CRACKING DOWN ON PORNO-TOURISM

BRAZIL (IPS)—The first Seminar Against the Exploitation of Girls and Adolescents held in the Brazilian Capital last 16-19 April came up with the conclusion that an alliance between the government, the media and non-government organizations is essential to fight the widespread problem of sexual exploitation of minors. The seminar focused on specific problems plaguing each region—some of which are the lack of reliable data regarding the issue, lack of laws addressing the sexual abuse of minors, and police involvement in the "porno-tourism" trade.

To combat this problem the seminar proposed to redefine public policies on the sexual exploitation of girls and adolescents; the organization of a network of services in the areas of health, education, security and legal support focused on prevention and protection; and the creation of a network for creating public awareness and media support. The seminar's conclusions will be presented at an international congress on the sexual exploitation of minors to be held in Stockholm, Sweden in August.

CHILD LABOR : SWEPT UNDER THE CARPET BY EXPORTERS

INDIA (IPS)—"This is just a rumor. The fact is that there is no child labor here." This is the lie that has been going around for the last 10 years in Bhadohi, India. The area, which is famous for its handwoven wool rugs, is under fire from child activists who allege that the area forcibly employs children from outside and forces them to work long hours in wretched working conditions.

The activists of Saryathi's South Asian Coalition Against Child Servitude (SACCS) are trying to make the plight of the "carpet children" an election issue by creating public awareness about them. The activists say that it is difficult to go against these carpet exporters since they are backed up by certain influential political parties—the ruling congress candidate, for instance, is a manufacturer. As a response to this problem, Saryathi's organization created the "child labour-free carpet labeling scheme" in which a Smiling Carpet" label is given to exporters certifying that the carpet has not been made by children.

INEQUALITY IN LITERACY

India is still struggling with its illiterate adult women. Female literacy has increased from 18.44 percent in 1971 to 39.24 percent in 1991. But it is still way behind male literacy which increased from 39.51 percent in 1971 to 64.13 percent in 1991.

This inequality stems from the fact that men and women are not equal in the labour market thus, women's education is perceived as having lower economic utility.

The educational system itself reflects the lifestyles and expected roles of men and women. Textbooks and teachers generally project these images: the mother cooks, father goes to work, sister helps mother, brother goes to play.

Also, the higher percentage of married females in the 15-19 age group, increasing death rate and deteriorating birth rate are factors in female illiteracy.

At higher education levels, the percentage of enrollees is small. When the students enrolling for higher education is only about 4.8 per cent of the relevant age group, the dropouts and failures account for 59 per cent of the students enrolled. At present, enrolling for higher education is better with about six percent of the relevant age group.

The high dropout and failure rates affect especially the girls and students belonging to disadvantaged sections of the population. Poor students are often weak either in the higher standards of education where English is the medium of instruction or even in the lesser standards that use regional languages as the media All these prevent the lower groups from achieving the goal of equal educational opportunities.

The literacy problem is exacerbated by the growing polarization between educational institutions available to the elites and the masses and the growing irrelevance of education to the needs of the developing economy and the changing society.

(Source: Child Workers News, July-September and October-December 1995) 

VIRGINITY A MUST FOR INDON ARMY WOMEN

JAKARTA (Reuter)— Virginity has been declared compulsory for women cadets entering the Indonesian police and military forces, the Pos Kota newspaper said on Wednesday.

Indonesian police chief General Banurusman Astroemitro was quoted as telling a parliamentary commission on Tuesday that a woman's virginity would have to be verified before she could enter academies for the military, which includes the police. He said some women entering military academies have had to leave after they were discovered to be pregnant.

"Usually the community in the region will give a party for a woman when she is accepted into the military. During that event, women who have boyfriends are left a "deposit." That deposit usually becomes known after a few months," Banurusman said. "The result is that the female cadet soldier must end her education," he said.

Answering legislators' questions, Banurusman said: "If needed, the examination can be done by a woman doctor."

