|
Poverty
Linked to Exploitation of Women:
by
Leslie Fulbright, Oakland Tribune
April
16, 2000
OAKLAND -- Sexual exploitation is a tool used globally to maintain class
and gender inequalities, agreed a
panel of women meeting Saturday at
Mills College to discuss issues
surrounding the trafficking of women
and girls.
People in positions of power, such as
policy-makers and the media, need
to stop penalizing female victims by
perpetuating stereotypes and
concentrate on stopping the
exploitation, panel members agreed.
"We need to shift the focus from
culture to poverty," said Sujatha
Jendason, a graduate student in
sociology and member of a coalition
working to prevent the exploitation
of all women, especially those from
south Asia.
"Lower class and poor families have
few resources and are vulnerable to
trafficking," added Suneeta Krishnan,
who worked for several years on a
health project in southern India. "The
(Lakireddy Bali) Reddy case is a
disturbing example of that."
Reddy is the Berkeley landlord
indicted for allegedly bringing two
young women from India to the East
Bay to work as cheap labor and sex
slaves. One of the girls died in
November of carbon monoxide
poisoning in an apartment Reddy
owned.
Violence against women is
widespread in rural and urban areas
across the globe, panel members
said, but the Reddy case put names
and faces on the issue and brought it
closer to home.
Shaily Matani, who helped form a
coalition of South Asian women in
response to the Reddy allegations,
said many people feel they need to
help "the poor backwards countries"
where trafficking is taking place.
"We need to make people
understand this happens everywhere
-- in India, in San Francisco, in
Florida," Matani said. "All women
are vulnerable to exploitation,
especially when they are poor and
have children to feed."
Reddy is from India's most powerful
caste, said Krishnan, alleging that this
helped the Berkeley businessman
exploit poor women from his
hometown, which he virtually owns.
A difficult challenge in the Reddy
case is the variety of images, panel
members said. People living in his
former village see Reddy as a hero, a
man who built schools and put
millions of dollars into the area. But
many people in the East Bay see him
as a villain because of what he
allegedly did to the girls. Some in the
South Asian community see him as a
victim of racism.
"They look at it as if the government
is just trying to bring down a man of
color who has money," said
Jendason.
"However you look at it, all forms of
prostitution and exploitation hurt
women," said Melissa Farley,
director of Prostitution Research and
Education, a project of the San
Francisco Women's Center. "It is not
a free choice, but a last choice, and
we need to give women more
options. "Trafficking is a widespread and
growing reality," Farley added.
The panel was one of several at the
one-day Mills conference "Beijing
Plus Five: Next Steps, New
Strategies."
Hundreds of women participated,
discussing what has been done and
what needs to be done to close
gender gaps with respect to justice,
discrimination, economic
opportunities and political power.
Similar discussions have been held
each year at Mills since an
international gathering in Beijing in
1995 established a platform to
discuss improving the lives of women
worldwide. |
|
