Poor Nepali women being skinned alive so that rich people can look 'beautiful'

When will the obsession with fair skin stop?

"Atithi Devo Bhava"

 Mehmaan bhagwan ka roop hota hai.

We are taught these as gospel truths. But something that is being done to poor Nepali women in India will make you reconsider these ideas. And all this for fairer skin, bigger breasts or penises.

They are being skinned alive to make rich men and women fair after being forced into the flesh trade. A report from Thomas Reuters Foundation says,

"Poor Nepalese women are being trafficked and duped into selling their skin to be used in various plastic surgeries including breast and penis enlargement surgeries in the growing aesthetics industry."

The women come to India in the hopes of a better future

Nepal is a close neighbour of India. Nepalis do not need a passport or visa to enter India. Due to poor economic opportunities in Nepal, a lot of them come to India, looking for better lives. They are often lured by 'agents', who feed them dreams of better lives.

But when they arrive here, they are forced to either work as domestic helps or worse, sold off to brothels or even forced to sell off organs.

An article by journalist Soma Basu outlines the horrific tales. Young girls form the majority of Nepalis lured into India. Belonging to poor Nepalese villages, they are lured by "skin traders" in large numbers, with promises of helping them lead a better life. They are then illegally trafficked across the Indo-Nepal border, instead of valid checkpoints. Because then there would be records.

They are then moved to various brothels across major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. There these young women are given a specific price depending on their skin colour, age, and virginity. A 100-square inch of fair skin can apparently sell for up to Rs. 1 lakh in Mumbai.(The Amnesty)

How are they skinned alive?

Skin is sold for almost one lakh rupees

Women in the brothels are first sedated with the excuse that the client wants to try out some unusual sexual act with them. After that, the skin tissue is torn apart from their backs and limbs while they lying senseless.

When they wake up, skin would be missing from their bodies. And this is done by getting thumb prints from them on documents they do can't read. These documents are cited as proof that they are willingly donating their skin.

These women with skin skinned off their bodies now are disfigured for life. And this reduces their 'worth' in the sex market. This means that now they earn significantly lower than before-with a difference of almost two-three thousand rupees.

Sometimes, women also sell a part of their skin voluntarily. They sell if for about  Rs. 10,000 so that they have something to eat.

The FBI estimates that almost 700,000 girls and young women from Nepal pass into India as victims of sexual trafficking. UNICEF however says that this number could be close to 1.7 million. Due to this, in some villages of Nepal, there are reportedly few to no girls left between the ages of 11-20. Under Nepali Law, the sale and exportation of human tissue is illegal. But when has something being illegal stopped anyone from doing it?

These women are scarred for life

Sale and exportation of human tissue is a continuously expanding and lucrative black-market. Such tissues are sold to pathology labs in India for high prices. These are then sold off to US-based firms. These tissues are used in plastic surgeries including custom breast implants and penis enlargement.

No one cares where this tissue is coming from, because plastic surgery is a big industry, not just in India but abroad.

But this leaves many women scarred for life, for no fault of theirs. Their dreams of better lives are completely shattered and they have to live off the earnings of their scarred bodies.

You can watch it here :