Child sex tourism rises in TN, Orissa

As India tries to get more visitors to its shores, experts are warning that child sex tourism is raising its head in a dangerous way, not just in tourist havens but also in religious hubs in TamilNadu and Orissa.

Carmen Madrinan, an international expert in the field, who was here for a UN conference on human trafficking, said the child sex industry in India had spread from its traditional hubs in Goa and Kerala.

"It is also gaining momentum in religious places in TamilNadu and Orissa," Madrinan, executive director of the NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children (ECPAT), said.

"India is among the most rapidly growing economies in the world and the introduction of economy airlines, the development of untapped destinations, improved infrastructure and new modes of tourism - such as eco and experiential tourism - have brought tourists even closer to unexposed communities.

"With this increased proximity, criminal activities against children and other vulnerable groups are likely to grow," said Madrinan.

"Asian countries including Thailand, India and the Philippines have long been prime destinations for child sex tourists," said Jeff Avina, director of operations at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna.

"India's economy is booming and it is high time the government here enforced laws more stringently before the situation becomes difficult to manage."

A 15 year old boy performs surgery in tamilnadu

The medical fraternity here and in the rest of the country was on Wednesday aghast to hear that a surgeon in southern Tamil Nadu had got his 15-year-old son to perform a cesarean operation to deliver a baby at his nursing home so that the Class 10 boy could enter the Guinness Book of Records.

Doctors attending the monthly meeting of the Manapparai branch of the Indian Medical Association last month were shocked when one of its members, Dr K. Murugesan, played a CD of his 15-year old son Dileepan Raj performing a complicated cesarean surgery to deliver a baby. The patient was administered spinal anaesthesia by Dr Murugesan himself, though he is a general surgeon and not an anesthetist.

"When we protested that his act violated medical ethics and constituted a crime, Dr Murugesan turned abusive and even threatened to sue the IMA. We held an emergency meeting and passed an unanimous resolution referring the issue to the state medical council, which deputed an observer. The observer, Dr Mahesh Yogaraj, visited Manaparai to question Dr Murugesan and returned convinced there was serious violation," Dr T.N. Ravishankar, secretary of the state branch of the Indian Medical Association, told this newspaper.

According to a doctor present at the CD show at the Manapparai IMA meeting, the shocked members had advised Dr Murugesan to destroy the tape as it could get him and his son into trouble. "He said there was no need for him to worry since it was no blue film that he had shot but only one showing his son's achievement," the doctor said.

While all attempts to contact Dr Murugesan failed - the staff at his "Mathi Surgical and Maternity Hospital" kept saying that he would be busy in the operation theater till well past midnight - a recorded interview featured in the Tamil biweekly Kumudam Reporter had the surgeon claiming that he had trained his son from Class 7 onwards and that the boy had done such surgeries before. "What is wrong in my son performing a surgery, when a 10-year-old can drive a car and a 15-year-old can get a medical degree in America?" the unrepentant surgeon was quoted saying in the Tamil publication.

"We do not have the CD as evidence but there are enough number of doctors at the Manapparai IMA meeting who have seen it. Also, Dr Murugesan's statement is damning in itself. We have sent the report to the ethics committee of the Medical Council and (it) will recommend suitable action," said Dr Ravishankar. According to him, a violation of this nature could lead to the doctor being debarred under chapter seven of section nine of the code of ethics of the Medical Council of India.

"How can a doctor convert his nursing home into a butcher's shop by allowing his unqualified son to perform surgery?" fumed TamilNadu's health minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran. "I am ordering an inquiry and tough action will be taken," he told this newspaper.