 | | A VOICE AND INFORMATION
"I had been sold to a brothel owner"
Although the Constitution of many countries prohibits the employment of children under 14 years of age, child labour continues to be widespread throughout the world.
A report published by The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1996 estimates that, "... Asia, as the most densely populated region of the world, has the most child workers (probably over half)."
Children work in the manufacturing sector, agricultural activities, trade and services. A high proportion however can be found engaged in the world's sex industry. Many are there because they were kidnapped, sold by relatives, or tricked into captivity by promises of employment, sometimes under the guise of domestic work.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the need to protect children from commercial sexual exploitation.
Article 34 of the Convention says, governments will prevent, "... the exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices"
The health of children working in the sex trade is also a major concern. For many, the Aids epidemic is a deadly reality.
Accurate figures for the number of child sex workers in India afflicted with HIV are currently unavailable. In 2000, however, UNAIDS published a report stating that 3.86 million Indians were infected with HIV/Aids.
UNAIDS also reports that by the end of 2001, 200,000 children (under 15) in South and South East Asia will have the disease.
Salma from India married when she was a very young girl - only 10.
In her conversation with counselors, she said that within a year of her marriage she was raped by her father-in-law. She then ran away from her husband's home and took a 500km train journey from her village to Bombay.
Once there, she was tricked by a pimp with offers of help. Drugged, she was then sold to a madam running a brothel in Bombay.
During the year she spent in captivity, Salma says she was forced to have sex with hundreds of men. Recently she tested HIV positive.
This is Salma's story: | |  Listen to Salma's story in Hindi | | 
It took me sometime to realise I had been sold to a brothel owner.
The madam was dangerous and she said I must get down to business without a fuss. The first day, a man came and wanted me. He was willing to pay a fortune and did put several thousand rupees on the table and started dragging me off.
I clawed at him with my long nails and escaped.
The other girls in the brothel pleaded with this man to let me go because I was so new - but he was determined to have sex with me.
He said he was willing to pay more money as nobody but him should be the first to have sex with me.
Finally I had to give up.  | | | Listen to Salma's story in Hindi | | |  |  |
 In 2001, women's organisations and hundreds of prostitutes gathered in India, to attend a conference that seeks to legalise the sex trade.
It was led by Sadhana Mukherji, who says she was forced into the trade by greedy relatives
Prostitutes say they need legal status to protect them from pimps, criminals and bribe-seeking policemen. At work, they say they face intimidation, violence and exploitation. Many of those affected are children.
Mukherji explained, "... we are not able to stop the rampant increase in the number of minors... If we have legal status and are allowed to form a self-governing board, we might be able to put an end to such problems."
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