Demi Moore trying to stop Nepalese women being trafficked to India

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's DNA Foundation (later renamed Thorn) was among the more prominent celebrity anti-trafficking organizations working in South Asia in the early 2010s, focusing specifically on the trafficking of girls and young women from Nepal into India's commercial sex industry.

Nepal's geographic and economic vulnerability makes it a major source country for human trafficking in the region. Poverty, limited education access in rural areas, caste discrimination, and the dislocation caused by Nepal's decade-long civil conflict created populations of young women with few economic options and limited awareness of the risks posed by labor recruiters offering opportunities abroad.

The India-Nepal border is long and porous. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 women and girls are trafficked across it annually, according to various non-governmental organizations working in the region, though reliable statistics are difficult to establish. Many end up in brothels in Mumbai, Delhi, and other major cities.

Moore's advocacy work included testimony before Congress and collaboration with law enforcement and anti-trafficking organizations in both countries. The foundation's primary focus was on using technology to identify and rescue victims, a priority that would become central to Thorn's subsequent work developing tools used by law enforcement agencies.

Critics of celebrity-led anti-trafficking efforts have argued that media attention focuses disproportionately on dramatic rescue narratives while under-funding the slower, unglamorous work of prevention: economic empowerment for vulnerable women, education, and legal reform.

The trafficking routes Moore was drawing attention to remain active today, though enforcement has improved in some areas.