Schmucks, we’re not talking here of those skimpily clad Bollywood things swaying their hips and thrusting their pelvis forward in one of those crude Hindi film dances.
We’re speaking here of a real life Indian heroine, not the reel-life Bollywood or Kollywood bimbos.
Lost Cause
Given the rampant exploitation and injustice in India, we’ve often felt the country is a lost cause.
Beyond salvage.
But some valiant people soldier on, trying to make a difference in the lives of the miserable.
A short while ago, on CNN’s Global Dispatch program we watched Christiane Amanpour interview Indian activist Ruchira Gupta, one of those brave soldiers.
For several years, Ruchira has been working hard to combat the growing problem of sex trafficking in India, particularly of young girls.
Here’s an excerpt of what Ruchira Gupta said in the CNN interview a few minutes ago:
I have never seen the deliberate exploitation of one human being by another as I saw in a brothel in Bombay when I walked into a little room, which was 4×4 and saw the 10-year-old and 12-year-olds sitting on the bed….and 10 or 15 customers a night, raped repeatedly every night.
India has an estimated 1.3 million child prostitutes, Ruchira said on CNN citing an Indian government report released in May this year.
If you believe, like we do, that the Indian government always deflates negative statistics then the real magnitude of child prostitution could be far severe than is believed.
It seems as the AIDS epidemic mushrooms in India, there is greater demand for young girls, sometimes as young as 10, in the belief they will be AIDS-free.
Ruchira Gupta made the valid point on CNN that demand for young girls is at the root of the problem and that authorities ought to crack down on buyers instead of going after the victims, in this case the young prostitutes:
Also, the main criminals I think are end-users, the buyers of prostituted sex, who want the little girls. And because of which, the traffickers and organized criminal networks see profit in it and they go into the villages to find these little girls, either in Eastern Europe or India. So the real criminals are those who create a demand for these little girls.
Ruchira Gupta, who has founded an organization called Apne Ap to address the sex trafficking crisis in India, is calling for buyers of prostituted sex to be punished more severely.
Interestingly, one of the obstacles Ruchira Gupta is running into in her lobbying efforts to get the Indian law changed to prevent punishment of the girls (the victims) are the AIDS management agencies who want the brothels to exist.
I have been facing this and they want to protect the buyers of prostituted sex from disease rather than protecting the women and girls from buyers.
To learn more about the good work being done by our real Indian heroine Ruchira Gupta, visit:
Apne Ap
Ruchira Gupta
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Children trafficking is despicable. How people get turned on with children truly baffles me!
Baby raping is so despicable and yet it happens…seriously what is the world coming into.
Good to know people like Ruchira Gupta is there making a big difference in so many girls lives
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Your part of the world (Thailand mainly and Philippines too but not Malaysia) is the epicenter for sex tourism.
An old friend used to joke about Thailand and its capital Bangkok: bang-cock-in-thigh-land.
In a country like india, they ‘customer’ has to pay say 1000 bucks for sex, if he gets caught he may be paying 2000, 1000 additional for the court as fine, thats it.
I think ruchira’s point make sense, make the punishment hard for the buyers.
I can hardly imagine how these animals rape a 10 yr kid and then go home and play with their 10 yr old kid at home.
I like arab countries in this regard, they make the rapist ineligible for sex itself for rest of their life. Punishment of that level only will stop these animals.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
In her CNN interview, Ruchira also made another important point on how society has accepted adult prostitution and the gradual change in threshold:
You have seen this before, right?
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/01/stories/2008020155041200.htm
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Interesting experiment.
The principal’s action is kinda Gandhian in principle.
Since Indian has renounced all things Gandhian in deed, this one too will likely have limited impact.
@SI
Technically, she couldn’t beat the child.
http://www.groundreport.com/Lifestyle/Idukki-students-own-district/2853189
SearchIndia.com Responds:
A good start.
We’re against the brutal corporal punishment meted out in Indian schools.
