INDIA SHOULD GIVE DIGNITY TO ITS PEOPLE NOT THE NUKES !!!!!!

CHILD PROSTITUTION IN INDIA (February 1999)

"Child prostitution is the ultimate denial of the rights of the child."

(Dr Jon E Rhode, UNICEF representative in India).

India's 944 580 000 inhabitants live in an area of 3 287 590 km˛. Almost a quarter of this total are under eighteen 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.

70 000 to 100 000 children are estimated to work as prostitutes in India. 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 20 years 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 commercial sexual abuse, which includes working in pornography.

Feb. 17 — Murder in the Name of Culture

I just bothered you people by featuring Shauna Singh Baldwin's novel, Cleavage this morning. The mourning on my part, it seems, continues as another Sikh tragedy is being enacted in California, this time not a novel but a real murder-suicide at the hands of cultural burden.

Sikh leader, Dr. Amarjit Marwah is trying to defend the actions of one Narinder Virk 39, wife of Sintokh Singh Virk who tried to drown her two children Sonny 9 and Harpreet 6 and was attempting her own suicide. She was rescued and being tried today in Ventura County Superior Court.

I have heard all kinds of cockamamie stories but this one takes the cake. Admitted that this woman was in deep distress over her husband's illicit affair. Agree that she was angry and frustrated. Most of all she was left with a grief even when nobody was dead.

It does not follow that she could not have received the help in the United States of America by simply approaching a friend or a neighbor. Failing which she could have sought and received the help from such goody two shoes as this self style morality and spirituality snake oil vendor, Dr. Amarjit Marwah.

She chose heinous attitude towards her two innocent children, which in this country is liable of severe punishment. I don't have to learn the law. I don't have to find the precedence of a Japanese woman's similar case in which she was not found guilty. In my heart, Virk acted in bad faith and risked her children's lives, not to forget her own.

Indian immigrants coming to America have all the opportunities to educate themselves, that includes village women like Virk. The acts of such Indians is what I disagree with. Virk may find in her heart some motherly love after all as no one says that things may not go wrong again.

Indians have no respect for laws of the land, their land and this land, America. They yell and scream over silly affairs like Jerry Seinfeld TV episodes but do not raise their anger over tragedies such as the death of Seetha and this incidence where rules are broken and no responsibility is taken for one's actions.

Thanks to the Los Angeles Times dated February 17, 2000.

Sid Harth..."As long as these village idiots are allowed to enter the United States of America unchecked, tragedies shall keep happening."