RECOGNIZING CHILD MALTREATMENT IN BANGLADESH

Item

Title: RECOGNIZING CHILD MALTREATMENT
IN BANGLADESH
extracted text: CH-

Child Abuse & Neglect, Vol. 21. No. 8, pp. 815-818, 1997
Copyright <0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in (he (ISA. All rights reserved
0145-2134/97 $17.00 + .(X)

Pergninoii

PI I 80145-2134(97)00041-0

BRIEF COMMUNICATION

RECOGNIZING CHILD MALTREATMENT
IN BANGLADESH
Naila

Z. Kuan

Child Development Centre. Dhaka Shislui (Children's) Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Margaret

A. Lynch

United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals, University of London, London, UK
Key Words—Child maltreatment, Bangladesh, Recognition, Paradoxes.

INTRODUCTION

WITHIN BANGLADESH THERE is a growing concern over the extent of child abuse, neglect,
and exploitation. Cases are being recognized by individuals and within a variety of services and
projects concerned with the welfare of children and families. There is an acknowledgement that
abuse and neglect can occur both within and outside the family and is not restricted to any one
socioeconomic group. There is a consensus among concerned professionals that ways must be
found to protect children both from the immediate effects of maltreatment and from its conse
quences on long term development.
This preliminary paper highlights the range of cases of child abuse and neglect already being
identified by professionals in Bangladesh, and goes on to discuss some of the larger paradoxes
revolving around child protection related to sociocultural practices and economic factors within the
country. These include early marriage of the girl child, domestic child workers, and child labor
within export orientated factories.

This paper is based on a workshop presented at the I I th International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect, Dublin,
Ireland, 1996, and uses ideas generated in a workshop held in Dhaka in 1995.
Received for publication September 20, 1996; final revision received January 6, 1997; accepted January 7, 1997.
Reprint requests should be addressed to N. Z. Khan, Child Development and Neurology Unit, Dhaka Shishu Hospital,
Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
© 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bl 5

816

N. Z. Khan and M. A. Lynch
ruble I. A Range of (’uses Recognized Between 1994 to 1996

Case Ninnbui
I
2

Gentler
Gill
Boy

Age
2 ycni'N

Gill

6 years
7 yea is

4

Boy

I I years

5

Girl

I I years

()

Boy

6 years

7

Girl

3.5 years

8

Girl

5 years

9

Girl

11 years

Problem
Skull lincliire mid Ininicrmiliil bleeding. Two udiiilNsloiis. ‘Tell from bed."
I j’ilepsy I’ircipiliilcd by domestic violence.
I lecilvc iiiiiilsiii. Rrcinienl non penelnillve Nexnul nbuse by mule home
tutor.
Behavioural problems. School drop-out. Sexual abuse by construction
workers. Now possible IIIV infection.
Learning difficulties, aggressive-regressive behaviour. Sexual abuse by
females in jail.
Inappropriately sexualized. Distressed parents. Physical (drugged) and
sexual abuse by aunt for first 3 years of life.
First presentation with severe congenital heart disease (recognizable <1
year). "Medical neglect".
Learning difficulties, frightened, hyperactive. Beaten by uncle. Suspected
sexual abuse. Disempowered mother living with in-laws.
Sibling of ‘failure to thrive’ child. Kidnapped and raped by landlord. Now
mentally ill prostitute.

RECOGNITION BY PROFESSIONALS
The staff al the Child Development Center of Dhaka Shishu Hospital have recently started to
recognize abuse and neglect as a reason for some of the neurodevelopmental problems of children
presenting to them. Children are referred from a diverse range of services that transcend social and
economic boundaries and demonstrate the wide range of professionals and organizations recog
nizing child abuse and neglect. Sources of referral include the Child Development Center’s own
community-based programs within a slum population, the hospital’s general outpatient department,
human rights organizations, and projects working with children and families. The assessment team
usually involves a pediatrician, a psychologist, and a social worker. For the individual child and
family, intervention seeks to provide therapeutic support and practical advice. Where appropriate,
cases are discussed with or referred to other organizations or projects including those concerned
with legal protection and community action.
Table 1 highlights a range of presentations of cases that have been identified showing the effects
of different forms of child abuse and neglect. Many of the concerns raised are very similar to those
in (he more industrialized countries. These range from nonaccidental injury (child 1) and the effects
of domestic violence (child 2) through sexual abuse by a variety of perpetrators (child 3, 4, 5, 6,
8, 9). There is also a growing concern regarding HIV infection (child 4). Perhaps more typical of
a developing country is the medical neglect of the girl child (child 7), and the extreme distress and
helplessness of a mother living in a joint family system where the child was forced to sleep with
the unmarried uncle (child 8). The rape of girl children in poor and disempowered families by local
landlords (mastaans) and eventual enforced prostitution demonstrates another typical form of abuse
in Bangladesh (child 9).

SOME CHILI) PROTECTION PARADOXES

Early Marriage
While sexuality is rarely discussed, sexual harassment is commonplace. Young girls arc
“protected" cither by keeping them tit home or marrying them off. The latter is seen as an
“honorable" option for the family that also gives the girl social recognition. Some of the stories in
Bengali literature from the early part of this century seem to describe symptoms that could now be

Child m.illrralmenl in Bangladesh

817

interpreted as relleclions ol child sexual abuse. Tagore, in a short story, describes the distress
observed in a child bride: “Mrinmaycc paced the room like a caged bird. Marriage, to her, was a
nightmare. She felt that a life imprisonment had been given to her.'’ (Shomapli, Collected works
of Rabindranath Tagore, Vol. 23).
'The reactions of young brides often seem to echo those experienced by sexually abused children
(Finkelhor. 1088). In some the stale induced is akin Io that described by Ten (I99|) as a
post traumatic one with leclings of hopelessness, helplessness, and severe depression.
Paradoxically the practice of early marriage eventually means girls are abandoned and then led
into prostitution. 'This is illustrated by a family known Io the Child Development Center:
A l()-year-okl girl was living with her only parent, a single mother, in a slum. The mother would leave her to go to work
in a factory. Meanwhile local men started to sexually harass the girl. In fear of the consequences she was "married off’ to
a 17 year old boy. 6 months later she was abandoned. At the age of 13 years she was seen by (he social worker of the Child
Development Center, dressed as a prostitute. Iler speech was disjointed and she seemed mentally ill.

Such practices are occurring against the backdrop of a society where there is little acknowl
edgement of the transitional development stage of adolescence for a girl. The onset of puberty
immediately transforms her into a women. I wen pediatric services will be denied.
Child Domestic Workers
The use of child domestic labor is widespread and socially accepted. Predominantly girls aged
8 to 16. these children arc live-in servants with little or no contact with their own families.
Employers often view themselves as “-benefactors” who have rescued the child Irom poverty and
given them food, clothing, and shelter. Work hours can be irregular and round the clock. Use of
physical violence is commonplace and there is (he risk of sexual abuse by the employer or other
servants. More importantly, their emotional development is often severely distorted by inconsistent
interactions, inappropriate expectations, and mis-socialization (Rahman. 1995). For example, the
employer might seem kind and generous one instant, and abusive and demanding the next. These
behavioral dimensions are similar to those described by Glaser (1993) as potentially abusive and
damaging. Few child domestic workers go on to experience stable adult lives.

Garments Workers
In contrast, work in a garment factory can provide girls and young women a relatively safe place
to socialize and experience some independence. It helps them to escape from extreme poverty,
domestic service, and early marriage. However, this opportunity has come under threat from
outside pressures condemning the use of "child labor.” This has to be pul into the context ol
Bangladeshi society. (iirls thrown out of factories will not go into education; but are likely Io be
quickly married off or even forced into prostitution (Boyden & Myers, 1994). This is not to deny
that work in a garment factory can be exploitative with low wages and long hours. What is needed
is an approach (hat will encourage employers to combine educational and welfare lacilities lor all
employees, including teenage girls.
DISCUSSION

The work of the Child Development Center has focussed on the recognition of interpersonal
abuse and neglect (WHO, 1994) and has identified a wide range of intra- and exlrafamilial forms
of abuse. This must inevitably be seen against a background of social and cultural attitudes,
including the altitude towards the girl child and the condoning of early marriage. There is a need
to explore the extent and depth of the problems. It is important to differentiate between appropriate

818

N. Z. Khan and M. A. Lynch

concerns within Bangladesh and (hose generaled by the imposition of selective values by interna
tional campaigns.
1 here is also a need to raise both professional and public awareness of the issues. The
discrepancies that exist between the laws of the land and cultural practices has to be brought to
public attention. For example, the legal age of marriage is 18 years fora girl and 21 years fora boy
(Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Ordinance, 1974, Government of Bangladesh), but
such laws are ollcn ignored or bypassed by the traditional system. The median age of first marriage
lor girls still remains much below 18. and was 13.9 years among todays 35-39 year old women,
and 15.3 years among those aged 20 2-1 years (Milin, 1994). I his increase in the age of marriage
may well be one icstili of the nalionnl campaign lo positively encourage school enrollinenl for girls
which ilscll is icllccied in the increasing lilcim y tale among women (I INK 'EE, 1996). There is also
an active women s movcmcnl in Bang.ladcsh which in addition lo campaigning for women’s rights
is drawing public attention to the abuse and neglect of girl children.
Not all lorms ol abuse lound in Bangladesh have been explored in Ihis paper and some remain
hugely iinacknowlcdgcd. I ypical examples me young, boys working in the traditional weaving
indusliics in mral areas, and transport woikrrs (“tempo boys”) in the cities. Another form of
exploitation is the Irallicking ol childien to other countries as camel jockeys and for prostitution,
i here are indications that the media are beginning to see exposure of some of these examples or
organized abuse as news worthy. Women's organizations and human rights organizations are
working with (heir regional counterparts to repatriate and rescue children trafficked out to
neighboring countries such as India.
Bangladesh is a signatory to the Convention on (he Rights of the Child. This could be used as
an important advocacy and public educational tool. Further work needs lo be done to encourage
media interactions and debate on issues relating lo children's rights. The considerable expertise
within the country needs lo be acknowledged and coordinated through a supportive network of
individuals and organizations working towards (he prevention of all forms of child abuse, neglect,
and exploitation, and thereby having a positive effect on the lives of millions of children in
Bangladesh.

