Nepal Monitor: The National Online Journal

It was the beginning of October 2008, and the festival season in Nepal was about to commence. People from many places of the cities started to come to the market to buy and sell goods. It was also a time for productive trading. Many activities could be seen in the marketplace. The sellers constantly were hooting to attract as many customers that passed by. On the street, vehicles, both public and private, past the crowded areas. The public vehicle conductors on the other side were shouting out the names of destinations for the commuters heading home. It seemed like a very rush night.

I grew up in this city and I remember the market wasn’t this busy a decade back. However, the internal migration and centralized market in the capital forced most of the Nepali people to draw their attention to live here. Political disturbances also caused the internal or domestic migration. At present, political stability is on process, this might have led the people to return back to their cities or villages with some gifts to their family back home. As Dashain is one of the major festivals, the exchange of gifts among relatives is customary in Nepali society. I remember my childhood moments when I used to hold my mother’s hand and come to this market to buy new clothing for Dashain. I used to feel very happy to wear the new dress that my mother bought me. Holding her hand I used to wander around shops to collect more commodities for the Dnshain festival. I would want to reach home soon to try the outfit and show my neighbors but until the shopping wasn’t finished, my mother would make me travel with her. This year I was all by myself to buy goods for Dashain.

I was in my car at the side of the road waiting for a long time to find a perfect parking slot. My waiting in the car did not bother any taxi driver as these vehicles covered almost all the area of the parking slot. I could do nothing to clear them out the parking slot but to just wait for them to leave with their passengers. The place I had stopped my car was a dark corner with no street lamp. The only light that glowed in the area came from the passing vehicles’ beam light. I saw a few people hanging out and wandering to and fro. For sometime I thought they too were people visiting the market to buy some goods for the upcoming festival. However, I was wrong; they were people bargaining a deal in human trading. The scene was dramatic, a few females were surrounde by men. It turned out that they were female prostitutes or sex workers.

he term sex worker suggests prostitution as a reasonable job for poor women but not a violation of human rights. Some have defined “prostitution as a job rather than an act of violence against women” (Farley, 2006, p.124). The activities in the dark corner reflected brightly on the passing vehicles’ head light beam. In addition to female prostitution, writing on prostitution in the West, Myer-Powell (2008) revealed “70 percent of the women who enter prostitution get into it by the age of 12”.

I was in my car for almost an hour; still I was unable to find a parking slot. It was hot inside and I slid down the window, expecting I could refresh myself with a cool breeze from outside. Rather, I could hear more noise from outside. I could also hear the sex workers’ bargaining activities. Constantly, I heard a female making a deal saying five hundred for one. This gave me more clear idea about who they actually were and I became sure about their identity as prostitutes.

Some researchers have noted the social impact of prostitution. For example, Powell claims that “sex trade is very profitable” but it is harmful to everyone, ‘to the women, men and community”. Is street prostitution a problem?

Scott (2002) writes that there are various perspectives on prostitution. As for his own view, he believes that prostitutes are primarily responsible for the problem. Others view clients as responsible, and prostitutes as victim. Some view prostitution as a private matter that state should not intervene in. Furthermore, Scott writes that “community morals and beliefs about how the law should regulate morality will affect how any particular community addresses street prostitution”.

I was now curious about the rowdy act in the busy street. However, few passersby seemed to observe it. Meanwhile, the parking slot was being cleared. As I was late already, I rushed to the market keeping aside those entire scenes in the dark corner. It was already 8.30 p.m.; the dark corner activities were still alive. However, ignoring such activities, I left for home that night.

Few days later I returned back to the same area. To my astonishment, I noticed there were more females, dressed glamorously and trying to attract the right client. Some researchers in the West have noted that such clients are typically referred to as “Johns” or “Tricks” (Scott, 2002. p.6).

I noticed that the wrong Johns were being ignored by the prostitutes. However, those Johns were trying to persuade some prostitutes for a night offering the best they could afford. Slowly the numbers of males began to increase as more and more left with the clients there were a few prostitutes left. It seemed that most of the prostitutes left with their Johns by taxi to their secret destination.

