KATHMANDU, NEPAL – Outside an old two-story building in Thamel, the famous tourist area in the heart of Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, a rusted signboard reads, “Herbal Oil Massage Available Here,” in bold English letters.Below that, a red arrow points the way into what is just one of many massage centers here.
Climbing the stairs, past the small restaurant on the first floor, reveals the massage center on the second floor. Dark wooden bars separate the room into three equal sections. Mattresses are scattered on the floor. The side door bears a carving of a man and a woman.
At the front desk, three young girls sit and gossip about mascara and lipstick as they apply powder to their faces. A fourth girl, Niru KC, 22, peeks her head out from a window. She is tired and ready to go home.
"It's better to call it a day today,” she says to her three colleagues, Usha Lama, 18, Januka Thapa, 20, and Sushma Lama, 16. “I think no more customer[s] will come now."
Just then, the Nokia mobile phone on the front desk starts ringing its familiar ring.
Eighteen-year-old Usha Lama picks up the phone and says, “Can’t do for less than 500 rupees ($7 USD) per hour.” She puts down the phone and turns to her friends. “Bastard, how dare he ask me for home service for 300 rupees?”
Then, she laughs, shrugs and turns around, showing a dimple in her cheek. Her colleagues share her exasperation with the low-ball request. Reaching in the drawer, Lama pulls out three bundles of money.
“This is the whole of our earning[s] for today,” she says, dejected.
Thamel is a chaotic blur of restaurants, curio shops, hotels and travel agencies. Among the momo stands – Tibetan dumplings – and pashmina shops, massage parlors are also common sights in this tourist area. But the truth about Thamel is that the signboards hanging outside often do not represent the services provided inside. In the case of the nearly 80 “herbal oil massage” parlors here, most operate as brothels on the inside.
Inside these brothels, young girls, often from rural areas, come naively to work in a massage parlor and end up as sex workers. While some fall prey to the false promises of a better life, others say they were tricked or coerced into the job and still others admit they sought out the flesh trade to earn a living, despite the fact that prostitution is illegal here.
But as increased public health messages about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are disseminated with more frequency here, sex workers and their clients report taking increased precautions. As advocates continue to speak out for the girls who work in the parlors, local police say they are calling on the interim government to create a red light district.
Number of Sex Workers Mount, Public Health Messages Increase
In a light pink blouse and tight blue jeans, KC looks tired as she jingles a big, red bangle on her right hand. Her eyes look sunken as she reveals that she has been working in this massage parlor, providing sex to local and international clients, for the last four years.
Originally from the northern part of Nepal bordering China, KC – a common last name that often stands for Khatri Chhetri, indicating a mixed caste background – lost her parents when she was only 16. .
"After the sudden death of my parents, I had to face [the] hand-to-mouth problem,” she says.
But Niru KC is illiterate and had few options. Her two older sisters were already married when her parents died. She says her older brother was an alcoholic and was abusive.
“[My] brother used to get drunk every day and hit me for no reason, she says. “After he sold our house, I had nowhere to go but my sister’s place in Kathmandu.” She says she chose this path with no other options left. (to avoid stacked quotes)
“One needs good education to get a good job,” she says. “Since I have neither education nor any special skill, I was forced to do this job to eke out a living.”
KC is one of thousands of young girls who work in the pseudo-massage service industry in Kathmandu.
“I do not know how to do a massage, but it does not matter since nobody comes in our parlor for massage,” she says. “We never provide the real massage service. What we provide is ‘sassage,’” she says, revealing the word parlor girls use to refer to sex. “The signboard is just to keep the cops at bay.We don't want to be arrested on the charge of selling sex.”
Poor girls from remote villages of Nepal who are lured to Kathmandu with promises of money and employment often end up in the sex trade, according to various studies conducted by local NGOs.
Change Nepal, one nongovernmental organization working to end trafficking, calculated that more than 200 businesses in Kathmandu operate as massage parlors. According to the group, approximately 20 percent of the massage parlors, the ones situated near the five-star hotels, offer genuine massage services. The remaining 80 percent, however, operate as brothels on the inside.
The number of sex workers involved in the massage parlor business is significant in comparison with the country’s total population of nearly 23 million, reports a new study conducted by three NGOs working together – NewERA, Kripa and WATCH, Women Acting Together for Change. Today, the groups estimate there are as many as 25,000 female sex workers in Kathmandu. However, Inspector Sudip Pathak, the chief of the police post that patrols the Thamel area, claims the number is likely around 50,000. Pathak says the massage parlors in Thamel alone employ more than 5,000 young girls.
When KC came to Kathmandu she worked at a beauty parlor for a few weeks, until a woman she met offered her a job at a massage parlor, promising better pay. She was told her work would be similar to the job in the beauty parlor. Eager to make more money, she says she accepted the offer and went to the massage parlor with the lady. There, KC met other girls her age and was given a room where she could stay.
“The lady gave me 1,000 rupees ($14 USD) as an advance salary,” she says. “I relaxed on my bed and fell asleep the first night.”
On her second day, she was introduced to the true nature of her new job.
