rudra upadhya lets stick to the point here. i dont' know about sex work in first world countries like netherlands, france, germany or US. so i cannot make any comments about girls who are invovled in this trade. if you have support to back up your theories, i.e. then please provide them here: did you read a study/report/findings? did you personally talk wiht any of thse women? heard their story? i am talking about sex workers in nepal. i dont understand how you or imi and many ohters, whom i persume are all educated, come to believe that these women are morally corrupted or are sexaholics or are doing it for the sake of pure fun and some free cash. may be a handful, (again, i am talking about nepal here), did join this profession because it was easy cash, but not so for the rest. yes they are using their consicous minds to negotiate with their clients and yes, they are agreeing to meet in a certain place, and yes, they are opening their clohtes by themsleves, but there is a story behind allllll that. t and no, nobody sold these women in whorehouses, but think for a moment here: a lot of these women actually have children at home, have siblings, even the younger ones , are about 15-24. what wlll they do in the city? some lucky ones do find jobs with decent money, but what about the rest who have nither the education, nor the qualifications to find a job? waht about women who are trying to escape the maoist insurgency and came to kathmandu? teh owmen who failed or had to stop tehir education? what kind of "route" do they have to follow to remain "moral" ? in a city like ktm, where these girls know aboslutely no one, where are they to beg for jobs.to find anything at all, you need sources or you need contacts. who are these women supposed to contact? neither do they hold a degree or have any work expereince. they end up in sex work, usually thorough contacts like freinds, and pimps and because it is the only work that is available to them, because and only because they are women, who are in demand for their bodies. if you think prostituion is the "easy route", then tell me what the more difficult route is? what else can they do? the only more difficult route i can think of is starving yourself and yoru children and your fmailygetting kicked out of your "dera", sleeping in the streets, taking your kids out of school, etc etc. sure is a difficult route; these choices would definetely be more moral than prostitution, wouldn't u agree? and you are right, these women have the "choice" to do something else: say, sewing clothes, or some kind of o ther vocational traning. how much would they make? 1500 ruppes a month? it is easy for people like us to view them in a deragatory manner and feel that becasue tehy are poor or are unqualified, they should settle for jobs for very very very little money and make thier livings through that rather than becoming a slut, but have you ever tried living in 1800 rupees a month? 1800 to pay the rent, to take care of your family, to buy medicenes, to send your children to school, to buy food and other basic necessities. if you believe that not wanting to live for 1500-2000 rupees a month, and trying to make a better life for yoruself and your family by succumbing to sex work is a choice, then that is a differnet issue. i am not, i repeat i am not, saing its ok to become involved in sex trade if you are poor or if you are making money because it is not, but i do not blame these women. they have to do what they have to do. i, so far away from their reality, cannot make a judgement on thier moral charecter when i will never be able to understand waht are the kind of circumstances they must be going through just to make their ends meet. call girls in nepal are however a different story. they work in big five star hotels and serve to rich businessmen and foreigners. they are usually from higher socio econimic strata, are more educated than women who work in teh streets or restaurants, demand a lotttt of moeny and never come out in public or are willing to be interviewed. so i cannot speak for them. i am not justifying prostitution and neither am i encouraging it. but to effectively adress the needs of these women, and to eradicate or at least limit prostitution in our soceity, we have to understand the basic cause: no woman does this by choice. and i have studies done in nepal by groups/NGO teams and researchers to back up what i said. would u like the links? p.s: please excuse my typos.