Despite a governmental ban on bar dancing, aimed at discouraging nudity shows, the open business of sex work activities has not withered. I wondered if those prostitutes were among those laid off from the dance bars. I was curious to know more about the activities at that dark corner of the street. However, I couldn’t dare ask the prostitutes neither could I ask the prospective Johns. Nevertheless, I got out of my car to question a taxi driver. He said some “third gender people” were involved in sex work and some of them were professional prostitutes. But he couldn’t tell where they came from. Gender diversity in prostitution is not uheard of. Referring to gender differences in prostitution, Parker stated “most young men used in prostitution are heterosexual”.

I returned back to my car, the activity of trading sex for money still continued. I saw a few prostitutes but there were a lot of men. Some men were resting on the road railing for a chance to grab a cheap prostitute. Meanwhile, few well-dressed prostitutes were moving around looking for Johns. I had a hunch that the well-dressed prostitutes must be pimps who come for a deal and collect the men to duo their partner. Parker, in his research findings, further asserted that pimps are the part of the business even where prostitution is legal.

Many people involved in this sex trades are of different age group who congregate the dark corner resting on the railing bar. Some have called it “coercion as a stereotype about prostitution” but researchers suggest that coercion is only a factor among many and that “economy should be considered a form of coercion”. In support of this line of reasoning, Farley (2006) stated “prostitution is chosen as a job by those who have fewest real choices available to them”.

There are some more realistic pictures of getting into prostitution like low income to support the family and lack of job opportunities. In addition to this, Farley further addressed that “lack of educational opportunity for poor families and a lack of sustainable income from many jobs contribute to women’s and girls’ entry into prostitution”. Therefore, economic coercion is one powerful tool that commits women, girls and others to get involved into prostitution, as a means to easy money and a profitable business. Scott (2002) argued that all streets prostitutes are not equally committed to prostitution. Some have deep, commitment for financial and lifestyle reasons, some due to dependency on drugs and some to make an easy money.

In spite of such open trading of sex in the heart of the city, Nepal has not legalized prostitution. Whether it should be legalized (like in most developed countries) or not is another interesting question, though. It is also true that legalization may also increase such activities at different places and cities. This may further create trafficking of human for sex, which is a human rights violation. Furthermore, legalization creates “safe heaven for criminals who traffic people into prostitution” (US State Department, 2004b in Fergus, 2005. p.28). Legalized prostitution in Australia have led to a “prostitution culture” with both illegal as well as legal prostitution and an organized crime and an increase demand for women and child prostitutes (Sullivan, 2005). Despite such human rights implications, the government remains silent.

Many researchers and journalists also point out an economic motive behind prostitution. Farley (2006) asserts that “many governments protect commercial sex business because of the monstrous profits. Like slavery, prostitution is a lucrative form of oppression” (p.102). Nonetheless, postmodernists assume women involved in prostitution business are narrating one more version of reality, viewed more, according to one sesearcher (Farley, 2006), as an alive commodity rather than a human being.

There are also some moral implications. The lure of money may also attract juveniles in this business. to get into prostitution reinforced by the pimps and the Johns. Scott (2002) identified the following moral concerns:

• Prostitution offends some citizens’ moral standards.
• Prostitution is a nuisance to passersby and to the nearby residents and businesses.
• Prostitutes and clients offend uninvolved people in the area when they solicit them.
• Juveniles, who are less capable of making informed choices, may become prostitutes (p.2).

Beside the moral concerns, there are few others, such as personal safety, spillover effect, economic, and civil rights concerns. Among all these, I put more stress in the economic concerns which drive the women, girls and others into prostitution business. The (bad) reputation of the community is another factor. Scott suggests that the location of prostitution may hamper the business of the local vendors. This may make customers avoid the location despite it being a prime market for purchasing goods. This also reduces the business of the local vendors. Another concern, according to Scott, is that the location may diminish the market price of the property as local community resident may want to leave and quit such a location.

However, street prostitution flourishes where it supports legitimate business and and is supported by the legitimate business rather than it creating conflicts. Scott further asserts that the areas that foster street prostitution are places where cheap motel, lodges and hotels are available. The other areas fostering prostitution are dimly lit parking lots, alleys, abandoned building, availability of cheap restaurants or coffee shops, effective drug dealing joints, places that guide escaping avenue from police and the busy roads that allows drivers to slow down or stop the car.

Taking a note of drug users alone, Rajbhandari (2008) stated that “adolescents are more likely to have multiple sexual partners and short-term relationships, to engage in unprotected intercourse, and to have partners who are themselves at high risk for STDs. Not surprisingly, it has been found that transmission of HIV/AIDS among teenagers in Nepal is not due to injecting drugs but due to sexual relationships. Almost 40% of injecting drug users with HIV/AIDS has found to be infected by sexual relationships.

