Childhood’s End
In Thailand, poverty isn't the primary reason that girls become prostitutes
By Bruce Bower
For people concerned with child welfare and human rights, the rural villages of northern Thailand loom as a heart of darkness. National policies on land ownership have led to the demise of many family farms in this agricultural area during the past 30 years, so northern Thais have increasingly trekked far from home in search of jobs. A well-publicized and shocking aspect of this phenomenon has been the massive trafficking of Thai women and girls from the north in the sex industry of Bangkok and of cities in richer Asian nations.
It’s unclear precisely how many child prostitutes Thailand has produced. The U.N.’s International Labor Organization estimates that 100,000 to 200,000 Thai women and girls work in a variety of overseas venues where sex is sold. The Protection Project, a human rights research institute in Washington, D.C., places the number of Thai females participating in Japan’s commercial sex market alone at between 50,000 and 70,000.