Poverty, social vulnerability-and high demand-are forcing hundreds of women into selling sex along Nepal's highways. Transport workers, migrant workers, policemen and soldiers are the bulk of their clientele, but students, professionals and Indian tourists are also contributing to the recent boom in the highway sex market. It's exploitative, dangerous and there's no dignity in being a Commercial Sex Worker. And down this road lies the threat of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases for sex workers, their clients, and their clients' families.
Hemlata Rai travelled to centres near Hetauda and Narayanghat where commercial sex workers and their clients congregate. An exclusive report, Drive through sex, on p 4-5.