Such references at best serve with scattered insights. This research focuses on a particular location in Kathmandu.

Finding out systematically
As a researcher, I wanted to find out more substantive aspects of prostitution in that part of the street corner. But it was a sensitive and tricky subject to pursue. I adopted a community perspective which made it more efficient to gather the data for the research problem. Empirical data were collected and reviewed from the relevant literature for secondary source of evidence and the primary sources of information were gathered from the local community people.

As for the methodology, I took a critical approach, emphasizing that social reality is historically constituted and is reproduced by people (Myers, 2004). Although prostitutes desire to act as a normal people they are always forced to cope up with prostitution due to economic constraints and social circumstances. This creates a conflicting situation for the prostitutes to quit their filthy profession. The economic and social circumstances limit them from taking over the prostitution business as these sex workers are never recognized as normal people by the society. Economic constraints can be overcome by providing them a regular job; however, job opportunities in Nepal are scarce, one reason that forces many young people to migrate to foreign lands for labor. Even though these prostitutes are given a job to rectify their economic concerns, the people who work along with them may also see them with revulsion. Moreover, these prostitutes may also be put to sexual coercions and unwanted sexual activities by the co-workers.

The community, as it has the advantage for constant advantage of the locale, may provide a more realistic picture of the sex business. Hence, the attempt of this ethnographic research is to to gather insights from the perspective of the community. In other words, how the community reacts to prostitution in an open ground. Furthermore, since prostitution is viewed as a social problem and a cultural taboo, the perspective of community could be a an added contribution. So to pursue this research, I spent most of my time with community members and local vendors trying to collect their perspectives.

Asking the questions
I framed my research questions to highlight the concern for prostitutes from the perspectives of the community. The following questions were broadly designed to capture the possible answers: .1. What are the concerns of the community towards street prostitutions? 2. How do community members react to street prostitution? (ex. Do they oppose the practice?) 3.Are community members willing to tolerate the street prostitution?

Research tools and respondents
I adopted observation and interview techniques. The subjects of my observation were the prostitutes, the Johns and the passersby. Observation on location was made frequently for two hours, studying the behavior of people involved in the sex trade. Their ways of expressions were noted and interpreted. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with community members residing in the area and local vendors which included, regular casual garment sellers, legitimate shop entrepreneurs and also the taxi drivers who happened to stop by for passengers.

Data analysis procedures
The data thus collected from respondents was analyzed through triangulation methods, comprising time triangulation, the data triangulation, person triangulation, and the space triangulation. Olsen (2004) argues that “triangulation is not aimed merely at validation but at deepening and widening one’s understanding”. The triangulation mode of analysis further helped me to clearly understand the ongoing activities of street prostitution from different perspectives.

Ethical considerations
While pursuing my investigation to gather evidences for the research problem, I did not make direct interventions into the prostitutes’ activities. The observation was carried out passively, watching the activities of the entire passersby, Johns, and the prostitutes. However, interviews were carried out taking prior consent from the key respondents. I explained to all the respondents that the research study was conducted purely for academic purpose. For ethical reasons, the identities or the names of the respondents have been withheld in this study.

