FaxModem1 wrote:I met a guy who told me that he visited India while in the Air Force and while on leave, he visited some city, he didn't say the name, but that on the street, there were people, of all ages and races, locked in cages to be sold for sex. This shocked me, and i have to ask those who know, is this true?
I also heard that they have doctors in India called cripplers, who will cripple a part of oyur body so that you will be able to beg and earn more money that way. Does anybody know if this is true?
I have traveled in many places of the world like europe, north america, the middle east but never openly saw or heard of slavery in any of these places. Anyway I am from what was used to be a pakistani provice known as east pakistan and I could tell you a lot more about slavery in south asia from a personal point of view.
Firstly south asia is not what you think it is. There are a lot poor people in there but the situation is much better africa, we are more like vietname or the philipines or lebanon. If you ever vist south asia then do not forget meet some local guy and have him or her show you the posh areas in new delhi, karachi, dhaka, kathmundu etc. You will be astounded by how much wealth exists in the cities of asia. Sure people there are not as rich as americans but they have big aparments, multiple new cars, computers etc.
Consider talking to south asian friends of yours and they will tell you more. Tip: watch hindi cinema, it can be difficult to procure for you but there exists a large fan base in the west, you will like it. BTW Indians are terrible, they are hated by muslims all over the old, do not completely trust their official media in matters like terrorism, pakistan and hindu religon.
Now for the slavery question. There ARE NO SLAVES IN INDIA OR ANYWHERE IN SOUTH ASIA. At least not openly. The goverments are very, very strict on this issue. For example every year the indians push back hundreds illegal migrents . This makes smuggling slaves in or out a difficult job to say the least. India is democratic country (a greater percentage of people vote here than america) and such practices are impossible today.
Now I must say that india is a more weird place than pakistan and bangladesh because they are mainly hindu. Your friend probobly visited kolkata. The cripplers you mentioned did exist in the past there but they are a dying breed today. Child kidnapping is common in south asia, the kidnappers usualy kill the children and sell their body parts rather than cripple them. The real slavery is an economic one. Often due to the evil globalisation the workers are not paid well and made to workd long hours, in many areas children work in factories than going to school. Of course efforts are on way to elimante them and many honest instituitions have earned ISO certification by conforming to international labor law. In the long run economic slavery will end.
Another form slavery is caste discrimination. It exist only in some rural parts of india though some well off peole (india's prime minister among them though he denies it) personaly prefer high caste people to low ones.
Search for hindutva and gujrat geonocide and you will learn more than I can tell you.
Also people are smuggled out here to other countries in a regular basis. One destination is the middle east where young kids are used camel jockies. Other places are malayasia and australia.
Regarding people in a cage that is a difficult question. In my hometown this is impossible. In india I heard in remote villages low cast people are treated badly but this is too much. The only explanation I can give has to do with hindu priests. Sometimes they do realy weird things such as one you mentioned but if caught by the law they can face severe punishment (trafficking in woman and children results in death penalty in Bangladesh)
I will post more later but I am feeling tired now. And I will provide you some links so you can learn what human right experts have to say on this issue.