Children of traditional sex workers need rehabilitation: NCPCR

New Delhi: "There is a need to devise pathways for ensuring quality education, rehabilitation, repatriation and re-integration of the children of traditional sex workers," said a report of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on the educational status of children of traditional sex workers in India.

According to child rights body to understand the situation of children especially their status of education, five such communities living in more than 20 states were identified for this study. The aim was to cover a minimum of 1,000 respondents from the selected communities including school going children, drop-out children, parents, teachers and community leaders.

The NCPCR said that a desk review, interactions with local heads and other sources give "Criminal Tribes Act", a highly responsible factor for the communities to depend on sex work. The communities under study prefer to live in isolation from the rest of society. In most of the cases, it was found that they live in a separate village or locality and don't want to interact for mingle with outsiders or people from other communities.

"Parents are not enthusiastic about the education of their children as they do not have any aspiration regarding the future of their children. Most of the kids said that they don't dare to ask the teacher if they could not understand something that the teacher had taught in class," the survey report of 48 pages mentioned.

The report further added that children are discriminated in the school. Kids of the communities shared that they are often abused and discriminated by the children from other communities. "Children in group meetings revealed that although children from other communities are classmates and are acquaintances but they usually don't mingle, play or eat together," said the finding. Children of these communities often by force or with no choice take on to this traditional occupation of commercial sex work, thereby depriving themselves of their guaranteed fundamental rights enshrined under the Constitution of India.

Chairperson of NCPCR, Priyank Kanoongo, told Millennium Post that these children should be brought in the mainstream. The child rights body got help from different SCPCRs and NGO named Bhartiya Kisan Sangh.

He further stated there is a need for a special scheme meant for the communities engaged in traditional sex work.

"Need to invest in education for an entire generation of the children by providing them with residential education facilities which would help insulate the influence of their traditional practice" further added the report. Children after the age of 15 may be provided life skills and vocational training and handholding till they get a job or capable to earn their livelihood and sustain themselves. "A convergent action is required amongst the schools, tinkering labs and vocational training Centers for effective coordination, exposure to the children and skill building," the report added.