What I found out?
It has always been told by many people that an unwanted scene creates disturbances. Likewise, street prostitutions is something that a community would want to resist. Community respondents believed such open scenes of sex trade disturb the discipline in society as well as the home atmosphere. Nobody would want their sons, daughters or their siblings to watch this kind of open trading. However, nobody talked about it in the open, at home or in social environments.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Why prostitution?
2. Are you aware of street prostitution in the dark corner? What is your opinion about it?
3. For how long has this been going on?
4. In your opinion, where do you think these prostitutes have come from?
5. What types of prostitutes are seen here, for example, girls, women, and the third-gender, etc?
6. Are community people aware of it? What do they say about such activities taking place in a community location?
7. In your opinion, how do the local community people react on street prostitution?
8. Do you think community people are eager to clean up the street prostitution from the location? How do you think they would do that?
9. Does this hamper the legitimate business like, shop, vendors, and normal people coming to buy goods? Your opinion.
10. The community has a club, a municipality, a police station; these organizations are here for the community. In your opinion what do you think they have to say about it?
11. Has the community tried to remove street prostitution from the location? How?
12. Why is street prostitution still open in this location? Do you think it is because prostitution has not disturbed the local community?
13. Has government or any social organization shown their interest to solve street prostitution here?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In contrast, sex workers do not seem to care what the society holds to them. This is because they have often come from other communities and their identities remain mostly unknown The dark corner wasn’t the permanent place for the sex workers from the beginning, actually they were ousted by community people from a previous location. Thus, they are mobile and find a place suitable for trading as long as a community does not appear threatening. Nevertheless, the previous spot is not that far the present one. Researchers in the past have noted the significance of location in sex trade. Fergus (2005) stated the definition that “the condition of a person who provides sexual service and who, because of the use of force or threats is not free to cease providing sexual service; or is not free to leave the place or area where the person provides sexual services” (p.7). However, Farley (2006) stated that it is an error to assume that prostitutes remains in one location. The location of prostitution is determined by the intensity of demand for it. In connection to this, she further adds that “women are moved to wherever pimps and traffickers can make the most of money, for example, near military bases, near political or business conventions, or to location where sporting events take place”.

The dark corner I observed was filled with many street vendors, taxis and ancient local community residents. It’s a busy market places located nearby a famous public school. The school premises are also open for children to play around and serve as a prime spot for drug intake like glue sniffing, after school hours is over (Rajbhandari, 2007). Does this answer my third research question of tolerance for street prostitutes by the community members in the context that the school management could not curb the practice despite despite it being publicly notified? However, there is some differnce between the practices. Drug users hide from the people whereas prostitutes display themselves to the Johns.

The Community Perspectives
Prostitution has become a major concern in developing countries. And lacking medical attention and sexuality education for prostitutes, the issue of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have become more critical.

My concern was more towards community awareness about street prostitution and their concern at such activities. I interviewed a taxi driver who was at the side of the road. He was trying to cool down the hot engine of his vehicle. He said those prostitutoin activities had been going on for a long period but nobody really cared. “As for me, I don’t have any problem with this even if they want to ride in my taxi. If they approach me for a ride I take them as my passengers and I don’t question their profession but haul them to their destination”. He added that there is a lack of job opportunity and for some like them, it is a source of living. I posed similar question to a police constable on his duty. He also answered that those activities were fostered due to lack of job opportunity. “These prostitutes escape when they see us. Even though we arrest them, they do not change their profession and the next day they are in the streets again. We cannot afford to arrest the same person again and again.”

I also taked to a legitimate businessman who owns a motorcycle repairing garage and also a resident of the community; He expressed with anger while explaining about the street prostitution. He asserted that “money is the main concern that fosters prostitution. I believe this activity is being encouraged by some local residents who are not staying in this community at present. They have rented out the old houses to these people and the linking lane to this street is known as a Tamang tole which previously used to be known as Kunna tole. I think only those people (johns and pimps) know about this. Had these people been not offered the this street prostitution wouldn’t have fostered in this community”. The businessman further asserted that most of these prostitutes are transgender.

A legitimate retail shop gentleman echoed similar sentiments: “We see them as girls but they are not girls. We call them Chakkas which means the third gender”. Green (2002) explains such sexual or gender orientation on the basis of queer theory, which “ignores the social and institutional conditions within which lesbians and gays live”. He characterizes transgender prostitution as “gender bending” (graph 7) and “socially constructed categories of normative and deviant sexual behavior” that is the “rubric of what is natural, essential, biological and god-given” (graph 18). Prostitution of any kind is disliked by the community. However, for the transgender prostitutes, it is essentialism economically and it is god-given.

However, prostitution of any kind is disliked by the community either it is the prostitution of heterosexual, homosexual or the transgender category. In a similar vein, a legitimate businessman said: “Sometimes community members talk about it but are not taking any type of action. They are being humiliated by such activities taking place in the community itself”. I sensed reluctance on the part of both the community and the legitimate business towards showing much concern for the street prostitution. It may be because of the lack of confidence on the ability of the police to provide security and the lack of cohsesiveness of the local community.

The divise political scenario of the country helping people to formation a group that binds together the commuinity that can systematically speak out and act against street prostitutes. The local shopkeeper complained that since this kind of activities are taking place for over a year, it is time for the community to think seriously about the implications of such activities taking place openly. “However, we could do nothing about them even if we want to. Time has changed and we have to be very cautious about opposing them. They have their own gangs and if we try offending them they might as well take it negatively and resort to reprisals. It’s pretty scary”.

