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Orphanage Tourism in Nepal
Poverty, Childhood, and the Rescue Industry
By Dr. Esther Bott
This book explores the social, cultural and economic backdrop of the growing phenomenon of orphanage tourism in Nepal.
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About This Book
This book tackles, for the first time, the complex issues surrounding the phenomenon of orphanage tourism, which is a growing and highly lucrative tourism niche in Nepal and several other economically developing countries. The book explores the occurrence of orphanage tourism in Nepal – how it is experienced, understood, sustained, opposed and, crucially, how it shapes the lives of the children involved. Rather than exploring the motives of tourists who engage in volunteering in orphanages while on holiday as so much extant literature does, the book examines the factors that contribute to the emergence of commercial orphanages and the experiences of the children involved. A central concern is to illustrate the inadequate ways in which orphanage tourism is understood, framed and politicised, especially in terms of who is blamed for its prevalence and how various Western entities position themselves as agents of rescue. By examining Nepal’s socioeconomic and geopolitical landscape, as well as the role of Western international development and structural adjustment and the impacts of tourism, the book presents a deeper and more complete picture of the emergence of orphanage tourism and other forms of child labour.
Furthermore, by examining the everyday realities of life in Nepal, especially for children and young adults who grew up in contact with Western volunteers in commercial orphanages, the simplistic depiction of orphans as victims, who need saving from villains by heroes, is dismantled. The book is especially focused on showing how the historical and everyday realities of life for children compelled to work are all too often ignored, obscured and distorted in the interventionist discourse that is beginning to surround orphanage tourism. I will argue that common orphan tropes, imbued with desperation and vulnerability, are circulated, in no small way, towards predominantly fulfilling the agendas of various Western parties.
Reviews
“I find it a refreshing critique of the rescue discourses found in Western aid agencies, academia and tourism advertising that position countries such as Nepal as in need of their interventions. Through longitudinal and dedicated research, Esther Bott has listened to some of the many young people who have experienced care provision in what we call orphanages in Nepal and brings us their stories of improved life opportunities, broken family connections and struggles – a mixed bag but always showing their agency and determination. This stands in stark contrast to other literature advocating rescue, designating orphans as victims and ‘traffickers’ as villains and attracting endless funds for the rescue advocates themselves. This book challenges the impetus to ‘do good’ and invites you to examine the structural drivers of poverty and under-development, channelling the voices of the youth who have actual lived experiences of the ‘orphan’ industry.” —Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, University of South Australia, Australia.
“This beautifully written book makes an important and original contribution to the literature that critically interrogates the dominant discourse on ‘modern slavery’ and the longer tradition of liberal humanitarianism in which it is grounded. Based on extensive fieldwork in Nepal, the book illuminates how ‘the suffering child’, produced by the liberal humanitarian as a depoliticized object of humanitarian intervention, has been commoditized to meet the demand for ‘voluntourism’, a segment of the long haul tourism market that reflects and reproduces colonial narratives about the pre-modern other standing in need of salvation.” —Julia O’Connell Davidson, University of Bristol, UK.
Author Information
Esther Bott is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; Glossary of Terms ix; 1. Introduction; 2. ‘Poor But Beautiful’ Nepal; 3. West Knows Best: Imperial Dominance of the Periphery; 4. Childhoods, ‘Orphans’ and Tourism; 5. Problematic Interventions and ‘Invented Enemies’; 6. Orphanage Life: Damage, Survival and Possibilities; 7. Conclusions: Moving Beyond Saviourism; Bibliography; Methodological Appendix; Index
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