Illegal and juvenile prostitution is a stark reality in India and Bangladesh, but a new trend is concerning the authorities in Bangladesh.
There are 15 major brothels in Dhakka. Most of them look like any other quarter in the slums, with open sewers often clogged by bundles of condoms. In the brothels countless girls live with their sons, begotten through the trade, and so perverted is their sense of reality that many hope to have girls when they become pregnant, so they can grow to help in the brothels by becoming prostitutes.
The going rate for a prostitutes who is not underage is about 1.50$ a client. Very young girls, as young as 12, can fetch a little more. Many of the working girls have been kidnapped from the streets, never again to be seen by their families. The families, in turn, never go looking for their daughters soon after their disappearance, knowing they are probably in a brothel, so that they have become nothing more than a disgrace to the family.
In some brothels, the women who die while in 'service' are buried in fields not far from the streets where they worked. Muslim tenets prohibit burial of a prostitute, as her punishment is to never have the release of a proper burial.
Although the extreme poverty in which the majority of Bangladeshi find themselves will always foster prostitution, including child prostitution, families are often forced if not willing to give their girls away, as they constitute a burden, due to archaic and illegal traditions - but very much still observed - such as dowry payments.
To circumvent the problem, and also to rid themselves of the burden of feeding many in the families, girls as young as 10 are sold to brothels, where they quickly must learn to service tens of men a day.
When they get to their brothels, usually in the capital of Dhakka, the girls are usually little more than scrawny bits of girls, hardly prostitute material. To avoid the scrutiny of the police, and to shorten the time between the visible prepuberty and the filling out of their figures, the 'madams' in the Dhakka brothels have come up with a gruesome and dangerous expedient: steroids.
As soon as the girl are bought, the madams force the girls to start taking daily doses of oral Dexamethasone, or other similar steroid. The girls quickly swell up and begin to look plumper and older, not to mention stronger and able to withstand more and more sexual services daily. Some girls have to service up to 20 men a day.
Why so many? the greed of the madams is worsened by the fact that the amount paid for them becomes a debt for the young girls, and they must repay the debt one pence at a time. Since the rates for a sexual encounter are dismal, the girls are forced to prostitution possibly forever, since they soon become pregnant and have the added burden of feeding their children.
Bangladeshi men eagerly attend the brothels. It is a flourishing trade, made even more hideous by the flagrant disrespect of the rule that bans underage girls from plying the trade. Even in a strict Muslim society, brothels thrive and persist.
The use of such steroid without medical monitors and indiscriminately for years however poses incredible health dangers. But in a trade where people are merely numbers, such concerns amount to very little.
There are 15 major brothels in Dhakka. Most of them look like any other quarter in the slums, with open sewers often clogged by bundles of condoms. In the brothels countless girls live with their sons, begotten through the trade, and so perverted is their sense of reality that many hope to have girls when they become pregnant, so they can grow to help in the brothels by becoming prostitutes.
The going rate for a prostitutes who is not underage is about 1.50$ a client. Very young girls, as young as 12, can fetch a little more. Many of the working girls have been kidnapped from the streets, never again to be seen by their families. The families, in turn, never go looking for their daughters soon after their disappearance, knowing they are probably in a brothel, so that they have become nothing more than a disgrace to the family.
In some brothels, the women who die while in 'service' are buried in fields not far from the streets where they worked. Muslim tenets prohibit burial of a prostitute, as her punishment is to never have the release of a proper burial.
Although the extreme poverty in which the majority of Bangladeshi find themselves will always foster prostitution, including child prostitution, families are often forced if not willing to give their girls away, as they constitute a burden, due to archaic and illegal traditions - but very much still observed - such as dowry payments.
To circumvent the problem, and also to rid themselves of the burden of feeding many in the families, girls as young as 10 are sold to brothels, where they quickly must learn to service tens of men a day.
When they get to their brothels, usually in the capital of Dhakka, the girls are usually little more than scrawny bits of girls, hardly prostitute material. To avoid the scrutiny of the police, and to shorten the time between the visible prepuberty and the filling out of their figures, the 'madams' in the Dhakka brothels have come up with a gruesome and dangerous expedient: steroids.
As soon as the girl are bought, the madams force the girls to start taking daily doses of oral Dexamethasone, or other similar steroid. The girls quickly swell up and begin to look plumper and older, not to mention stronger and able to withstand more and more sexual services daily. Some girls have to service up to 20 men a day.
Why so many? the greed of the madams is worsened by the fact that the amount paid for them becomes a debt for the young girls, and they must repay the debt one pence at a time. Since the rates for a sexual encounter are dismal, the girls are forced to prostitution possibly forever, since they soon become pregnant and have the added burden of feeding their children.
Bangladeshi men eagerly attend the brothels. It is a flourishing trade, made even more hideous by the flagrant disrespect of the rule that bans underage girls from plying the trade. Even in a strict Muslim society, brothels thrive and persist.
The use of such steroid without medical monitors and indiscriminately for years however poses incredible health dangers. But in a trade where people are merely numbers, such concerns amount to very little.
The rate of prostitutes taking the drug is staggering. According to recent reports it is as high as 90%. And that is because they are forced to take it. If they don't, their food is withdrawn. Always, for all the years that the girls work after they are bought or arrive at the brothels, they are reminded of their debt. Without recourse, and already in a position of disgrace, the girls have no alternative than to abide.
Most of the young girls, or chukris, are bought by the madams when very young, for as little as 200-300 US dollars. They then become indentured servants in the trade. And that is because their lack of schooling, and the madams' own evil intentions, result in a complete lack of understanding of when their debt has been repaid in full.
When and if they are finally released from their bonds, already old and spent, they usually remain in the brothels, since alternatives in the world outside those narrow filthy alleys are usually non existent.
Most of Bangladesh is Muslim, especially outside the red light districts of Dhakka. In order to start a new life, the prostitutes would have to move far away from the place they worked in, making it even more difficult to re-enter society.
But Health Authorities in Bangladesh are becoming concerned at the new trend, because it promises a staggering wave of illness once the prostitutes begin to feel the horrible consequences of steroid abuse.
Apart from diabetes, infections, and weight gain, the steroids are immunosuppressants, which means that the girls quickly become weakened to any infection they are exposed to. In fact, deaths have already been reported in some of the youngest workers, due to side effects or abuse of the drugs, since the chukris have absolutely no medical care or supervision.
Hashi, 17, services a client
A campaign to save the girls from this pharmaceutical abuse a campaign was enacted called ActionAid Bangladesh. Their biggest obstacle, they say, is the lack of interest from the government in passing laws that would restrict the use and distribution of medicines and steroids available freely on the streets.
For now, it's business as usual for the Bangladeshi workers. As always in a country where there are multiple complications and not a lot of resources, problems such as these are very hard to combat. A greater awareness must be obtained through information campaigns, especially aimed at the johns who frequent the brothels, but also in the brothels themselves, although the madams will resist any regulation mightily.
Op_Ed
Sources: Daily Mail/BBC/Guardian/Deutsche Welle: 2.28.14
