YOKOHAMA
CONGRESS ENDS...
Sexually
Exploited Boys Often Forgotten, Activists Say
By
Suvendrini Kakuchi
YOKOHAMA, Japan, Dec 20 (IPS) - Saman (not his real name) was
12 years old when he was lured into becoming the sex partner
of a foreign man living in a large house in a famous beach resort
in Sri Lanka .
''I first went because I was offered work by the man who wanted
me to weed the garden. A few weeks later I was seduced by my
master in his swimming pool,'' he later told a counselor.
''I kept seeing him because I could send money to my mother,
who was working alone to support my five siblings and also because
he showed me a lot of love and affection,'' he added. Saman
is one of the estimated 30,000 male children in Sri Lanka known
as ''beach boys''.
Often, they get money or material goods in return for sex --
and this has become an integral part of the sexual services
in tropical tourist destinations across the globe.
Experts who met at the Second World Congress for the Commercial
Exploitation of Children, which ended Thursday, report that
the number of male children working as prostitutes, beggars
or cheap labour is growing. The issue of child soldiers, as
young as eight years old, is another form of male child abuse,
they add.
But experts also point out that the sexual exploitation of boys
was often sidelined at the high-profile international conference,
where the focus was more on the sexual exploitation of girls,
since most of the time they are most affected by sexual abuse.
''Statistics for abused boys are hard to come by, but definitely,
there is an urgent need to address this gender problem because
boys must be protected,'' says Irwanto, an Indonesian researcher
on street children at the Centre for Societal Development Studies
at Atma Jaya Catholic University.
Most of the huge number of reports presented at the conference
here detailed research on girls, and referred to boys under
the general category of children.
The lack of a workshop to discuss male victims - there were
more than 100 workshops in the four-day conference -- is also
a telling example of the haziness covering the issue, they say.
''Indeed, girls need to be protected as they are the main victims
in sex crimes. Violated boys, however, also suffer severe trauma,''
says Guy Thompstone, a training coordinator at End Child Prostitution
and Trafficking of Children (ECPAT), a non-governmental organisation
and co-organiser of the Yokohama conference.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there
are 250 million working children, between the ages of seven
to 14 years, around the world.
Boys comprise the majority of those in bonded labour, drug trafficking,
and other types of hazardous work that put them under constant
threat of harm and even death.
Experts say the overwhelming number of street children are boys.
They are often forced to beg and peddle drugs or act as pimps
for girls. Widespread cases of sexual abuse and violence by
their peers and exploiters have been recorded.
''In most societies, there is a lot less sympathy for boys.
The macho culture expects them to be strong and not express
emotions easily even after they are abused,'' says Irwanto,
who uses only one name.
There is no gender disparity between the causes of the sexual
exploitation of boys and girls, say activists and experts who
attended the Yokohama congress.
Male children, like girls, belong to poor families, seek work
to support their families, and are illiterate.
Thompstone, who has worked with boys in Britain, his home country,
says that street children in developed countries are also not
that different from their counterparts from the South. They
belong to poor and dysfunctional families, and some children
are from refugee families.
However, boys make most of their money from soliciting drugs
on the streets, followed by prostitution. They are solicited
into homosexual communities, which encourage them to depend
on goods and presents in return for sexual services.
Thompstone says boys, some as young as 12 years old, are vulnerable
to health risks as a result of their sexual abuse and exploitation.
Not least, some suffer physical damage as a result of forced
sexual encounters.
According to counselors, another gender difference is boys tend
to be more aggressive and enter into risky sexual behaviour,
a trait that puts them at a disadvantage compared to their female
counterparts.
Likewise, they are more likely to face harsher abuse by police
officers who would arrest and put them in prison for crimes
-- instead of seeing them as victims and sending them into rehabilitation
programmes like the girls who are sexually exploited, says Thompstone.
Parvin Patkar, director of an anti-trafficking centre in Perana,
India, says the number of boys in the red light districts of
India is increasing. India is also recording the trafficking
of male children to the Middle East to work as camel jockeys.
Says Patkar, ''There is a demand for boy prostitutes from both
foreign and local clients. What is sad is the lack of rehabilitation
programmes to suit their particular needs.''
A paper on the trafficking of Albanian children to Italy, released
during the Yokohama meeting, cites that a 1998-99 investigation
into 600 cases that showed 80 percent of the trafficked children
were boys.
A report on China by the non-governmental group Save the Children
indicates mostly boys under seven years old are trafficked for
adoption - because of the desire for sons -- while young women
are abducted to become brides for Chinese bachelors in towns
and villagers. (END)
