Tulasa Thapa

Who was Tulasa Thapa?

Tulasa Thapa was a Nepali girl who was kidnapped from her home village of Thankot near Kathmandu in 1982 at the age of 12, smuggled into Mumbai via the border town of Birganj in Parsa District, and sold into prostitution. She was systematically beaten into submission, then repeatedly raped to make her fit for the trade. She was sold to three different brothels in Mumbai, at prices ranging from 5000 to 7000 rupees. In addition to the sex work she was forced to do in the brothel at a minimum of three customers per night, she was sent to various city hotels dressed in European style clothes to entertain customers for 180 rupees per night until at last a hotel manager reported her to the police. Following the public outcry, the governments of India and Nepal signed a 1985 cooperation agreement addressing the rescue and repatriation of Nepali girls trafficked into brothels in India.