NEW YORK -- Their names are Chandrika, Hamida, Amod, Madhuri, Maria and Jenny. And as varied as these children's names are their nationalities: Indian, Bangladeshe, Nepalese, Nicaraguan and North American. What unites them is that they have been made to work as prostitutes and, in the process, have endangered their lives and well being and seriously compromised their future.
It is estimated that 4 million women and girls are annually bought and sold worldwide either into marriage, prostitution or slavery. Approximately 1 million children enter the sex trade every year. And as many as 50,000 women and children from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe are brought to the United States and forced to work as prostitutes, servants or abused workers. Over the past two years, cases prosecuted by the U.S. government amount to less than 300 victims. In other countries the prosecution rate is even lower.
According to UNICEF, 10,000 girls annually enter Thailand from neighboring countries and end up as sex workers. And between 5,000 and 7,000 Nepali girls are transported through the border to India each year and end up as sex workers in Bombay or New Delhi. Although the greatest number of children working as prostitutes occurs in Asia, Eastern European children are increasingly vulnerable. As a social pathological phenomenon, prostitution involving children does not show signs of abating.