(Source; Today, 7 March 1996)

NEW CURE FOR AN OLD COMPLAINT

CHILE (IPS)—Child abuse may be an old problem but it has never merited close attention and scrutiny. At least, not until recently. Official figures show that some 300,000 minors are victims of physical and psychological aggression in Chile. The country ranks third in terms of the prevalence of child abuse according to the National Women's Service. Publicity campaigns have made the public aware of this widespread problem especially since the case of a five-month-old baby who was put into a coma by a beating from her father, hit the headlines.

The Chilean pediatric surgeon, who concentrated on the issue of child abuse for five years, expressed his frustration at the situation. This problem, according to him, existed mostly in industrialized nations and cuts across all socio-economic levels although he noted that it is more concealed in the upper classes. He cites the need for enacting more laws that deal specifically with child abuse as well as information campaigns in the media and community levels.

GETTING TOUGH ON PAEDOPHILES

PHILIPPINES (IPS)—An Australian businessman convicted under a 1992 Philippine Law on Paedophilia signals the start of concrete government efforts to crack down on paedophiliac activity in Asia. Similar actions have started in other countries in the region. Thailand, for instance, indicted a Japanese businessman for sexually abusing two under-aged girls in the Northern province of Chang Mai. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downes initiated an inquiry in response to reports of Australian aid money being extended to orphanages and schools which supply "clean" children for Australian diplomats—sending out a clear message that he will not tolerate such unethical behavior from his compatriots.

Paedophiliac activity reportedly abound in the region with child prostitutes numbering to more than a million in Asia. While NGOs fighting paedophilia are happy with the recent efforts to curb these activities, they still see the need for stricter implementation of existing laws as well as for richer countries to enact and enforce laws that would prosecute paedophiles returning to their own countries.

TRAFFICKED INTO INDIA

The Indian and Nepali governments share complicity in the abuse of thousands of women and girls who are trafficked from Nepal to India for the purposes of prostitution. "The willingness of Indian and Nepali government officials to tolerate and, in some cases, participate in the burgeoning flesh trade exacerbates abuse," says Human Rights Watch/ Asia in a 90-page report released in July 1995.

HRW concludes that half of Bombay's 100,000 brothel workers are women and girls from Nepal. The report. Rape for Profit: Trafficking of Nepali Girls and Women to India's Brothels, says that the workers are kept in conditions tantamount to slavery.

"Held in debt bondage for years at a time, they are raped and subjected to severe beatings, exposed to AIDS, and face arbitrary imprisonment." Non-government workers in Bombay estimate that 20 percent of Bombay's brothel workers are under the age of 18 and at least half could be infected with AIDS.

"These abuses are not only violations of internationally recognized human rights but are especially prohibited under domestic laws of both countries," states a press release accompanying the report.

Based largely on interviews with trafficking victims, the report says that many prostitutes are young women lured from remote villages and poor border communities in Nepal by local recruiters, relatives or neighbours promising jobs or marriage. They are then sold to brokers who deliver them to brothels in India.

The women then must work to pay off both their purchase price plus interest. However, most never know what they "owe" or the terms of repayment. They are under constant surveillance and face threats, beatings and other worse treatment if they misbehave.

Hoping for help from police or other officials is a waste of time. "Police are often the brothel owners' best clients," says HRW. "In India, police and local officials patronize brothels and protect brothel owners and traffickers." And despite human rights organizations in Nepal reporting extensively on the problem of forced trafficking and identifying traffickers, there have been few arrests and even fewer prosecutions.

The report outlines the distressingly cyclical nature of the abuse. Women who have managed to survive the system of debt bondage frequently become recruiters to fulfill their owners' requirement that they find another girl to take their place.

The report also notes that in 1993, Vitit Muntarbhorn, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, questioned the role of officials in trafficking in Nepal. "Law enforcement authorities are often weak, understaffed, under-trained and corrupt," said Muntarbhorn. "There is an expansive web of criminality which exploits children and which abuses the open border with India."

Muntarbhorn called for improved law enforcement, investigations and punishment of corrupt officials, better international cooperation against trafficking (including national co-operation with Interpol) and the establishment of national policies to deal with child exploitation. All these are supported by the Watch report. Human Rights Watch/Asia says that despite an increased awareness of the problem of trafficking in women and children around the world the international community has "failed to make the control of human smuggling and forced prostitution issues of urgency for regional or global crime control initiatives. India, Nepal and the international community have an obligation to ensure that states rigorously pursue persecution of its own forces found guilty of complicity with the industry."

