Children as Sex Workers in India
May 1, 1999 ·
Published in the ECPAT newsletter
(May 1999)
New Delhi: A study on “Child prostitution in India” by the Centre Concern for Child Labour (CCL), a non-governmental Organisation says thirty percent of sex workers are children, numbering between 270, 000 and 400,000.
The number of children below 14 years in prostitution is increasing at the rate of 8 to 10 percent every year. Nearly 78 districts are child prostitution prone areas. Two-thirds of the customers of child prostitutes are above 50 years of age.
The study also points out that a new category of youth customers is rapidly emerging. Nearly 20 percent of the customers of child prostitutes are students, particularly in the urban areas.
Pimps and paedophiles are using pornography to lure their young victims from non-traditional groups. In the traditional entertainer groups in many cities, nearly 60 percent of the girl children have been introduced to the sex profession by their family members.
(The Times of lndia, Nov. 10, 1998)
