The Gates Foundation grant was designated "to determine the factors contributing to the success of" a particular "HIV/AIDS prevention project in Calcutta, India, and design training materials for use in other settings" according to the foundation's annual report in 2002. But according to the agency document, the DMSC acts as a sort of union for prostitutes and has financial incentives to protect prostitution from government interference and resist efforts to curb human trafficking.

C-FAM reports that the federal agency document it has obtained says that many of the members of DMSC are older ex-prostitutes who have paid off their debts to traffickers and brothel owners and are unable to attract new customers. These members become madams or brothel owners themselves and rely on revenues generated by children newly brought into the brothel system. DMSC distributes benefits to older members based on money generated by the profitable underage Indian prostitutes. Thus, the agency document says, DMSC has "a strong incentive to maintain this heinous trade as part of its 'revenue sharing' scheme."

# posted by Squach : 9:38 PM   |