5.13 In the view of the Commission, insensitivity to such a situation, which can prevent
vast number of young persons in this country from fulfilling their potential as human
beings, would amount to a callous disregard to a right to a life in dignity and reasonable
health. This is all the more so when readily available and inexpensive forms of
preventive action can remedy the situation. The Commission has, accordingjy, begun
a review of the steps that have been or are being taken at the Central and State levels
to deal with this problem. In the course of its efforts, the Commission wilt work closely
with the concer~edMinistries and Departments, with UNICEF and with such other
experts as are in a position to advise and to help.
(C)
CHILD PROSTITUTION
5.14 The menacing implications of child prostitution loomed large in the concerns of
the Commission. Apart from the fact that child prostitution has long been prevalent
among certain communities, the practice has increasingly become associated with the
involvement of organized crime. Indeed, there are distinct "catchment" areas from
which children are funneled into child prostitution and there are routes that are followed
across the borders of South Asia to trap children in this cruel trade. The problem is
'compounded in this age of AIDS by the unrelenting search for ever-younger prostitutes,
and by sex-tourism, not infrequently organized from abroad.
5.f 5 A-Core Group, constituted by the Commission and comprising, inter alia, the
National Commission for Women, the Department of Women and Child Development,
sekcted NGOs and UNICEF, has continued to meet on this subject. It has reviewed
existing laws and ways of improving their enforcement; it has discussed the efforts
made and difficulties faced in rehabilitating children weaned away from prostitution; it
has pressed for greater efforts, at the level of SAARC, to strengthen laws and to devise
cooperative measures to deal with trans-border movements; and it has encouraged
workshops and hearings by individ-ualmembers of the group - particularly the National
Commission for Women - which is deeply involved in this task.
At its most recent meeting, the Core Group decidedrthat Members of the
Commission would, at an early opportunity, hold a series of meetings of District
Magistrates, Superintendents of Police and members of the judiciary in such areas as
served, in particular, as a 'source" for the induction of children into prostitution.
5.16
5.17 Given the global ramifications of this problem, the Commission was also
represented by two of its Members, Km. Justice Fathima Beevi and Shri Justice