she was told that she had been sold for 100.000 IRs (4.850 DM / 2.200 U$). In the beginning she did not understand what this would mean for her. When that "lady" explained her about what she had to do from now on in order to pay back the price that had been paid for her, she broke down in despair. She was kept in this house for one month before she had to start prostitution. During that time she pleaded several times with the woman to allow her to call her brother. She promised that he would even pay even 200.000 IRs to buy her back. The woman told her that she could leave if she would pay her 100.000 IRs in cash directly but did not allow her to do any phone call. All she had were the 4.000 Nepali Rs from her brother. After one month she was transferred into a brothel in Kamatipura (red light district in Mumbai, probably the biggest in the world), Lane No. 12. When she denied and started crying the "didi" (brothel keeper) told her that if she would not do what the customers request they transferred her into another brothel where they would brutally gang rape and torture her. Then she ordered the brothel servant to "prepare" her. This was the first of many brutal rapes which should happen in the next six months. After a few months she was sold from the brothel in Kamatipura to the brothel in Pune, where she was rescued together with Renu. What the victims have to go through in the brothels lies far beyond the imaginable. In an interview after her rescue and repatriation to Nepal Reeta was asked about the daily routine and the conditions in the brothels. One answer I will not forget. She was asked how many customers she had to receive per day. She looked down and said in a low voice: "Minimum was 5-7 a day, average was 10-12. Sometimes more and one day I had to do it with 35 customers." Being asked about Maiti Nepal she said " Maiti Nepal rescued me from the life in hell. Without them I would have been in there until the end of my life!" This sentence will remain in my heart and I will try to think of it during the hard moments of our work. Each and every of the approximately 200.000 Nepali girls in the brothels in India has her own tragic story. Even if one might consider this as a frustrating huge number it is worth all our effort to fight against this inhumane and heinous crime. Every now and then people ask referring to this number how it is possible to keep motivated as only a handful of girls can be rescued every year. Our motivation depends on what we think and on how we look at things. Motivation is not the result of a high or low number of victims being rescued. All our effort will be worth if we could only rescue one single girl. Just imagine again, that the one would be your daughter, sister or close friend... http://www.bono-direkthilfe.org/english/textfertig.html