By: Sikander Kushwaha
IT WAS an ancient Japanese tradition where a young Geisha's virginity was sought after, auctioned and highly paid for. But similar incidents in the 21st century have been making headlines the world over. Recently a 19-year-old university student from New Zealand of has offered her virginity "by tender to the highest bidder" on the ineed.co.nz website which is based in Hamilton, where Waikato University has its headquarters.
The most debated case of this kind is that of Natalie Dylan from San Diego, California, USA, who attracted the world media when she auctioned her virginity at $ 3.5 million to pay education fee in 2008. The idea came to her after her sister Avia, 23, got into prostitution for three weeks in order to fund her degree.
The trend is by no means a new one. Back in 2004 Reid, a student at Bristol Universitysold her virginity in an auction on the internet to avoid graduating from university with debts of $36,700. In 2009, Alina Percea, 18, sold off her virginity in a bid to pay for her computing degree although she fell far short of her target of £50,000. These are just the cases that have made news, many more girls unknown to us are engaging in sex related activities to fund their education.
In this regard a study was conducted by Kingston University in southwest London in the year 2006 which revealed that more and more students are resorting to prostitution or other jobs in the sex industry to pay rising university tuition fees.
I wish to raise the question to these developed nations of why a girl feels needs to sell her virginity to get higher education. Where is the state and why aren’t they fulfilling their role as providers of the basic rights of their citizens? Why does the government not come forward to facilitate the education of such students or at least make an effort to make higher education cheaper to the deserving.
The developed nations who make claims to a better civilization than the societies of developing nations aren’t setting a very good example here. I appeal to the Indian government to keep education affordable for everyone, so that students here don’t have to resort to such acts.
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