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Sex trade under fire in Taj Mahal city
September 27, 2004
As this city prepares to mark the 350th anniversary of the Taj Mahal, the world
famous monument to love, women’s groups are fighting to end something else Agra
is becoming famous for: prostitution.
The enduring image of Agra is the Taj Mahal, the white marble mausoleum built
by the emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his second wife who died in childbirth.
But beyond the mausoleum lies a town of 1.2 million that, according to police
and activists, has emerged as a training ground set up by pimps before they
send women and girls to major cities such as Bombay.
Fifteen women’s groups have joined forces to highlight the situation on the Taj
Mahal anniversary, which will include a ceremony Monday featuring national
leaders and foreign ambassadors. Groups of three to four women will distribute
information sheets deploring the sex trade.
“We are forming (the groups) because neither the police nor media has a clue of
what we are now against,” said women’s activist and physician Shivani
Chaturvedi. “We want to break this collusion between the police, pimps and
business travellers who have offices pick up the tab for sexertainment,” said
Sarla Mehta, another women’s rights campaigners.
Although estimates vary, human rights groups say India has hundreds of
thousands of prostitutes, many of them children, including around 40,000 in
Agra. The sex trade has developed due to Agra’s tourist infrastructure
including cheap hotels and transport access and the presence near the city of
sub-castes traditionally identified with prostitution, which is illegal in
India.
Police say arrests are made almost daily. In one brutal case, police said they
rescued a 12-year-old girl in early September who had been administered growth
hormones for five years to prepare her for commercial sex. Eight suspected
traffickers were arrested in the raid.
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