Abject poverty leads many south Asian families to sell their children into sexual slavery for a pittance, a United Nations investigator says in a new report.
"Sometimes a child can be bought for as little as 200 Indian rupees [$9.70]," said Radhika Coomaraswamy in her report on the plight of women and children in Bangladesh, Nepal and India.
The sale of children takes place in all parts of Nepal and Bangladesh as part of a pattern of human trafficking, says Coomaraswamy, who reports to the UN Human Rights Commission on violence against women.
She says that in Bangladesh it is estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 girls and women are trafficked across the border to India each year.
Women and children are also sold for organ harvesting, forced begging, forced labour in sweatshops, forced marriage or domestic service.
Poverty forcing Asian children into sex slavery, says report
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