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Badi women struggle to escape sex trade in Nepal

Women from this marginalized community have few options to provide for families
Badi women struggle to escape sex trade in Nepal

Goma Badi 35, left, became a sex worker at the age of 14. (Photo by Pragati Shahi)

Published: March 09, 2016 07:50 AM GMT
Updated: March 09, 2016 08:00 AM GMT

A middle-aged man entered the darkened room where Goma Badi was waiting. She was then just 14 years of age.

"He was wearing a plain shirt and cotton pants. As soon as he entered my room, he started taking out his clothes with smile on his face," Goma says.

"My mother who knew this man told me about his coming beforehand and got me prepared for my first night with a customer who could be of my father's age if I had known one. I was nervous," she says.

For Goma this chapter marked the start of her career in Nepal's flesh trade — a family profession handed down from one generation to the next.

As the eldest daughter to an impoverished dalit family, she also cared for her four younger siblings who were all born without knowing who their fathers were. As her mother aged and become less appealing to customers, Goma's ordeal as a commercial sex worker began. Her first customer paid 40 rupees (less than US.50-cents) for almost the whole of that night, in late September 1995.

"I knew it was coming sooner or later. It was what other woman from my community including my mother were doing to support the family," said Goma who lives in Muda in Kailali district, with about 60 families from a Badi community.

Her customers were local landlords, politicians, businessmen and police officers from neighboring towns and cities.

"There were four-five customers daily," Goma says.

"Some demanded sex without any protection so it was more pleasurable for them," she says.

During her 15 years working as a sex worker, Goma gave birth to three fatherless children.

"I left working as a sex worker over five years ago," says Goma, who is now married to a laborer from India.

Prostitution of any kind is illegal in Nepal but for young Badi girls — as Goma was — selling themselves for sex to support their families is not uncommon. In a country such as Nepal, which still has caste-based discrimination, high levels of poverty and illiteracy, girls from the Badi community have limited options.

The 2011 national census puts the Badi population at 38,603 in West Nepal.

Taruna Badi became a prostitute at 15 to support her ailing parents. (Photo by Pragati Shahi)

 

Beaten

The story of Taruna Badi, 45, a former sex worker is not dissimilar to Goma's.

As an only child, she had migrated with her parents from a remote area in Nepal's West to earn money by selling traditional musical instruments.

"I was a child when my parents migrated to the plains," says Taruna. "For a couple of years the family earned some money by entertaining people by traditional music and selling the instruments like Madal, a traditional drum used in Nepali folk music," she said.

With modernization, people preferred television and videos to music and dance, which made many of the traditional jobs of the Badi community redundant.

"There was no point in continuing what our ancestors did for living," Taruna adds.

As she grew up, Taruna's parents became ill and the responsibility of supporting them fell on her.

"There was no work for us. We were considered untouchables among the untouchables," she says.

"The only option left for me was to take up what other members in my family were doing for a living — selling my body for money," she says.

"I was 18 when I entered the commercial sex trade. The experience was horrible with some customers wanting forceful sex without protection," Taruna says.

"Some customers treated me kindly while many were ruthless and would beat if they did not find it as they were expecting," she adds.

 

Juthi Badi 50, a former sex worker, has six grandchildren whose father's identities remain unknown. (Photo by Pragati Shahi)

 

Fighting for their rights

Like Goma and Taruna, there are many middle-aged Badi women who left their profession for the hope of better life but who find they have little or no alternatives for survival.

Muda is a major Badi community and it is filled with young children who were born from the sex trade. All of them are unaware of their father's identities.

Due to greater awareness of their situation some Badi women are now fighting against the discrimination they faced from the community, society and state.

In 2007, Taruna, Goma and her mother Juthi, were among over 400 women from their community who travelled to Kathmandu to demand the government provide food, shelter and clothing.

"We had enough. It was time to fight for the dignity of young girls and women who had endured enough troubles living as a Badi, and for futures generations whose future remains insecure," says Uma Badi, president of the Badi Rights Struggle Committee. A former sex worker herself, Uma along with dozens of Badi women were arrested during the protest in 2007 which lasted for one and half months. In the end the government signed an agreement promising to end the discrimination the community faced and to create for them welfare schemes and employment facilities.

The agreement signed between the government and Badi community focused on five key issues: ending the use of discriminatory terms, providing identity cards and citizenship to all Badis and facilitate the process to be given through mothers, scholarships for children, employment options and access to proper health care.

Despite, the string of promises made by the government very little materialized.

Following the protest, the government said they would provide 15,000 rupees (US$150) to each Badi woman as stipend but so far only 3,000 women have received the amount. Similarly, the Ministry of Urban Development has been implementing a five-year people's housing program since 2011 but has so far only built around 200 houses.

"It is true that there are very limited programs focusing on Badi women and their empowerment," says Manu Humagain, spokeswoman from the government's National Women Commission. "These (Badi) women were ostracized, abused and discriminated before and the situation has not improved as expected. We need a specific program focusing on betterment of their socio-economic status in the long run," she adds.  

Though the commercial sex trade is not as prevalent, it is still secretly being practiced.

"If I were young enough to have people interested on me, I would work again," Goma says.

With no access to land ownership, housing and employment opportunities, young Badi women from Muda are migrating to Indian cities.

"The increasing trend is young girls and women moving to India, where most become sex workers to earn money and send it to their parents living in Nepal. It is a new challenge to overcome," says Uma.

The Badi community in Muda, Kailali, where around 60 families live. (Photo by Pragati Shahi)

 

Caritas assisting Badi communities

Caritas program coordinator in West Nepal Janak Sharma, says Caritas Nepal is planning specific programs for Badi women that will focus on improving their life through empowerment, skill development training, education and health facilities.

In 2014, Caritas Nepal was involved in helping flood victims from Badi community living in Dailekh district in building houses for 23 families.

"The majority of Badi families do not have their own land or houses. The families in Dailekh were living along the river banks as squatters when the nearby river flooded and washed away their temporary shelters," said Sharma.

Caritas also provided technical and financial support to buy land and build houses for the affected families. The initiative was partly funded by Nepal's government under the People's Housing Program. "Besides, housing facility we also provided support for set employment options, saving and credit for Badi women to discourage them from taking up prostitution," he said.

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