About Us

Raksha Nepal is an NGO established in 2004 with the active participation of girls and women who have been exploited into sex work. We are dedicated to those women whom circumstances have forced to support themselves and their children through painful and life-threatening prostitution. We are committed to making these women aware of how to protect themselves in their current roles, and will make any sacrifice necessary to transition them to a decent living and secure their safe and respectable futures.

Nepali women suffer numerous inequalities, many of which lead to their sexual exploitation. The culture supports the man’s right to use and abuse women, and there is no rule of law to protect the victims of this abuse. As a result, trafficking of women and children is common, and even women hired into what they believe are valid jobs are then forced into prostitution in order to maintain their meager incomes. Massage parlors, dance bar, dohoree and cabin restaurants are infamous for their treatment of women. The women, with no skills, cannot support themselves otherwise. A decade of internal conflict has displaced many people across the country, and they often come to the cities where many seek to exploit them.

As said in “Achano ko pir khukuri lai thaha hudaina”, the pain of a prostitute cannot be imagined by other people until they have walked in the shoes of these women, who desperately want out of their exploited positions so that they can respectably rejoin society. It is our job at Raksha Nepal (Protection Nepal) to work with these girls and women to fulfill that need.

Raksha is approaching this work on several levels:
Research to understand the scope and impact of prostitution in Nepal.  Estimates of the numbers of girls in massage parlors or trafficked to India are quoted widely, but even those closest to the problem recognize that these estimates are based on nothing.

Advocating for changes in the law, and its enforcement, to protect women and children exploited into prostitution.  Our research should inform more effective advocacy work.

Creating opportunities.  For a more secure future free from exploitation, these women must have skill training for legitimate work.  We have begun such training with beauty parlor and handicraft training.  But our meager resources cannot meet the need of the hundreds, indeed thousands, of women who want, and desperately need, help.