Picking Up The Prostitutes

In Davao City, the Central Bank building is notorious. At night, under the shadows of the huge trees lining its perimeter sit prostitutes ages fourteen years old and above. They wait for their customers to arrive. If a car stops, a woman stands up, fixes her skirt, walks to the driver, and sells herself.

Obviously, it isn't an ideal way to earn a living. But these girls have families to feed at home and their socio-economic backgrounds limit their options for employment. What they do have though are young bodies and acne-free faces and prostitution becomes a reality to be embraced.

Among male bankers, it's a running joke that when someone mentions dropping by Central Bank, he obviously means picking up a girl. The question is: what can be done?

In countless studies, prostitution is almost always a result of poverty. Rarely do girls resort to prostitution because they are nymphomaniacs deep inside. Since poverty is the root cause, then it's poverty that we must eliminate (which is 'easier said than done', you might have thought out loud).

For me, I will always abide by the logic that if there should be an effective tool in eradicating poverty, then education should be that magic bullet. What if these girls had access to education, will they continue with this lifestyle of self-exploitation? Perhaps, one mode of action to eliminate prostitution is the granting of easier access for at-risk girls to become scholars or at least to provide them with the necessary livelihood skills to help them wean away from this source of income.

Granted, there are some issues to be confronted with this kind of intervention. Foremost is the given fact that helping prostitutes is not exactly PR stuff. Reaching out to donors and sponsors is easier when the beneficiaries are, say, kids (like what UNICEF is doing), war-torn communities, calamity victims, or poor families. Simply put, these beneficiaries tug at the hearts and minds of people. Prostitutes obviously do not.

There is also the cultural taboo relating to prostitutes in general. Virtually no one wants to have anything to do with these women (or men). In addition, prostitutes are not seen as victims of the system but rather are enterprising individuals (excuse me for the euphemism) by many.

Nevertheless, they need help. And if we are to make this society better, one step would be to eliminate prostitution, one girl at a time. The question now is: how?