REI;ERENCES
Boyden, J., & Myers, W. (1994). Exploriiif> alternative approaches to combating child labor: Case studies from developing
countries. Florence, Italy: Innocenti Occasional Papers (Child Rights Series) No. 8.
Finkelhor. D. (1988). The trauma of child sexual abuse. In G. F. Wyatts & G. J. Powell (Eds.), Lasting effects of child sexual
abuse (pp. 61 82). Beverly Hills, (’A: Sage Publications.
Glaser, 1). (1993). Emotional abuse. In E. Hobbs & J. Wynne (Eds.), Child abuse (pp. 251-267). London, England: Ballicre
and Tindall.
Mitra, S. N. (1994). Bangladesh demographic and health survey. Dhaka, Bangladesh: National institute of Population
Research and Training.
Rahman, II. (1995). Child domestic workers: Is servitude the only option! Shoishob, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Terr, L. C. (1994). Childhood traumas: An outline and overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 10-20.
WHO (1994). Protocol for the study of interpersonal physical abuse of children. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.
I INK Tb (1996). I he slate of the world's childien. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

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Displaying a rare survival^
instinct, Narasimha Rao has managed to govern
even in the face of wildest storms

IN FOCUS
By B Shekar

1
the
these
littily

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will
1 were
ftrious
^einto
> I'V
'•■pearls.
Bsttch
people
shop
»athji
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M.state

Wtx on
bring
Were to
^it has
siring
slated
.: V|ox of a
£>;Uions

9 Since a couple of days my brother has
started touching particular parts of my
body whenever he passes by. It is quite
embarrassing. I have tried to stop him, but
of no help. How can I msist bis advances?.
9 When 1 was an eight year old girl, I
was raped by my cousin. Although I am
mairicd now, my piohlem is I am unable
to enjoy marital life. Whenever my
husband wants to have sex with me, I
just move away from him. He has been
insisting that 1 see a doctor. But I do not
want to, as I don’t want anyone to know
of ^ty past life. Please help me. Will I be
able to bear children?
These are hut a few of (lie glaring
letters that appeared in a glossy
magazine.
sample survey conducted by a
I
/1 Bangalore-based group on the
AA issue of Child Sexual Abuse
shocking
throws
j L JL (CSA)
revelations. It not only points that CSA is
very much in prevalence but also growing
in proportion. 15 per cent of the
respondents had experienced serious forms
of sexual abuse including rape out of
which 31 per cent were less than ten years
of age. 83 per cent said that they had
experienced physical eve teasing and 13
per cent of them had gone through the
trauma when they were less dian ten years
of age.
Can one assume that CSA is a
relatively recent phenomenon in India?
Social scientists contend (hat the malaise
has been in existence since ages in India.
Research into CSA in India is in its
infancy. This is largely due to the secrecy
and stigma factors attached to it and the
lack of a language for enquiry. Anita
Ganesh who was part of the survey team
substantiates by saying "we live in a stxiely
where molestation and rape are shrouded
under a veil of secrecy. Tlie stigma tliat you
are spoilt or somebody has used you,
bothers you a lot. So the child who has
been abused has to face the stigma, that
she has lost her virginity. She starts
feeling that she Is not pure anymore and
nobody will marry her". However, Dr.

' I.

X X \ ?■

Si

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

Curse of Mankind
The malaise can’t be dismissed merely as the work of a
perverted mind
Shekar Sheshadri, Assistant Professor al die
National Institute of Mental Health And
Neuro Surgery (NIMHANS) and a part of
die survey team feels otherwise considering
the current changing societal mores,
“virtue should be considered as an
internal feeling, virginity to be a choice
and vagina only an anatomical part of
the body".
In most of the cases, the abuse is by
family members. Widi girls, die malefactors
ate usually uncles, fathers, brothers, cousins
and close relatives, while for boys the
offenders are often outside the home teachers, coaches, older friends etc., There
Is no specific age group of children who
are safe from abuse. Children even 11

months old have also been sexually
assaulted. A survey done in the US by the
Federal government in 1992 showed that
30 per cent of rape victims had not yet
reached their tenth birthday. In Delhi , 54
per cent of the rape victims (from police
records 1992) were found to be below 15
years and in 80 per cent of these cases,
the rapist was known to the child.
Educationists and parents however fail
to subscribe to the notion dial CSA exists
in our society in general. They have even
gone to the extent of saying that it is the
creation of some intellectuals, academicians
and others. It is a known fact that
only a small section of them are
paedophiles (sexually attracted to
Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

■4

49

IN FOCUS
seriousness of the abuse.
children). Anita Ganesh says that the and family functioning. However, die main
Sexual behavior is quite often]
variable
is
die
individual’s
response
which
people indulging in such heinous
discussed,
even in psychiatric practiced
depends
on
whether
child
itself
for
blames
I activities are normal and sound in mind.
Shekar
Dr
Sheshadri,
“even whd
the
abuse,
her
general
and
demeanour
Says she “it is only a matter of how
the
training
comes
to
psychiatry,
prior
oudook
to
life,
socialization
and
the
level
of
opportunistic they are”.
handle
such
sensitive
cases
is
practic
The trauma of a sexually abused awareness about what has happened. Dr
non-existent,
so
as
the
medicos
can d
Shekar also adds that genital or non-genilal
person is hard to describe. Saroj an
comprehensive
probe
on
their
patie|
eminent counsellor says that it can have a contact, intra-familial aspects, coercion,
as|
The
basic
is
how
hindrance
to
aggression and pain factor, determine the
devastating effect on all the three aspects
— physical, behavioural and as well as
emotional. The victimised child could
become withdrawn (introvert) from the
• An adult exposing his/her genitals to a child or persuading the latter to do the
T
family members, turn listless with lack of
same.
energy and even lose appetite.
• An adult touching a child’s genitals or making the child touch the adult’s geniti
Emotionally, the child could lose sense of
• An adult involving a child in pornography (which includes exposing a child teft
trust and love if something of this sort
f
pornographic material)
happens. Sometimes the child may enter cn • Any verbal or other sexual suggestions made to a child by an adult
into prolonged bouts of depression, ga:
An adult having oral, vaginal or anal intercourse with a child. ♦
perpetual anxiety, panic stricken, 8
powerless, with recurring bouts of suicidal
tendencies. They may also develop a sense
of low self esteem, feeling alienated and
CSA being a contentious and would appear that if a man has mentalj
withdrawn. All.these can really have a
tricky issue, it is premature to build up sexual (or both) incompatibility if
devastating effect at the later phases of life.
marital situation, it is quite inconveni^:
a consensus Dr. Shekar Sheshadri,
• Things could come to such a sorry pass
to
seek sexual gratification in an em
at
National
the
Assistant Professor
I tliat the child may even start feeling that the
marital
context with an adult becausg
Institute for Mental Health and Neuro
i family is a dangerous place to live in.
involves
so many things like deceptil
Surgery (NIMHANS), Bangalore, spoke
It is very important to note that it does
seduction,
fear of discovery and sod;
to B Shekar on some of the
; not necessarily mean tliat anyone showing
complexities that are involved in CSA. implications. It is much more conveniaany one or all of these symptoms have
to do so with a child within a family w
Bxceipls...
been sexually abused. These symptoms
What sort of a person is a will never talk because of the power an
occur even in normal people who are not
gender structures.
sexual abuser ?
abused. One has to be very clear and
What are the psychological a|
We have very little information
1 careful in diagnosing deformities.
about abusers. Very few of them are behavioural changes that take pM
Some studies have been done into
brought into a context where we can in the victim in the later phases ]
the short and long term effects of CSA
evaluate. We have only gathered trends the life.
which manifest themselves differently.
it is not necessary that every cliij
and information from theories and
However, the findings are still rather scant
who is abused has to have long or sh|
literature that already are available,
and uncertain. In the short run, sexually
which state that abusers are people term psychological impact. The imp^
abused children have been found to be
who have an inclination to abuse. They actually depends on a host of fact®
prone to a variety of psychological and
have access to children and their which include abuse within the fani
behavioural disturbances caused by the
behaviour is not modulated either by and outside, age difference between tj
trauma of abuse. These could include
internal or external controls. On the child and the perpetrator, genital or
bedwetting, nightmares, sleep disorders,
other hand, there are a group of abusers genital contact, coercion, aggression,
depression, anxiety, running away from
1
who probably have some kind of so on.
home, multiple personality disorders,
How
does
victim
cope
wfl
a
disorder. But, not all people who are
precocious sexual behaviour or its inverse,
abusers have disorders. Some derive after being subjected to abuse? J
extreme inhibition and low self esteem
Initiation into sexuality general
sexual gratification out of an encounter
caused by a sense of guilt and shame. The
intense
trauma. It gives a distort J
with somebody who is young.
long tenn effects are dependent on several
What are the factors which lead image of sex. The child gets confu^
variables like the age at onset of abuse,
A sense of powerlessness prevai l
to
abuse ?
sexual
relationship with the offender, duration and
A lot of diem have a liistory of lx‘ing Associated with these are the factofj |
frequency of abuse, the use of force,
abused in childhood themselves. It stigmatisation and betrayal. ♦
penetration or invasiveness of the abuse

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CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE INCLUDES...

EASY ACCESS TO CHILDREN

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Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

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I'
IN FOCUS

________ SAVE THE GIRL

;

Recently in a workshop conducted in Bangalore on Sexual Abuse (with the
focus, being on child) in which psychiatrists, counsellors, educationists, social
activists and parents participated, there was a distress call from one of the
girl child who was
participants to save a
being abused by her
The
father.
that a social activist
participant informed
about a child being
had informed her
When she asked the
abused by the father,
the child can be
gathering as to how
clutches of the father,
saved from the
participants came up
of
the
none
solution. Instead,
with a positive
that there was no
one psychiatrist said
other narrated a
context, while the
to how he was asked
personal experience as
matters”. A counsellor
to “stay out of internal
social activist has to ■
suggested that the
take up the issue and as if it was not enough, a journalist suggested that the mother of
the child has to take the initiative. The participant walked out of the workshop midway
with sheer disgust. The participant possibly came to the workshop hoping that
something could be done to the suffering child This reveals that even if one happens to
(get a li\re case, one can do nothing in reality. ♦

ANXIETY NEUROSIS
A, a 17-year-old engineering student, was brought to the hospital for refusing to
go to college, and feeling extremely anxious and fearful. The clinical diagnosis was
anxiety neurosis with panic. During therapy, it was revealed that she had been
raped by her uncle when she was 11 years old. She had also been threatened with
dire consequences if she let anybody else know about this. The person continued to
be a frequent visitor to the household. She began wondering if all men would do
the same to her if an opportunity arose and became reserved in her interactions with
men and even with her father and brother/These feelings became markedly
exaggerated when she left her school to join college wriere she had to interact with
. people of the opposite sex. She would become extremely fearful, develop panic
attacks, and had a pervasive attitude of anger towards her fellow male students.
Eventually, she stopped going to college altogether. Therapy consisted mainly of
■ counselling, and supportive psychotherapy as her symptoms were vocal, while in
other areas she was functioning adequately. ♦
question. The issues are too complex and
it is too difficult to interview the children
on sexual abuse”.
But the vital aspect is will the child
disclose and convey the complex nature of
the issue? Usually a child in its own
innocuous way discloses that something is
wrong. It is for the parents to analyze as to
what die child is trying to convey and not to
just shy the issue away as false or fabricated.
Saroj says that the basic knowledge of

human anatomy is a must to understand
sexuality and this has to be thought to
the children in a normal way.
In comparison with women not
having a history of CSA. those who have
experienced CSA show evidence of adult
sexual disturbance or dysfunction, anxiety,
depression, fear of re-victimisation and
sometimes suicidal behaviour. Some have
also reported homosexual experiences in
adolescence or adulthood.

