THE SEX SECTOR. The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia

The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia The subject of prostitution raises issues relating to basic human rights, morality, employment and working conditions, gender discrimination, health threats and criminality. To help define the challenges and dilemmas confronting governments around the world, this book includes case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand prepared by highly-respected national and international researchers. The case studies illustrate the situation in many countries worldwide, not just in Southeast Asia, which have a significant sex sector. They show that, like other economic sectors, prostitution has social components relating to unequal relations between men and women, as well as between children and parents. The national studies include the results of small surveys, to show that the circumstances of those in prostitution range from freely chosen and remunerative employment to debt bondage and virtual slavery. The different modes of entry into the sector, and the possibility of making a distinction between voluntary and coerced prostitution, help to explain why it is difficult for policy makers and legislators to define a clear legal stance on adult prostitution, or implement effective social programmes. In the case of children, however, a chapter on child prostitution shows clearly that it constitutes a serious human rights violation and an intolerable form of child labour.