Honoured for work to end trafficking of girls

KATHMANDU: A 67-year-old Nepali woman honoured with one of India’s most prestigious awards for freeing thousands of girls from sexual slavery says the unbearable pain of victims motivated her to fight trafficking.

Anuradha Koirala, founder of the anti-trafficking charity Maiti Nepal, will be presented with the Padma Shri – one of the highest civilian awards – by India’s president at a ceremony in March or April, according to a government statement issued this week.

“Rescued and rehabilitated 12 000 sex trafficking victims and prevented over 45 000 from being trafficked,” an infographic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s website reads, listing the names and achievements of some of the 89 Padma award winners.

The small, frail teacher-turned-activist said she was encouraged by the award and it would make her work harder to stop girls being bought and sold in the sex trade.

“The pain of victims has motivated me to continue my work,” Koirala told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“When I see their pain – their mental pain as well as physical pain – it is so troubling that I cannot turn myself away. This gives me strength to fight and root this crime out.”

South Asia is one of the fastest-growing region for human trafficking in the world, according to the UN Office for Drugs and Crime.

Anti-slavery activists say thousands of people, mostly from poor villages, are trafficked from countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh to India by gangs who sell them into bonded labour or hire them out to unscrupulous employers Many women and girls are sold into brothels..

India is home to 40% of the world’s 46 million slaves, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, produced by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.

Koirala left her two-decadelong career as a teacher in 1993 and founded Maiti to support victims rescued from sex trafficking who face social stigma and are ostracised by their families and communities. . – Reuters