Poverty and Trafficking in the Aftermath of Nepal Earthquake

Author: Kumar, Aman

Abstract: Nepal is a landlocked country, surrounded by India and Tibet Autonomous Region of China and China. We know that one the 25th of April 2015, Nepal was rocked by one of the most powerful earthquakes. On the richter scale, its magnitude was 7.8, In this earthquake, more than 8,500 Nepalese lost their lives and thousands of Nepalese were heavily injured and displaced due to the destruction of their houses. If we talk about Nepal, more than 80% of the Nepalese depend on agriculture which happens mostly in Tarai region of Nepal. If we talk about the literacy rate of Nepal, 59.8 of Nepalese women are literate. This earthquake led to maximum problem for females and children, and it hit Nepal’s economy. Affected Nepalese became a soft target for different types of crimes like trafficking, violence, slavery, etc. Families started to face a number of problems like lack of money, food, shelter, and medicines. India was the first country that actively started to provide relief in both rural and urban areas, but due to bad weather and different challenges, access to each and everyone was not possible at that time. This natural disaster triggered the problem of trafficking in Nepal. These Nepalese are being trafficking to India and Gulf countries. The stakeholders who were working at the time of earthquake also reported that this illicit crime graph rose after the earthquake. This paper will discuss the conditions of the Nepalese and about their problems after the earthquake, on the basis of field survey by the researcher.

Keywords: earthquake, human trafficking, domestic violence