Prostitution in Bangladesh

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Legal situation of prostitution in Asia. (Red = prohibited, green = legal and regulated, blue = legal, but organized operation prohibited)

Bangladesh is one of the few countries in Asia where prostitution is legal and regulated. Prostitutes must register and submit a declaration stating that they are free to choose to engage in prostitution and cannot find any other work. Prostitutes in Bangladesh often have to work in miserable conditions and are often marginalized.

Legal situation

Prostitution is legal in Bangladesh, but the Bangladesh constitution provides that "the state should endeavor to prevent gambling and prostitution". Prostitution under the age of 18 , forced prostitution and the advertising and running of unlicensed brothels is prohibited.

In 2000, the Bangladesh High Court ruled that the detention of over 100 prostitutes arrested in brothel raids was illegal and that prostitution is a legal occupation.

Besides Turkey and Lebanon, Bangladesh is the only Islamic country where prostitution is completely legal.

scope

Local NGOs estimated the total number of prostitutes at 100,000 in 2008. A UNAIDS estimate for 2016 put the number at 140,000.

There are 20 "brothel villages" in Bangladesh as well as red light districts in large cities such as Dhaka or Chittagong . The largest is Daulatdia with around 1300 sex workers. It is one of the largest brothels in the world.

Child prostitution

Child prostitution is widespread and a serious problem. The majority of prostituted children in Bangladesh live in brothels. A smaller number of children are exploited in hotel rooms, parks, train stations and bus stops, and in rental apartments.

The United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF ) estimated in 2004 that 10,000 underage girls were used for commercial sexual exploitation in the country. Other estimates put it at 29,000.

Many girls involved in child labor, for example in factories and as domestic workers, are raped or sexually exploited. These girls are heavily stigmatized and many of them flee to avoid such abuse. Often they find that prostitution is the only option open to them. As soon as they start prostitution, they become even more marginalized.

More than 20,000 children are born and live in the registered red light areas of Bangladesh. Boys tend to become pimps when they grow up, and girls continue to be mothers. Most of these girls start work before the age of 12.

Disabled children living in institutions and children displaced as a result of natural disasters such as floods are very vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation. Girls are often sold by their families to brothels for a period of two to three years of tied sex work. Visits to the Faridpur and Tangail brothels in 2010 revealed that most sex workers there are taking or must take the steroid drug dexamethasone in order to gain weight and look better. They also become addicted and thus even more dependent on the pimps.

The authorities generally ignore the minimum age of 18 years, which is often circumvented by incorrect age information, for legal prostitution of women. The government rarely persecutes minors.

Rohingya sex trafficking

With nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Burma to Bangladesh since August 2017, Bangladesh is home to more than 1 million undocumented Rohingya, including hundreds of thousands who have fled Burma in past decades. The stateless status and inability of the Rohingya community to work legally increase their vulnerability to human trafficking. It is reported that Rohingya women and girls are being recruited from refugee camps to do housework in private homes, boarding houses or hotels and are instead exposed to the sex trafficking. According to reports, Rohingya girls are also being transported within Bangladesh to Chittagong and Dhaka and transnationally to Kathmandu and Kolkata and exposed to the sex trade.

HIV / AIDS

According to the NGOs , prostitutes and their clients are most at risk of HIV because of ignorance and lack of public information about unprotected sex.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Sex Work Law - Countries | Sexuality, Poverty and Law. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Bangladesh's dark brothel steroid secret. BBC News, May 30, 2010, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Is it wrong to buy sex? Dhaka Tribune, August 12, 2016, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  4. ↑ BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Bangladesh says prostitution legal. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  5. ↑ 2008 Human Rights Report: Bangladesh. February 26, 2009, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  6. ^ Prostitution by state. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  7. ^ Claudia Hammond: Claudia Hammond on prostitution in Bangladesh . In: The Guardian . January 9, 2008, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 27, 2020]).
  8. ↑ 2008 Human Rights Report: Bangladesh. February 26, 2009, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  9. ^ Status of action against commercial sexual exploitation of children. In: Global Monitoring. Retrieved April 27, 2020 (English).
  10. ↑ Bangladesh's Child Sex Workers: NO PLACE TO GO. April 16, 2010, accessed April 27, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Child Prostitution - Bangladesh. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  12. ^ Joanna Moorhead: A new danger for sex workers in Bangladesh . In: The Guardian . April 5, 2010, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 27, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Bangladesh's dark brothel steroid secret . In: BBC News . May 30, 2010 ( bbc.co.uk [accessed April 27, 2020]).
  14. ↑ 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report Country Narrative: Bangladesh. July 26, 2018, accessed April 27, 2020 .