NHRC Chairman warns Kerala against growing sex tourism

Kochi, Oct 7 (UNI) National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Justice A S Anand today warned Kerala against the growing menace of sex tourism in the state.

Delivering the third V R Krishna Iyer National Foundation Lecture on 'Human Rights, Challenges of the 21st Century' here, he said sex tourism was on the rise in the country, including Kerala. 'Unless we meet this challenge squarely, we will be facing a big problem,'' he said.

Identifying gender inequality and exploitation of women as among the greatest human rights challenges facing India, Justice Anand said trafficking women and children was a 'flourishing trade'.

'There is a flourishing sex trade, estimated to be worth eight billion dollars a year. In the Asia-Pacific, nearly 450,000 women are trafficked every year and South Asia accounts for nearly 200,000,'' Justice Anand said.

India was not only a transit point of this trade but also a recipient and supplier because of the porous border. While HIV/AIDS was one fall-out of this trade, sex tourism was the other, he added.

Talking of the negative sex ratio in the country, Justice Anand said national average was about 850 women to 1,000 men. 'I shudder to think that in the coming days we will treat women as chattels because there will not be enough women for marriage,' he said.

Neglect of the rights of children was another major issue facing the country. ''The right to childhood is being stamped out and trampled underfoot,'' Justice Anand said.

Stating there could be no excuse for child labour, be it in hazardous or non-hazardous industries, he called upon the government to implement schemes to tackle this scourge.

Seeking a paradigm shift, the NHRC chairman said social, economic and cultural rights enshrined in the Directive Principles of the Constitution should be treated as rights and not welfare goals.

'Without the fulfilment of these rights, there is no meaning to the civil and political rights enshrined as Fundamental Rights. The right to life or equality means nothing to those facing starvation deaths in several states of the country,'' he added.

He said the 2003 UNDP report had described India as a highly inequitable society where the richest 10 per cent consumed 33.5 per cent resources while the poorest 10 per cent got only 3.5 per cent.' Also present at the function were Kerala High Court Chief Justice V K Bali, Kerala Human Rights Commission chairman Justice N Dhinkar, Advocate General C P Sudhakar Prasad, president V R K Foundation Justice K A Nayar and president Kerala High Court Advocates Association G Sreekumar.

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