The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development(UNRISD)is an
autonomous agency engaging in multidisciplinary research on social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting development. The Institute attempts to provide governments, development agencies, grassroots organizations and scholars with a better understanding of how development policies and processes of economic, social and environmental change affect different social groups. Working through an extensive network of national research centres, UNRISD aims to promote original research and strengthen research capacity in developing countries. At the end of 2001 there were over 5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in South Asia region, according to UNAIDS estimates. Of these, nearly four million were living in India, where number of new infections is expected to double every 14 months if appropriate actions are not urgently undertaken. Other countries of South Asia, including Bangladesh and Nepal, have rapidly grown epidemics. Gender, age and transmission via sex are key elements in dramatic increase of the epidemic in the region. The fastest rate of new infections is in age group 15-24, and the epidemic is expanding rapidly among women, many below 18 years of age. An estimated 35% cent of the HIV positive people in the region are women and girls, and numbers are growing as result of their socio-economic, cultural and biological vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. This vulnerability is rooted in limitations imposed by socio-economic and cultural conditions on the control which women have over their life circumstances and choices, including sexual circumstances. These same underlying factors also heighten the vulnerability of women and girls to being caught in the growing web of trafficking in the region, taking them into situations which remove the last vestiges of choice, violate their human dignity and security, and further increase the risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS. This paper examines the underlying factors of the dual vulnerability of women and girls in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, both to trafficking and to HIV/AIDS, and the particular vulnerability to HIV/AIDS of those who are trafficked into prostitution. Both trafficking and HIV/AIDS occur in South Asia in a climate of denial and silence at all levels. There's prevailing silence about violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, and silence about their circumstances, including the abuse and exploitation they often face in their living and working environments in the process of earning a living. This silence manifests itself in a denial in families and communities and in society at large that trafficking of women and girls is taking place. At the same time there is silence and unwillingness to acknowledge that HIV/AIDS epidemic is a major development challenge and that HIV positive people are in our midst in increasing numbers and need our care and concern, as well as protection of their rights. There is silence and lack of societal acknowledgement of behaviours that make people vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, and sex itself, which makes it difficult to address HIV prevention or talk about trafficking into prostitution. This silence is aiding and abetting the epidemic, allowing it to spread, and at same time perpetuating trafficking. Voices are being raised across the region to break these layers of silence, and initiatives are being taken to address both HIV/AIDS and trafficking. The commitment from governments is reflected in SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating the Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, which has recently been
signed.
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Publisher:
UNRISD/UNDP
,
(2002
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Type / Script:
Annual Report
in English
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Keywords:
HIV/AIDS, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES AND VIRGINITY, CULTIVATION, SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION, EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSION OF WOMEN, LEGAL STATUS, TRAFFIC IN PERSONS, SOCIAL STATUS, WOMEN EMPOWERMENT, FOCUSED GROUP DISCUSSION, ABSOLUTE POVERTY, PROSTITUTION, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION, TRAFFICKING, HUMAN RIGHTS, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS, MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH, WOMEN AND GIRLS, BIOLOGICAL VULNERABILITY, TRANSMISSION VIA SEX, EPIDEMIC, HUMAN DIGNITY, SOCIAL GROUPS
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Thematic Group:
UNDP
:
Social and Institutional Developoment
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Thesaurus:
14.01.00
- Advancement Of Women
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Reference Link:
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