Preetu, you say that Nishtha Desai said she was misquoted but you haven't
elaborated on that - was this in the BBC article? Did she tell you she was
misquoted? Referring to Arun Pandey's quote, women who are trafficked include
minors - so it is still a paedophilia issue, besides being a wider abuse issue.
There are two issues - the flourishing local sex-trafficking trade, which
includes children, and the network of foreigners who systematically abuse
children. Many of these paedophiles manage to get away - some are acquitted
because of lack of evidence, and some escape because the arm of the law is
strangely slow in reaching them. Undeniably, corruption is the reason for this
failure of enforcement and justice, and the BBC story makes this point.
In the BBC story, besides Arun's quote is there anything else that sounds
untrue to you, and if so why? We shouldn't rush to throw the baby out with the
bath-water.
I think part of the problem is also mindsets like "the image of Goa is
sullied by making sensational news stories" because the fact is that the image
of Goa has already been sullied - that is what leads tourists and predators to
the state, seeking sex. We should have admitted ten years ago and more, that
Goa is a safe haven for paedophiles, but it took a Freddy Peat case to bring it
to national attention. Even then, there is far too much complacency, not to
mention denial. The latter may be particularly so because most of the children
are from outside the state and hence it is "not our problem" as a minister once
said to journalists - unfortunately, off the record.
You say "In three years of my career as journalist I have not come across a
case wherein a domestic tourist has been arrested for paedophilia" and "I don't
deny the fact that prostitution still exists in Baina, but to say that Indian
tourists seek minors when they visit the area is too much of an exaggeration.
Besides, if that was the case then why was not a single customer seeking minors
not arrested." This is like saying that something doesn't exist because you
can't see it. Surely denying a problem is not the way to solve it? If no
domestic tourists have been arrested for paedophilia, it is because they are
probably abusing minors in red-light areas - where no one is arrested anyway.
Domestic paedophilia is disguised in the larger mire of commercial sex - that
doesn't mean it does not exist.
~
---------------------------------
Real people. Real questions. Real answers. Share what you know.
_______________________________________________
Goajourno mailing list
Goajourno@puggy.symonds.net
http://puggy.symonds.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/goajourno
