“I woke up at night and found my father on top of me. My mother was mentally ill. She would try to fight him, but she was always beaten by my father. I ran away to Delhi with a boy I loved, but my father came and found me. He took me by train to Mumbai and sold me in Kamathipura (one of the largest red-light districts in Asia), for Rs 10, 000,” cries Shwetha, aged sixteen. (All names in these true stories have been changed).
“I was sold into it at when I was around eight years old. I didn’t understand much. Nowadays kids understand more, but I wasn’t like that. There was a woman who offered me a few chocolates and I followed her here. She brought me here and then sold me. We came in through the front and she left from the back. And then they said to me, ‘We have bought you for Rs 50,000; so, you have to stay with us.’ They threatened me, so I had to stay there. I stayed because there was no way I could escape. The first two days I cried uncontrollably, but where could I go? I didn’t know a way out. I had no choice, but to stay”, cries another girl, aged fifteen, also forced to stay and “work” in a brothel.
A Cruel Trade
“They would beat me with a belt and poke me with cigarette buds to drown my voice,” cries another girl who was forced into prostitution at the tender age of ten.
“I was fourteen when I was forced into prostitution. My body was used and degraded by men seeking sex with young girls in return for money,” cries another survivor of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Hiding behind the facade of being ‘clients’ or ‘customers,’ they raped me, sometimes more than thrice a day, for seven long years. They would specifically demand girls like me. ‘Young and fresh’, that’s how we were marketed.”
A Crime to be a Female?
Is it their mistake that they are born as girls? Is it a crime to be a female? Some victims are throwaways; others are sold by their parents or forced into prostitution. Still others are street children. Prostitution of children is illegal under international law, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 34, states, “the State shall protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, including prostitution and involvement in pornography.” The convention was first held in 1989 and has been ratified by 193 countries.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. Article 20 concerning Protection of a child without family says, “The State is obliged to provide special protection for a child deprived of the family environment and to ensure that appropriate alternative family care or institutional placement is available in such cases”. When will this law become a reality?
Sr Lini Sheeja MSC
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