Posted on 03/29/2009 9:33:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
She is eight years old, loves to care for people and animals, wants to be a doctor when she grows up and is learning to read and write in her free time - that is, till her "customers" arrive.
As this IANS correspondent entered a room at the infamous red light area of Kalighat in south Kolkata, she was greeted by a smiling child who offered a glass of cold water and two pieces of 'sandesh' (sweets).
"Please sit... it's 10.15 a.m... no one will disturb us at least till 1 p.m. But after that my customers may land up," said Seema Sen (name changed).
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If you are wondering, who Sen is and who are the 'customers' she is talking about, you might be shocked to know this girl is a victim of child prostitution.
She does not have a birth certificate, and has never been to school. But her mother Sonali - herself a sex worker - confirms Seema's age. "She has been in this trade for three years. She was five years when she joined."
"One day I was playing in front of my mother's room, when one of her customers liked me... that was my first day in the profession," the girl recalled.
"I don't remember what was done to me... mother says I fainted and was unwell for days. But she also said that's what our profession is like and I have to become strong like her."
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Seema said she does not want to continue in this profession.
"My mother forces me to continue because of lack of alternatives at present... I have a brother too to look after. But she always encourages me to look for better alternatives in future so that I can move out.
"I don't want to remain a sex worker... dress up like a clown day and night and let people come and hurt you. The world here is very dirty... I want to get out of here soon," Seema said.
"I want to go to school and study. Besides, I love taking care of people and animals. In fact, I attend to anyone who falls ill in our locality."
"My aim in life is to become a good doctor. I know I will need a lot of money to pursue my dreams.
‘Educate a woman and educate generations’
"And hence, during my spare hours, I work as a florist in this area. My cousin is a wholesaler of flowers like jasmine, chameli, mogra, bela and tuberose. With my mother's help, I stock up flowers in my room and sell them to customers and sex workers at cheaper rates.
"My mother has even opened a joint bank account with me, where I deposit a major part of my earnings. As soon as I have enough money, I wish to go to a boarding school in the hills.
"After that life will be totally different...."
According to Indrani Sinha, founder-director of Sanlap - an NGO working for the development of sex workers in the Kalighat area, there are nearly 40,000 sex workers in Kolkata, of whom almost 10 per cent are children.
However, the number of children in prostitution business is decreasing in Kolkata, unlike in Delhi and Mumbai, due to the joint efforts of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) an organisation of sex workers in Kolkata working for their own welfare and social recognition, and the NGOs.
"No new child has entered the trade since 2007," Sinha said.
According to the data available with the organisation, 40 per cent of India's sex workers are children who contribute over Rs 15,000 crore per year to the annual prostitution business worth Rs 55,000 crore.
Commenting on Seema's ambition to become a doctor, Sinha said: "We will be more than happy to help her out. But we can't forcibly take custody of a minor like that, especially when she herself has no grudges against her mother." Asked if all girls in the area dream like Seema, Sinha said: "I don't think so... they don't dream big like Seema, but surely they wish for a better life."
Can’t even comment.
Words fail me.
I couldn’t even get half way into it.
Proves the lie of multiculturalism....that is force fed our children in the US. Not all cultures are good and some are outright evil. The American culture was the best and should have been preserved and celebrated as the BEST until something better came along. The indoctrination that has been going on for over 50 years is a Marxist lie—to destroy the greatest country in the history of the world. It is working...children believe America is evil and Christianity is worse.
That would be Un-PC...can't have that.
only Jesus Christ can save these people .
Hinduism is such an ancient curse , it allows this
I think of my niece who is 9 and both I and her father would take apart limb by limb anyone who even tried such a thing...
What abuse of the girls. How do they not come out of this as wrecks? How can this not be hurting Indian families big time?
Well it was thought of that way, until people had it too good and forgot where they had come from. Then the old dysfunctional cultures became "new ideas."
I am sure they do come out as wrecks. The poor thing probably has any number of diseases already, including AIDS. And psychologically? God have mercy. Nothing normal or healthy comes out of that.
You too.
She is being treated less humanely than the animals she loves. I wonder if the critters are her only consolation?
Take a long walk on a short pier, please.
What type of mother would willingly subject her child to this type of abuse?
What type of culture permits this abuse to continue?
What a sick world we live in.
Did you notice the mother says, “SHE joined the profession”.
A 5 YO can make that kind of decision, of course.
How can this not be hurting Indian families big time?It's not your fault, but this statement misunderstands the problem. It is a problem that just doesn't even make sense to Americans.
See, you said "Indian families" as if there is a single concept of what "Indian families" means there. They still operate on a separated class system. The lowest classes are not considered "worth" worrying about. So there is at current no way to say "Indian families" as if there is just one classification of "families."
Some strata of Indian society is little different in opportunities than our middle class. Others no different than our rich. But their poor aren't just downtrodden and without money but otherwise little different than any other Indian citizen. They are considered less than human in many ways.
So, here a family, is a family, is a family. All families are considered the same at some root level. But there many millions of people that are not considered "worth" worrying about their families or "worth" worrying about the hell their children are forced to live in.
When we in America say "family" we have a singular concept that fits ALL families. When we see an exploited child we equate that child to our own children. We experience sympathy and that sympathy can lead to help being offered. But, when some Indians see child sex workers from the lowest classes, they do not see themselves and their own children in that situation. It's almost inconceivable that they could be "like" the lower classes. The upper classes have no sympathy, no empathy because there is no feeling of kinship, no assumption of the humanity of the lowest classes.
To us this is an alien concept. We live in nearly as classless a society as one can find. There it is far, far different.
If your mother is a sex worker, YOU will be a sex worker. There is only recently a sense of rising above class in India and it is a concept that has yet to permeate society.
Class stratification has put up a barrier to any kind of cross-commiseration with others who are in this horrible situation. Bet you dollars to donuts the mother and child in this horrible situation are among the lowest rungs of the caste ladder. A Brahmin or Vaishya will not have any sympathy for or feel any kinship with a Dalit.
This is the same kind of stratification the Lotus-Eaters are going for. They want to drive us into the same pit of despair that mires many others in the Third World.
Little skeptical of the writing in this piece, doesn’t sound like the words of a 5 yr old but I know this goes on. You are right that this multiculturalism is a load of crap. American culture has some problems but Christianity is not among them. In our society you have a greater chance than anywhere in the world to achieve your dreams because we have liberty, though it is being eroded as we sleep. We have the best system of justice in the world, though flawed. One of our flaws is that we are far too generous with other “cultures”.
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