An endless mile; a bus wheel turning
A friend to share the lonesome times
A handshake and a sip of wine
So say it loud and let it ring
We are all a part of everything
The future, present and the past
Fly on proud bird
You're free at last.
...........................-Charlie Daniels:
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'Drugs like Ecstasy 'emerging threat' to India'
24 Jun, 2007
NEW DELHI: Party drugs like Ecstasy are becoming an emerging threat to India, a top UN official has said.
"The problem of synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy in India is simmering and we have to be extra cautious about it. This is not an epidemic yet but a new emerging threat to India," Rajiv Walia, project coordinator with the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said in an interview in the run-up to June 26, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
"It is a new peril but it has certainly not spread to the same extent as it has in Southeast Asian countries, Europe and the US," Walia said in an interview.
Synthetic drugs like Ephedrine, Amphetamines and Methaqualone are known by many names such as Ecstasy, MDMA, Adam, XTC, love drug and hug They are often abused during parties.
According to Walia, these drugs are a combination of psychoactive drugs that have stimulant and hallucinogenic qualities and are similar to other street drugs known for causing brain damage. They also damage the body by raising its temperature, which can cause muscle breakdown and heart and kidney failure.
Asked about how these drugs reach India, he said most were smuggled from Myanmar. Although the total quantity available in India was not large yet, Walia warned against complacency. "There have been seizures of synthetic drugs, especially party drugs, in metropolitan cities in India," he pointed out.
According to Walia, seizure of narcotics in India during the past few years suggests that local drugs like ganja and hashish - derivatives of opium - continue to be abused most often, as they are cheap and easily available.
"India is the only country currently producing opium for medical and scientific purposes. But despite the best controls, certain quantities do flow into the illicit channel although the extent is very difficult to determine."
Walia added that heroin trailed ganja and hashish in the top drug race, but by and large its abuse was restricted to urban areas and the transit routes of smugglers.
Cocaine abuse too appeared to be confined to the urban elite, he said. Going by the quantity of drugs seized in the last 10 years, Walia felt that there had been no major upsurge in drug abuse, though there was a slight upward trend.
Drug enforcement officials throughout the world have a rule of thumb - the quantity of drugs seized by the authorities is about 10 percent of the quantity being smuggled.
Going by that, an average of 10 tonnes of heroin have been smuggled into India every year over the past decade, Walia said. Some of it was smuggled in from the Maynmar border and the rest from Afghanistan via Pakistan.
But India was a relatively small player in the smuggling of heroin out of Afghanistan, Walia felt, since that country produced an average of 610 tonnes of heroin every year.
He stressed that the number of specially trained people in various drug law enforcement agencies should be increased to fight the menace more effectively.
The UNODC (www.unodc.org) runs various courses to train people in police and paramilitary forces as well as specialised drug law enforcement agencies. It also provides specialised equipment to the authorities.
RISE of child abuse cases:
13 Jan, 2006 MUMBAI: A 35-year-old man from Chembur was arrested for raping and sodomising a 10-month-old infant. The accused, Ramkisan Surajmal Harijan, a resident of Mankhurd-Ghatkopar Link Road, took the baby away on Tuesday night on the pretext of babysitting her after which he raped her. The baby was admitted to hospital and underwent an operation on Thursday. The police said that she was still in hospital, but recovering. Ramkisan was remanded to the custody of the Deonar police. The incident, the latest in a string of violent crimes against children which have been rocking the city, only corroborates statistics recently released by the Maharashtra police. Crimes against children have been steadily rising over the last few years—from 832 cases registered in 2000 to 2,281 in 2004. From 2003 to 2004 alone, crimes against children rose by 3.63%. Rape tops this list; in fact, the number of rapes of children in the age group of 10-18 has almost doubled from 2000 to 2004.
**Over 53% children face sexual abuse: Survey
10 Apr, 2007
NEW DELHI: In a shocking revelation, a government commissioned survey has found that more than 53% of children in India are subjected to sexual abuse, but most don’t report the assaults to anyone.
The survey, released on Monday and which covered different forms of child abuse — physical, sexual and emotional — as well as female child neglect, found that two out of every three children have been physically abused.
Parents and relatives, persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility were mostly found to be the perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the country. According to the women and child development ministry-sponsored report, which assumes greater significance in the backdrop of the Nithari killings that brought into focus the issue of children’s safety, those in the age group of 5-12 years reported higher levels of abuse.
While releasing the survey, women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury said, "Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. The ministry is working on a new law for protection of children’s rights by clearly specifying offences against children and stiffening punishments."
The survey, carried out across 13 states and with a sample size of 12,447, revealed that 53.22% of children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse, with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi reporting the highest percentage of such incidents. In 50% of child abuse cases, the abusers were known to the child or were in a po
sition of trust and responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone.
