June 21, 2009: Jobless girls and students caught in sleaze trap say they need help

Not a fiction anymore

Many of them are young, as young as 18. Some have jobs, some don’t. Some live by themselves, some in groups. And a number of them are students.

They are the most vulnerable segment of Phuentsholing’s more than 45,000 residents.   And many of them live in Jaigaon.

Observers say these young girls are increasingly falling prey to men who visit their cramped residents for sexual bargains. And the girls, too, for want of income, are willing to entertain men.

Sonam, a high school student, has a friend who entertains men in her one-room flat. The girl is a school dropout and has no job.

Dema has a Nu 3,000-a-month job. But it’s not enough, and she doesn’t mind entertaining rich men every now and then. She needs to send money to her parents and help her siblings through school.

Call it a poverty-induced temptation or the social price of development these young girls don’t seem to fall within the protective net of government policies.

 First, the jobless

Like Thimphu, Phuentsholing abounds in jobless youth. And if those who turned up for the recent job fair were any indication, there are more girls than boys.

Most are Class X and XII leavers and come from economically challenged families. They are out in town to earn money and support their parents and siblings.

But not all of them land jobs, and there are no affordable living places in Phuentsholing. So, they rent cheap one-room flats in the unhygienic dark alleys of Jaigaon and continue looking for jobs.

They live in pairs or in groups. They are ready for any job. Eventually, some land up working in Jaigaon, as assistants to scrap dealers for Nu 1,500 a month.

Some manage to find employment in Bhutan but continue to live in Jaigaon, as many Bhutanese families do, stretching all the way from Chinese Line, the immediate border, to Manglabarey, about five kilometers away from the main gate.

Students in it, too

There was a popular student who lived alone and welcomed men to her house. BT talked to some men who had sexual flings with her. She was financing her studies.

According to teachers, students who live by themselves have low attendance and poor academic performance. And when schools want to crosscheck with their guardians there are no contact numbers.

Concerned by informal reports, some schools carried out surveys to find out how many of their students lived in Jaigaon. A 2007 survey revealed that almost 30% to 40% of students of Reldri Higher Secondary School lived in Jaigaon.

The school then took a drastic measure. It didn’t accept admission of children living on their own.

Do something

People in Phuentsholing are angry that these girls are the ones caught up in the throes of social dilemmas.

Principal Dechen Wangmo, for example, has been fighting for a girl’s hostel in Phuentsholing for a long time now. The hostel, she says, could house girls looking for jobs or those earning low salary or those studying in schools and institutes.

As a member of Phuentsholing Women’s Association, Dechen Wangmo has had several interactions with her counterparts in Jaigaon on women-related issues like human trafficking and prostitution.

High school girls say the government should work out women-specific employment policies and create more jobs for women.

“Girls don’t take up prostitution because they love doing it,” said a Class XII girl.

Dawa Choden says parent-school relationship should be strengthened. At the moment rural parents are ignorant and the educated parents deny all bad things about their children. 

She says youth hostels must be developed and girls should be supported more, both by parents and schools.

Apart from the jobless and high school students, there are many young girls studying computers, accountancy, and management in various private institutes. Then there are those who work in bars and other seedy joints, entertaining men.

And for the media it is often regurgitating the same stories, told time and again.