Nonetheless, it was also found that businesses in the localities are never directly hampered by the street prostitution and the street prostitutes are also never directly affected by the local businesses. Moreover, prostitutes, pimps and the johns are protected in the dark corner. This is because taxies and the local transport entreprenuers are always standing by where lots of general public come for the ride. The crowd itself is the source of protection and also helps stimulate the local marketplace.

Importantly, the dark corner renders the marketplace and the ancient local market (Ason) one of the busiest places. Although legitimate businesses have nothing to do with such ilegimate activities, it has had uncomfortable influece on the overall image of the locality and other human chores, such as regular females returning back to their homes from a tiring job while passing through the dark corner place. A legitimate businessman said that although there was no direct influence of such sexaul activities on regular busineses social integrity is questioned when people pass by that place. And they are also behaviorally assaulted by the Johns. ”We are running business here and we don’t actually belong to this community. When our relatives, especially sisters and daughters, are here they are gazed at in a bad manner. This is the worst part of the dark corner business”.

Reactions from the local community remains mute. An aged local resident asserts that “local people know about this, but perhaps our society is not broadminded. so people do not freely talk about such activities. They only cast a gesture of dislike. They have not yet tried to oppose such activities”.

Social and administrative units seem mute spectators. There is the government ward office, police station, local municipality and most of all a youth club. The youth club, Annapurna RCT, is active in ventures like street maintenance, cultural activities, sports and other aspects benefiting the society and the community.

In this connection, local vendors poured his disbelief, stating for instance, that “the club is very active; however, it has never shown interest in opposing the prostitution, activity. When we tell them about the prostitution business the club members just want to turn things around and try to evade the matter by saying let it go”. The concern for such activities is little from the community side as these local community people are busy in their own respective business. Moreover, the street prostitution business takes place at night, when most of the community members are not around to witness the business.

The dark corner where the trading takes placce is at the curve of a government school wall. The school is not complaining about it and as well as the community members, despite their awarness about such activities. It can also be deduced that community people are tolerating the fact of sex trading. But if things get out of control, they may not remain mute any longer and may oppose such activities.

Conclusion
Street prostitution has never been favored by the society and the community. However, in this case, the community seems to be indifferent to the activities at the dark street corner. Perphas the community would be alert to such activities if they take during the daytime. It is also possible that they are unaware of the nature of this business since this involves transgender prostitution, not the regular females. Most of the community people believe that these transgender people are gifted and are trying to earn money by begging and displaying their bodies. This misconception has led the community people to ignore their sexual activities. A time may arrive when the local community will educate themselves about transgender sex trade and may oppose their street prostitution activities in the local community.

Mannie Rajbhandari is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Education at Kathmandu University

References
Farley, M. (2006). Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia: What we want
must not know in order to keep the business of sexual exploitation running
smoothly. Yale journal of law and feminism.

Fergus, L. (2005). Trafficking in women for sexual exploitation. Briefing,
Australian centre for the study of sexual assault. No.5

Myer-Powell, B. (2008). Really worth it? No prostitution exploits many women’s
deep pain.

Olsen, W. (2004). Triangulation in social research: Qualitative and quantitative
methods can really be mixed.
http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/festval2004/programme/Sat/pm/MSTheatr
e/documents/Olsen_000.doc (October 14, 2008)

Parker, J. (n.d.). How prostitution works?
www.prostitutionresearch.com/how_prostitution_works/000012.html

Rajbhandari, M. M. S. (2008). Glue, a cheap substitute for intoxication.
Ohmynews.com.
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=381548&rel_no=1 (October 13, 2008)

Rajbhandari, M. M. S. (2008). Impact of sexuality education in preventing STD-
HIV/AIDS among teenagers of school going students. Mini research
Project. Kathmandu University. Nepal.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0
000019b/80/3e/b1/63.pdf

Scott, M.S. (2002). Street prostitution. Problem-oriented guides for police series.
No.2. Community oriented policing services. U.S. Department of justice.

Sullivan, M. (2005). What happens when prostitution becomes work? An update
legalization of prostitution in Australia 23.
http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=84641&AA_EX_
Session=133d5a594891eaaf2513b9d8a9795

Queer Theory, Online at: http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/queertheory.html

####