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Children in brothels

Asna Zareen
LARGELY, the people view the brothel sex workers as the most disgraceful and see them as an ignominious community. They' are kept aloof from the mainstream society. However, changes have happened in brothels especially due to the intervention of HIV programs but there is still a long way to go. There are 14 registered brothels in Bangladesh. More than 20,000 children are born and live in the brothels according to different studies. Prostitution is not being legally accepted as a profession but has not been declared as illegal either. Girls are recruited in brothel through affidavit. Affidavit is a tool for Sardarni to involve underage girls into forced prostitution. There are mainly 3 types of sex workers in brothel, Chukris (Bonded sex workers), Independent sex workers and Madam (Sardarni). Chukris are the girls who work under madam typically' called 'Sardarni". Chukris are bonded girls and are ranked the lowest in a brothel society. They are usually forced into prostitutions and are predominantly below the age of 18. They have less freedom. Independent sex workers are those who can work freely and earn. Madams (Sradarnis ) are aged sex workers mostly retired who keeps bonded sex workers under them. They are the most powerful in brothel and have considerable control over sex workers.
Brothels are typically in a confined place and physical environment is poor and grimy. Rooms are congested, ill-ventilated, poorly lighted and divided into small compartments with partitions. It is difficult to comprehend how people live there year after year. I have found in few cases three generation of a family are living in the same brothel.
The children who are born in brothels have the same rights as any other children of the society according to the United Nations Child Right Convention, and Bangladesh has ratified it. However, fromthe very beginning of life these children face discrimination and challenges in accessing their basic rights. They grow up in an environment that is totally estranged from mainstream society in terms of life style, grooming, language, behaviour and custom. These children tend to have underdeveloped psychosocial life skills due to social exclusion and rarely get to see positive role models. Being a single parent, stigma of the profession, odd working hours and unhealthy brothel environment are major challenges for parenting these children. These factors make the girls particularly vulnerable, who in some cases get forced into this work. The boys' scenario is almost the same as a lot of them end up as drug dealers, addicts and pimps.
The children remain mostly unattended when their mothers attend the clients and become vulnerable for abuse and exploitation. Day care centres / creches /night shelter is an available option in a brothel for the children being raised there while their mothers attend customers. Here, children receive food, have recreational activities, medical facilities, education and psychosocial support for their proper development. The stigma of being a sex worker and the unhealthy environment of brothel make it inevitable for them to send the children to an institution or being raised with the extended family as an attempt to keep the children away from the brothel environment and also to hide their identity of being a sex worker's child. Thus as the children are getting older, they need to be withdrawn from the brothels and be placed in institutions. Physical, social and emotional development of a child being in family is crucial, so there is still debate as what is the ideal age for a child to be withdrawn from brothel.
There are few organizations that run shelter home for brothel children and provide lodging, food, education, psychosocial support and finally assist
them to mainstream in the society. But the disjointed family structure of these children adversely affects their personality growth and sense of self esteem. It is found from practices that to reduce the stigmatization and isolation of the children of sex workers and child sex workers it is vital for them to socialize with mainstream children. The mainstream society perceives the children of sex workers as ramification of sin, thus in most of the cases they need to hide their identity. These children have a critical background and are brought up in institution where the environment is quite favourable to them. Thus when they step out from the institution into mainstream society they face challenges. Hence we need to equip them adequately. How much have we equipped them mentally and socially to adapt in the society or on another take how much we have prepared the society to embrace them as respectful citizen of the society are questions that needs to be pondered on. It is a dilemma.
Ghildren, who are forced into prostitution need immediate rescue from brothels. They develop severe mental illnesses like post traumatic stress disorder, depression, behavioural problems and become prone to self harm. There are other health hazards as well. Above all there is a total lack of confidence and self-esteem among them. Thus restoring self-esteem and repairing emotional damages received through the process of sexual exploitation and abuse is an important process for rehabilitation and reintegration for these children. Sometimes, it is difficult to withdraw a children at the age of 16 and above from sex work. Reasons are valid. First of all this is the age when they can earn maximum which is not easy to replace by other jobs. Others are weekly / daily cash in hand and the freedom they can enjoy. We have to prepare individual plan for them through following case management process merely vocational training for rehabilitation and integration
no antidote here.
To stop children from entering brothels is also not an easy work. This issue is very complex and cannot be addressed in isolation. It needs the concerted and continuous effort of multiple stakeholders. Those who are involved and benefit from this trade, the perpetrators, invisible vested interest groups and probable clients all need to be addressed. Here different government agencies and committees on children issue, service providing organizations, sex workers network and media can play a vital role.
Above all, the role of social acceptance is a critical factor in enabling a child to be free from the grip of exploitation. We have to work with different groups of people in society to change the social perceptions. The parents, children, community people and the professional groups like lawyers, police, teachers, doctors and religious leaders need to change their mind-set and attitude towards dealing with these children. It is imperative to promote positive and protective behavior and provide a supportive environment for these children.
Last but not the least while working on this issue, one thing strikes my mind, we dishonor the girls and women for their lascivious character of selling their body to earn money. Nevertheless, what about the men who buy sex merely to satisfy their sexual needs and some cases are also responsible for bringing a child in earth without a father's identity? These children's rights are violated form the very beginning of life. How can these men escape from their responsibility? It is probably because, we still live in a patriarchal society, where we can not utter a single word to show our hatred and disgrace to these men and hence all our hatred and disgrace are focused only for those girls and women.
The writer is Programme and M&E officer , IAPP TA Project, FAO.