In a culture which places too much
importance on female virginity and equates
it with purity, virtue and honour, the
sorrow, bewilderment, anger and trauma of
an abused person is aggravated by a sense
of shame and self contempt. This could
lead to attempts at suicide and self
destruction. Saroj says, “sometimes the
child can even cause intentional self
injury,which can even go to the extent of
disfiguring the face (if the girl is beautiful) ”
Fear of being maligned, forces victims to
keep quiet and the secret pain and shame
is a tremendous burden on a young mind.
Support systems like counselling
facilities, legal action, sex education, public
awareness campaign, sensitive law making
and enforcing bodies need to be built up
taking into account the context of abuse
and the stigma attached to the victim in our
society. Anita Ganesh feels “as long as
women are looked as sex objects, sexual
abuse will always be there. If a father looks
at the mother as a sex object, no sex
education in the school or anywhere will
help positi\’ely”. So what is the way out? A
mother feels “if sons are sensitized to
respect women early in their lives, things
will change on its own”.
There is sufficient evidence to indicate
that CSA cuts across families from all
sections of society irrespective of class,
caste, ethnicity and religion. The question
then is: Is sexual abuse purely sexual ? Or
is it an aggression associated with power
and contempt’
The research group (comprising Anita
Ganesh, Dr Shekar Sheshadri, Lucy, Arun
Kotenkar and others) has concluded by
saying, “given the magnitude of the
problem it can no longer be dismissed as
confined to pathological families or
individuals. Surely there is something
basically wrong in the power relations
between men and women, between adults
and children. The sanctity of family as a
nurturing haven, as the bosom of love and
securin’ can no longer be taken for granted.
The innocence of children can no longer
be romanticized or eulogized as cuteness.
And we can no longer say that what goes
on in the family — whether wife
battering, marital rape or child sexual
abuse — is none of society’s bus. fiess”. ■
Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

w

g-j

i

- J. Z-X--.

£

IN FOCUS

IN

By Deepika Dhar
'■

* Nine-year-old Sunil alongwith a few
other children are asked by their caretaker,
Ramnath, to massage him. After sometime
he asks the boys except Sunil to leave. He
gives Sunil a ‘bidi to smoke, switches off the
light and abuses him. Sunil often falls into
bouts of depression since then.
* Two months ago, 10-year-old Raju
Bihari was forcibly bolted into the toilet
by an employee and sodomised. A
month later, Raju alongwith six other
boys managed to break the window
.....
ceiling and run away. Out of these |
<even, Mehboob was caught and beaten
Aack and blue.
hese are few of the many
incidents that have taken place at
the juvenile home in Alipur in
outer Delhi. Meant to provide a
‘home’ to destitutes and be a reform centre
to delinquents, this Home is more like a jail
and no less than a concentration camp.
Here children are sexually exploited,
brutally beaten and subjected to ail sorts of
intimidation. As a result, many children run
away and those who are unable to do so
either become hardened criminals or
become deranged.
Run by Delhi Administration, the
: juvenile Home has two branches — Boys-I
for children from 12 to 18 years of age, and
)ys-II for 6 to 12 years old.
In tee Boys-II Home, tee children are
■ living in constant fear and threat of the
employees. Kept locked in rooms, they are
not allowed to venture out in the open.
They are taken out of tee rooms only on
two occasions — once for a roll call which
is done a number of times in a day, and
another for punishment, when they are
asked to remain standing in sweltering
I heat. Punishments are very common and
i include battering with rods and chains, so
I much so that children often get seriously
! injured. 11-year-old Rakesh, living in the
i Jawahar h^rr (cell), had his middle finger
I and right hand broken by Virender, the
caretaker of tee kutir. Seven-year-old Vijay
got several stitches on his abdomen after
he was mercilessly whacked by a chain. A
10-year-old Muslim boy has permanent
52

Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

j|

de)
pre
the
par
hat
the
1%
Mat
Sin^
ang
gobi

■

"W';

Out for punishment or roll call?

: Mt

Wretch

For destitutes in Alipur Juvenile Home, it is a dead end

marks on tee upper portion of his back as
a result of thrashing by hot iron rod.
Several boys have swollen and bruised legs
due to regular and rampant thrashing.
Virender is the most dreaded caretaker
whom the children fear most. He beats
violently and even abuses children
sexually.
The children are lodged in four
kutirs (cells) which lacks even the bare
necessities. Most of the boys sleep on
the floor with no bed sheets. Fans do
not work, windows are broken and the
boys are left to sweat in the scorching
weather. Three out of tee four kutir’s go
dark during nights, because there are no
electric bulbs.
The boys are given only two sets of
clothes for the whole year. Some of the
children who go to a nearby government
school are chided by other children and
beaten by teachers for nut wearing
proper uniform. These school-going
children are also not given lunch packs and
during lunch time they eat tee left-overs of
tee peers coming from families.
Children in the Home complain that
i
they
are given substandard food wteich has

often dead cockroaches and insects in it.
As a result, they suffer from perennial
stomach ailments.
The boys also are not given proper
medical attention. Says nine-year-old
Mahesh of Shastri kutir. “the doctor is
never available, and if he comes, he will
give the same brick-coloured tablet to
everybody irrespective of what the
disease is”.
Besides stomach disorders, several
children are suffering from skin diseases.
The diseases are transmitted through
.soaps and towels. One soap is used by
36 children and one towel is used by 1415 children at a time. They are also not
given tooth brushes either. Munna is
suffering from jaundice and needs
immediate medical attention which he is
deprived of. Vijay has asthma but is not
getting any medicine.
The children are made to slog for
long hours doing menial work. They
have to clean the whole premises
including the toilets. On refusal rods and
chains are always ready. They are not
given any sports or recreational facilities
either. The only TV in tee Home has not

the
offie
then
Arfi
says,
men
neve
state
shov>
bars
Feroi
cred(
stater
the F
say tl
with
who}
juven
Delhi
before
deput
mentii
he, “tl
home
there.
Raksh
He c
atmosj
If
somet
negate
up sor
existing
Tl
parent*
someth

IN FOCUS

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

'8
5 in it.
rennial
proper
ear-old
DCtor is
he will
iblet to
riat the
sever
diseases,
through
used by
■d by 14also not
lunna is
d needs
lich he is
□ut is not
) slog for
>rk. They
premises
I rods and
•y are not
il facilitie;
le has net

Is it possible for a juvenile centre to
deny the existence of a boy. u'bo as per
press photographs, was ver)> much present
there at the time of clicking'1
This is the question puzzling the
parents of a boy Rampyare Chavan who
have been running from pillar to post with
the photograph which appeared in the July,
1995. issue ofRashtriya Sahara English
Magazine. The father of the boy Ram
Singbasan Chavan, has lost all hopes and is
angry at the system which be thinks has
gobbled up his child.
While he contends that the child in
the said photograph is his son, the
officials deny that the boy ever lived
there. The Director Social Welfare, H A
Arfi denying the presence of the boy,
says, ’as per our records there is no
mention of the boy. The boy was
never in the Home."
In absolute contrast to the
statement, the photograph clearly
shows the boy standing behind iron
bars in the observation home at
Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi. And giving
credence to'this assertion are the
statements of several boys present in
the Home during that period. They
say that the particular boy was living
with diem. 11-year-old Jeetendra,
who has since been transferred to the
juvenile boys Home at Alipur (outer
Delhi), in a written statement made
before the superintendent G D Kapil and
depuy superintendent J C Sahni, clearly
mentions the presence of the boy. Writes
he, The boy was living in the observation
home at Feroz Shah. I got to know him
there. He fled from the Home before
Raksba Bandhan festival day last year.
He couldn’t stand the tortuous
atmosphere of the Home.
if the boy lived in the Home for
sometime then why are the officials
negaiing his presence* Are they covering
up something? Why isn’t the boy’s name
existing in the records?
These questions are haunting the
parents of the boy who apprehend that
something terrible must have happened

in Delhi send them the copy of
Rashtriya Sahara magazine in which
his son’s photograph had appeared in
1994 issue in April this year. Ram Charan
was informed in Bihar and he came
rushing down to his village. Believing that
he will get his child back, he alongwith a
few villagers, including the headmaster of
the village school, Bhagwan Singh,
decided to go to Delhi.
Brimming with confidence. Ram
Charan alongwith some villagers reached
Delhi and went to the observation Home.
Says Bhagwan Singh, “since it was a
holiday, we couldn’t talk to the
superintendent but other employees
recognised the photographs and
admitted that the boy was there. But
the next day, they retracted on
their statement issued by them
the previous day.”
Disheartened by this apathetic
attitude,
they
met
this
a ham
AA
correspondent, who had written
the earlier report. Enquires
revealed that Rampyare was in the
Home in May 1994 when the
photograph was clicked. Why the
officials are denying continues to
remain a mystery. Did Rampyare
run away from the Home? If so,
M ¥1
then what forced him to flee?
Perhaps, the answer lies in the
Homes’ atmosphere which is too
Rampyare had left the village, returned rosy for the children to pull along. Rather
and made enquires about him. It was than being a home, these are more Ske jails
where children are treated as inmates.
only then that the family got alarmed.
As this reporter was talking to a
Relatives were informed in Delhi but they
child
who had a broken arm, the
couldn’t trace out the boy. Says Ram
Charan, “I felt so helpless. I am a poor superintendent, L D Trikha forced the
illiterate man. I couldn’t afford to go to a boy back and refused furtlier interviews.
On being protested, Trikha joined by
big and unknown city like Delhi Besides,
several other employees forced the
my friends and relatives in my village
dissuaded me from coming to this place reporter out of the premises. The
saying ±at the police might arrest me. I chairman of the juvenile welfare board, S
could only pray to God for the safety of R Nigam too ignored the pleas of this
reporter saying, “you, journalists only
my son." Ram Charan could not even
afford to lodge a complaint in his village highlight the negative points.” Further, the
Superintendent refused to give any
because that required a lot of money.
The family had given up any hope of information about Rampyare Chavan. ■
Deepika Dhar
tracing their son, when a relative of theirs

with their son.. ...
Rampyare, was a 10th standard
student at the time he left his home in
village Kasunder (district Ballia) Uttar
Pradesh in 1993 for sight-seeing in Delhi
with a family acquaintance.
Rampyare duly communicated with
his family through letters. The last he wrote
was in November 1994, in which he had
mentioned his plans to return. Since then,
there has been no news from him. His
father, Ram Singhasin Chavan is an illiterate
labourer in the Raniganj coalfields in Bihar.
Thinking that his son was safe with his
distant relatives in Delhi, he gave little
thought to the welfare of his eldest son.
The truth was revealed a year later,
when the acquaintance with whom

Ml

/

RI

Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

■ -V ,l?;

53

IN FOCUS

■■

S

^3

lome s hospital: treatment or (mis) treatment?

