Repollo, HonieletteFrancesca L.
Professor Franchesca Borras
PS203
March 19, 2016
Child Prostitution as a Form of Work: An Analysis of “Neneng” by Merlinda Bobis I. Introduction
Background of the study Child is as innocent as water during spring time but nowadays children are typically faced to what reality is, that many people are poor, they are now faced to this problem that they tend to shoulder what an adult is experiencing. Poverty is the typical problem known by them, they saw their parents suffering at work just to make an everyday living because of this some help their parents to work even if it means not going to school and not being able to play like any other children at their age, some were forced by their parents to work so that these children would be able to go to school and have their own money without suffering the budget for the family. Prostitution is rampant not only here in the Philippines but around the world, though every country were fighting against it still the cases grew larger and larger each year and some people involved in this case are children. It is a wide spread illness that can’t be easily eliminated and some people blame poverty as the reason why they engage in this kind of activity, it became their source of income whether they like it or not. It seem that this kind of activity is not only present in today’s generation rather its presence is as old as time, it doesn’t cease to exist even if many years have pass and the cases became more severe as time goes by.
Children are referred as innocent as an angel and prostitution is a common problem in every country; but it is not a secret that in today’s society child prostitution exists in many places that it is not only adults who engage in this kind activity, it involves innocent children, children who doesn’t know the real meaning of what they are doing or if they know they are not mature enough to understand the risk they are facing and children whose upbringing is based on what they saw in their environment. These children, though not matured enough, know this kind of thing and were able to participate in this kind of activity
Main statement/ problem
This paper aims to analyze child prostitution and aims to answer the question: Is child prostitution a form of labor.
Scope and limitation This paper is about child prostitution as a form of labor that exists in many countries. This paper doesn’t cover the ff: * Doesn’t cover adults who engage in prostitution * Not all countries that have cases of child prostitution are indicated in this paper * There is no specific gender of children that is emphasize * Traditions that can be compared to child prostitution are not included in this paper ( i.e. countries who practices force fix marriages at young age)

II. Close reading
The poem Neneng by Marlinda Bobis (Baritugo et.al., 2007, p.108) is about a young child who’s at the age of seven is a sidewalk vendor at morning but when the evening comes she was being played by unknown creatures referred as anino and maligno; these “anino” and “malign” may represent men who abuse the child that uses her as a toy for relief caused by the stress during the day. The speaker also describes the place in which the child sells her sampaguita and cigarettes and its face during evening, this may represent the life if the child in which she looks innocent but struggles in the inside. The side during morning represents her innocence as a child as the people around her as thety normally see her and the evening face of the side walk represents the child’s dark life at the evening in which she was played by other men and treated her like toy and as a pass time to relive their stress.
Its structure uses Filipino language, a-a format “a”, “na”, “bangketa”, “sampaguita”, “mata”, “iba”, “iba”, “taynga”, “nila”, “mata”, “kalsada”, “ka” and “na” at the first 12 lines and b-b format at the 13th line up to 16th line “anino’, “kongkreto”, “estero” and “maligno” then return to a-a format the 17th line till the end “pa”, “kinukubeta”, “nila”and “taynga”. The author describe faces of side walk; its face during morning and its face during evening, she also describe the activity of the child in the morning and in the evening in the lines “sa uma-umaga ng makitid mong bangketa “’ma sigarilyo; ale sampaguita” and “ngunit gabi-gabi nagpapakasal na sa hatak ng salibong anino”
The theme of the poem is about child prostitution; here the author describe the child as innocent with a heavy burden in her life that she needs to sell goods during morning and be used by men at the evening at a very young age. Though not directly mention in the poem, indirectly she was a victim of poverty that instead of going to school she needs to work day a night to be able to earn money for her family even if it means abusing her rights as a child. This poem reflect the life if some children around the world, children who’s at the young age were known to this kind of activity. The parents may have the responsibility about their children doing this kind of job because they let their children do this activity and some parents were the reason why their children are in this kind of “work”; the reason why parents closes their eyes on what’s happening to their children is because of poverty. The money the child gets in this kind of activity can make them through the day without starving themselves because they don’t have money to buy food, and because of that every day they sell their child to stranger and let him do whatever he wants as long as in the end the stranger will give the money either to the child or to the parents. III. Analysis
Child prostitution was defined as any activity involves child with sexual services in exchange of any form of payment like money, drugs, drink or even bread (Knight 2002). This kind of exploitation of children were rampant to many places in the world, a simple reason why children engage in prostitution is because of poverty, children who engage in this kind of activity do so because they are poor their families can’t find other well-paying work (Montgomery 2014). Children shoulders the weight of poverty around their shoulder and became the reason why these children engage in this kind of activity whether their parents knows that they are doing this or was forced and only a victim of adults who abuse them.
There are several reasons why children end up in this kind of work in which are children may have seen this work to adults and children may be forced to do this or were victims of adults as well as their parents. This kind of activity may be seen by children in adults and were adapted only because they think that it is a form of work and a great sum of money were coming from this kind of activity, moreover according to the study of Montgomery children may have tried different kind of job like selling sweets, begging, or scavenging for rubbish but they don’t like these kind of activity and these activity are badly paid (Montgomery 2014). the money the children got through this keeps the family away from starving and to the study of Montgomery in Thailand these children are with their families and their incomes are part of families’ economy (Montgomery 2011), but some children who are in this form of activity were forced to do this thing and sometimes are just manipulated by adults children who sold sex were seen as vulnerable and victim by people like their clients, pimps, etc. (Farvid and Glass 2014). From the case study of Montgomery in Thailand as cited earlier, children doesn’t see prostitution as a form o work rather a moral responsibility to the family (Montgomery 2011). This may be the result of the burden they have in their shoulder and the fact that they don’t know the real meaning of what they are doing, rather what they know is that they want to help their family as it grow to free them in poverty. IV. Conclusion
Child prostitution is any activity that involves sexual activity in a child with in exchange in any form of payment, this kind of activity is rampant across the world and in the eyes of these children this activity is not a form of work rather it is a responsibility to their families. Whether they like it or not children still sometimes engage in this work because they money they got here if larger than the money they got when they go sell some goods or doing other things, their family can’t have a well pay job for the family not to starve and save the family from poverty. Children tend to know about this activity because they have seen this in adults who also engage in this form of work, aside from that some children were also a victim from those who take advantage on them.
The poem Neneng is a wide spread reality across culture not just today but in ages ago but this problem isn’t solved yet, other see these children as innocent and calm and their thinking that working in form of prostitution is not a form of labor rather a moral responsibility proves how innocent they really are. At a young age they were to build responsibility around their shoulder and open to family problems like poverty.