Bhim Lama, Ganesh Shrestha, & Kumar Giri

The Esther Benjamin’s Memorial Foundation Rescue Team have liberated many Nepali girls from circus slavery in South Asia.

Between 2004, and 2008, these three men worked to free over 280 girls from slavery within Indian circuses. They conducted 40 raids and rescue missions, at great personal risk. In Nepal they have made an effort to track down and eliminate the supply chain by finding the agents who act as traffickers, sending the girls to work with the circuses. They have caught six of these men. Several have even been prosecuted, and received sentences of 20 years of imprisonment for their crimes. They were honored as a "TIP Report Heroes Acting to End Modern Slavery" in recognition of their efforts to combat human trafficking in 2008.

In the 2014 TIP Report, Nepal was listed as a Tier 2 country. It is a source, destination, and transit country for sex trafficking and forced labor. People are often recruited from Nepal for jobs in India and in other countries, and fraudulent recruitment is a problem. Sex trafficking of Nepali girls is also common in and out of Nepal.