J

■

/

.

11

*1 Jfv . '• >"0®?

A

‘

1

yQj&i uL?

Tfi?.kt w

!

L———V__

Children of lessor lot

been functioning properly for several
months.
Most of the children are depressed.
Several want to be sent to their parents.
Says Rakesh, “many of us want to go
back to our homes but these people are
not sending us”. Most of the children
long to go out of the building which
they believe is more like a jail. Beaten
and bruised, their world is limited within
the corridors.
Munna has only one leg and one
hand. But being a handicap evokes no
sympathy' from the staff and authorities.
Munna is forced to clean toilets daily, and,
54

Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

*A

———J

if he does not, he is beaten black and blue.
Like Home II, Boys in Home-I also
present a picture of disgust and apathy.
Though, it is mandatory to provide the
boys educational, sports and medical
facilities in this cell but hardly anything of
the sort is being given.
Very few boys are allowed to go to
school while the rest are unable to read
and write properly. The Home has
provisions for vocational training but has
no instructor to teach. The boys believe
that after leaving Home, it is the skill that
helps them to survive. They are not gh'en
any sports materials for recreation.

j
■j
•;
J
j
5
5
j
i

12-year-old Ram Samit is suffering
from tuberculosis (IB). Reduced to near
skeleton, he has been lying on the bed
for over two months now and is unable
to move . His other mates carry him to
the toilet. Though declared TB patient,
Ram Samit has not been isolated and
other boys are equally exposed to the
risk, l+year-old Raju of Shivaji kutir has
been ill for three months now. Says he,
I feel sick in the evenings but I don’t
get any medicine and nor any doctor
visits me.”
The boy alleged mat the authorities
do not help them to find jobs or shelter
after they are required to leave the
premises. Says Lakhan. “they just turn us
away. If it is so, then why do they keep
us here.'' It is a cruel punishment meted
out to us.”
E\ en after leaving me Home, the boys
have nowhere to go and they are most
likely to fall into evil hands. In order to
avoid this, the boys demand that after
learning a skill, they should be allowed to
take up jobs outside, and once established
they be turned out of me premises. 14year-old Rajesh has maszered quite a few
skills and wants to go om. but because of
the rules he is not allowed. “I cannot sit
like this. They say that I can go out at the
age of 16 only,” says he. The children in
the Boys-II Home openly stated before the
authorities that they’ w’ere told to talk only
good things. •
The Home superintendent, G D
Sibal at first refused io reply to any
question but later when insisted upon
feigned ignorance of the prevailing
scenario even though, the children made
written statements about abuse and
beatings before him.
Children of both branches are a
depressed lot. Many have not seen the
outside world for years together. They
feel imprisoned. Their only source of
respite is an outsider who comes to visit
the Home on rare occasions and these
hapless children are probably filled with
a ray of hope. Bur even these chance
meetings are rare and bring no respite for
they are constantly under me glare of the
authorities and are threatened
beforehand not to spill the beans. ■

F
■

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II

p* ■

Sewa

I

release
river a
its hoi
countr
most f
T
people
every
consid
of pol
Water
indica
sewag
everydnoted

HEALTH
By Dinesh Kumar

I

«s
anket-nc-95

A
fter four streams of medicine. —
A allopathy, homeopathy, unani
rA and ayurveda—a fifth stream
j L JL called, electropathy, is gaining
ground in India. Electropathic medicine is
said to be faster in effect than the
irritatingly slow homeopathic, it is not as
outrageous as allopathic and tertainly not
as musty as ayurvedic.
This new branch of medicme is based
on the philosophy that in every human
being ail the tissues and organs contain
lymph and blood. Both are active
substances of the human body. If there is
any impurity in any of the 5vo, it will
certainly result in a malady. So the ‘lymph’
and ‘blood’ of a person remain in pure
form so as to remain healthy.
Thus electropathy is based on the
premise mat disease is essential?.' the result of
disorder brought about by the organism
having admitted substances ar energies
which resist the assimilation, process in
general in the body and irritate or burden
the system. According to Count Ceaser
Mattie, the father of electropathy, the
digestive or formative process may be
disturbed because of the conversion of
foodstuff into lymphatic humour and
blood is afflicted with anomalies in the
chemicai process of decomposition. And
faulty digesting may burden the organs
with morbid or inflammed blood, in
other words with heterogeneous matter
acting as poison and damaging the
system.
Electropathic medicine is prepared by
non-pOL'Onous medicinal plants and mixed
in proper proportion for the treatment of
any disease. In other modes of treatment
like allopathy, ayurved, unani and
homeopathy, poisonous, nor.-poisonous
metals, chemicals and salt and so on are
used for the preparation of drugs as a
result of which chances of side effects
always lurk.
One vital point of difference
between homeopathy and electropathy is
that while in the former drugs are
prepared from different plants while
mixing them together, in homeopathy
only one drug is obtained from one

Dr N K Awasthy (extreme right), the pioneer of electropathy in India in conversation
with Dr Fabio Ambrosi (extreme left)

ELECTROPATHY

Wonder Therapy
Mode of treatment where lymph and blood forms the basis
plant at a time.
All the electropathic-related
activities are coordinated by the apex
body named Naturo Electro-Homeo
Medicos of India (NEHM). Nearly 90
medical colleges and hospitals are
presently being run by the NEHM. The
students who are given the degree after
four years of study and six months of
in-house training are admitted after the
completion of their senior secondary
education. The secretary of NEHM, Dr
N K Awasthi claimed that each medical
college has around 90-100 students. At
some places, medicines are provided
free of cost to pi Dpogate the concept of
electropathy.

The students studying in the various
medical colleges of electropathy have no
immediate avenues of employment to
look forward to. They have only one way
to eke out a living — private practice.
In "the absence of an employment
opportunity', talented students are not
joining this field. This was also admitted by
N K Awasthi. “Most of the students who
wanted to take up electropathy could not
get an opportunity to translate their dreams
into reality. But we have no option
unless our branch is duely recognised by
the government”, blurts out Awasthy who
has been fighting for a long time to get
this discipline recognised by the
government. ■
Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

5g

■

■

IU
tB • '

HEALTH

I■

111
Hie contribution of the tobacco industry to the government
exchequer may be immense but the casualty is public health

Dr Rajesh Cbawla, an eminent
chest physician at the National Chest
I Institute, \ew Delhi, and also vice
president, Delfyi Medical Association,
talks .to Vishal Duggal on the
I tahacco menace. Excerpts :
Why is smoking harmful?
Cancer of the lung is 8.6 times
more common in smokers than in nonsmokers in India. Heart diseases are
I twice as common, cancer of the
i mouth, throat and upper air passages
I and food pipe is ten times more

I?

normal, electrical
stimulus that induces
heart attack in a
synchronised manner
gets disorganised,
causing erratic and
ineffective contraction.
Due to this, heart is
common amongst smokers. Cigarette
shoe
unable to pump blood
smoke contains more than 4000
redu
into the vital organs of
chemical compounds, some of which
Adve
the body.
I are radioactive, that have been
symt
This leads to
experimentally proven to be antigenic,
masc
An innocuous drag../a further steTtowards end
cardiac arrest unless
cytotoxic and carcinogenic (cancer
whic
effective resuscitative
producing). The more dangerous of
youn^
By Prabha
measures are undertaken.
these products are tar, hydrocarbons,
towa
High incidence of coronary artery
benzopyrenes,
nitrosamines, ’
f you want to kill a person just give
adven
disease leading to angina and heart attack
formaldehyde, hydrocyanic acid,
him a pack of cigarette daily. If he
throng
is also on account of smoking habits.
phenol, carbon monoxide and
succumbs to the temptation and rums
be c
Though the advertisements of
polonium
— 210 (radioactive). These
into an addict, the pack will become
goverr
cigarettes, other tobacco products, alcohol,
chemicals have been conclusively
his passport to death, though the end may
D
etc are banned on Doordarshan and AER,
be misleadingly slow.
implicated by careful, planned studies
01
will
the manufacturers of these products have
in causing irritation, deficiencies in the
According to a sun^y, the use of
check
no reason to worry’ as the doora of foreign
dust removing mechanism of the lung
tobacco products like cigarette, bidi and
tobacc
satellite channels are open for them. Then
and lung cancer, the greatest of all
Oaan masala is responsible for the death the print media too has no moral scruples
Ta
menaces.
of over 13 lakh people in India every
govern,
in boosting the sale of tobacco products by
Do you agree that tobacco
year. Being the third largest tobacco
reluctan
way of pompous and alluring
advertising should be banned to
producing country in the world, India
Then
ir
advertisements.
discourage people from consuming
produces 519 million kgs of tobacco per
tobacco
Last year, the Union Health Ministry
tobacco in any form?
i
year. Out of it, 425 million kgs are
is impoi
proposed a legislation to ban tobacco
Of
course,
it
should
be
banned.
It
I
consumed in India itself and the rest is product’s ad\-ertisements but it could not
parties, <
exported. Despite much-publicised anti
see the light of the day because tobacco
imbibed in any form — inhaled or
smoking campaigns, about 5500 new
proximi.
products yield rich revenue receipts to the
chewed
- is harmful. The Indian
tobacco users emerge every year.
reason
tl
exchequer, which the government would
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has
Dr (Cob K L Chopra, chairman, Heart never like to lose.
smokers
stated clearly that the use of tobacco is a
Care Foundation of India and Dr K K
related di
Any legislation without effective
major cause of death and diseases.
Aggarwal, the vice chairman, explain that,
been ide
implementation can only be termed as an
Similar warnings have been issued by the
smokers are more prone to silent ischamia
factor for
exercise in futility. The Cigarette voluntary Health Association of India and
(local anaemia produced by local obstacles
pleas tn
(Regulation, Production, Supply and
World Health Organisation (WHO).
to the anerial flaw) which goes undetected
Governnn
Distribution) Act, 1975 had made
for many years and in such cases the
However, there is no tangible evidence
against pa.
mandatory the statutory warning, ‘cigarette
patient might suffer heart attack and e/en
to prove the relation between the
has come .
smoking
is
injurious
to
health’
on
every
sudden death.
consumption of tobacco and diseases.
Smok.
cigarette pack. But has it been of any use?
The most unfortunate thing about
Dr Chopra says that sudden death
over
six yc
Studies by medical professionals
smoking is that it not only harms the
among the smokers occurs because the
20
cigarette
have also suggested that tobacco
smokers but also those who are in close
heart attack

I

60

Rashtriya Sahara ♦ July 1995

~=

HEALTH

3“ADS SHOW SMOKING AS A STATUS SYMBOL”

i
iine7it
Chest
) vice
ation.
n the

nned. Il

should be a part of an overall strategy to
reduce tobacco consumption in India.
Advertisements show smoking as a status
symbol and equate smoking to virility,
masculinity and glamorous qualities
which are sought by the present day
young generation. All this drives a person
towards
Tobacco
smoking.
advertisements whether in the media or
through hoardings and banners should
be completely banned by the
government.
Do you think there is lack of
will on the part of the government to
check people from consuming
tobacco?
Tax
revenues have made
government so dependent that there is
reluctance to take anti-tobacco measures.
Then intense lobbying by multi-million
tobacco companies, whose contribution
is important to fill the coffers of political
parties, does the trick.

