Global Economic Crisis Leads to Younger Victims of Prostitution
Friday, December 14, 2012
The global economic crisis has led more impoverished women and children into prostitution. A recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) report shows that 21 million people are currently working in forced labor, having been coerced and deceived into jobs they cannot leave. 4.5 million of those are women and girls who are victims of sexual exploitation.
Budget cuts for women’s programs have decreased options for impoverished women and girls, pushing younger and younger girls into prostitution. Ruchira Gupta, founder of Indian charity Apne Aap Women Worldwide, has seen the number of prostituted women in India rise while the average age has fallen, adding that the average age of female prostitutes in India is between nine and 13 years old. While families in poor countries sell their children into prostitution for their own survival, there are “pitifully few” prosecutions for the consumption of prostitution in wealthy nations.
Compiled from: Goldsmith, Belinda, Younger girls forced into prostitution in economic crisis: conference, Reuters (5 December 2012).
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