MUMBAI: In this country, a woman can be bought for Rs 400, roughly the same amount you would pay for a bottle of wine.
Virgins are the most desired commodity in the market, selling like hot cakes in the flesh industry. Wide-ranging variety - from 13-year-old virgins to 52-year-old widows - sells for anything between Rs 400 to Rs 70,000, age, looks, curls and curves being the deciding factors.
These are the findings of a recent study - "Trafficking of Women and Children in India" -conducted by the New Delhi-based Institute of Social Sciences.
The UN-funded study found that about 26% of traffickers procure a girl for less than Rs 5,000.
The study shows that the clients - ranging from students and businessmen to politicians, government officials and policemen - mostly demand virgins since they would withstand all kinds of perversions in silence.
Trafficking and AIDS have a cause-effect linkage as virgins are in demand due to fear of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD).
The common myth that AIDS can be cured by having sex with virgins has further fuelled client preference. Sex tourism, massage parlours and beer bars have added a new dimension, leading to high demand.
Teenagers and children are being trafficked to fuel the pornography industry worldwide. Girls from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar are being packed off to Nepal, England, Korea, Philippines, Dubai, Muscat, Bahrain, Bangkok, Kenya, South Africa, and the Gulf.
Various provisions of Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) were found to be either under-utilised or not utilised at all. A total of 65,602 persons were arrested under ITPA between 1997 and 2001 out of which 87% were females. On the other hand, a large number of traffickers, transporters, brothel owners and clients remained untouched by the law.
