Study shows sex-trafficked Nepali girls have high HIV infection rate

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), USA, have come up with a shocking report that says Nepali girls sex-trafficked to India and then repatriated have high HIV infection rate.

The HSPH researchers found that among the 287 girls and women documented in the research, 38 percent tested positive for HIV. Among those with complete documentation of trafficking experiences (225 girls and women), the median age at time of trafficking was 17 years, with 33 girls (14.7 percent) trafficked prior to age 15 years.

Compared to those trafficked at 18 years or older, girls trafficked prior to age 15 years had an increased risk for HIV, with 60.6 percent infected among this youngest age group, the research paper published Wednesday said.

“HIV infection has been seen as perhaps the most critical health consequence of sex trafficking, but sex-trafficked girls and women are rarely studied — leaving the prevalence of HIV and other health issues among this highly vulnerable population little understood,” research team Jay Silverman, Associate Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at HSPH, said.

“This study sheds new light on infection rates among a sex-trafficked population and exposes both the tragic existence of the youngest victims and the dire health consequences of this crime,” added he.

The research indicates the infection rate exceeded 60 percent among girls forced into prostitution prior to age 15 years. One in seven of the study’s participants had been trafficked into sexual servitude prior to this young age.

“The high rates of HIV we have documented support concerns that sex trafficking may be a significant factor in both maintaining the HIV epidemic in India and in the expansion of this epidemic to its lower-prevalence neighbors,” Silverman further said.

The team reviewed the medical documentation and case records of 287 girls and women who had been sex-trafficked from Nepal to India between the years 1997 and 2005. All of them had been repatriated back to Nepal and had received rehabilitative services from Maiti Nepal, a non-governmental organisation that works to assist trafficking victims, the report said.

According to the US Department of State, which partly funded the HSPH research, approximately 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across the globe every year, and 80 percent of these individuals are estimated to be women and girls. The State Department further reports that the majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.

Though the number of Nepali girls forced into prostitution in Indian cities remains sketchy, NGOs working against girls trafficking claim the number is well beyond 200,000. nepalnews.com mk Aug 01 07