Child Prositution in Madagascar

Child Prositution 

In Madagascar 

           Child prositution is very common in Madagascar with young girls, and teenage girls, even though it is illegal. Many brothels in Madagascar have minors working in them and even young girls wander around cities at night and don't belong to a brothel. 

      

        Why young girls?

           Young girls are the main target, becuase they are virgins when they begin. Most of these girls are as young are between the ages of 8-17.  Instead of these young girls staying in school and getting an education they are pulled out of school to make money. Many of these young girls come from poor families, who are in desperate need of money.

          In some cases, parents even put their children into prositution which is very wrong for a parent to do, but when they are struggling day to day, they need any type of income in order to survive. Young girls could either make alot of money at first or make a little bit of money, becuase they are new to the prositution world. Their is also cases where young girls mothers also are prositutes and thats the way they live their lives, as in it passes from one generation to the other. It is seen as being an easy way to make money. 

What has the child prosiutution done for Madagascar as a whole?

      It has actually boosted it's economy. According to author Aaron Ross from www.minnpost.com he stated how "Madagascar has long grappled with the scourge of child prostitution. Yet since a 2009 coup d’état sent the country spiraling into political and economic disarray, the problem has reached crisis proportions". 

Foreign sex tourists?

      Many clients of children who are prositutes are foreign tourists and older men. According to Aaron Ross from www.minnpost.com he also stated how "Foreign sex tourists account for much of the demand. In 2011, the last year for which official figures are available, 225,000 tourists visited Madagascar, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Fifty-eight percent of those were from France, the former colonial power. And while most undoubtedly came to enjoy the country’s pristine beaches and lemur-filled forests, significant numbers arrived with less wholesome intentions". 

     

      Also child prositution occurs in the resort islan of Nosy Be; and other big cities like Toamasina, the capital, Antananarivo and many other cities and also in mining towns like Ilakaka in the south.

What can we do, to put a stop to this?

      Their is not much being done to somewhat allievate this issue. Many families within Madagascar are okay with child prositution and don't view it as being something unlawful or bad, which is what I don't understand. It's never okay to be involved in prositution especially child prositution and the fact that parents within Madagascar are okay with it and even pushing their kids into this type of indsusty leaves me feeling speechless. 

       The governent has done anything to resolve this issue or decrease it. They will not even address the issue and even ignore the issue becuase it provides a source of income with their economy needs, since many families within Madagascar live in poverty. 

         I feel like an issue like this is something that everyone should be aware of and address, it may bring income to many families, but it is not okay to to make your daily income in an industry like this. Children should be in school, getting an education and keep growing in a postitive way, and all of these families are leading their children or are supporting their children not in the right way, which is leading them down the wrong path in life. 

1st article: https://www.minnpost.com/global-post/2014/01/madagascar-where-child-prostitution-common-cheap-and-trivial

2nd article: http://www.humanium.org/en/madagascar/

You Tube video: