Arresting insights

Our work in Bangladesh concerns children involved in street based sex work. They're boys and girls, aged 9-16 years old. They're usually children who have found themselves alone on the street due to family breakdown, because they've fled abuse, or because poverty in the hope of a better life. On the street, without protection and desperate to survive, they fall prey to exploitation. In some cases, the child and / or their parents have been conned into leaving their home by a family member or stranger who has promised to find them a job or a dowry-free marriage, only to find themselves being forced into sex work. It's an arresting situation that evokes a strange combination of emotion and shocked numbness.

Boys who are involved in street based sex work, have usually been primed over time rather than introduced directly into sex work. The sexual encounters are overwhelmingly male-male and their clients are predominantly truck drivers who they come into contact with when unloading the trucks. The boys may initially be asked to perform some small job of a personal nature like plucking grey hairs out of their head or massaging them. This is used to build a more intimate relationship with a child and introduce a commercial dimension to the relationship. Truck drivers have a preference for boys because they attract less attention from the security patrols at night, particularly during the current security situation.

In contrast, girls involved in street based sex work are often introduced directly into sex work and sexual encounters are female-male. They work under the control of two tiers of pimps or madams – an intermediary who supervises the girls and a ‘big boss’ who controls sex work in a particular area. These relationships are fundamentally exploitative but they do afford the girls some degree of protection on the streets and they often become emotionally attached.

Their clients generally prefer unprotected sex but it’s changing. First of all, as the middle class become more educated and sensitised to HIV and STIs, middle class clients are wanting / accepting protection. Second of all, as the girls reduce their dependency on sex work, they can be more selective about which clients they accept. However, this is more difficult on the street because most street-based sex work clients are working class and less educated.

It costs about 200 BDT (c. £1.50) to have sex with a child, of which only 20-50 BDT (c. 15-40 pence) reaches the child. The rest is split between the intermediary and the pimp / madam (known as the ‘big boss’). The fairer, more attractive and younger you are, the higher the price. Age is a factor predominantly because the younger you are, the more likely that you will be manipulated and do whatever you are told to.

There is an interesting connection between the boys and girls involved in sex work. Often the boys use their income from sex work to have sex with girls involved in sex work. In other contexts such behaviour patterns have been attributed to boys seeking to reaffirm their heterosexuality after a homosexual sexual encounter, but it's not clear whether or not this is the case in Bangladesh.

While these insights are arresting, spending time with these children you are struck by an equal measure of amazement and hope. The children are incredibly resilient and with the help of the social workers have developed in remarkable ways and just ooze vibrancy and talent.