Reports
- Gainful Employment Opportunities for Survivors of Trafficking - 0000-00-00
- supported by The Asia Foundation
Introduction: Although official reports claim that adequate information is not available about child sex work and girl trafficking in Nepal, it is estimated that every year 12,000 Nepalese children (ILO - Rapid Assessment) are taken to Indian brothels and the Gulf countries for the purpose of Commercial Sex Work.
Last year Maiti Nepal rescued 52 girls and women from brothels of different parts of India. Among them 24 of them have been reintegrated in the families, others are still at Maiti Nepal. Some of the girls and women who are still with Maiti Nepal have secured employments in Maiti Nepal office, some in hotels and bakeries (after receiving training), as part Maiti Nepal's occupational reintegration program. This program was initiated from last year and as pilot project has been successful to some extent.
Project Proposal: 
Prior to reintegration, survivors require both occupational and social preparation. Occupational preparation for survivors of trafficking in Nepal poses significant challenges: lack of employment opportunities, general absence of females in the workplace, stigma and possible abuse of survivors, lack of skills and education of survivors, and the potential of sex work because of higher wages than other employment.
Since, the beginning of the year 2004, Maiti Nepal has been exploring different enterprising sectors for job opportunities of the survivors of trafficking. Not all the sectors looked positively into this issue, but some have opened their doors and showed their social commitment.
This project addresses these challenges, and is based on a strategy of providing occupational skills according to comprehensive assessment of job and craft markets, individualized occupational training according to survivor's wishes and abilities, the mobilization of support networks in the private sector, marketing of crafts and occupational placement by professional staff, and both social and business training for potential small entrepreneurs.
Program Activities: 10 girls / women (survivors of trafficking) are under going undergoing training at Hotel De' l Annapurna on work for different sections of the hotel e.g. house maid, kitchen, restaurants e.g. The girls will first be trained and depending on their performance they will be provided with the suitable job. We have very good business relations with different hotels in Kathmandu city and these hotels have already made their commitments to us to provide employment to these trained girls and women.
The other gainful employment we have explored is carpentry, which is a very new concept. We had to explore this sector, due to interests shown by the girls and women themselves, during our assessment of their interest. After this we explored different furniture stores and finally found one such person (Alternative Furniture - Bansbari) who was very indeed interested to help the girls and women. They have now asked for 4 girls and women to under go training in their workshop and later on gain employment depending on their performance. If they fail to get a job there, we can always open a furniture shop for these girls and women, which in future will help recruit other interested girls and women (survivors of trafficking).
The other interest shown by the girls and which had proved to be gainful in the past is to work in a beauty parlour as hair dresses. At present 6 girls have competed their training and now we are planning to open a Beauty Parlour for them and this parlour would also serve to provide training to other girls and women.
Similarly, another interesting and gainful field for the girls and women would be floriculture. Since, there are so many flower shops in Kathmandu and nowadays flowers are used almost in every celebration and events, the floriculture business is very lucrative one. 9 of the girls have completed training organized by Floriculture Association of Nepal and after the training they will have a job in hand. 4 of them are now already working in Nurseries in Kathmandu,
Besides Kathmandu, we plan to launch this program also in Makwanpur, Hetauda where exists a prevention home of Maiti Nepal. Here we plan to provide training to girls and women who have had previous training in the prevention home and now intend to further enhance their skill and start business independently. At present 10 of the girls want to undergo bakery training in Hetauda and join bakeries, since it is a very lucrative job in Makwanpur district. The other 11 of the girls and women want to continue sewing and excel in it. So they prefer to undergo advance sewing training and open shops in their villages of towns like Hetauda, either independently or in cooperative manner.
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