40 Million Reasons to Stop Cultural and Economic Killing of Girls in South Asia

A presentation was given on the Maiti Nepal Organisation that Rotary has been supporting.

Anuradha Koirala CNN Hero and founder of Maiti Nepal has given a voice to the innocent victims of trafficking worldwide and has rescued over 12,000 girls and women who have been trafficked from Nepal to India.

As I was listening to the talk tonight I reflected on the abduction and rape of children for the sex trade and how this can happen. I learned tonight that there are sex areas in Mumbai with 200,000 girls. I learned that the girls are as young as 7 up to 24 (and older). I learned that they were drugged and waking up in brothels. The fate of the girls was to be beaten, raped and continually threatened if they did not service men. The word service is not appropriate I felt as it is not a service for the girls nor even the men, it is clearly illegal rape of minors. We were informed that some girls were raped by up to 50 men a day. They were kept in cages. Soul destroying comes to mind.

I recall my Kashmir colleague on the Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies program in Bangkok visiting Patpong red light district (her first time seeing prostitutes) with other Rotary participants to investigate prostitution. She explained to me her shock and horror at seeing the empty dead eyes of the girls who were walking naked and sold for 100 baht. The trauma was so great they vacated life, as love and peace is not present in the sex trade. It is a brutal industry created to make money out of sex. It is often linked to the drugs trade and organised crime.

As a woman I listen to this, I could be the girl trafficked. I gave deep thought to the situation. Some thoughts that came to mind was the poverty that drives people to traffic women and girls for sex. Boys of course are also trafficked, but the topic was focussing on females as they are the majority of cases, of course the inhumanity equally applies. The children are often sold by their parents, the males in particular make the deal for economic reasons. In other cases, the parents are deceived and told by slick traffickers that they want to help their children and give them jobs in order to have a better life.

In this trade innocence is sold and girls are traded as commodities and purchased by an owner, they have no rights in this transaction as they are an economic entity to be bought and sold. They are slaves with what is termed a bonded debt and often the owners speak of the girls having to pay off their debt (the price the owner paid for them). Psychologically making the girls obligated and justifying they are getting their money back (egoic mind games to justify cruelty). If the girls refuse (which they often do) they are brutalised by violence or sold on to other brothels or killed.

The greed for profit and the emotional disconnect of these men (and women) to be able to engage in this trade is deeply disturbing. This is modern day slavery which is illegal under international law combined with the Rights of the Child. Both are legally binding, yet social ills are still occuring. The complexity of this illegal activity is fuelled by cultural norms that favour males over females and the economic reality of people on the ground. The devaluing of females is a central issue and the lack of emotional response is noteworthy in the males that exploit girls.

The emotional emptiness or void raises questions about why people emotionally detach? and how is empathy developed in people? Role modelling comes to mind from fathers, how they teach their sons. If empathy was present in these males, the trade would not exist, as they would feel for the girls or see them as family or perhaps have a fatherly responsibility towards girls. I considered the lack of empathy more deeply. I considered broad questions such as the socialisation of men and the cliches of ‘boys don’t cry’ and insults of ‘don’t be a girl’ or general social comments to put down girls as some how inferior inferring weakness. Moreover the unspoken beliefs that feelings, compassion and emotional dispositions are perceived as weakness. These are both subtle and unquestioned cultural norms even here in Australia. Moreover, the attitudes towards pornography and the addiction to sex for some people is noteworthy. In some quarters the belief that western women are all sexually available. This of course is untrue. However, being able to access sex is the key without any consideration for what the female wants. This is an important point. It is not love it is lust we are looking at. The objectivisation of females rather than regarding them as humans with feelings is key to an analysis of how people can exploit children. So it feeds into social stereotypes, greed and selfish self gratification. More films are becoming more sexually explicit and what is allowed today would be considered inappropriate 20 years ago, I am speaking of western countries here. There were higher social standards and agreed moral behaviour which is slipping away. Social values are changing and values that would guide and protect society are unravelling. This can be seen across the world and is propagated by the violent and sexualised films on global media. Even in Central America I was amazed to view violent films on a bus. There was no awareness that it was inappropriate. So aspects of the social ill of human trafficking has seeds in declining morality, social silence and fuelled by the media, worldwide.

In the South Asian context gender discrimination is overt and culturally accepted. Female births for many are considered a disappointment to extended families and disuaded or dealt with, often violently or through social isolation or punishment. Alternatively the girls are put to work domestically. So the cultural bias favouring males and undemining the value of females socially, culturally and economically deeply impacts and fuels the growing sex industry in India and Nepal. Importantly it destroys innocent lives that could have a career, dreams and happiness if their potential was allowed to flower, rather than the cynical statements of deflowering girls. As if sex somehow makes them despoiled or less pure. I would like to comment on that as a female what makes males and females pure is their thoughts when having sex, are they loving or is it about gratifying themselves. The perception of being dirty is to do with thoughts, it has nothing to do with natural behaviour that is natural to humans and meant to be a joy and to bond males and females as family. That is the purpose of sex at its highest level. When it is a release then it is merely recreation with no substance. Exploring sex is fine but to force boys or girls into, is definitely moving us away from a peaceful world.

