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Commercial sexual exploitation of children and women
September 1, 2004
Including other South Asian nations, Nepal and India have given a bad account
as far as trafficking of humans for sexual purposes and the commercial sexual
exploitation of children and women are concerned.
According to ILO-IPEC, there are estimated 25,000 female commercial sex workers
in Nepal, 20 percent of who are children below the age of 16. There are about
200,000 commercial sex workers outside the country, out of which 60,000 are
children under the age of 18. According to ‘Campaign Against Child
Trafficking’, there are around 400,000 child prostitutes in India, and that
about 200 girls and women enter prostitution daily.
Women and children are not trampled under feet in poor nations alone, and the
disadvantaged do not speak the language of silence in Nepal and India alone.
According to a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency report, an estimated 50,000
women and children from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe are
trafficked into the United States every year (in lure of jobs and educational
opportunities), only to be forced into prostitution, or bondage. The findings
of the three-year study titled "The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
in the U.S., Canada and Mexico" are bewildering.
The study revealed that between 300,000 and 400,000 American children are
victims of some type of sexual exploitation every year. Seventy five percent of
the children are from middle class backgrounds; the majority of these children
trade sex for money, more expensive clothes or other consumer goods. Twenty
five percent of exploiters of children are other children. Most of the
‘customers’ of these children are members of their own junior and senior high
school peer groups.
It is in deed a shame that children and women become the victims of comfort and
pastime to the animal instinct of the exploiters, who are everywhere- in the
poverty stricken Nepal or in the abundance of America.
It is true, the development of a country does not necessarily develop humanity
or morality of its citizens, for a country is ranked more by its economic power
or military strength, or by its splendor capital cities and the sky-rocketing
buildings, more than the inherent possessions of its people like the values,
their morals, their respect and worth for other human beings, or their
inclination towards peace and non-violence.
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Human
trafficking and misplaced accountability
8-11-2004
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