On the Streets

"What age do you prefer?"

"Dark or fair, skinny or well built?"

"To a lodge or to your own house?"

"For the afternoon or the whole night?"

"I have college girls, if you want,"

The pimp is very brisk and businesslike, going through his checklist by the Ganesh Temple next to Ratna Park in downtown Kathmandu. When I show reluctance to pay the NRs 500 he demands for a one night stand, he says, "Dai, this is Kathmandu. Beware. Others will promise you girls of 15 and get you wrinkled hags. When I say a girl you get a girl." He asks for an advance because tomorrow, the Saturday holiday, is already "packed".

We tend to think of Nepali girls in prostitution mainly as a Bombay phenomenon, but there are enough of them here in our own bylanes and gullies, in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Dharan and Nepalganj, girls from the sedate hills mired in the flesh trade of a dirty, impersonal, urban milieu.

Sharmila Thapa Magar, 23, is from Darjeeling District and has plied the streets of Biratnagar for three years. She has a five-year-old son from a marriage with a Rai that broke up as soon as the child was born. Why has she taken to walking the streets? "Badyata …compulsion," she says, but does not elaborate.

Sharmila's confidante, Maya Basnet, is just 20. She says she left her home last year when her father brought home a second wife and life became unbearable. A friend named Mina introduced her to prostitution, she says. And where is Mina now? "Oh, she found a husband, a businessman. I see them around sometimes," says Maya, envy in her voice.

Both Sharmila and Maya are in custody at the Biratnagar District Police Superintendent's office after having been picked up at the Baba Guest House. They say they mostly ply their business in Dharan and Biratnagar. They charge NRs 500 per customer per session but actually get NRs 200 or less. "You think the hotelwala and the dalal would let us get away without their cut?" Sharmila spits the words out.

Asked what their principal fears are, both women cite being picked up by the police, customers who are vicious and violent, and those who disappear when the fun is over, without paying.

Sharmila and Maya do not cross the border into India, but for many other Nepali prostitutes in Biratnagar, Janakpur and Rajbiraj, this is a daily routine. There are at least a hundred prostitutes from each of these towns who actually walk the streets of India. The Indian customer seems to value Nepali prostitutes more than Indian prostitutes, and consequently is prepared to pay more. The Nepali girls and women also prefer working in India because there is less gdssip, payment is in Indian currency, and they claim they are harassed less by the administration.

I ask Sharmila and Maya what they wanted most of all. Almost in one voice, they reply, "Asal lagnay ra ramro ghar byabahar." ("A good husband and a nice household,").

Tirtha Koirala does interviews for the Matribhumi weekly and is affiliated with the Nepal Press Institute. This article was translated from the original Nepali.