As the last bus leaves Ratna Park at 9PM, the street is suddenly quiet and empty with only armed police and a couple of taxis around. An hour later, a group of pre-teens suddenly appears. Flanked by a gang of pimps, the young girls wait around in the sidewalks. Standing close to them is an older woman, in her 30s, taking a chance as well. The girls start teasing her: "Look at her, I bet no one will take her," says one of the girls. The others burst out laughing.
A group of fully-decorated gay sex workers walks by and warn the girls that the police are on the prowl. They shuffle off towards the overhead bridge near Bir Hospital to hide behind the staircase. "Same old problem. Why don't they leave us alone," mutters one of the girls as a police van approaches.
An increase in the influx of people from the districts fleeing the conflict, the lack of jobs and poverty have all contributed to a new surge in prostitution in Kathmandu Valley. But two months ago, the police started cracking down, especially along stretches of street around Tundikhel, Khichapokhri and Sundhara. But that just shifted the action indoors: to massage parlors, cabin restaurants and cheap lodges.
At a cabin restaurant in Maiti Devi, several girls and women told us that they fled their villages fearing the Maoists who were trying to force them to join military training. "My parents are still in the village, but I took the risk and came to Kathmandu, even though I know no one here," says 17-year-old Sarita Chettri from Makwanpur.
Two of Sarita's friends also joined her and they all work in the cabin restaurant, which is a front for prostitution. The three don't get a salary, but the tips are enough to make a living. "I got used to the clients touching me, and fell in love with a 20-year-old guy," Sarita confesses. She took him to her one-room flat, but after that never saw him again. Instead, he started sending his friends to the restaurant to be her clients.
Sarita is now the most popular waitress. Seeing her income rise, her friends have followed in her footsteps. The restaurant has been raided several times by the vice squad, but Sarita and her friends are still in business. The manager bails them out when they get arrested since the girls are the main attraction in a restaurant that has a 200 percent markup on food and drinks.
There hasn't been a formal study of cabin restaurants in the valley, but one estimate puts the number of girls at up to 30,000. After 7PM, the streets of Gaushala, Baneswor, Maiti Devi, Kalanki, Rato Pul and Chahabil are bright with the glittering lights of restaurants blaring Hindi songs. Inside, the restaurants have wooden cubicles with a girl already inside each of them.
Meanwhile, in the tourist hub of Thamel, local residents are worried that massage parlours are fronting as sex shops. The police closed down a large number of massage parlours three years ago, but new ones have now taken their place. "There are more girls than before working as sexual masseurs," says Rabi Shakya, a local shop owner. "It's getting a bit embarrassing living here."
It's not the humiliation, but the threat of HIV infection that is of major concern. Migration, prostitution and unprotected sex are a deadly combination in a valley that is already known for 50 percent HIV infection among injecting drug users. "But there is no alternative for the girls, and the government is not coming up with solutions except arresting them in sweeps," says an anti-AIDS activist. He adds that girls use condoms all the time, but it is their clients who sometimes force them to have unprotected sex. The girls say the clients offer them more money if they don't use a condom.
A surveillance study conducted by New Era research institute in 2003 revealed that 81 percent of the sex workers had regular clients. Only 38 percent were found to be using condoms consistently. Regular clients were mostly businessmen, civil servants, transport workers, police, army, students and migrant workers. The study found that sex workers now come from all ethnic and caste backgrounds, and Chettri and Bahun women ranked second and third.
"You can't blame the women, it is the clients you have to target," says Bhagwan Shrestha from the group Women Acting Together for Change (WATCH). Prostitution can't be eradicated, but the exploitation and health hazards can be controlled, he says, adding: "Arresting the girls is not the solution, it will just stigmatise the girls and they will go back to it."
Sita Ghimire from of the group, Save the Children (Norway) agrees: "Without social sensitivity, no amount of foreign aid can solve the problem." Most of the girls leave their homes after they are raped, molested, deprived of parental care or are subject to social ostracism, she says.
We asked DSP Ganesh KC from the police why his force keeps arresting the girls, and he admitted it was only a stopgap measure. "There is no employment and alternative for the girls and after migrating from the villages they are vulnerable," says KC.
At the forefront of the battle to support the girls are activists, health workers and educators. But even they are not prepared for the shock of hearing a 17-year-old tell them that she has serviced 1,000 clients. Said one activist: "At first I thought she was joking. But she told me she has taken two clients everyday for the last three years. It is simple arithmetics."
(Some of the names in this article have been changed or withheld on request.)
Radha's life
Radha Tamang from Sindhupalchok has been working as a masseur for the last three years. She was living a quiet life, didn't go to school and spent most of her time working on the family farm. One day, a group of Maoists came and asked her to join them for military training. The next day, her father sent her away with a local villager to Kathmandu fearing that the Maoists would come again looking for her. In Kathmandu, she found work at a carpet factory but after six months of hard work the owners refused to pay her. Radha's family depend on her, her father has cancer and needs money for treatment. Two of her younger brothers go to school. Her mother is too weak to farm. She made her choice: work in a massage parlor where she could make easy money. "I decided to sell my body for my family," Radha says simply. Radha is paid up to Rs 200 by each client. "My family doesn't care what I do as long as I keep on sending them money," she says. "I hope no daughter would have to live like this." 
