Kathmandu, September 5

The first woman chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal Sushila Karki said that human trafficking has become a big social problem in the country, which has affected the entire system of the country.

Speaking at the programme ‘10th National Day against Human Trafficking’ organised by Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, she said, “Only efforts of the government cannot solve this problem; everybody should work to resolve the issue.” She added, “The statute has provided certain acts, but it is not sufficient as the government should start work from the local level.”

In the programme, different NGOs working against human trafficking were honoured by the ministry, and four journalists were honoured along with awards.

Gorkhapatra and The Kathmandu Post were awarded Rs 10,000 by the Ministry for writing against human trafficking.

“Every citizen should be aware about human trafficking, especially women and children should be given special training,” said Ranju Kumari Jha of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. She said, “We must provide sufficient awareness among all the people of our country so that they can make out whether they are being trafficked.”

Not only in the capital city, Lalitpur also observed National Day by performing drama and dances that revealed the message of human trafficking. “Even though most of the people of the country now are educated, human trafficking has increased in comparison to earlier data,” said Pitambar Adhikari, senior superintendent of police, Lalitpur.

Speaking in the programme organised by Asha Nepal, he said, 20 million people were trafficked the world over, while more than 32 million dollars were invested in the trafficking business.

Jivan Dhungana, a social worker said, “ more than 40 per cent women have been trafficked to the neighbouring country and the number had increased after the earthquake in Nepal.

He has been researching to find out the condition of human trafficking throughout the boarder of country.