of illiteracy and are concentrated in specific ethnic, caste and minority groups. These issues of poverty are part of why many people, including both cisgender and transgender men and women, go into the sex industry in Nepal. Due to their large families, these sex workers need to find a way to help out within the household. More specifically, there are not many opportunities for the women sex workers, and women in general, to break out of the domestic environment and duties which have left them in poverty, so the only option left for them is going into sex work. Nepal, like many other Southeast Asian countries, has a limited amount of resources for women. Recently, the Nepalese government has recognized more rights for women in terms of family involvement, physical integrity, ownership rights, and overall civil liberties. However, this does not change the fact that women are still highly underrepresented in Nepalese society, and do not have the same rights that men do. Women constitute a majority of these sex workers, because they rarely have any opportunities otherwise. These women may feel empowered by the work that they do, in the sense that they can better provide for their families, and be seen for something other than what society treats women. In some cases, girls that are put into the sex industry are forced to migrate to carpet factories outside of Nepal or in more centralized cities by their families to better provide for them. After a while, they are either abducted into the traffic scene, or coerced to join. The issue of poverty has driven many families in Nepal to desperation, to the point of putting their daughters out on the streets to earn money to help out in the home. Human trafficking in Nepal—more specifically, sex trafficking—is a common precursor to voluntary sex work. After escaping from the sex trafficking world, women return to sex work when they return to Nepal, for it is the only thing they know. Consequences of sex work Sex work in Nepal can be a short-term relief to the poverty and struggles encountered by these hundreds of women on a daily basis. The long-term effects bring a new perspective to sex work, and are a big part of the argument against sex work. Short-term consequences Many people go into the sex work field in hopes of finding a better opportunity for their families