This month we are working in Nepal with women and children who have been rescued out of the sex trade industry. It has been such a positive experience so far to be with them…teaching English, sharing a home with them, and helping the children with their homework, among other things. It is hard to imagine all that they’ve been through, however. Each year nearly 30,000 Nepali girls are sold by their families intentionally or unwittingly into a life of sexual slavery in the brothels of India. Worldwide, the U.S. State Dept. estimates that nearly half a million children are trafficked into the sex trade annually.
Ninety Percent of the girls forced into prostitution in Kathmandu, Nepal are between the ages of 12 and 17. Sometimes young girls from the mountain villages will be enticed into leaving their homes by imagining a better life for themselves or their families. Women with nice clothes and gold jewelry will come and promise them a job, working as a maid for a rich family. Once they are far away in cities such as Mumbai or Kolkata, they are then forced into prostitution or will die of starvation. Other times girls are sold by father or uncle to pay off a family debt. If a family member tries to come and rescue their daughter, they are often killed by the . The situation may seem hopeless but I believe God is using people every day to rise up and take a stand. Instead of giving many statistics which often go in one ear and out the other, I would like to share a story that was read to us the first night we got to this ministry site:
“You must drink cola in our home,” Gharwali (a lady owner of a brothel) insisted while we were passing one of the Red Light Districts of Mumbai (India) in November 2010.
We saw in her house there were 6 ladies waiting for the customers.
She ordered three cup of cola for us. We started to talk. Slowly Gharwali began telling us her story. She was sold by her own grandfather while she was 12. She refused to sleep with a man but she got a gift of a big beating and was raped. Eventually she gave in to save her life. After some years, she started her own dhanda (business of buying and using girls as sex slave). She also told us that after some years of dhanda she wanted to go back to her home village. She went to her village in Baglung of western Nepal six different times but her father rejected her and she had to come back Mumbai with some girls to use for sex slavery. We prayed for their health and Lord’s wisdom to repent and went ahead.
As we were walking in the street we saw so many girls from age 12 to 60 waiting for the customers. People could see their cheap make-up and some had children in their side. Anybody can imagine what happens to those small children when they see with their own eyes their mother sleeping with different men every hour.
We passed that street and went to another street. It was the same situation there. Some girls were pulling on mens hands to come as their customers because if they don’t find anybody, they and their children do not have anything to eat in evening as well as receiving a beating and cursing from Gharwali. We encountered with a lady who had about half kilogram of gold as her ornaments. She gave a bench for us to sit. We started to talk. She is one of the richest Gharwali of Mumbai as she has a big numbers of girls. Her daily income from girls is about US$ 1000. She said she had started an organization for the rights of sex slaves. I cried in my heart but could not say anything about it as we were told-saying anything against them is to be killed. These Nepali Gharwalis
are the main traders of girls. They are protected by local authorities and gangs with the power of money. We also prayed there and proceeded.
During 2010 ten baptized ladies from churches of west Nepal were sold by their husbands, brothers, and pastors (I cannot say those people are pastors, but the Lord will judge them). Some became Christians but were persecuted by their families and chose to follow somebody for a better life who lead and sold them in Mumbai.
About 300,000 ladies are still in Mumbai and many have settled to Pune and other towns of India because of Indian Government law. The price of Nepali girls has gone high because the importing of girls has decreased. It is because of awareness in so many places. And Bombay Teen Challenge did prayer walks and fasting prayers in these areas.”
I know this is hard to digest all in one setting but nothing will change as long as we keep our eyes closed to this issue. Let us pray that God brings freedom for these women and girls that are so precious in His sight.
You never know, He may just want to use you!
