Curb sex tourism, book flesh traders for rape: apex court

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Friday asked the government to curb sex tourism and deal firmly with criminals driving children into flesh trade by booking them for rape.

“Obviously, it is a case of rape if the girls are less than 18 years. If you register 376 IPC (rape) cases, they (accused) will learn the lesson of their life. But the problem is you don’t do it. Gigantic problems have to be dealt on a priority basis,” observed a bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice A.K. Patnaik.

The bench gave the direction to Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium while hearing a lawsuit on the plight of children in the country.

The bench made the observation when counsel Aparna Bhat, appearing for NGO ‘Bachpan Bachao’ (Save the Childhood) told the court that child prostitution amounted to rape and it had reached alarming proportions.

The bench expressed shock when it was told by Bhat that 70 percent of sex workers in the country were children.

Bhat wanted the government to device measures to curb child prostitution and “sex tourism”.

“The problem is of great magnitude. Top priority of the government should be to stop child trafficking. Sex tourism has to be curbed. A civilized society can’t have it. You have to strengthen the machinery. Seventy percent of the sex workers are children,” the bench observed.

“Greater emphasis has to be laid as to how you are going to plug the problem and what mechanism you have. When you come to ground realities, even the parents are not willing to accept the children due to social stigma,” the bench remarked.