"Sold"
by Patricia McCormick
Introduction
"Sold" is an harrowing story of a young girls life as a child prostitute in India. The author went to the red light districts of Calcutta and interviewed several women about their experiences with prostitution. If the book had been written from someone like the mother's perspective, the hardship of an indian child would not have been captured in the book. The fact that the book is written from the child's point of view has more of an effect on the reader.
Differences in children's worries
India
-Prostitution
- Promise of jobs- In the book the main character is promised a job as a maid in the larger city areas of India. When she arrives though she discovers she's been sold into a human trafficking ring. Over 2 million children every year are sold into prostitution in India.
- The poverty line is $1.25/day.
- 55% of the population is living in poverty. (645 million people)
- Living conditions are less than perfect throughout India. In the book the main character's family's home is falling apart because it is made of mud. In the book, the main character notes their roofs condition, "One more rainy season and our roof will be gone."
- The main character Lakshmi describes the brothel "On the floor, a plastic bucket sits next to a hole in the floor. I can tell from the stink that this is the privy." She also mentions the room where she stays, "I open my eyes and see the place where I live now: a dank room with four beds, four dirty curtains hanging from the ceiling, and iron bars on the windows."
- Poor health is common because there is either no access to modern health care or families cannot afford it. In the village mentioned in the book, most children are said to not make it through the first "season" or year of their lives. This is due to coughing disease. Infants do not have a high mortality rate. In the book, between the main character and her brother, 4 other children were born but died.
- Hunger is a struggle in India. Over 200 million are food insecure.
- Weather
America
-Poverty
- In 2013, 45.3 million people (14.5 percent) were in poverty.
- In 2013, 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children.
- Tornados, hurricanes, and earth quakes.
- Obesity: 21% of children and teens aged 12-19 are obese.
- 1 in 7 children are victims of bullying the U.S.
- 56% of students have witnessed some sort of bullying.