India, Apr 20, 2017 – Asianage
The parents claimed they approached the police repeatedly since December 2016 to seek action against the cult group but in vain.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rebuked the city police for its “casual” probe into an alleged sex and drug racket and asked it to lodge a criminal case against the ‘cult’ group Shifu Sunkriti and its founder Sunil Kulkarni.
A bench of justices RV More and Anuja Prabhudessai gave the directions while hearing a plea by a city couple alleging that their two daughters, aged 23 and 21, had been ensnared by the cult group Shifu Sunkriti, which operated on social media, and its founder Kulkarni.
The parents claimed they approached the police repeatedly since December 2016 to seek action against the cult group but in vain. The bench after perusing the facts of the case asked as to why the police has failed to act upon the parents’ complaint and why no FIR was registered.
Additional Public Prosecutor Sangeeta Shinde told the court that the police was conducting an inquiry into the case and was taking steps to trace the accused. The court got irked with this and said the first thing the police should do is to lodge an FIR in the case.
“First thing the police needs to do is to lodge FIR and then trace the accused. All this should be stopped. If the police is unable to take appropriate action, we will ask the CID or the CBI to step in and take over the probe,” Justice More said. “You are giving them (accused persons) too much time. The parents approached the police in December last year for the first time and till April the police has done nothing. You (police) should have taken immediate action,” the court said.
“How can the police take such serious cases so casually? It is very unfortunate that the police is not taking this seriously. What steps have you (police) taken to trace the accused? The police has let him (accused) go scot-free till now despite knowing fully well what his antecedents are,” Justice Prabhudessai said.
“We are not at all satisfied with the police investigation. It shows a very sorry state of affairs. The police cannot express helplessness in such serious cases. It is apparently a sex and drugs racket and police is taking it very lightly knowing fully well that several girls and boys are trapped,” the court said.
The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on April 25. According to the parents, their daughters left home early this year allegedly under the influence of Kulkarni and his group. The petition alleged Shifu Sunkriti was a “sex and drug racket” that contacts young girls on Facebook and other social networking sites.
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Malawi: Girls Queuing Up for Sex to Survive – NAC
Africa, MARCH 29, 2016 – Allafrica
Scores of young girls are queuing for sex with men who are ready to pay in Blantyre, youth commissioner in National Aids Commission (NAC) Chimwemwe Kaonga has witnessed.
According to Kaonga, girls are queuing up for sex in commercial city’s unofficial red light streets and drinking joints.
“I did a spot check during one of the evening in our townships; I saw tens and tens of girls some as young as 12 and 13 years standing along the streets and drinking joints waiting for men to exchange their bodies with money,” Kaonga is quoted in the local press.
“I was so shocked, this situation is deplorable and unacceptable,” said Kaonga.
NAC official said some of the girls are forced by their parents to sell sex for economic reasons.
The increase of girls offering themselves for sex for survival has been driven by rising poverty levels.
Kaonga has since called on Blantyre City Council to ensure the pubs operate within their time limits and not accommodate underage-girls.
He said efforts to reduce new HIV infections are being hampered by the rising sexual work by girls.
With unemployment rate rising, sex has become a means to survive for many girls and even a form of peer pressure.
In the capital city, Lilongwe, particularly in such areas as Likuni, the situation is such that young women, even below the age of 15, use prostitution as a way to earn an income.
They do not sleep at all. Most have dropped out of school, and make use of drinking joints to earn their money.
“If you are lucky enough you sleep with two to three men and earn about 6000 Malawi Kwacha,” said 18 year old Josephine (not her real name).
Another woman, Sophie (also not real name) said that she lost her parents when she was young, and decided to engage in sex work to help her sisters and brothers.
“I have my younger sisters who I am looking after. Being the oldest I had no choice when we lost both parents, but went on to engage in prostitution,” she said.
One thing the interviewees all had in common was that they saw the profession as a means of survival.
Malawi, just like many other countries in Africa, criminalises sex work. Without any legal machinery to regulate the profession, this group of young people is very vulnerable. And while HIV and AIDS continues to be a major health challenge in Malawi and other sub-Saharan countries, these young women need to be given special attention to protect themselves from the pandemic.