The survey, sponsored by WCD ministry and carried out by the NGO Prayas in association with Unicef and Save the Children, found that over 50% children were subjected to one or the other form of physical abuse and more boys than girls were abused physically. The first-ever survey on child abuse in the country disclosed that nearly 65% of schoolchildren reported facing corporal punishment — beatings by teachers — mostly in government schools.
Of children physically abused in families, in 88.6% of the cases, it was the parents who were the perpetrators. More than 50% had been sexually abused in ways that ranged from severe — such as rape or fondling — to milder forms of molestation that included forcible kissing.
The study also interviewed 2,324 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, almost half of whom reported being physically or sexually abused as children. When it comes to emotional abuse, every second child was subjected to emotional assault and in 83% of the cases, parents were the abusers.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
CHILD PROSTITUTION
"Child prostitution is the ultimate denial of the rights of the child."
Impact on children
Prostitutes may experience a lifetime of recurrent illnesses, such as fertility problems, pregnancy complications, and depression . Children involved in the sex trade face new and potentially fatal dangers in light of the spread of HIV andAIDS. In addition to this they often suffer from the same psychological symptoms as children who are molested.
Prostitution of children refers to the use of children and teenagers as prostitutes.India's 944 580 000 inhabitants live in an area of 3 287 590 km², with an expectation that the population will reach 1 billion in May. Almost a quarter of this total are under 18 years of age.25% of the population live in urban areas and this is estimated to be growing annually at just over 1%. Over population and lack of education in nutrition and health contribute to the deaths of around 11 000 children each day. In 1951, 164 million Indians were living in poverty compared to 312 million in 1993-94.There are estimated to be over 900 000 sex workers in India. 30% are believed to be children.Recent reports estimate that the number of children involved in prostitution is increasing at 8 to10% per annum.About 15% of the prostitutes in Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Madras, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bangalore are children. It is estimated that 30%of the prostitutes in these six cities are under 20years of age. Nearly half of them became commercial sex workers when they were minors.Conservative estimates state that around 300 000 children in India are suffering commercialsexual abuse, which includes working in pornography.In one study of 456 sex workers in Mumbai who had been 'rescued' by police in February 1996, afifth were under 18 years and two-thirds were under 20. The main obstacle in the cracking down on child prostitution for the police is the issue of rehabilitation and where to place and reintegrateall the children that they rescue.ROOTS:The problem of child prostitution in India is more complicated than in other Third Worldcountries where it is directly related to sex tourism. In India, sexual exploitation of children hasits roots in traditional practices, beliefs and gender discrimination.According to some research, child prostitution is socially acceptable in some sections of Indiansociety through the practice of Devdasi. Young girls are given to the 'gods' and they become a religious prostitute. There are believed to be around 3 300 devdasis in Belguam area alone.Devdasi is banned by the Prohibition of Dedication Act of 1982. Parents or guardians dedicatingtheir girls are liable to five years in jail and a Rs5 000 (approximately £71) fine.
AGE:According to a madam in Kamatipura, the average age of girls supplied to the brothels in the last two years has decreased from 14 and 16 years to 10 and 14 years. A girl between 10 and 12 yearsfetches the highest price.
RURAL ISSUE:Child sex workers are not confined to big cities. A survey in Bihar revealed that roadside brothels for truck drivers in the Aurangabad and Sasaram districts offered sex workers aged between 6 and 18 years.
CASE EXAMPLES
• Meena was married off at 12. Soon after she was taken to Delhi by her husband, whereshe found out that he was a pimp. In the last three years, she has serviced up to six clientsa night. The major part of her earnings goes to pay rent on the little room, the rest goes toher husband.
• Rita was sold at 9 years old. She washed and cooked for a madam in Delhi for a few months until a client wanted a virgin. Two years later, she barely talks to anyone andspends most of her spare time painting flowers.
• Maya, 10, was taken to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh by her aunt who was paid Rs 3 000.When she refused to have sex with a client, she was locked in a room for two days, scared with snakes and beaten unconscious. When she came around she was raped by theclient. Four years on, Maya lives in the red-light area of Mumbai. Her two year old spends the night in a crèche run by a social service organisation. When he was only a fewmonths old, she used to drug him and put him under her working cot.
The Children, the Desperate, the Helpless, the Homeless Fall Victim to the Heartless
Six girls from 11-13 years of age were rescued from brothel that offered only young children. Trafficked from Vietnam, children were rescued during sting operation involving Cambodian Interpol and local police, led by End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT).
Filipino children, victims of child prostitution, wait to testify before Philippine Congressional committee on child prostitution and human rights, as 200 street children rallied, in a downpour outside, in support.
East Indian girl holds sign condemning child prostitution, in Calcutta rally by school children and social workers to heighten awareness of problem of child prostitution, during International Anti-Child Labor day.
