Prostitution: A Curse to Society

The average day for a girl in America is, going to school, hanging with friends, being with family, and having dreams for their future. But can you imagine being a little girl and not knowing if you’re going to see another day and your dreams are washed away because you were sold into prostitution? Prostitution has been going on ever since Ancient times in India. If women did not fit into society, were widowed, or did not have a high status in society they were often forced into prostitution (Bhattacharji, 32-33). Today, the same thing goes on in present India. In Kolkata, India you see five year old girls who are abandoned and have no where to go but to be in a prostitution house (Kristof).   

                                                                                                   (http://www.ratanak.org/projects_children.cfm)

“Consider, for example, the fact that in India, a country with a per capita GDP of US   $383,some 2.3 million females are estimated to be in prostitution, a quarter of whom are minors: or that Burma, a country with a per capita GDP of just US $69, exports and estimated 20,000 to 30,000 women and girls to work in prostitution in Thailand, while several thousand more cross the border into China to sell sex” (Lim 1998, AMC 2000). Can you believe that?  About 2.3 million females are in prostitution. I find these statistics to be shocking. In the US, many people don’t realize what goes on in other countries and how men treat women.  Why would so many women choose prostitution as a way of life?

 

Very often these women are forced into prostitution by men, sometimes their own husbands, or other family members. Sometimes they are just so poverty stricken that they resort to prostitution to feed themselves. Sometimes they go into prostitution because they can’t find any other jobs and need to help support their families. Once they are prostitutes they are looked down by their community. They are considered a separate class of people.  

                     (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/8008562/Indias-prostitutes-of-God.html)

This is a scary occupation for women. Especially in Karala, India. Not only are these women forced to survive by selling their bodies, but they are subjected to terrible violence as well. For example, they are beaten by police, are stabbed, raped, have acid thrown on them, have legs and arms broken, and are even murdered. It’s sickening to know that men can be this aggressive and mean to women. Even the police who are supposed to help victims of crimes, turn their backs on these women and don’t help them at all.

There are also many serious health threats for these women.  They risk getting STD’s or HIV/AIDS. Very often they don’t receive proper nutrition and can become anemic. Usually they don’t have any place to wash so their personal hygiene is lacking. And yet, with all of these threats there are still so many women working in the streets and in brothels.   

In the book Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, it talks about the unpleasant events that go on in different countires, like India and Cambodia. Sex trafficking and prostitution are very popular in those countries. In this book, a variety of women from different countries tell their stories on how they were sold into sex trafficking or their life in a brothel. One story told by a girl named Geeta explained what her life was like in a brothel. “I was terrified to see this huge man in front of me,” she said. “I cried a lot and fell to his feet, pleading. But I couldn’t make him understand me. He pulled off my dress, and the rapes went on for a month like that” (Kristof, WuDunn, 29).  When you read something like this and what this young girl, Geeta’s life is like, it’s almost hard to believe. The young girls and women of India, and some other countries, have very few rights. They are controlled completely by the men in their country.  These women have no voice.

So what can we do to help? The first thing we have to do is to let people know what is going on and educate the public here in this country. One of the ways we can do that is to have a film crew do a documentary on what exactly is taking place over there. We can show these films in private movie houses and charge money to create a foundation. This foundation will support them and send them to school to get an education so that they don’t have to resort to this terrible way of life. An example of a foundation that can help these women is called “Rescue Foundation.” Rescue Foundation is a non-profit organization. It’s a rehabilitation for women who were victims of sex trafficking or prostitution. These women are from different parts of India like Bangladesh and Nepal. To learn more about this foundation, go to rescuefoundation.net.