Women, who have been trafficked to India as sex workers luring handsome jobs, are considered as one of the major contributors to HIV/AIDS in Nepal, the National News Agency RSS reported on Thursday.
According to a study, every year, 10,000-15,000 Nepali women are trafficked to India through organized trafficking agents. Among them, some return catching AIDS.
It seems that the number of Nepali women falling prey to traffickers is increasing yearly. In 2007 alone, according to a data, around 150,000 women are forced to work as sexual workers in various Indian cities.
Out of them, almost half work in Mumbai. Worst, very few of them are aware of HIV/AIDS.
Despite the fact that women working in Indian towns as sex workers are contributing to AIDS in the country and have poor access to health, no concrete programs have been launched targeting those women.
While the government data says that HIV is very less among women returning from India, the actual data on the number of total women catching HIV is still fuzzy.
According to the recently published data by various non- governmental organizations, around 40 percent of the returnees in this way are HIV positive.
India accounts for highest HIV positive in Asia with some 2300, 000 people living with HIV. It is feared that HIV might get more destructive in Nepal given the high number of Nepali women returning back catching AIDS in Indian cities.