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Save Goa Campaign / Goa Bachao Abhiyan
Report all violations of Hill-cutting, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)
and other Land Use violations to:
Nodal Officer & District Collector (Goa) Mr. Nikhil Kumar
Office: 2223612; Residence (after 8PM): 2420710; mobile 9822123071
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Goa - new paedophile's paradise?
By Allan Urry
BBC World Service in Goa
For many years now, certain parts of the world - such as Thailand,
Cambodia and Vietnam - have had an unsavoury connection with sex
tourism: foreigners arriving to sexually abuse children. Now, a BBC
investigation finds that the Indian state of Goa may be added to that
list.
Child sex tourism is threatening to become the darker side of life in
Goa's tropical paradise - and there is evidence that the Indian
authorities are turning their back on the problem.
Nishta Desai, a consultant to the organisation Children's Rights In
Goa, estimates that there are "hundreds" of children being abused by
foreign paedophiles.
"It is not getting the attention it requires," she says.
"We believe it is organised, and already fairly institutionalised.
"It is something that really requires a lot of will to unearth the way
it is organised."
Trafficking network
There are various ways that the sex offenders get access. Some
approach the children directly on the beach, and offer them a drink or
a meal before taking them back their hotel rooms.
Others are approached by intermediaries, such as shack owners and
motorcycle taxi drivers.
Within half an hour of my being on the beach in north Goa, a young man
who called himself Romeo approaches and tells me he knows friends at
the nearby town of Mapusa who can help me have fun with girls.
I ask if there are 13-year-old girls, and he replies that "it's no
problem," even though the age of consent in Goa is 18.
Non-governmental organisations say that there is such demand in Goa
for child sex workers that they are now being trafficked into the
state on demand by criminal gangs operating from India.
"Traffickers in Bombay contact the local traffickers and ask them how
many girls they want, and then they traffic the girls by buses,"
explains Aaron Pandy, director of charity ARZ, set up to try and
rescue children from the sex trade.
"The local traffickers receive these girls from the bus stop and then
they supply them to the hotels and lodges... it's a very organised
network."
'Hyped' issue
Concern over the problem is shared by the UN office on drugs and
crime, which last year began a project to strengthen law enforcement
on the issue. It believes as many as three or four million women and
children are being trafficked around India.
The issue is a little hyped
Subhash Shirodkar, Goan minister for social welfare
In a report, the UN agency said Goa is a "major destination" for
children trafficked for paedophiles, and that sex tourism in the state
is "significant."
But this is denied by the state's government minister for social
welfare, Subhash Shirodkar, who categorically states that "neither
Goans nor non-Goans are abused."
"The issue is a little hyped," he adds.
"There may be one or two instances over the last five to 10 years - maybe."
And he also states that he does not think child trafficking is a
problem in the state at all.
"I totally disagree with this," he says.
"NGOs are not complaining to me. What prevents them, when very week
and every month, they meet with me?"
However, Ms Desai of Children's Rights In Goa says she is not
surprised by the minister's denial, saying there is no political will
to deal with child prostitution.
"There is a sense of fear that if they take up the problem in a
forthright manner, we could lose tourist revenue and give Goa a bad
name," she says.
"What we would like to say is that it will not do this - if any
country takes on child sexual abuse, it should in fact give that
country a good name."
'Bribes'
Perhaps lending credence to this theory is that a report commissioned
by the Goan government which estimates at least 100 paedophiles are
active there during the tourist season - and speaks of an increasing
threat and the need for the government to take firm action - has never
been published.
And on the rare occasions alleged sex tourists have been put before
the courts, they have been acquitted; there has been no successful
conviction apart from a paedophile ring that was broken up by a
national police squad brought in from Delhi.
And NGOs also complain that local police take bribes and keep the
problem hushed up.
One senior worker for a charity organisation, who did not wish to be
named, said that he actually caught one man with a boy in a hotel
bedroom, but that when he reported the case to the police, they
dropped it immediately - despite a signed confession from the child
who had been abused.
Certainly, the superintendent of Goa's crime division, Vishram Bourka,
says that no cases of paedophiles have been investigated in 2006.
"I think we're doing a good job.
"Without a complaint, we cannot proceed further."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/6230957.stm
Published: 2007/01/08 00:25:42 GMT
(c) BBC MMVII
--
DEV BOREM KORUM.
Gabe Menezes.
London, England
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Save Goa Campaign / Goa Bachao Abhiyan
Report all violations of Hill-cutting, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)
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