Are the government priorities
passive smoking. My interest in this
right in preferring revenues to public
matter is more urgent as I am a cliest
health?
physician and deal mainly with
Not at all. It is the duty of the
smoking-related illnesses.
government to protect and promote public
The Royal College of Physicians
health. The enormous amount of health
has found that the people in small and
hazards associated with smoking places an
close spaces such as railway
obligation upon the Government to aa for compartments or government offices in
the sake of public health and not be so
which there are many smokers inhale
dependent on revenues from tobacco as much smoke as an average smoker
products. Instead of garnering more
inhales directly from one cigarette in
revenues through taxes on tabacco one hour. If such a person were to be
products the government should try to exposed to such an Unhealthy cigarette
reduce non-plan expenditure.
smoke filled environment for several
Is the consumption of the
hours a day, then he will be running
products like snuff, chewing tobacco the same risk of lung cancer and other
and bidis in any way less injurious to
diseases as a smoker who directly and
health?
out of his own choice smokes about ten
No. All of them are equally harmful to cigarettes a day.
health. Bidis consist of 0.5 gm of sun-dried
In pursuance of the objective of
and cured tobacco flakes rolled in dry leaf making Delhi smoke free, \ filed
,
-. .1 a
of temburni. Bidis contain more tar. a public interest petition in Delhi High
substance causally linked to cancer.
Court on 26th May, 1995 demanding a
Tobacco which is chewed or left in the
ban on smoking in public places. On
mouth overnight or snuffed, contains not
hearing this, the Delhi High Court has
only carcinogens, but also nicotine, which issued show cause notices to the Delhi
make it as habit forming as cigarettes.
and the Central Government asking why
Cancer of the mouth or pharynx is the
smoking should nor be banned in public
commonest cancer in India because
places.This petition has been filed to
tobacco is usually kept in mouth or taken protect non-smokers from the ill-effects
with pan.
of passive smoking for no fault of ±eirs.
Any personal contribution, you
Every citizen has a right to breathe clean
might have made in curbing the air and live his life in clean and
consumption of tobacco products.
unpolluted environment and this right is
I have been involved in many fora being violated due to smoking at public
which have taken up the issue against places. ♦

lied or
Indian
MR) has
.cco is a
seases.
d by the
idia and
AVHO).
evidence
een the
eases.
ig about
.rms the
in close

proximity of the smoker. It is for this
reason that the spouses and children of
smokers also contract various tobaccorelated diseases. Passive smoking has also
been identified as an independent risk
factor for heart attack. Despite the repeated
pleas by the doctors, urging the
Government to frame and enforce laws
against passive smoking, nothing concrete
has come out.
Smoking reduces a man’s life span by
over six years. People who smoke nearly
20 cigarettes a day are twice likely to have
heart attack as compared to non-smokers,

explains Dr Aggarwal. Women too account
for nearly 30 per cent of total heart attack
cases in the country. If women smoke
during pregnancy, there is an increased
risk of death of the baby in the womb or
soon after birth.
According to the WHO, by the year
2020, the number of people dying bv
tobacco related diseases will even cross the
massacres witnessed during the Second
World War.
If we don't take serious steps to stop
tobacco consumption, at least ten crore
people will suffer f om serious diseases

I '

r -mr

Wfi

7

times
i non
es are
)f the
ssages
more
»arette
4000
which|
been
igenic.
zancer
ous of
irbons,
nines.
acid.
; and
These
isively
studies
> in the
le lung
t of all
•bacco
ned to
jumin*"

■

every year, warns the WHO.
It is estimated that more than 30 lakh
people are killed e\rry year because of the
use of tobacco. “Surprisingly, the graph of
consumption of tobacco in developed
countries is decreasing compared to
developing countries.'’ says a WHO report.
Nevertheless, the government of India is
sitting mum because it nets crores of
rupees in the form of taxes.
The fact that the use of tobacco is
injurious to health, b known to every one,
whether educated cr uneducated. But who
bothers? ■
— __________________
Rasr.uiya Sahara ♦ July 1995

I

g-J

C VA

Raja
Sixteen years old Raja is a member of a group of young, male sex workers. He has lived
away from home for five years. He currently lives in a single room with three other sex workers.
Raja’s father drinks alcohol regularly. When he is drunk, he often beats his wife and children.
Raja loves his mother and siblings and sees them when he can. They are always happy when
he visits. Raja gives his mother whatever money he can spare. He hopes that some of the
money can be used for the education of his younger siblings.

During his time on the streets, Raja has been beaten and raped by other street children and
some of his clients. Some of the other sex workers are good friends, but some harass him by
calling him ‘gay’ and by telling him “you have AIDS and you are going to die". Raja does
not know if he is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but he is afraid to go to the
health clinic to be tested.
Raja likes some of the street educators who work in his neighbourhood and he occasionally
goes to a centre where he participates in activities such as games, drama, music and literacy
classes. When he was about 11, Raja began smoking tobacco and, by the age of 14, he started
sniffing solvents. A year later he was smoking cannabis. Most of his friends use these substances
as well as other kinds which they inject. The
substances are usually very easy to obtain.
Raja’s friends have recently
persuaded him to try amphetamine
tablets. He likes the rush he
experiences when he uses
amphetamines because the effect takes
his mind off his troubles. He believes
that amphetamines also make him
more adventurous in his sex work.
He has now begun to use more often
and has started to think of
injecting. Lately, Raja’s life
has become more difficult. He
misses his mother and siblings
more and the harassment by the other sex workers has become worse. He has been asked
by his roommates to find another place to live.

MSSM , Dr. Kshithij Urs & Roopa Lobo

\ °| x

Module 3 - Understanding Substance Use /\mong Street Children

Example of using the Modified Social Stress Model Model

~

X

Stress

Normalization

Substance Experience

Father unavailable, abusive
Worried about family and HIV
Harrassment and Violence
Needs new place to live

Alcohol normalized at home
Peers use substances
Substances affordable and
available for him

Enjoys feeling of intoxication
Forgets problems
Improves his work

Attachments

Skills

Resources

Mothers, brothers and sisters
Street Educator
Other children

Able to save money
Sex work
Some reading and drama skills

Mother
Access to drop-in centres
Proven resilience for 5 years
Motivated to survive

Seriousness of Current Use: N/A
Potential for Future Use:
Nil

Low
Low

Medium Fi
Medium F

High [3
High

Other comments and Plan for Action.
History of persistent and increasing substance use
Level of stress is high and increasing
Might not increase use if he could have more contact with his mother and could find a place to live.
Encourage him to move into the local youth shelter. Ask his permission to contact mother.

46

•

J

I
/
'

lr ^9

"A*
/<.w
r'>

<«

> -’

one would ever become a teacher. ”
Indonesian military sources say pri
vately that they believe Abubakar is a key
link in the network of regional terrorist
cells that has come to light this year. And,
although a direct tie to al-Qaeda has yet to
be established, “we are very sure that he is
INDONESIA
not acting alone, ” says one military intelli
ABUBAKAR BA’ASYIR, 64, is a cleric and the
gence officer. In public, however, Indone
head of the Mujahidin Council of Indonesia, a
sian police insist that the allegations
pro-lslam organization. Authorities say he also
against Abubakar in Singapore and
leads the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group,
Malaysia aren’t substantive enough for de
which they say has cells across Southeast Asia
tention or extradition. “We do not believe
and possible links to al-Qaeda. Abubakar denies
that he was recruiting or training anyone
it, though he describes Osama bin Laden as a
for a jihad operation, ” says national police
"true Islamic warrior ” for taking on the West. He
spokesman Brigadier General Saleh Saaf.
was questioned last week and then released.
“So far we have no proof. ”
o
The kid glove treatment Abubakar is
p
X
receiving, along with an apparent reluc
tance to pursue other possible suspects
such as Abubakar deputy Hambali Nurjaman, can probably be explained by In
donesia ’s complicated and unstable poli
is tics. First, Indonesia has enough turmoil to
deal with, from separatist movements to
communal massacres. President Megawati
Sukarnoputri rules atop an unwieldy coali
tion of interests, and the last thing she
wants to be known for is a reckless crack
down on Islamic groups. “Megawati ’s gov
ernment is afraid of arousing Muslim sen
timent if anyone is taken in without
enough proof,” says Hamid Basyaib, a re
searcher at the Akasara Foundation think
J'1 tank. And many of those Islamic groups
have friends or even founders in high
places in the government and the army.
The men in uniform have another rea
0
son not to go along with the U.S. in its war
L SINGAPORE
on terrorism. In 1999, responding to the
Thirteen alleged members of the JEMAAH
T> Indonesian military ’s brutality in East
ISLAM IAH group were arrested in December
Timor, the U.S. Congress passed a law that
after authorities uncovered a plot by the
banned U.S. training and education for In
~ g group to bomb the U.S. embassy and other
donesian soldiers, which officials complain
targets in the city-state. The government
has hamstrung the military ’s ability to ser
says eight of the men trained in camps in
vice
its fleet of U.S.-made warplanes.
Afghanistan; a video found in the home of
If
Indonesia continues to ignore a re
one of the suspects, officials say, was proof of
gion-wide
crackdown on terrorists, it
an al-Qaeda connection.
could become an inviting haven for bad
guys on the run—and a launch site for fu
lowed to return home. He denies he ture attacks. Evidence uncovered in the
preaches terrorism and says he has no links
past few weeks proves that the groups
with al-Qaeda, although he told reporters
have the means to cause terrible devasta
that he “praises the struggle of Osama bin
tion. After interrogating Fathur, Philip
Laden .... in fighting the arrogance of the pine authorities were able to collect what
terrorist United States. ” His lawyers say he
National Police Chief Leandro Mendoza
WWf
may have taught some of the suspects be called the “biggest haul of explosives in
MM
ing held in Malaysia, but bristle at the sug the country ’s history. ” Police recovered
gestion that he instructed them in the ways
more than a ton of tnt —enough to level a
of jihad. “If every teacher had to be re city block, according to police —as well as
sponsible for his students, ” says Ahmad
500 detonators and 17 M-16 rifles. Police
Mihdan, Abubakar ’s head attorney, “no say they are still tracking down friends