You may have read:
Incredible India 31 – Girl No Pay Fees, Girl No Wear Shirt
Incredible India 19; Next Rohini May be Your Daughter
This is my personal experience in Pune:
I had heard of this place called Budhwar Peth in Pune. It is a very famous prostitution center in Pune. When I was in Pune, out of curiosity, I asked my friend to show me the place. I had expected young women or aged aunties making ‘gestures’ at people, as depicted in Hindi movies. But the real picture was very shocking. The road was lined with girls, many of them I believe were as young as 10. The average age of the girls was around 15 or 16 but definitely not more. They were not making any ‘gestures’ but were standing silently with a sadness on their face, waiting for ‘customers’. What was more the people who were dealing with these girls. Many of them were not anti-social elements as one expects, but young men who looked like ‘decent’ fellows and I believe they must be the workers from IT industry in Pune.
This place Budhwar Peth is located at Laxmi Road in Pune. Laxmi Road is a kind of very big shopping district. It is also the most busiest area in Pune. With scores of middle class people visiting it for shopping. The prostitution center is barely 50m from Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple, the most famous Ganpati in Pune. This temple is situated exactly at center of the shopping district.
I walked out of the place. But the incident is still freshly etched in my memory.
My words may not convey much. One has to visit the place and see it oneself, to be shocked and to understand how numb we have become to injustice.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: One has to visit the place and see it oneself, to be shocked and to understand how numb we have become to injustice.
Very true.
The injustice tolerance threshold in India constantly keeps rising.
2. You write: The prostitution center is barely 50m from Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple, the most famous Ganpati in Pune
In India, even the Gods are complicit in prostitution.
Remember the Devadasi system still (??) prevailing in parts of South India.
Many years back, we visited a village called Chinchiriki in Manvi Taluk of Raichur district.
In the course of some work, we met a young lady there and when we asked her husband’s name, she hesitantly replied: Hanumantha.
When we asked her where her husband worked, she mumbled something indecipherable. And the others (remember this is India…so there’s always a crowd of gawkers) quickly burst into laughter.
We were perplexed.
Only later were we told that the young lady was a Devadasi.
I simply can’t bear these stories where ever it is originating from.
I have a son of 12 years old and I still regard him as a baby. We even call him “Saad Baba” as we always used to call him from his birth. How can someone rape or do the animalistic thing to a child? Simply unimaginable.
When it happens that somebody is beginning to live only by the small piece of meat hanging in the groin, what’s the difference between a child and an adult. All they look for is the carnal desire satisfied by hiding it in a another piece of meat or flesh. So, it is only a matter of letting out the semen by any means. That’s it.
See, even the bastards in the Kolly movie industry gives all the necessary promotion for marrying young girls. How many movies have we seen where some old/elderly persons are depicted as perverts salivating on seeing a young girls (Characters in the movie). Rajini, Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj etc., are all coming on the silverscreen with young girls who are even younger than their own children. Old F—-ers.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Most human beings have little concern for their fellow beings.
When they are not willfully harming others, they are cold-bloodedly turning their backs on others’ sufferings.
Should why should we be greatly surprised.
SI: bang-cock-in-thigh-land
ha ha nice
But i agree, sex trade is the oldest profession and reading all these feedbacks from other readers really does not put your mind at ease.
As for Thailand, most of these white tourists esp Aussies come over for the young flesh and looking at the profits in prostitution and tiger bar- its the easiest way to make money. So either women voluntarily go into this trade or most of them are sold off by their parents.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: So either women voluntarily go into this trade or most of them are sold off by their parents.
As we’ve said on other occasions, the human condition is largely one of misery and exploitation.
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Any heroine or side actor there in Hollywood? search india team can do such service in US, instead of posting useless movie reviews.
Wh say u???!!! AB…Confused desi?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Wh say u?
Us say, use only Engliuse in SI.
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Don’t forget about nepal here, where the girl child’s birth is celebrated in greater deal as they have got a precious one to sell for good future in years to come 🙁
SearchIndia.com Responds:
There’s no hope for the entire subcontinent.