"As I reached [the] office, I saw an old, big guy in his 50s sitting at the counter,” KC says. “The lady at the front desk gave me a bottle of oil and asked me to massage his body.. I didn’t know anything about massage. Thinking that I would learn about massage day by day, I started massaging his body, and slowly he started touching me and even kissed me forcibly. As he stripped of himself and tried to kiss to here and there, I ran out of the room. The front desk lady had to send in another girl to massage him.”
When she told the other girls at the parlor about what the man had done, she says she became the laughingstock. She was told she had to "let clients do whatever they want." KC went home and thought about her options and thought about the money. Most of the parlor girls earn around 1,000 rupees per day, $14 USD, plus tips, a strong wage in Nepal.
"At last I decided to continue the job,” KC says. “I returned to the job the next day.”
When she arrived, a few customers were already sitting on the sofas. Again, the woman at the desk gave her a bottle of oil and asked her to start the job.
"This time it was a young guy,” she says shyly. “He was a good-looking guy. I started to massage his body. Slowly he also stripped himself and touched my breasts and aroused me. Then the real thing happened.
After that, KC says she began to learn how to survive in the business of sex.
Family Health International, FHI, conducted a survey on a group of 500 sex workers between 2004 and 2008. The survey identified sex workers in two groups – “street-based” and “establishment-based.” Street-based sex workers are those who make deals with their clients on the streets. Establishment-based sex workers are those who are associated with hotels, dance bars, restaurants and massage parlors. The FHI study revealed that more than 70 percent of all sex workers were married at one time and abandoned by their husbands. At least 34 percent of the sex workers are illiterate.
As for the clients, the FHI study suggests that 13 percent of sex clients go to massage parlors, while the majority solicit sex at local cabin restaurants, dance bars and through private contacts. An estimated 51 percent are government employees or security personnel, while the remainders are businessmen or work in other informal sectors, like truck drivers.
The fact that sex businesses are booming in Kathmandu is no secret. It has been a matter of top concern for the new interim government here. Increased public health awareness campaigns have been launched, and many say they are yielding successful results.
As government and NGOs launch awareness campaigns about preventing sexually transmitted diseases and infections, increased condom distribution efforts are encouraging safe sex.
In the past four years, syphilis, one of the most common STDs among sex workers, has declined to 1 percent from 6 percent five years ago, says Dr. Laxmi Bilas Acharya, a strategic information adviser. The HIV rate, he confirms, has remained unchanged.
“More people are aware of safe sex now, but the rate of HIV transmission has not decreased,” says Acharya, also noting that it has not increased either.
Parlor girls in Thamel say they are very aware of HIV/AIDS and have frequently come into contact with NGOs working in the field.
“I was told about the dangers of HIV by a worker of an NGO,” KC says. "As a result, I take precautionary measure[s] all the time."
She says a few of her friends have contracted the disease and now take antiretroviral medication. While she says she is careful, she also admits that she does not get a regular health checkup.
Most surprising for many in the public health sector is that many sex workers are reporting that their clients take increased precautions too.
“Nowadays clients come with branded condoms and even those who forget to bring condoms immediately go out and come back with one,” KC says.
Activists Fighting for Rights, Sex Workers Fighting for Established Red Light District
Women’s rights activists in Nepal say they are sympathetic about the plight of parlor girls and want to help. Urmila Chaudhary, an advocate fighting for the rights of sex workers here, says nobody chooses flesh trade for fun or by interest.
"They are forced to start this profession in the face of poverty and illiteracy," Chaudhary says.
KC admits that all the days are not same. Some are pleasant and others are terrible.
“Some customers do not pay and threaten them to take to police,” Chaudhary says. “Even some security personnel threaten to arrest them if they do not offer them free sex.”
It is the bad days that make KC and her colleagues at the massage parlor want to quit the business. For Lama, two years as a sex worker has been too long. She says she remembers the poverty of her village, but regardless, she is planning to return.
"I will return to my village and start a small business with the money that I am saving now,” she says. “Never again will I do this job. I want to live the remaining years of my life in a dignified way.”
Amid the clamor of public health messages and activists fighting for the girls working in the parlors, one parlor owner says she has nothing to be ashamed of.
"We have at least filled the hungry bellies of thousands of girls and at the same time making sex trade organized," says one massage parlor owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It is due to us that the girls make good money. Those who say we are doing a wrong thing should understand the fact that money and sex are the need of today's world. I tell the pimps working for my parlor to bring young and fresh girls from villages."
Still, the police patrolling the areas say they are on the lookout for both the sex workers and the parlor owners.
"We release sex workers caught for the first time after warning them,” police inspector Pathak says. “But those arrested for the second time are charged with prostitution. But frequent arrests do not deter them from operating sex businesses.This could be because the country neither has specific law to prevent sex trade nor has legalized prostitution. I think once the government declares a red light area, this business itself will come under control.”
A representative from Nepal’s home ministry confirmed that the government was ready to announce the creation of a red light area three months ago, but as the interim government here struggles to elect leaders and amid a deepening political crisis, the issue has been overshadowed. Officials say they expect the issue to be taken up again when the new government is in place.
Like activists and security personnel, KC says she too is anxiously and desperately awaiting the creation of a red light area by the government so she can live without the constant fear of being arrested.