h

1

i

i

TIME, FEBRUARY 4, 2002

and allies of Fathur.
IN MALAYSIA, MEANWHILE, POLICE SAY THEY

are attempting to trace as many as 200
more members of kmm terrorist cells. That
number could be low if you befieve Abdul
Rahman, a former kmm foot soldier, who
quit the organization two years ago after
disagreeing with its plans to wage a violent
campaign to install an Islamic government
in Malaysia. Short, muscular and terrified
of arrest, Abdul Rahman smokes constant
ly as he describes how he was recruited
through a martial arts group and later sent
for six months ’ paramilitary training in
Thailand. “There were 45 in my group
alone, and there were many, many gro’
sent for training, ” he relates. “So if the p^ lice say there are 200 more kmm members
out there I think they must mean only the
leaders.” Rahman advises that the world
take the terrorists of Southeast Asia seri
ously. “They will not hesitate,” he says, the
strain of being on the run vibrating in his
voice, “to kill or be killed for Islam. ”
That would be worrying anywhere,
but it has a particular chill in Malaysia,
where four tons of ammonium nitrate has
gone missing. The fertilizer, which can be
used to make truck bombs, was ordered
by Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army
captain now under detention in Kuala
Lumpur for alleged links to the al-Qaeda.
(On Abubakar ’s orders, Malaysian police
say, the 37-year-old allowed two of the
hijackers on the plane that crashed into
the Pentagon on Sept. 11 to stay at his
apartment in Kuala Lumpur in 2000.)
Yazid, who was arrested in December
his return from fighting against the I
coalition in Afghanistan, had ordered the
ammonium nitrate in late 2000 through a
company he owned called Green Labora
tory Medicine. Sources close to the inves
tigation say someone accepted delivery of
the fertilizer, though it’s not clear exactly
when. What happened after that remains
a mystery. Malaysian police concede the
ammonium nitrate disappeared but are
also adamant it left the country. The haul
totals four times the amount of ammoni
um nitrate used to destroy the federal of
fice building in Oklahoma City, one
foreign analyst points out. With such a
huge stash of bomb-making material un
accounted for and hundreds of kmm
members still at large, Yazid will be
facing some pointed questions from his
Malaysian interrogators. — With reporting
by Zamira Loebis/Solo, Mageswary Ramakrishnan/
Kuala Lumpur, Nelly Sindayen/ Manila and Jason
Tedjasukmana/Jakarta

21

i

THE SHAME
1

I ”

As the gap between rich and poor grows wider,
destitute Asians are increasingly selling their
rr Ast valuable property: their children
By ALEX PERRY MAE SAI
san
won ’t budge
^ron1 $h000. There ’s the
food, the clothes, the
makeup, the perfume
i'W
ar|d ^le C(>n0oms. not to
mention the fees of the
I
j. j
middlemen. At $1,000,
she’s making nothing,
M W
she says. She taps out the figure in baht on
a calculator and holds it up: 43,650. You
won’t get a pair of 14-year-old Burmese
girls for less in this town.
“Thirty thousand, ” I suggest.
“Forty-three, ” counters Mama San.
She tells Tip (whose name means “heav
enly light”) and Lek (meaning “small”) to
fetch their chips. The two tiny figures
squatting at her feet jump up, dart under
the two pink strips that provide the only
lig^^n the bar, run upstairs and return
breathlessly clutching gambling counters.
“What the customers paid, ” explains
Mama San. In the three months since she
was brought to this backstreet brothel in
the northern Thai town of Mae Sai, Lek
has collected eight white chips and four
blues—a total of $59.50. Tip has done bet
ter: 20 whites, 10 blues and four reds
make $163. “Not a bad little earner, ” says
Mama San.
“Thirty-five thousand? ” I venture.
With her scarlet fingernails, Mama
San pinches her plunging black V-neck
sweater by the shoulder pads, hitches up
her matronly bosom and smooths the
sweater over her belly. “Forty-two thousand, five hundred, and I’ll be losing mon
ey,” she sighs. “I sent 5,000 home to Lek’s
ama

'

SOLD: Tip, left, and Lek, crying in a
friend’s arms, have just been purchased.
Lek bows in gratitude to Mama San, right

I

r
i

I

Photographs for TIME by Jonathan Taylor

parents and 10,000 to Tip’s.” Convenient
ly ignoring the silver Mercedes parked in
the forecourt outside, she repeats she
makes nothing from prostitution. She’s in
it because she cares. She takes the girls in,
puts a roof over their heads. “What can I
do? I feel sorry for them. Somebody has to
protect them.”

Tip, like many of the girls in Mae Sai, is
from Kentung in Burma ’s eastern Shan
state. Mama San is also from the Shan re
gion and grew up with some of the girls’
mothers. As a 20-year Mae Sai resident
who graduated from working the brothels
to owning one, she is regarded as a success
and a valuable contact on the other, richer
side of the border. It’s a responsibility, she
says. Her conscience won’t let the two girls
go for anything less than 41,500.
“Forty-one thousand? ”
Done. We shake hands.
On the floor where they have been lis-

W;
i^^^B

Asia has 1 million child
prostitutes-uNicEF

Up to 60,000 child prostitutes work in Taiwan
-Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

ANATOMY OF A DEAL ►
As Tip and Lek look on worriedly, Mama San
negotiates the price of buying the girls’ free

tening in wide-eyed silence, Tip
and Lek embrace. Lek claps,
hoarsely barks something in slang at
the 15 other girls lined up on a
bench in front of the bar and runs,
shrieking and giggling into the
street, with her waist-length black
hair trailing. The teenagers ignore
her, locked into a Thai adventure
romance on the television over
head. For a moment, Tip stays where she is,
her childlike hands clasped in front, bony
elbows between her knees. Then she shuf
fles over to join the row of moon faces
turned up toward the screen. She and Lek
have been sold. Again.
This time to Jonathan, the phot
apher working on this story, and me.
Fifteen minutes later, facing an un
known future with just a pink plastic bas
ket holding a few clothes and a bottle of
shampoo, Lek starts to cry. Suddenly
sensing a need to do everything properly,
she runs into the bar, kneels in front of
Mama San and begins to bow and chant, a
good Buddhist girl in smudged makeup
giving thanks for her freedom. Mama San
laughs, flattered by the display of suppli
cation. She isn’t worried about finding
replacements. “Their mothers or the mid
dlemen bring them to me,” she says.
“There are always fresh ones.”
Mama San is right: there is no shortage
of kids for sale. Across Asia, tens of thou
sands of children are peddled into slavery
each year. Some toil with their families as
bonded laborers on farms. Others are sold
by their parents —or tricked by agents —
into servitude as camel jockeys, fishei^boys
or beggars. In Burma, some are kidn^jied
by the state and forced to become soldiers.
And, according to the International Labor
Organization, at least 1 million children are
prostitutes, with the greatest numbers in
Thailand, India, Taiwan and the Philip
pines. It’s a growing problem, fueled by the
Asian economic boom and the subsequent
bust, which has fostered an increasingly
yawning gap between rich and poor, coun
tryside and city, isolated hinterlands and
wealthy coasts. On the continent, along
side the millionaires of Bangkok and Hong
Kong, five two-thirds of the world’s ex
treme poor—790 million people earning
less than $1 a day. In the race to escape
their deprivation, whole villages are some
times complicit in the sale of their children. The procurers, says Sompop JantraSHADOW LIFE: This child prostitute, like
many on the Thai border, hails from eastern
Burma, a region awash in drugs and AIDS

■Rp, inpwhij
squat whiv

Mama San checks how

She says she employs

much the girls cost her

girls out of compassion

ka, a leading Thai activist who has saved
thousands of girls from being sold into
brothels, might be the wives of village
heads. Teachers know which children are
vulnerable, and some alert procurers for a
fee. He has seen pickup trucks full of girls
sc
to brothels leaving from schools in
Wkciu is called tok keow, or the green har
vest. A police officer is often at the wheel.
“This is a war,” Sompop says. “A war for
our children. ”
The sordid traffic touches nearly every
part of Asia. But Thailand and India in par
ticular serve as hubs of the flesh trade: ex
porters and importers of children and
7,000 Nepalese children are smuggled
into India each year to join the sex indus
try. In the age of aids , children increas
ingly earn the biggest profits. With a girl’s

‘

tand Lek
he haggles

virginity selling for as much as $3,500 in
Bangkok, recurring recessions have en
sured a ready supply of daughters sold by
poverty-stricken families. The number of
child prostitutes in Thailand is at least
60,000, though estimates go as high as
200,000. Almost all are working under
duress: 21st century slaves.
The numbers are wrenching, but to
comprehend the problem, one need only
watch the sordid hour-by-hour lives of girls
like Lek and Tip. As we talked with them
over a few days, our sense of being impar-

CAMEL

J O C K E

-«

' S

Sold for a Rich Man's Sport
■■1WO YEARS AGO YOUSUF SADIQ, THEN EIGHT YEARS OLD, AND HIS BROTHER

Suleman, 7, were sold by their father for the sporting fun of a wealthy Gulf
■ sheik. An agent who scours the poor villages and nomad camps of south9 ern Pakistan bought the diminutive brothers to race camels in the United
Arab Emirates. They fit the agents ’ ideal: aged between five and eight and
weighing less than 17 kilos apiece.
Smuggled on false documents to Dubai from Karachi airport, the brothers
were put on a regimen of white beans, and beaten regularly. Theyjoined many oth
er boys: the camel jockeys are kept in desert houses in groups of 20. Barefoot and
and grazed the camels 18 hours a day. During
, falls are frequent and the boys are often injured
s hands, ankles and chin, describes the routine:
o “The sheiks would drive along with the camels
1 and give us instructions: ‘Beat, beat, beat. You
are slow. Beat, beat. Otherwise I will beat you. ’
| And we used to beat [the camels] severely. ”
The Pakistani government has tried to
o
g clamp down on the trafficking. In 2000, author2 ities stopped 74 children en route to Dubai. But
I families willingly go along. The going rate—
f $500-$l,000 a child plus $120 a month for the
3 two to three years a boy usually races —can propel a family out of poverty in a country where the
" average annual income is $470.
Yousuf and Suleman were rescued after 16
months. When their father abandoned the fam
ily, their mother was free to protest their sale to
Pakistani officials. Although joyous at the boys’
return, the family, which had received a total of
$240 for their labors, remains too poor to give
the children an education, their one hope for a
better future. Says their grandfather: “They will
FREED: Brothers Yousuf and
become laborers like me and their father. ”
Suleman, top, are now home
In the face of few options, the sad trade
continues. Every six months or so, according to Karachi airport immigration of
ficer Haji Abdul Razzak, the broken and twisted body of a child jockey arrives
back from the Gulf. Haji can’t act without a complaint from a relative, and the
$25,000 that accompanies a corpse buys many a family ’s silence. “They take the
money and bury their child, ” says the official. Child smuggler Mohammed
Aslam, 26, who was arrested in Karachi last spring, puts it this way: “We get
money, the parents get money, the children get money. When everybody gets
money, why be sorry?”
—A.P. Reported by Ghulam Hasnain/Karachi
on

TIME, FEBRUARY 4, 2002

25

Child domestic workers toil an average 15 hours a
day in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan-uNicEF
s a E

I

BOYS

Lured Out on the Water

w

w

’W
S

I.