Human Rights Watch calls on India to protect the women and girls whose rights are violated within its territory, and on Nepal to improve the quality of its law enforcement personnel at all levels.

(Source: Human Rights Tribune, Vol. 3, Oct/Nov 1995)

LAY MIDWIVES UNDER ASSAULT IN NYS

by David Yarrow

Albany, NY—Witch hunts are past history, and recent effort has begun to establish women's rights, and reestablish women's rites— including their role as professional midwives independent of medicine.

But in New York State (NYS) it's still legal to hunt midwives. December 13, 1995 Roberta Devers-Scott was called to the Onondaga County Family Planning front office where she worked as counselor. There, two undercover investigators and a police office handed her a search warrant and handcuffed her. At the police station she was mug shot, fingerprinted and imprisoned, charged with felony. Her home was searched and records seized.

Her crime? Not drug dealing, prostitution, child abuse, street violence, murder. Roberta's felony was to help other women give birth at home, educate them about pregnancy, guide them through the birth process, empower women. Roberta practiced lay midwifery in central NY.

Roberta isn't the only midwife under legal attack in NYS. Rather, a serious effort seems underway to subvert a 1992 NYS law and abolish lay midwifery. To do so drastically reduces women's birth options and home births may become impossible, if not illegal.

An occasional official inquiry into traumatic outcomes of abnormal births was normal—until recently. NYS played "bait and betray" tactics to trap lay midwives and suppress their practice as unlicensed profession.

Statewide Harassment

Summer 93 a Long Island New York midwife investigated by Education Department Office of Professional Discipline is coerced to agree to stop practicing.

Spring 94 Hudson Valley midwives Julia Kessler and Karen Pardini are charged by Health Department with unlicensed midwife practice.

October 95 midwife Maggie Kern investigated by Education Department Office of Professional Discipline.

November 95 midwife Susan Frank investigated by Education Department Office of Professional Discipline.

January 95 midwife Hilary Schlinger investigated by Education Department Office of Professional Discipline.

The Midwifery Connection of NY Friends of Midwives reports investigations of other NY midwives. Two midwives who are also nurses, charged with professional misconduct , for practicing outside the scope of nursing, face internal hearings and loss of nursing licenses.

NY midwives are under legal attack—just when it seemed no longer under medical definition and lay midwives had gained recognition.

Politicians and preachers crow about "family values" while families are denied a basic right and rite: where and how to birth new family. Abortion is a raging national controversy while a woman's choice of how and with whom to birth her child is restricted. Rising medical costs challenge state, federal and family budgets while a low cost, safe tradition—tested by time and proven effective worldwide— home birth with a midwife-is threatened with extinction.

Legislative Bait

In 1982 the Midwifery Practice Act was introduced to NYS' Legislature to establish midwifery as its own profession in NYS under the Education Department jurisdiction. Prior to this, NYS only recognized midwifery as nursing under the Health Department, and nurse-midwives practiced under physician supervision. Most states recognize and regulate midwifery as two separate professions: certified nurse-midwives and direct-entry midwives. The NY professional licensing bill, lobbied for by Midwives Alliance of NY (MANY) and NY Chapter of the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM), sat in committee until 1988.

The law's intent is to license all midwives, regardless of route of entry—not only nurse-midwives, but also those trained and experienced outside the medical system (lay midwifery). The act addresses standards for direct-entry midwives through non-medical education and apprenticeship. Nurse-midwives certified by the Health Department are immediately eligible for licensure. Midwives trained and licensed outside NY must validate their education and experience before a licensure exam.

NYS Health Department Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on the Education and Recruitment of Midwives (April 1990) and Task Force on Midwifery (April 1990) both recommended direct entry midwifery as a response to the dire need for more midwives in various care settings in NY.

In June 1992, the law passed, sponsored by Senator Tarky Lombardi and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried. But last minute negotiations with the medical society changed "licensed individuals who represent a cross-section of midwifery practice and education" to "persons licensed or exempt under this section." This eliminated direct-entry education, leaving nursing the only education route, and lay midwives no voice or vote on the Board.