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Over 10 Million Sex Workers Estimated in China
Hong Kong, October 20, 2006 – The Epoch Times
HONG KONG—Prostitution has become the number one cause for the increasingly rapid spread of AIDS in China. Facing a rapidly growing sex industry, China’s present legal system is unable to eliminate prostitution. The controversial attempts at safe sex education for prostitutes may help reduce the further spread of AIDS in China.
A recent commentary from Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily News suggests that there are at least 10 million sex workers in China today. Because of prostitution’s strong correlation to the increasing spread of AIDS, the commentary suggested that implementation of educational measures by China’s Department of Public Health is needed to reduce further spread of AIDS.
According to officials’ statistics, there are more than 840,000 AIDS cases in China today. The number of cases is expected to exceed 10 million in the next five years. Numbers from non-government funded AIDS research institutes estimates today’s AIDS population to be more than 10 million.
There is currently no attempt at safe sex education when police arrest and jail prostitutes and their customers when enforcing the existing laws against prostitution. In addition, police have become more lenient in the enforcement of anti-prostitution laws. Police only make a show of cracking down on prostitution and make arrests during political events or public festivals. In some areas, the police use arrest as a form of punishment for the “misses,” another term for female sex workers in China, that the authorities had previously pretended not to exist.
During two People’s Congress Conferences this year, over 20 representatives from Heilongjiang Province co-proposed a proposal to legalize prostitution. The proposal included the building of a red-light district in the city and offering “misses” regular physical exams. The proposal was defeated.
Recently, a group of prostitutes from Harbin, a city in northeast China, were invited to receive special education on the use of condoms. The “misses” were also offered vaccines to prevent HIV.
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Macau sex fair aims to seduce China’s growing middle class
China, August 21, 2011 -China Post
MACAU — Sexy lingerie, adult costumes, inflatable dolls and much more are on display at an adult industry trade fair in the Chinese territory of Macau that shows how China’s growing influence has spread even to the bedroom.
The fourth annual Asia Adult Expo began Friday with companies showing off sexy products aimed at China’s middle class. The adult industry is looking to tap mainland China and Asian markets amid the downturn in the U.S. and Europe.
Show exhibitors said many Chinese now have more open-minded views about sex, which is driving demand for their products. The expo’s organizers said they plan to launch similar fairs later this year in other parts of China, which also churns out nearly three-quarters of the world’s sex toys.
Estimates of the size of the adult industry in China are hard to come by. But the state-run China Daily newspaper said in a report last year that China produces 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, making it the world’s biggest producer. The industry, with more than 1,000 manufacturers, is worth about US$2 billion annually, it said.
“The standard of living in China is rising and people want to upgrade their lifestyle so the market needs these products,” said Bo Chen, as he sat next to samples of his company’s main product, a lifelike and anatomically correct female sex doll made of rubbery, flesh-like material that sells for 16,000 yuan (US$2,500).
Chen owned a chemical factory in China’s Jiangsu province but three years ago he decided to start making sex toys because he sensed there was an opportunity.
Chen, president of Jurong Outlook Toys & Gifts Manufacturing Co., said he and several friends pooled their money to start the business.
He is hoping to meet potential customers among the 2,500 trade visitors and 30,000 members of the general public expected at the Macau fair. It was his first visit to the annual show, attended by 80 companies from 13 countries.
Chen’s case is not that unusual, said Kenny Lo, chief executive of show organizer Vertical Expo. Many Chinese manufacturers realized they could tweak their product lines to make adult goods with minimal investment to reap bigger profits. It’s not such a big step for underwear-makers to make sexy lingerie and it’s easy for companies making regular toys to switch to sex toys, he said.
The United States and Europe have traditionally been the biggest markets for the adult industry. But slumping economies there are curtailing growth while competition and low profit margins are also making life difficult for companies, said Lo.
In Asia the market is much more undeveloped so “there is much potential for growth,” Lo said. Adult product manufacturers have told him that in America and Europe, “it’s a very tough time right now but in mainland China and Asia, it’s good.”
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57 sex workers, 100 clients held
IMPHAL, Nov 12 – A total of 57 commercial sex workers and 100 men including three IRB personnel were arrested by police during a special drive carried out by Imphal West Police at North AOC here on Monday morning.
The sex workers and their clients have been taken into custody, said Imphal West Police Additional SP (Operation) K Meghachandra, who led the drive.
He said three uniformed IRB personnel, drug users and sellers were among the clients who were picked up by police.
Such drives will continue in future, he added.