A

Irawan’s parents forced him to join a group of eight other boys living on a jer
mal, a tennis-court-sized platform of rotting wood and leaky, rusted roofs 10
km off the north coast of Sumatra in the Malacca Strait. The boys are promised
pay—around $30 at the end of a three-month stint. But after deductions are
made for food, the agent’s cut and other fees and expenses, the boys are left
with little or nothing. They are captives on the jerry-built island. Syahman Purba, who runs a school for former jermal workers, has no doubt the employ
ment is modern slavery: “These kids aren’t treated like human beings. They ’re
given just enough food so they can work and won’t die.”
There are an estimated 250 million child laborers in the world. No one
knows how many
are in forced labor p
like Andy, sold g
by their parents □
for weeks or years 1
to agents who o
promise salaries
V.I
that turn out to be " $
inflated, are whit
tled away by ficti
tious expenses or
are nonexistent.
But for mindnumbing
work
like netting fish on
a jermal, children
the
ideal
are
•W'.
employees —cheap,
docile and easily
cowed. “They said
■
I
could
go L V, 4
home after three ftka.
months, ” Andy re
AT SEA: Two young boys bring in the day’s catch on the
calls, clutching his
Lumba Lumba jermal fishing platform in North Sumatra
right hand still
swollen from a sea snake bite. “But there was no replacement so they said
I had to stay.”
A working day on a jermal lasts 18 hours and the boys are isolated; their
only contact with the outside world is when operators pick up the catch and
drop off water, rice and instant noodles. Flattened cardboard boxes serve as
mattresses. Mangy dogs defecate on the platform surface where fish are sort
ed from the sea snakes and jellyfish. In the past five years, six boys have died
at sea, the victims of accidents and failed escapes. Andy was rescued last July,
one of scores of boys who have been removed from the jermals since the In
ternational Labor Organization began an anti-child-labor program in In
donesia a year ago. Despite the increased monitoring, employers continue to
lie about children s ages, and working conditions are worsening. Overfishing
is causing stocks of squid and fish to dwindle, which means, says one fore
man, a jermal veteran of 18 years: “We have to work the kids twice as hard as
we used to.

26

— By Jason Tedjasukmana/ North Sumatra coast

TIME, FEBRUARY 4, 2002

Lek is anxious
about her fate

S kJ

XI
a?

■ ■ BHAT EXACTLY IS SLAVERY? DOES IT HAVE TO LAST A LIFETIME, OR IS A

■ Il I child who is sold for a set period of time also enslaved? If parents are
W W promised money for the child’s labor, is that a salary or a purchase
■ W price? Lured by an agent with promises of money, 14-year-old Andy

1

B 1

tial observers gave way to a feeling of being
uncomfortable voyeurs and then grew to a
gnawing sense that just by watching the
children ’s degradation we were somehow
implicated. I’m not sure at what point
we decided that, although we couldn’t
guarantee their futures, we could buy
4r
freedom. We could help them escape.
Lek had already tried. On her second
day, after instruction from Mama San on
how to apply makeup and
satisfy a client, a drunken
Bangkok businessman beat
her when she complained he
was being too rough. She fled
when she was released from
the hospital. “I went to the
temple, ” she says, pointing to
the golden stupas on a hill
high above the eastern out
skirts of Mae Sai. “Mama San
paid the police to come and
arrest me. They held me
there with only bread and
water for three days. After
that I was too afraid to run
away. Mama San knows peo
ple everywhere, on both
sides of the border. She
could arrange for me
be
taken back to her anytime.
Tip knew this: she told me
not to go. ”
Although Lek and Tip have been in
Mae Sai for only a few months when we
meet them, they have already learned to
hide their inner thoughts. “We don’t have
feelings anymore, ” says Tip. “We cleared
them out.” But they can still dream of free
dom, can still tell us they want out. They
talk about how hard they would hug their
mothers if they ever get home, so tightly no
one could ever separate them again. “My
mother would be really upset if she knew
what I was doing and I desperately want to
tell her,” says Lek. “But 1 can’t because it
would break her heart. Every time I speak
to her, she pleads with me to come home. ”
That’s how Jonathan and I found our
selves driving to the atm , withdrawing
$930—41,000 baht—and buying Lek and
Tip. It wasn ’t merely the prospect of these

1
’

She silently follows
the bargaining

■IDHHia

8
r.

I
Mama San tallies
the girls' earnings

two children steadily building up their col
lection of chips over the next decade that
compelled us. It was partially witnessing
the despair of the other girls who had
buried all hope with their childhoods.
Girls like Pirn, who works in a brothel a
fe neters up the road.
,/hen we ask, Pirn insists she is 19.
She’s probably closer to 12. Less than 1.5
m tall, her platform heels only highlight
how short her legs are. Her tissue-stuffed
D O

nn
E S 1

bra emphasizes her flat chest. And the
bright green eye shadow and heavy rouge
she wears give her all the vampishness of
a seven th-grader playing the clown in a
school play. The most popular of the girls
in her brothel, picked out by up to three
customers a day, she insists she has never
been happier. But sitting in a restaurant
by the Nam Ruak River, the 10-m-wide
watery frontier at Mae Sai’s northern end,
Pirn can’t stop gazing at her homeland on

the opposite bank. For a few moments,
the mask drops. “No one is here because
they want to be here,” she murmurs.
“Everyone ’s here because they have to
be.” Looking away, she starts quietly
weeping. Without a good command of
Thai or the right documents allowing her
to return to her village in Burma, Pirn has
given up all hope of leaving. Besides, her
Mama San insists Pirn owes her $2,000,
her purchase price. And how could she
get money to pay? When asked if she
wants to go home, she looks away at some
thing far off in the distance. Staying, on
the other hand, carries its own paralyzing
fear. “My regular customers are Thai, the
visitors are Japanese, ” she says. “When
they’re drunk, none of them want to wear
condoms. You can’t force them.”
Like Tip, Pirn comes from eastern Bur
ma. A member of the Akha minority, one of

c s

A Target of Fury

4

“I thought Babita had come home for a visit,” says Shekhar. But
when he walked over, he found Babita slumped, barely con
scious. The right side of her head was so swollen it hung over her
ear. Her body was covered in nail scratches and bruises. Her
S A SEPARATED MOTHER IN MIDDLE-CLASS NEW DELHI,
IB Shobha Batra struggled to make ends meet. She worked
thumb was broken. Shekhar ran to fetch his mother, and they
&Mas a nurse, helped run the family’s kindergarten and rushed Babita to a hospital, where a doctor diagnosed a severe
I B spent hours cleaning, cooking and looking after her concussion. Then, gathering a furious crowd of neighbors, the
family went to the police. Faced with an angry mob, Batra and
six-year-old. She needed someone to help out, but worried
her brother were arrested after eyewitnesses confirmed that the
that a man in the house could
child was abused and overworked, forced to do the cleaning for
be dangerous and a woman
the household and kindergarten.
might bring home boyfriends.
If the little girl complained, she
Far better, and cheaper, she
got
a thrashing.
decided, to buy a child.
Out on bail after two weeks in
Finding one wasn’t diffiprison and awaiting trial, Batra is
^Pilt. She met Babita through a
distressed by her position, insist
friend who had employed the
ing
she is innocent and that she
child ’s mother. Babita ’s father,
was
framed by jealous neighbors.
Parikshit, was happy to let her
“My
life is over,” she sobs. “People
leave the family of eight’s slum
will
always
know I have been to
home for a few dollars and the
jail.
Now
my
husband will defi
offer of free clothes, food and
nitely
ask
for
a
divorce.
Who could
board. The 10-year-old ’s mother,
have
thought
these
poor
people,
Janaki, was glad she would be
living
in
a
slum,
would
have
dared
going to school. “Batra said she
to
file
charges
against
us?”
The
ac
would love my daughter like her
BEATEN UP: Babita, above, suffered severe head injuries,
cusations
against
her,
of
violent
own,” says Janaki.
inset, at the hands of the woman who had bought her
fits of fury directed against Babita,
Hundreds of young girls are
brought from distant villages in rural India—or taken from near have ignited a controversy over the use of child servants. “This
by slums —to work as maids in private homes each year. The chil is modern slavery,” says Kailash Satyarthi of the Save Childhood
Movement, “It’s a fallout of the expanding middle class where
dren see no money: what little there is, their families claim.
Walled off from the outside world, they are especially vulnera working couples need reliable servants. ” Too many of whom
view children —in their powerlessness —as the no-risk option. All
ble to physical and sexual abuse.
the risk is taken by the children. Parikshit, meanwhile, is look
Three months after Babita’s departure, her 14-year-old
—A.P.
brother, Shekhar, watched Batra pull up outside the house in an ing for another employer for his daughter.
auto-rickshaw, walk Babita to a bench, sit her down and leave.

