Drishtipat Blog

Bangladesh has been trying to develop its natural beauties for tourism mostly with the help of private initiatives. The potential of turning the tourism sector into a very lucrative one is very good given the political stability. We have already seen much advancement in this sector like development of hotels like Seagull Hotel in Cox’s Bazaar and well organized tours to Kaptai and St. Martin’s Island, visits of multiple foreign investors looking to develop tourism etc. Unfortunately, with all advancements come some negative aspects. After reading a BBC report recently on a popular travel destination in India awakened me to a stark reality of the potential undesirable issues that the authorities should avoid at all cost as our tourism sector develops.

BBC reported on Goa, one of the most popular travel destinations for beach goers in India. It is reported that due to increasing sex tourism there involving children; it may well be added to the list of many other destination in Asia that has infamously claimed the title of “pedophile’s paradise”. What is more worrisome is that child sex trade is rather organized and fairly institutionalized there. Sex trade involving children wasn’t as big in countries like Thailand, Vietnam and now in India but as tourism developed there, they became paradise for pedophiles. There are few reasons for it and I am sure there could be more:

1) Sometime there aren’t tough laws against sex involving child. In cases when there are laws, it is not enforced due to law enforcement officers leaving the tourists out of their jurisdiction.
2) Strict laws against sex trade involving children or sex trade in general in the western world makes foreign pedophiles flock into other destinations where they are unlikely to get caught for such illicit acts.
3) Poverty and greed – on one hand victims of poverty will do anything to survive and on the other hand some greedy people will do anything to accumulate more wealth even if that means tarnishing human rights to dust, in this case victimizing innocence to pedophiles.
4) “Intentional ignorance” by the government officials and business alike towards such illicit acts in fear of losing revenue from tourism.

I fear Bangladesh faces similar fate like the neighboring countries as tourism develops there unless measures are in place to deter child sex trade catered to foreign tourists. Based on a report by Global March, there are already about 20 thousand children involved in street prostitution in Bangladesh though I suspect the actual number being much higher. Surprisingly the number of Bangladeshi children involved in prostitution in other countries of Asia like Pakistan and India is much higher. Most of these innocent children were kidnapped and sold into child trafficking network.

Though Bangladesh has long ways to go to have a somewhat developed tourism sector, if initiatives are not taken to discourage such illicit acts while the tourism sector develops, it will be very tough to eliminate once it becomes a part of the “a la carte” of our tourism offerings. Take Midtown Manhattan in New York City for an example, it took years to cleanup 42nd Street there which has been known for sex trade and sex related businesses even until less than a decade ago.