ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Nepal in dealing with the challenge of human trafficking. It explores the key characteristics of the phenomenon in South Asia and Nepal respectively, and undertakes a detailed examination of the activities of Shakti Samuha and Maiti Nepal, two prominent anti-trafficking NGOS in the country. It analyses the activities of these NGOs in two main areas: (1) the public policy realm, focusing on lobbying activities ahead of the introduction of a new anti-trafficking law in Nepal in July 2007, and (2) initiatives taken by these NGOs to help prevent trafficking, provide care and support to survivors and at-risk groups, and engage in advocacy and law enforcement-related activities. The analysis reveals that through their efforts to highlight the insecurities of those who have experienced trafficking and those who are vulnerable to the dangers of being trafficked, these NGOs have played a significant role in influencing Nepal’s anti-trafficking legislation. Moreover, by undertaking activities to help prevent trafficking in vulnerable communities and rehabilitate trafficking survivors, they have filled a gap where the state has been relatively less effective. In this way, Shakti Samuha and Maiti Nepal have been significant security actors in the realm of human trafficking in Nepal.1
The investigation also demonstrates that by privileging public policy responses in the context of security practices, or how security is ‘done’, Securitization Theory misses out on those dynamics which occur outside the state-dominated realm of public policy, where often it is actors such as the NGOs under analysis who are most actively engaged in dealing with the insecurities of sub-state groups.2
