Assignment on newspaper articles of CSW(Children of Sex Workers) in Bangladesh

More than 20,000 children are born and live in the 18 registered red-light areas of Bangladesh. Boys tend to become pimps once they grow up and girls continue in their mothers’ profession. Most of these girls enter the profession before the age of 12 (Guardian, 5March, 2010).

On 11 Oct, 2011 “Banglabazar Patrika” published an article “Where male children are unexpected”. Main focus of this article is on the situation and lifestyle of sex-workers and the condition of their children. Though this article is written on two brothels of Faridpur district but this is the perfect scenario of every single brothel of Bangladesh and the condition of abroad is the same with a little bit differences. At a glance the article-----

1. Mothers of different ages are said that children are unexpected in this profession whatever male or female. Moreover, female children can be excepted but not male children.
2. Most of the girls and women are the victim of cheat, so they are bound to stay and serve.
3. No-one consciously wants to become mother unless some exception.
4. Regular customer of a sex-worker is called Babu. Sometimes sex-workers’ male children become another girl’s Babu and sometimes they become godfather of the area.
5. These unexpected children are brought up by some really needy families of the nearer village.
6. Brothels become the centre of crime world. Arms, ammunition, weaponsa and drugs are available here.

 The Bangladeshi High Court has ruled that prostitution as a livelihood is not illegal. Lawyers argue the judgement is highly unusual because it makes Bangladesh one of the few Islamic countries which do not ban prostitution. This judgement means that prostitutes in Bangladesh now have the legal authority to practise their trade (B B C News, 14March, 2000, Guardian).

The Election Commission in Bangladesh says prostitution will be recognised as a job title on new voter ID cards."Sex workers can mention prostitution as a profession in the voter identity cards," Election Commissioner Shakhawat Hossain told the BBC. "The latest move by the election commission is a step closer to achieving social status...," Asif Iqbal, an official at the Protirodh Project charity, told the BBC."Hopefully, it will make it easier to get admission for their children in schools," he said. Mr Iqbal said that sex workers with the new identity cards will now not hesitate to mention their profession in offices and public places (B B C News, 17Aug, 2010, Gurdian).

Speakers at a conference called for formulation of a national policy for sex workers clearing legal ambiguity to ensure their social and constitutional rights on 23^rd November, 2011. They urged the state to recognise sex work as a profession to protect the rights of sex workers and develop their standard of living.  They said this during the National Sex Workers Conference 2011 titled 'Rights of Sex Workers and Legal Assistance' jointly organised by Bangladesh Women's Health Coalition (BWHC) and Durjoy Nari Sangha at Shishu Academy auditorium in the city(The Daily Star, 24 November, 2011).

The speakers also called for ensuring budgetary allocation for the development of sex workers and immediate steps to ensure that the children of sex workers receive formal education and have the chance to lead a decent life.

Speaking as the special guest lawmaker Tarana Halim said sex workers faced stigma, harassment and torture at every stage of their daily lives due to the absence of state recognition of their profession. She also said there are many discrimination laws against women and urged the sex workers to raise their voice against such laws (The Daily Star, 24 November, 2011).