THE TRAGEDY OF NEPAL'S LOST CHILDREN

Awake at four A.M., hours of training, regular beatings, and at least two performances a day, seven days a week - life in most of India’s circuses is no fairy tale. For the thousands of Nepalese children who work for little or no pay, it’s practically a life of slavery.

KATHMANDU, Nepal -In the border district of Hetauda, in southern Nepal, child trafficking is rife and the lack of border controls makes India an easy destination. For decades, Nepali children, mostly girls, have been sought by Indian circuses for their fair skin and beauty.
Often sold to traffickers by their parents, the children are enticed with stories of beautiful new clothes, a glamorous and exciting life, the chance of an education and a regular wage. Children, sometimes as young as five years old, have been taken and, in some cases, never seen again. Sold for as little as 1,000 rupees ($13), the families rarely receive the promised wage.

• Once in the circuses, these children often live in squalor and are never allowed to leave the circus compound. They are routinely beaten in order to teach them the difficult and dangerous tricks, and sexual abuse is commonplace. In effect, these children have been totally at the mercy of circus management who treat them as they please.
• According to an activist of Maiti Nepal, a Nepalese nongovernmental organization campaigning against trafficking in Nepalese girls, about 1,000 Nepalese girls work in 30 or 40 Indian circuses. But twice that number have been trafficked into Indian circuses in 20 years.
• When girls go missing, the circus companies wash their hands of them. They change the name of the circus to avoid legal responsibilities," Maiti said

Philip Homes of the Esther Benjamins Trust said: "The whole Indian circus industry and its ruthless exploitation of children is the key issue. "The circuses are not allowed to use wild animals in their performances, and everyone should now do what they can to support our campaign for the same ruling to be extended to children."
Source: Agencies

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