SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

sometimes remunerative, these boys often do not consider themselves to be working in
prostitution and seek to provide for their livelihoods in other ways.
At the same time, there are many boys who conduct prostitution as a primary occupation. As
in other countries, in India research has indicated successive ‘tiers of vulnerability’, linking
sexual and physical abuse in the home with separation from the protective family unit and
entry onto the street or into low-level labour situations. These vulnerable situations may result
again in sexual abuse, which increases the vulnerability of the child to sexual exploitation.
A study of boys working in prostitution in Hyderabad noted that most of the children were
first sexually abused between ages 10 and 13. 227 One half of the boys were illiterate. They had
left home primarily because of physical abuse, poverty, alcoholism of the father or breakdown
of the family due to the death of a parent – similar to the findings from Bangladesh and
Pakistan. Nearly half said that they had bad relationships with their family. After leaving
home, the boys entered low-level jobs in the city, including rag-picking, day labour, hotel
service and tea vending. In these labour situations they suffered sexual abuse, which led them
to enter prostitution.
The boys in this study, mostly working in prostitution for women clients, had begun at ages
15 to 16, primarily due to peer pressure or exploitation by women. Other reasons contributing
to boys entering prostitution were exploitation by men and the need to provide for their own
livelihoods or to support family members. 228
Among the boys in the Hyderabad study, over 70 per cent were subject to sexual abuse on the
street by police, hijras, older boys and local men. Seventy-five percent of boys in the study
provided services only to women, which is not typical of the majority of boys working in
prostitution in South Asia, whose primary clients are men. These boys solicited their female
clients on the streets and in parks, signalling their availability through colourful clothing and
suggestive gestures. The female clients ranged from 29 to 33 years old, and comprised
primarily housewives and college students. Both married and single women exploited the
boys through prostitution.
A recent study has explored the sexual exploitation of boys involved in traditional
entertainment, such as the launda dancers of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states. 229 These are boys
and men with feminine gender construction who dance in female makeup and attire at
weddings, marriage processions and festivals during the three-month marriage seasons in the
spring and the winter. Originally, transvestite dancers were hired for weddings by poor
families who could not afford female dancers, but today the use of launda dancers is popular
with all classes in these states. Wedding band companies hire the boys under three-month
contracts, their salary determined according to their looks, grace and dancing abilities. Boys
227
ECPAT International (Akula, S.L.), 2006, ‘Situational analysis report on the prostitution of boys in India
(Hyderabad)’.
228
Seabrook, J., 2000, ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ In Frederick, J. (ed). ‘Fallen Angels: The sex workers of South
Asia’.
229
Lahiri, A. and Kar, S., 2006, ‘Dancing boys: Traditional prostitution of young males in India: A study report
on launda dancers’.
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