'Lust for minors growing in India'

A survey finds lust of men in S Asia, especially India, is growing for younger women, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Oct 4, 2007, 04:39:37 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Unlike rest of the world, the lust of men in South Asia, especially India, is growing for younger women, said Gary Lewis, South Asia head of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Wednesday. This is resulting in trafficking syndicates targeting younger women in Nepal, Bangladesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, trafficking hot spots in south Asia.

Lewis said that a recent study of trafficked women in Nepal to India had revealed that there is an increased demand for younger women. In 1980s, women between 14-16 were preferred, then the age in 1990s went down to 10-14 and now it is even less than 10 years. “I have come across cases where even five year-old girls have been trafficked for sexual exploitation,” Lewis told HT but added that such cases are not very rampant.

Desire for younger women is not the prime reason. The growing fear of catching sexually transmitted diseases from older women and belief that having sex with younger women is a cure for many diseases had caused this increase in demand. “Many believe having sex with young virgin girls would cure them of diseases. For others, chances of catching STD from younger girls is less,” Lewis said.

What most of these girls get in return at a tender age is the dreaded HIV/AIDS. Study of trafficked women in Nepal showed that 60 per cent of positive HIV cases were of girls below the age of 15. And, all of them had got the disease from their male clients going for unprotected sex because the kids are not in a position to protest. It showed, Lewis said, lower the age higher the risk to get HIV/AIDS.

For these HIV positive girls, life has been cut short. Maru, one such victim of sexual exploitation after being trafficked, died recently in a rehabilitation home in Hyderabad. She got the disease from the person who had sexually exploited her. UNODC showed a clip of the girl celebrating her birthday in December 2006 with other victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, all in the age group of 8-10 years. “Such had been trauma that couple of girls have lost their speaking power,” Lewis recalled, claiming that there are thousands of such girls all over India.

Lewis said trafficking in south Asia is a most organized crime and third most profit earner after weapon smuggling and drugs. “It is worth billion of dollars,” he said. To have an organized effort against trafficking, UNODC will launch a unique programme next week called UN Gift. “Corporate, civil society and government will join hand to check growing trafficking in south Asia,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Check India news real-time updates, latest news on Hindustan Times and more across India.