I
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Reported by Meenakshi Ganguly/New Delhi

TIME, FEBRUARY 4,2002

27

the hill tribes that populate that
brothel owner bought Pirn.
region, she was born in a settle
Pirn now suspects her
ment outside Kentung, an area of
mother knew her true des
wild jungle mountains that dou
tiny. Lek and Tip, on the
bles as rebel country and forms
other hand, appear un
the heart of the Golden Triangle
aware, or unable to admit,
opium and amphetamine produc
that their mothers sold
tion zone. Pirn remembers a tough
them into sexual slavery.
but happy childhood raising
Lek says she came to Mae
chickens and working the rice
fields on her parents ’ land, which
earn money to help her widow
clings to a steep ridge above a
mother buy their rented house. A
clear rushing stream.
friend approached her in a mar
One day a trader came to the
ket near her house in Rangoon,
village. He spoke of riches be
she says, and asked simply
yond a poor farming family ’s
whether she wanted to make
dreams: $2,000 now and more to
money in Thailand. She jur ?d
follow when Pirn sent money
at the chance. Tip, like Pirn, as
home from Thailand. Her mother
recruited by an agent but insists
told her she would be working as
her mother thought she was go
COMPLICIT: A couple from Kentung in Burma’s Shan region
a mae bai, a maid. Pirn, who had
ing to be cleaning houses. Both
come to collect more cash from their daughter’s labors
no reason to doubt her, found
girls say they can never tell their
herself being packed off. The trader, keen girls to work in Mae Sai proved to be rou
families they are prostitutes. They would
to make a trip so far up-country pay, had
tine. The rebel threat and drug running
be too ashamed.
hired a minivan: Pirn describes how her give even honest Burmese security forces
The price that Kentung ’s daughters pay
first day in captivity was spent driving
in the area other priorities.
for their parents ’ poverty can be found in its
from village to village as the man picked
Selling an 11-year-old virgin turned out
graveyards. The idyllic-looking hillside
up a total of 12 girls. Bribing his way past to be even easier. At the first place they
hamlet of traditional wooden houses and
the many Burmese road checkpoints and came to in Thailand, less than a kilometer
carved balconies brimming with mountain
buying forged visitor papers allowing the from the bridge over the Nam Ruak, a flowers is four hours north of the Thai borC O

n SCR

a

r s

Burma has long been a pariah
YOUNG GUN: Sein Win
__________
state—a
target
of
human rights acwas dragocced at 12
tivists worldwide after the military
junta slaughtered democracy protesters in 1988 and voided the
1990 election. Increasingly isolated economically, the regime
has dramatically expanded its reliance on forced civilian lab®
for infrastructure and revenue-generating projects. By 1996 an
S estimated 3% of Burma ’s gdp was the fruit of conscripted
N
X
gangs. In an additional, cruel twist, many of the soldiers them
D
> selves —part of a mobilization that expanded the army from
185,000 troops to nearly half a million today—were little more
T
than child slaves. Sein Win was press-ganged into service at age
12. He wasn ’t allowed to contact his family and never once was
granted leave. When he initially tried to escape, he was roughed
up. “Soldiers in my battalion were beaten every day, ” he says.
X
Kyaw Aung, who was kidnapped by the military at age 14,
in
3 says his company once tied a Karen elder suspected of being
X
a rebel sympathizer to a post. His sergeant ordered Kyaw
rn
Aung to gut the prisoner from neck to groin. “I had no choice, ”
■■OR YEARS, SEIN WIN’S JOB IN THE BURMESE ARMY WAS TO
says Kyaw Aung, another recent deserter. “If I hadn’t done it,
guard citizens who had been forced into hard labor, build the sergeant would have had the other soldiers tie me up and
up ing the nation’s roads, railways, helipads and ban-acks.
cut me open.”
■ “We threatened them with guns to make them work,” says
Such abuses continue to haunt the lives of both victims
Sein Win, now 20, who recently deserted from the military. “No and those forced to persecute them. Says Sein Win: “I have
soldier would dare be kind to the villagers because the officers
nightmares about what we have done.”
—A.P.
would beat us if we showed them any mercy.”
Reported by Robert Horn/Karen state, Burma

28

TIME, FEBRUARY 4, 2002

k

She heads back
to watch TV with
her friends

The girls sold, Mama
San closes her books

Tip is pleased at
being pi^chased

1
>

early last year, World Vision has managed
der by car. In a town of perhaps 5,000 peo journey home can be fraught. Most lack
to bring only three girls back from Mae Sai.
ple, the aids epidemic imported from over the requisite identity cards, which are is
Taking Lek and Tip over the border
the frontier reached the point in the late sued solely in the district of residence and
turns out to be easy. Both girls insist
only to people aged 18 or older. “Either the
1990s where someone died every day, ac
they want to go to Kentung to live with
girls have to bribe their way home, if they
cording to one Western aid worker. The
Tip’s family. They would feel safest there.
rate has since fallen, but it’s not a sign of im- have enough money, or more usually they
With trepidation, we agree.
pr ^ment. Rather, it’s a re
While we arrange visas for
fit. . on of the earlier devas
ourselves, they pick up a
tation. World Vision is one of
pass
to Tachileik, the
the few nongovernmental
Burmese
border town op
organizations to brave inter
Sai. With the
posite
Mae
national condemnation for
heavy
traffic
across the
working under, and in
bridge,
the
four
of us cross
evitably sometimes with,
unnoticed.
Fearing
prob
Burma ’s military junta to try
lems
with
checkpoints
if we
to counter trafficking and its
go
by
road,
we
buy
the
two
effects in the area. One of its
girls
flights
to
Kentung.
It is
workers says that since 1997,
with
relief
that
we
watch
out of 400 aids patients it
the plane take off.
registered in the nine village
Only later do we learn
districts around Kentung,
that
Lek and Tip never
380 have died. The govern
made it past the departure
ment tries to hide the reality,
lounge. Minutes before
but even where deaths are
the aircraft is to take off, as
counted, the embarrassed
we wait obliviously outside
Burmese authorities fudge
in the parking lot, the air
the true total—listing com
' .1
port authorities throw
plications brought on by
them out. By the time we
cause
of
death.
aids as the
‘J
hear of their missed flight,
“N
le will ever know how
we have discovered some
many people have really
thing even more wrench
died around here from
ing:
the mothers of both
aids ,” the aid worker says.
girls
have been receiving
But even though the
regular
payments from
terrible price of prostitu
Mama
San.
tion has become evident by
Lek and Tip are still in
the sheer force of numbers,
Tachileik,
where they have
the flow of girls has not
taken
shelter
with an older
slowed. The economic im
friend.
Perhaps
it’s better
perative is such that for
that
they
didn’t
return
most
families,
sending
home.
Their
mothers
sold
daughters illegally to Thai
them
once;
would
they
land is a must, says Cherry
have tried again? It’s not a
Waing of World Vision ’s
CHILDHOOD LOST: Many young prostitutes refuse to believe their parents
happy ending. And many
Kentung office. And with
have sold them. But this hill-tribe girl knows her mother received $500
could argue that we did the
no education or training,
wrong
thing,
that
by paying money for the
need
to
be
sponsored
by
their
parents
girls have little earning power outside the
girls
we
were
only
perpetuating the trade,
or
the
village
head,”
says
Waing.
Such
flesh trade. “Every village has a broker for
that
helping
them
take only one step to
arrangements,
she
adds,
are
extremely
sex workers, ” says Waing.
ward
freedom
was
not
enough. But unlike
rare.
“Generally
these
are
the
very
people
Little thought is given to the girls’ re
Lek
and
Tip
might,
at least, have some
Pirn,
who
away
first
place.
sent
them
in
the
”
turn. Many simply don’t. But for those
choices
this
time.
■
Since
starting
up
a
repatriation
program
who survive with their health intact, the
TIME, FEBRUARY 4, 2002

29

Doris Kearns Goodwin

How I Caused That Story
A historian explains why someone else s writing wound up in her book
banker ’s boxes. Immersed in a flood of papers, I began to
H and mother, it is who I am. And there is nothing I take
write the book. After each section and each chapter was
H more seriously.
completed, I returned the notes to the boxes along with no
D In recent days, questions have been raised about how
tations for future footnoting. When the manuscript was fin
historians go about crediting their sources, and I have been
ished, I went back to all these sources to check the accura
caught up in the swirl. Ironically, the more intensive and farcy of attributions. As a final protection, I revisited the 300
reaching a historian ’s research, the greater the difficulty of
books themselves. Somehow in this process, a few of the
citation. As the mountain of material grows, so does the pos
books were not fully rechecked. I relied instead on my
sibility of error.
notes, which combined direct quotes and paraphrased sen
Fourteen years ago, not long after the publication of my
tences. If I had had the books in front of me, rather than my
book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, I received a comnotes, I would have caught mistakes in the first place and
munication from author Lynne
placed any borrowed phrases in
McTaggart pointing out that ma
direct quotes.
terial from her book on Kathleen
What made this incident par
Kennedy had not been properly
ticularly hard for me was the fact
attributed. I realized that she was
that I take great pride in the depth
right. Though my footnotes re
of my research and the extensive
peatedly cited Ms. McTaggart ’s
ness of my citations. The writing of
work, I failed to provide quotation
history is a rich process of building
■tnefW;h
marks for phrases that I had taken
on the work of the past with the
verbatim, having assumed that
hope that others will build on
these phrases, drawn from my
what
you have done. Through
solution*.
jnW.e>* hls d.
iai y
notes, were my words, not hers. I
footnotes
you point the way to fu
•f An,
made the corrections she request
ture historians.
1,15 alleged
ed, and the matter was complete
The only protection as a histo
andf
ly laid to rest—until last week,
rian is to institute a process of re
when the Weekly Standard pub- Mniiity tl a
search and writing that minimizes
lished an article reviving the is ^orepo*er^M
the possibility of error. And that I
sue. The larger question for those
ipopuhtic
have tried to do, aided by modern
of us who write history is to un
People
tue
LUW^WSS!! ,____
technology, which enables me,
derstand how citation mistakes
n.vertu‘“"j™ having long since moved beyond
Se anroeat of war,
can happen.
longhand, to use a computer foi
The research and writing for
0;iirse
14^'"® both organizing and taking notes.
this 900-page book, with its 3,500
I now rely on a scanner, which re
footnotes, took place over 10 years. At that time, I wrote my
produces the passages I want to cite, and then I keep my own
books and took my notes in longhand, believing I could not
comments on those books in a separate file so that I will nev
think well on a keyboard. Most of my sources were drawn
er confuse the two again. But the real miracle occurred
from a multitude of primary materials: manuscript collec
when my college-age son taught me how to use the myste
tions, private letters, diaries, oral histories, newspapers,
rious footnote key on the computer, which makes it possible
periodicals, personal interviews. After three years of re
to insert the citations directly into the text while the sources
search, I discovered more than 150 cartons of materials
are still in front of me, instead of shuffling through hundreds
that had been previously stored in the attic of Joe
of folders four or five years down the line, trying desperate
Kennedy ’s Hyannis Port house. These materials were a
ly to remember from where I derived a particular statistic or
treasure trove for a historian —old report cards, thousands
quote. Still, there is no guarantee against error. Should one
of family letters, movie stubs and diaries, which allowed
occur, all I can do, as I did 14 years ago, is to correct it as
me to cross the boundaries of time and space. It took me
soon as I possibly can, for my own sake and the sake of his
s two additional years to read, categorize and take notes on
tory. In the end, I am still the same fallible person I was be
g these documents.
fore I made the transition to the computer, and the process
J
During this same period, I took handwritten notes on
of building a lengthy work of history remains a complicated
t perhaps 300 books. Passages I wanted to quote directly
but honorable task.
■
g were noted along with general notes on the ideas and story
lines of each book. Notes on all these sources were then
Doris Kearns Goodwin, a Pulitzer prizewinning author, is
S arranged chronologically and kept in dozens of folders in 25
currently at work on a book about Lincolns White House
|AM A HISTORIAN. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF BEING A WIFE

■

■

x artistic^ wes t ”f thq|

unity t ■I
K camp

30

TIME, FEBRUARY 4, 2002

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