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  • Title: Nepal: a cultural prostitution.
    Author: Reinfeld MR.
    Journal: Child Worldw; 1993; 20(2-3):45-6. PubMed ID: 12179312.
    Abstract:
    200,000 Nepali women are believed to have been sold into prostitution in India, some at the age of 11, by their families. Since Nepali women are considered more beautiful and very young ones are considered virginal and free of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the girls command a higher price. However, 1 survey in Bombay indicated that 50% of female prostitutes were infected with HIV. Caste prostitution also exists; among the Bhadi, the women are traditionally sex workers whose earnings support the whole community. The girls (usually the daughters of clients, raised by their single mothers), after being trained by their mothers, begin work at menarche with great ceremony, suffer no social isolation, and retire back into the community. Few marry because men outside the caste do not marry former sex workers and men inside the caste only marry girls from families with at least 3 daughters in order to protect the income to the community. 70% of these Bhadi workers are infected with STDs, but HIV has not made significant inroads. The Nepali prostitutes returning from Indian brothels and the seasonal migrant workers who use their services introduce HIV to a broader range of communities in Nepal. Conventional prevention programs that focus on teaching prostitutes to tell clients to use condoms and how to negotiate this, will fail; the children are in no position to do so. They are considered free of disease by clients who see no need to use condoms and command too high a price as "virgins" for brothel owners to disturb the situation by requiring condom use. Control efforts to stop trafficking have not been successful and do not have priority among the country's many survival needs. A comprehensive, culturally specific approach to HIV prevention is needed that includes education of clients and brothel owners about condom use, and community-based residential facilities for daughters of caste workers so that they may attend school and delay entry into sex work. Finally, the status of women must change, so that they are considered autonomous individuals who can make their own decisions.
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