“Modernization and technology can aggravate the discrimination. Since the 1990s the spread of ultrasound machines has allowed pregnant women to find out the sex of their fetus- and then get abortions if they are female. In Fujian Province, China, a peasant raved to us about ultrasound: ‘We don’t have to have daughters anymore!’
Evidently, technological innovations such as ultra sound are not categorically progressive for they contribute to the infanticide of baby girls. This loophole confirms that gender equality may be difficult to counter in the face of technology which subjects the girls to discrimination before they are even born. Technology fails in this case to advance the agenda of gender equality.
“India almost certainly has more modern slaves, in conditions like these, than any other country. There are 2 to 3 million prostitutes in India, and although many of them now sell sex to some degree willingly and are paid, a significant share of them entered the sex industry unwillingly. One 2008 study of Indian brothels found that of Indian and Nepali prostitutes who started as teenagers, about half said they had been coerced into the brothels…Those who start out enslaved often accept their fate eventually and sell sex willingly; because they know nothing else and are too stigmatized to hold other jobs.”
The enslavement of girls from a young age in the brothels affects they psychologically to the degree that they unconsciously internalize their status as sex slaves. Exiting the enslavement is impracticable because the girls are conditioned to consider sex selling as a component of their existence. Therefore, not all prostitutes got into the trade voluntarily, some were initiated through slavery which has defined their lives entirely.
