SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2247also concerned about the lack of adequate measures to combat this phenomenon andthe lack of adequate rehabilitation measures.’’According to an International Labor Organization (ILO) estimate, 15 percent ofthe country’s estimated 2.3 million prostitutes are children.A working group on child prostitution set up by the NHRC includes representativesfrom the National Commission for Women, the Department of Women andChild Development, NGO’s, and UNICEF. It continued to meet throughout the yearto devise means of improving enforcement of legal prohibitions.Runaway children, especially in larger cities, are at high risk for sexually transmitteddiseases and HIV. They often work 18- to 20-hour days, frequently in hazardousconditions (see Section 6.c.), and suffer sexual and mental abuse. In additionschoolteachers often beat children.The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has set up a 24-hour‘‘child help line’’ phone-in service for children in distress in nine cities. Run byNGO’s with government funding, the child help line assists street children, orphans,destitutes, runaway children, and children suffering abuse and exploitation. Duringone 6-month period, the help lines received 25,000 calls, including 2,190 seekingmedical assistance for children, 1,056 seeking shelter, 138 reporting missing children,and 125 reporting physical or sexual abuse of children.As part of its ongoing effort, the NHRC seeks to examine conditions in juvenilehomes and recommend improvements. In 1999 the Commission issued directions toall state governments to report within 24 hours any instance of death or rape insuch institutions. The Commission reported that it had undertaken this initiativefollowing receipt of reports of a young boy’s death in such a home in Delhi in 1996.In March 1999, NHRC member Justice V.S. Malimath said that cases of abuse andtorture of children confined to juvenile homes had been reported. In some cases, theCommission had acted to transfer oversight of homes to private voluntary organizations‘‘after the (state) government failed to provide a healthy environment to childrenin these homes.’’ In its February 23 concluding observations regarding thecountry, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child of the UNCHR expressedconcern about ‘‘numerous reports of routine ill-treatment, corporal punishment, tortureand sexual abuse of children in detention facilities, and alleged instances ofkillings of children living and/or working on the streets by law enforcement officials.’’The Committee also expressed concern ‘‘at the overcrowded and unsanitaryconditions of detention of children, including detention with adults; lack of applicationand enforcement of existing juvenile justice legislation; lack of training for professionals,including the judiciary, lawyers and law enforcement officers, in relationto the Convention (On the Rights of the Child), other existing international standardsand the 1986 Juvenile Justice Act; and the lack of measures and enforcementthereof to prosecute officials who violate these provisions.’’The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act of 1929, as amended in 1978, prohibitschild marriage, a traditional practice in the northern part of the country. Theact raised the age requirement for marriage for girls to 15 from 18 years, but theGovernment does not enforce it. According to one report, 50 percent of girls inBihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh are married by age 16.NCRB statistics show that only 56 cases were registered under the Child MarriageRestraint (Amendment) Act during 1998. The NHRC, in consultation with the NationalCommission for Women and the Department of Women and Child Development,recommended in 1997 that a new draft ‘‘Marriage Bill’’ be enacted tostrengthen the prohibitions of the 1929 act; however, the bill had not yet been introducedin Parliament by year’s end. The NHRC in its 1996–1997 report, criticizedthe Government for rejecting this suggestion, a response that the Commission concludedamounted, ‘‘essentially, to a total disinclination to strengthen or alter thelaw, in any respect, or indeed to see to its better implementation in any manner.’’The traditional preference for male children continues. Although a law passed in1994 prohibits the use of amniocentesis and sonogram tests for sex determination,the Government does not enforce the law. The tests are misused widely for sex determination,and termination of a disproportionate number of pregnancies with femalefetuses occurs. In the 12 years since the southern state of Maharashtra passeda law banning the use of such tests for sex determination, the state governmentonly filed charges against one doctor, who he was acquitted. Human rights groupsestimate that at least 10,000 cases of female infanticide occur yearly, primarily inpoor rural areas. Parts of Tamil Nadu (Dharmapuri, Salem, and Madurai districts)still have high rates of female infanticide. According to statistics compiled by theDharmapuri office of the Directorate of Health Services, 1,260 female infants werekilled in the district in 1997. Police have not investigated these cases. In 1998 theTamil Nadu Human Rights Commission suggested that a separate mandatory policeinvestigation into the death of every female infant become mandatory, but there isVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00091 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1