Child Slaves

Child Slaves

Did any of you watch Lisa Lings documentary on slave girls in India? I know this happens to young girls everywhere in the world, but I was still shocked to see these children working from before day to after midnight with no chance of an education or ever getting ahead in life. I understand India's culture is different from ours but it's hard to understand how parents could sell their daughters into slavery. Some of these little girls looked no more than 9 or 10 years old. They were working for families who beat them for the tiniest infraction or for no reason at all. India does not prize it's girls and little value is placed on them.

Many girls in the poorer sections are sold to brothels when as young as 8 years old. These children are beaten and abused, forced to have sex with any man off the street day and night. They become conditioned and brainwashed, with no hope of getting out of the life until they are worn out, diseased, and die at a young age.

A tradition In India is giving young girls to the Goddess Yallamma. In the Hindu month of Magh A festival is held at the temple of Yallamma. People come from all over the southern and central India to give thanks. To appease Yallamma they give their young girls to the priests to become devadasi. In earlier times these girls sang and danced in the temple and were thought of as goddesses themselves. Times changed and devadasi became concubines, then prostitutes to have sex with men of the temple. Now they are sold to pimps by priests of the temple. Pimps take most of them to the red light district of Bombay or Delhi where they work as prostitutes until they become racked with diseases and die on the street. Along the streets there are little prayer shrines devoted to Yallamma. It's estimated at least 5,000 young girls are given to Yallamma every year. They come mostly from the poor lower castes and many parents do not understand the life of the devadasi.

We have our own share of young prostitutes in the U.S.You will find these girls controlled by pimps in every city and many small towns. There is little help for these girls who are virtually slaves to their pimps. Many are from abusive homes or are throw away children. The pimp is the only thing these child prostitutes have to hold onto. They are beaten and abused by the pimp, and raped and abused by the Johns. Most are fed drugs to keep them working. More children wind up on the streets every year and very little is done to protect and help these children. The old saying is, "It takes a village to raise a child," but what happened to the village?