As a female myself I find it extraordinary that females can suffer such violence and inhumane treatment based on culture and economic imperatives. Interestingly, when I was on the Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program in Bangkok, I met and listened to prostitutes in Southern Thailand with HIV. Some spoke of being kidnapped, lured with work or for economic reasons they became prostitutes. They explained what it was like and the endless number of clients they had to have sex with in a day. They spoke of the devastation of their lives not only in being raped continuously, their bodies used and importantly the social isolation and stigma of prostitution and in the worst cases contracting HIV Aids. They received a death sentence and no-one would go near them. If they were sent back to their village they were socially ostrocised. Moreover, with the increase in HIV Aids, virgins were often sought to ensure clients didn’t get HIV, so the age of prostitutes became younger. I was told by a Phnom Penh journalist that he went undercover in search of virgins and was taken to a backroom and presented with one. She was only 8 years old. He was to purchase her. He tried to expose this heinous industry. In the HIV clinic I saw quite a few women dying from HIV Aids, such a sad end to their lives, with no family around. I thought at the time about how to help these women, empowering women came to mind, conducting workshops that focus on happiness, laughter and wellbeing. I was told by the priest of this HIV clinic that humour did help some go into remission. It is essential to build their resilience and deepen wellbeing in an atmosphere of feeling loved and valued as equal. The concept of building community around them I felt was important and shifting cultural attitudes in favour of equality, where females are valuable and the many talents and abilities that are rendered invisible, acknowledged.

Indeed I recall Clinton’s statement in 1994 where the US announced the decoupling human rights from trade. What message does that send to the world? A democratic country that sends the signal that it is not concerned with human rights violation in relation to trade. At the same time the US espoused the core values of life, liberty and happiness. In a competitive global trading system the emphasis is to drive down costs and the exploitation of workers are common practices where regulation does not exist or workers are impoverished or displaced. This translates in some developing countries to excessive working hours, poor conditions, few or no breaks, low pay or no pay, sexual exploitation, chained to workstations, low education, no unionisation and hence bonded labour for life. The term wage slavery is evoked when people live to work or work to live, they are called the working poor. This is not dissimilar to slavery. I recall being shown young girls in a Target factory in Cambodia being watched by males at the end of production lines and with time clocks and quotas. It was like a factory farm to me. Although I was told the conditions were good comparatively. I was aware that many of the workers in the factory had been removed from the centre of Phnom Penh as they were the poor living in slums on prime real estate. The government had given them accommodation, paid a price for their land (much lower than market rate) and they were removed 20km outside of Phnom Penh. The mindsets engaged in the business of cheap labour or exploitation are similar in that they are driven by greed to make profits and they regard human rights null and void, if they can get away with it. Hence no empathy for the human life involved. They operate on self interest not best interest of humanity and this is what greed creates in people. I intuitively saw the decoupling of human rights from trade as a turning point in the world. A movement away from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the former US first lady, Elenor Roosevelt played a key role in developing towards free trade driven by the desire to be rich and powerful.

The Bhutan government speaks of Gross National Happiness as indicators which could indeed replace Gross Domestic Product as a means of evaluating a country’s wealth. Human rights violations if recoupled to trade could deflate a country’s wealth internationally. So there are many ways to look at the problems and if we are all on the same page as regards to empathy, values and universal human rights, then these dark industries would not exist as they would not be supported. They do not build societies economically they just make a few rich at the expense of many.

I spoke to some other women tonight who were learning of sex trafficking, they also shared with me their disbelief and disguest at such a trade. One indicated her despair and I felt her sense of futility around helping so many women. My immediate response is that we can help and it is important to not take on the pain but to spread the word about works designed to help and empower women. I feel it is important for men to start discussions about emotions and feeling connection with women as equals. It starts with each of us making changes. Raising awareness is significant in changing global perceptions. This talk and discussions lead myself to a deeper inquiry of the treatment of females in South Asia. I studied South Asia as part of my Peace Studies post graduate qualification and learned about the inequality, poverty, politics and economic issues. I did comment to the group tonight that in the Indian State of Kerala there has been property inheritence culturally passed down the female line, this is called the Matrilineal system. It was managed by males but transferred down the female line. From an social perspective it has produced greater equality between males and females, higher levels of education of females and economic growth despite economic decline in India. This occured because the system favoured both men and women, women were seen as central to families. So they were able to reverse the trend of genderocide. This contrasts significantly with the majority of India where dowery is still the predominant economic endowment for males who marry females. Linking marriage to economic wealth is the problem. Marriage in my view should be linked to love. Love is what holds families together and it is modelled to children that love is natural. The dowry is an unquestioned cultural norm and appears as the central driver of why females are devalued and often killed before or after birth, and subtly entrenched as less than males, socially.

