NEW DELHI, MARCH 20: There are around 4 lakh child prostitutes in India and their number is increasing by the day, according to the department of women and child development. There are many areas like the Yamuna-pushta and Seemapuri in north-east Delhi, Nizamuddin in central district, Jehangirpuri and Rohini in the north-west which are centres of flesh trade in children.However, the police, is reluctant to divulge any information regarding child prostitution. They claim they do not have records on child prostitution. In fact, very few cases ever see the light of the day.``This problem has not been brought to my notice. We have not received any information on child prostitues. Obviously, we have busted no rackets,'' says DCP (north-east) S B K Singh.DCP (east) P K Bhardwaj is hesitant to disclose even that much. All he managed to say was ``no comments.''A study conducted by the National Commission for Women states that as many as 60 per cent of the sex workers on G.B. Road are minors. They areexploited by the `madams' and the `malkeens'.The children are introduced into the trade either by the people who abduct them and make an income out of engaging children in the flesh trade or by the prostitute mother herself who is the only role model for the child.Reliable sources claim that the current price for purchasing a minor girl for the purpose of prostitution is about Rs 10,000 and that there are many `child procurers' who operate in the city.End Child Prostitution (ECPAT) set up in 1991 to counter flesh trade in children estimates prostitution as a 5 billion dollar industry. UNICEF estimates state that 1 million Asian children enter the trade evry year.A primary reason due to which children enter the flesh trade is economic distress. In fact, according to a Government of India survey conducted in 1997, economic distress was the cause in 44 per cent of the cases of child prostitution. The second-most important reason is `atrocities' committed by the family on the girl child which provokes themto run away from home. Often, they end up in brothels. Social worker Ranjan Kumari rescued a 16-year-old girl who had run away from her home in Rajasthan along with a friend in September, last year. She ended up at a 70-year-old man's house in Mehrauli.An important reason why it becomes difficult for social workers to rescue child prostitutes is the inability to provide them with sustainable means of livelihood. Once rescued, children engaged in flesh trade often do not want to go back to their respective villages. And they are hardly qualified to take up any profession.
