Rhys Blakely; 22/9/08
Up to 500 Nepalese children have been sold as slaves to Indian circuses over the past year. The estimate, in a report by the Nepali Central Child Welfare Board, shines a light on the misery that lurks behind India’s dilapidated big tops and on the subcontinent’s burgeoning status as a hub for human-trafficking. Indian circus owners prize young Nepalese girls for their fair skin and “exotic looks” - features also favoured by the pimps who run prostitution rackets that span South Asia and the Middle East. Impoverished parents in Nepal are paid as little as $22 for their daughters by agents usually linked to powerful organised crime networks, activists say.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24381114-25837,00.html
Trafficked children of India’s flood victims rescued from brothels; 20/9/08; Bruce Loudon; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24372521-25837,00.html
