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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (2308)	1/16/2003 4:31:12 PM
From: kumar	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 15987

India managed to achieve democracy within 1/2 the time that other certain Arab kingdoms/dictatorships have had.. One of these days I'll try to write up my personal thoughts on how/why this happened, remembering that India and Pakistan and Bangladesh were 1 land before partition, but have different stories since then.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (2308)	1/16/2003 4:44:07 PM
From: Elmer Flugum	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15987

Everything in its own time. If India succeeded sooner, best wishes to them. Kim Jong Il is our latest boogeyman. Someone to fill in while the inspections are going on? "And in all the years they've had that nuclear capability, they have not sought to use it aggressively. In fact, they maintain secrecy over whether they possess them or not..." lol, what a twist you make! The United States is the only country that has used nuclear weaponry against anyone, so are you saying that America is evil?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (2308)	1/17/2003 4:23:21 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Re: India managed to achieve democracy within 1/2 the time that other certain Arab kingdoms/dictatorships have had.. January 17, 2003 Preteens in Indian Caste Forced Into Prostitution Run Date: 04/29/02 By Swapna Majumdar WEnews correspondent In one Indian community, 12-year-old girls are forced into prostitution, driven by the economic needs of their families and the pressure of religious legend. Human rights officials are trying to end the practice, but red tape slows their efforts. RATLAM, India (WOMENSENEWS)--In the morning, 12-year-old Maya Lal plays with her dolls. She no longer goes to school. Instead, as soon as the sun sets, she retreats into a room with her father's "friend." Maya is not the only 12-year-old engaged in such work. In the Ratlam district of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, when a first-born daughter of the Banchhara tribe turns 12, her father organizes a ceremony where she makes known her intentions to work as a prostitute. After this declaration, her father takes her to her first customer, who waits in a room in her family's house reserved for this purpose. "My father has told me that I have to do this work because it is part of our custom. So I don't mind," Maya said. Young Banchara girls such as Maya may entertain up to six clients each day. Fathers and brothers live off the earnings of their daughters and sisters, who make between $10 and $100 each day, according to the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission, an affiliate of India's National Human Rights Commission. The agency submitted recommendations last year to government officials about ending the practice. Since Indian law prohibits prostitution, the industry is unregulated by health or business officials, and more than 90 percent of these pre-teen prostitutes become pregnant. Many others are infected with sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, the commission found. "Conditioning these girls from an early age to accept prostitution as their destiny and their religious duty is the worst form of human rights violation," said Justice Gulab Gupta, the commission's chairman. He was referring to the 500-year-old custom of initiating first-born daughters into prostitution that began when a beautiful, poor young woman was kidnapped by a king, raped and forced to bear his child. According to legend, she then forced their daughter into prostitution to exact revenge for her own humiliation. "They feel that they have divine sanction to initiate their daughter into the flesh trade. Therefore they don't feel guilty of having done anything wrong," said Gupta, a former judge of the state high court. 'For Them, It Is God's Will' Once she becomes a prostitute, a girl cannot marry or go to school. She is worshipped by the community because she is supporting her family and carrying forward a religious tradition found only in Madhya Pradesh and nowhere else in the country. [snip] womensenews.org