It is estimated that there are currently between 300,000 and 600,000 cases of HIV infection in Thailand (out of a population of 36 million Thais between the ages of 15 and 65). Although the rate of new HIV infections appears to be leveling off, available projections suggest that in excess of 1 million Thais will be infected with HIV by 2000.

One of the major vectors of HIV infection in Thailand is prostitution. (Estimates of the number of commercial sex workers in Thailand vary widely, with figures between 200,000 and 800,000 being widely quoted.) Patronizing prostitutes is considered to be socially acceptable in many quarters of Thai society and HIV infections are often passed from prostitute, thus creating a perpetual cycle.

The costs of the epidemic are just beginning have an impact. The Office of Communicable Disease Control estimates that the cost of caring for ARC/AIDS is approximately 1,050 baht/day ($40) in the northern provinces. The average cost for a patient from the onset of HIV to death is 145,000 Baht ($5,800). This figure is as low as it is because most HIV infected patients in northern Thailand die before they develop full-blown cases of AIDS. As the incidence of illness increases in the Bangkok Metropolitan area HIV medical care costs are expected to jump significantly because of the higher quality of medical care available in Bangkok area. Furthermore; medical care costs alone fail to capture the cost of the disease measured in terms of lost family income, broken families and socially ostracized family members, orphaned children, burdened and damaged community social support networks, etc.

One of the most unfortunate features of Thailand's HIV epidemic is the large number of young girls in rural areas who, driven by economic and social circumstances, regularly turn to the commercial sex industry for employment. Demand for young girls has actually increased sharply in recent years because of the mistaken belief that they are less likely to carry HIV. Recruitment of these girls tends to be concentrated in the northern provinces. Recent media reports indicated that more than 2,000 Matayom 6 graduates from the commercial sex industry in 1993.

Although it is true that girls can make far more money in the commercial sex industry than by conventional employment, there are some signs that village leaders and parents are beginning to recognize that sending young girls into the sex industry carries substantial risks. Increasingly, village girls are returning to their homes infected with HIV, and some display symptoms of full-blown AIDS. One private Chiang Mai hospital, for example, reports that it treated an average of one AIDS case a month three years ago but now treats 60 cases a month.

Changing the attitudes of Thai males towards prostitution as am acceptable social institution is likely to be a long-term process. However, child prostitution are not only warranted in their own right, but also as a first step towards changing Thai societal attitudes towards prostitution in general and towards the risks of prostitution vis-a -vis transmission of the HIV virus in particular.

To keep young girls out of the sex industry, vulnerable girls, and their parents, must receive viable alternatives. The Thai Woman of Tomorrow (TWT) initiative provides these alternatives.

Therefore, a variety of approaches are necessary to stop child prostitution, for example providing proper education, promoting income generating activities, promoting esteem, dignity and pride enforcing laws against prostitution, especially those laws penalizing people who hire or force girls to become prostitutes.

The TWT Project initiated by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Chiang Mai University has become an active in Thailand's northern region, well aware of the child prostitution problem and seriously engaged in finding practically feasible solution. The project has conducted research to reduce child prostitution. It now launches a project called the Thai Woman of Tomorrow (TWT) to deal with this particular problem.