After Mumbai's ban on the bar dancers, the capital city of Nepal has become South Asia's new entertainment hub of scantily clad dancing beauties. The past year has seen nearly 2000 dance bars mushrooming in Kathmandu.

And taking advantage of Nepal's political instability, a set of new-generation entrepreneurs has boldly added sleaze to the shows. The dancers have gone far beyond the point Mumbai's dancers of yore ever dared to cross.

“Everyday, new dance bars are opening in Kathmandu, attracting more and more tourists," Ranjan Sharma, owner of a downtown dance-bar told Hindustan Times

Sharma said aggressive competition had led more and more bar owners to add sleaze to what was initially mere copying of popular dance numbers from Bollywood hits. "The dances are basically nude shows now," he admitted.

Some of the dancers are the same ones who used to perform in Mumbai, and investments from Mumbaikars involved in the dance bar business in that city, has followed them. However, most of the Indian investors in the dance-bar business have Nepali partners.

The dance bars openly advertise---"pole dancing", "show girls", "go-go shows", and "nude shower dances". The police have so far turned a blind eye. Usually, the bars remain open from 6 pm to 3 am.

Employment conditions vary. Salaries range from NRs (Nepali Rupees) 2,000 to 6,000 per month, but the girls' real income is of course the tips they get. The dancers move from table to table, teasing and amusing clients, seeking tips during the show. There are no weekly offs or annual leave for them.

More than 75 per cent of the women working in dance bars are between 18 to 25 years old, semi literate, with no other skills beyond the ability to dance. "As Nepalis are natural dancers, most of the girls find the bars the right place to find  employment," Rupa Acharya, a member of a Kathmandu-based NGO, said.

She added that in most cases the girls were also required to entertain select clients after the show. "Apart from degrading these girls, such shows are a threat to public health," said Acharya. She demanded that the government immediately formulate some legislation to rein in the sleazy bar-owners.

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so: http://www.hindustantimes.com

 

Nirupa: morii kanchi, timro shreeman also is going to Nepal for next summit meeting? i heard from  mero hubby they gonna settle nice 3 working days...

Morii kanchi: yup, i`ll make sure he bring the 3G phone yaar..its reliable nee!!....

 

From treks to sex

Jan 24th 2008 | KATHMANDU
From The Economist print edition

Is a new sort of thrill-seeker heading for Nepal?

“I CAN only dance when I'm drunk,” confides Srijana, a 20-year-old employee of the Pussy Cat Bar and Shower, a tavern in Thamel, Kathmandu's main tourist hangout. A few slurps from a customer's glass later and she mounts a small stage. There, to whoops from a few tipsy locals, she sheds most of her clothes and gyrates to a Hindi pop tune. Dangling above her is the Damoclean sword included in the bar's name: a silver shower nozzle, positioned to spray flesh-revealing water on a dancer below.

Such gimmicks are common in Thamel's bars, where competition for lascivious males is fierce. Until a few years ago Nepal had no obvious sex industry. There are now an estimated 200 massage parlours and 35 “dance bars”, such as the Pussy Cat, in Thamel alone—with over 1,000 girls and women working in them. Many sell sex. In the Pussy Cat, another dancer admits to turning tricks, for 1,800 rupees ($28).

That is a tidy sum in Nepal, South Asia's poorest country. It is much more than Nepali women are paid in India's flesh-pots—to which over 5,000 are trafficked each year, according to the UN. But the dancers in Thamel are chasing a richer sort of Indian: tourists. And their government seems to be encouraging them. In an advertisement for “Wild Stag Weekends”, the Nepal Tourism Board offers this advice: “Don't forget to have a drink at one of the local dance bars, where beautiful Nepali belles will dance circles around your pals.”

In a country with a rich tradition of dance, where paying for sex is illegal, this might be harmless innuendo. But not everybody thinks so. During the recently-ended civil war, Nepal's Himalayan tourism industry collapsed. Some activists think that sex tourism is replacing it. According to John Frederick, an expert on South Asia's sex trade, “Ten years ago the sex industry was underground in Nepal. Now it's like Bangkok, it's like Phnom Penh.”

The war, which put much of rural Nepal under the control of Maoist insurgents, has increased the supply of sex workers. Srijana is from the poor and still violent district of Siraha in southern Nepal. She was widowed there two years ago, and left an infant son to come to the capital. Yet she is remarkably cheerful—perhaps because she is drunk, and the shower is not working.

so: http://www.economist.com

ktm turning into hell of the world.

I think we should take kathmandu back to hippies days.. ganja and charesh.. people will not fight with each other once they are addicted to ganja and charesh.. they will be laughing all the time. Nepal will be happy then.

A culture where things are done behind closed doors, mostly arranged weddings, can't kiss on screen, distinct caste separation, and many more, adds up when all of a sudden the society heads towards lawlessness. India is same like us, but they've better govenrment to control and many places are designated "Red Light District". Things are NOT going to get any better, the smart thing to do will be do have a RED LIGHT DISTRICT and have all these crap business just on those places. But then how can that happen when people are busy filling their greedy belly of corruption and political instability. It's be worse in the future, so do not expect any better.

@Rewire, the whole kathmandu will be a red light district if it goes at this rate cause SEX SELLS. The situation can get so out of control that the capital might need to be shifted, which I dont mind actually, just like Kazakhstan. But that shouldnt be the reason to shift the capital city.