Raksha Nepal

Menuka Thapa is the president of two year-old Raksha Nepal, a social service organization that focuses on the plight of girls working in massage parlours in the Valley. With its office in Baghbazar of Kathmandu, Raksha Nepal is doing work that can only be praised in the highest terms. As in many other cases, girls working in massage parlours here are from outside the valley and the well understood reasons of economic hardships, illiteracy and conflict have driven them into a profession that Menuka says, "is worse than cabin restaurants and dance bars." What she means is that girls here are much more exploited than in the other professions. "I myself have worked in a dohori geet restaurant for some time," she says. Originating from a village near Panauti and blessed with a good voice, she came to the Capital nurturing ambitions to be a singer but, as usually happens, monetary and other factors put a halt to her dreams, and it was but natural that she should join a dohori geet restaurant if for nothing else than to earn her daily bread. "However, it wasn´t what it was touted to be, that is, a place to encourage traditional culture. In fact, it was just a hypocritical claim. I had to tolerate a lot of exploitative behaviour while there and the sham of cultural promotion was but a cloak to disguise unsavoury activities."

Working under such conditions, Menuka obviously must have had many bad experiences and this ultimately led her to Meet Nepal. "They rehabilitated me," she says thankfully. "After this I went around doing research on demeaning professions like dance bars, cabin restaurants and massage parlours. What I discovered was that dance restaurants were worse than dohori geet establishments, cabin restaurants were worse than dance restaurants and massage parlours were the worst of all." According to her, while in the former at least some sort of monthly wages are assured, in the case of massage parlours, the girls have to work on a commission basis. "And the percentages are totally in the owner´s favour." It goes without saying that in all the above mentioned professions, girls are very heavily exploited. No wonder some massage parlours have become synonymous with brothels nowadays. One recalls a highly publicized raid on Thamel massage parlours sometime ago. "Actually these parlours are totally at the mercy of corrupt policemen," avers Menuka. "And they conduct raids on parlours from where they have problems in collecting their monthly dues. You will be surprised to know that there are many such parlours being run by wives of policemen, even some by wives of DSPs´ who conduct whatever business they choose to do, freely."

It is clear that Menuka Thapa does not have a high regard for the integrity of local policemen. And of course she is not alone in this. However, going by her own experiences, Menuka´s words carry a lot of meaning for society as a whole. Just like her mentor, Shashi Sharma of Meet Nepal, she is incensed at the statement of a former minister, Sharad Singh Bhandari, that red light areas should be permitted here. "Imagine such irresponsible words from men in power! Imagine what it will do to our social fabric! Our national character!" Menuka laments, and adds, "My research has shown that 90 % of the girls working in massage parlours want to escape from having to work there. All they are looking for is an opportunity. I would like to work towards giving them that chance."

Raksha Nepal considers it its duty to show such girls ways to escape from their miserable professions. This it does through thorough research, counseling and skill trainings. "I believe in making good examples of a few rather than invite failure by working with too many at a time." She believes, no doubt based on her own rehabilitation success story, that the few good examples will then become leaders themselves who will work towards the same goals as herself. It is also worth mentioning that Menuka seems to have lost all confidence in the concerned governmental bodies and narrates a sad experience. "We had an agreement with an official body to conduct a project jointly but then the government has such ridiculous policies as the requirement that the girls must have passed class eight and that they should have citizenship papers." She is scornful at their lack of realism. "In villages, if a girl has studied to class eight, she will be regarded as an educated person and looked upon with respect. Most of the girls working here in humiliating professions are not that fortunate. So what is the use of conducting high sounding projects when they don´t help people genuinely in need?" Menuka is also right in saying that for the past so many years girls haven´t been able to go back to their villages, so obviously, there is no question of them being equipped with citizenship papers.

Like Meet Nepal, Menuka too has taken a loan from a bank to keep her organization running. She realizes well the importance of doing so, for Raksha Nepal´s responsibilities are to numerous girls who would otherwise have nobody else. Menuka is pleased to inform that many girls have passed through her organization and in fact now there are seventeen beauty parlours being run by women rehabilitated by Raksha Nepal. "We have succeeded in rehabilitating seventy girls but this is just a small percentage of the total I want to help," she says. According to her, "There must be 3000-3500 girls working in massage parlours in the city and believe me, most are severely exploited and have no protection whatsoever."

Kudos to Raksha Nepal and particularly to brave Menuka Thapa for not surrendering to circumstances and more so, for herself becoming a beacon of hope to many hapless girls who have got a raw deal in life. Raksha Nepal´s motto says it all, ´Hand Over A Secure Future, Not A Compulsive Profession.´

Address:

Raksha Nepal

Baghbazar

P.B. No. 24866

Kathmandu

Ph: 4239750

Mo:9841272215