Thus a political and socially driven campaign could be developed and lead by Indian politicians and strong women and men in communities to enshrine and reward alternative systems of marriage e.g. matrilineal inherence (tax breaks) and/or create systems that make alternatives more attractive than the banned but still practiced dowery system. Moreover, as male and female preference balances with personal merit as the decider, it is likely to have considerable impact on the sex trafficking trade given girls would be educated and of higher value in Marilineal systems or alternatives that enhance women’s status. Another way would be to pay familes to have girls. I am aware population issues come up here but I think murder is not the solution to population, population issues will be solved through educating women and living self sufficiency as Gandhi indicated. There is a causal link that when women are educated they have less children. This will slow population growth in India and be an advantage for the country. In whatever way values girls could change behaviour quicker given the speed of genderocide that is driven economically.

The Matrilineal system will be discussed in the next blog.

Here is an overview of a documentary by ABC in the United States which has been given considerable airtime given the shocking title of India’s missing 40 million girls. This death rate is double the population of Australia and considerably more than the war statistics we hear about. It is a hidden war against females. Imagine investments in raising social awareness rather than warfare or nuclear programs. The US conflicts cost an estimated at $1.29 trillion to $3.7 trillion dollars, imagine if this was funnelled into gender equality, sustainable development (emphasising self reliance), education and social campaigns to ensure peace through social equity. Peace through service would mean advocating for conflict resolution across the world and transferring funds to where they are needed to create peace between genders, peace through economic parity (cooperation over competition), peace as nonviolence, peace as respect, peace as human rights, education and wellbeing. Essentially peace brings harmony and resolves social ills.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/267181/20111214/india-40-million-missing-girls-problem-gendercide.htm

Forty million girls do not just go “missing,” though in India that is the case.

ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas traveled to the country to uncover what is known as “India’s deadly secret.” Vargas went on shocking information that one million girls are systematically killed every year because of the gender preference for boys, a term coined “gendercide.”

As Vargas walks, the streets are teeming with males. Women appear to be absent. The reporter is struck by the visible disparity. But this is not something uncommon. There is even a town called “The Village of No Women” which has one of the lowest sex ratios on earth. So, where are the females?

An estimated 40 million girls have gone “missing” in India, which has a total population of 1.1 billion as of 2010. Approximately 50,000 female fetuses are aborted every month.

Pregnant women visit ultrasound clinics, which are booming businesses in the country, to determine the sex of their babies before they are born. In India, it is reportedly a crime to use an ultrasound to find out whether the child is a male or female. Abortions are also illegal.

Regardless, the judiciary and authorities do not acknowledge the illegality because they believe in the same mentality. Thus, the culprits are rarely charged.

Since 1980, Vargas reports that an estimated 40 million girls are “missing” due to sex-selective abortion, neglect or murder.

Vargas spoke with Ruchira Gupta, a women’s rights activist, who said, “It’s an obliteration of a whole class, race, of human beings. It’s half the population of India.”

“We put very little value to girls or to women. So they are always in danger, from birth to death. If they are born, then they might be murdered just because they are girls.”

The main reason for the gendercide is money. Families must pay expensive dowery’s to marry off daughters. When a boy is born, he will bring in the money; when a girl is born she is a steep expenditure. This is the main reason families promote abortion of daughters.

Dowery expenses increase year after year. Once a girl weds, her family is required to pay this fee. If they do not, the girl is “often beaten, tortured, even burned to death. And while dowery’s have been illegal for decades, the law is often ignored.”

Despite the fact that one might assume the gendercide tactic is practiced by the poor and destitute, it is the rich and educated who use sex-selection abortions most frequently. Vargas reports that census data shows that the problem is becoming more severe in the most elite areas. In some neighborhoods, there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys.

Vargas spoke with a female doctor who described her harrowing tale of struggle and torture when her family discovered she was pregnant with twin girls. The doctor’s husband’s family demanded she get an abortion, but she refused. Because she did not give her husband a son, she was deemed a “useless wife.”

His family then tried to force her to miscarry by denying her food and feeding her eggs, which she is allergic to. When her daughters were born, the grandmother pushed one of them down the stairs.

This woman is not alone. Her story is familiar to many. Yet, for others forced to give up their daughters, there is hope and salvation.

In the northern region of the country, Vargas traveled to orphanages, known as “Cradle Houses.” Unwanted daughters are brought here, dropped down into a drop box and given over to those willing to shelter and care for the discarded.

“Mostly these girls are half-dead,” said one volunteer, “because their mother take [sic] so many medicines for the killing, to try to poison them.”

Here, the girls are clothed, fed and educated. They are led by a woman endearingly known as “Mama.”

“It’s important to empower and embolden these girls to make them stronger. So, one day when they give birth to a baby girl, they will not give in to the pressure to play with nature.”

Click here to find out information on how you can help India’s disappearing daughters.