Children

Say No to Tourism That Exploits the Child

Letters and Submissions
Tourism policies focus on the growth and promotion of tourism and hardly acknowledge the negative fallouts of tourism development. In developing countries, tourism development without responsibility and protective measures has led to sexual exploitation of children in the form of child trafficking, child prostitution, pornography, child sex tourism and an increase in child labour. Through examples of the cases of paedophiles, statistics and research studies, the paper highlights the severity of the problem and tracks the responses on this issue in the tourism policy and implementation space. Our call to the Government of India, the Tourism Industry and World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is to acknowledge and assume accountability to mitigate this problem.

The focus of this paper is to highlight the trends, concerns and responses on the issues of child abuse, trafficking and labour in the context of tourism policy and development in India

Tourism is linked to people, environment and natural resources and directly impacts them. Tourism policies have tended to focus on the unbridled growth and promotion of tourism and hardly ever acknowledge the negative fallouts of tourism development. Tourism development is mostly unregulated and not monitored for its negative impacts. The mitigation of negative impacts therefore is also not on the agenda. In developing countries, tourism development without responsibility, accountability and protective measures has led to sexual exploitation of children in the form of child abuse, child trafficking, child prostitution, pornography and child sex tourism, and increase in child labour. All these in turn increase vulnerability of children to drugs, crimes, HIV/AIDS, and alienation from communities and families.

Geographies
India

EQUATIONS is a research, policy, and advocacy organisation working on tourism and development issues in India. Our work has focused on the economic, environmental, social, cultural, political and administrative impacts of tourism particularly on people living in and around tourism destinations. We collaborate closely with organisations and peoples movements, to influence people-centered forms of tourism & policies that ensure significant local benefits and take into account the negative impacts of an unbridled growth of tourism.

 

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