Sold- Patricia Mccormick

Nepal is a place filled with Poverty, sometimes due to poverty, big steps have to be taken in order to survive in some conditions. In Nepal girls at the age of 7 start working, helping their mothers and earning money for their family. 

In the book "Sold" by Patricia McCormick, The main character Lakshmi feels the need to go out and get a job to help her family. She is 13 years old, and she lives with her mom, her baby brother, her stepfather who has a broken arm and cannot work and help out the family. Lakshmi's father isn't a good man, but Lakshmi's family cannot do anything about that because of her religion. Women are not allowed to run away from their family.

A Monsoon hits, and the Lakshmi's crops die, ruining everything for them, and Lakshmi's father forces her to go to work. She gets sold for 800 rupees ($14-$15) and goes to the city. Laxshmi thinks that she is going to be working as a servant for a family, but she ends up being sold to another woman, to another and then she ends up in a place called the "Happiness House" Its one of the biggest prostitution brothels in Nepal. At first Laxshmi didn't know where she was, she was excited to be presented with a new dress, sandals, "bottles of paint" (nailpolish) and "crayons" (eyeliner, mascara etc). 

When Laxshmi's owner, sends Laxshmi in for her first client, Laxshmi did not know what she was supposed to do. When her client approached Laxshmi and touched her inappropriately, she then realized where she was, and tried to escape. Laxshmi was locked in a room for 8 days without any eating and constant whipping. One day, Laxshmi's owner comes in, and tells her that if she is able to pay off the amount she was bought for, she will be able to go home. Laxshmi was bought for 10,000 rupees, but her owner wants 20,000 rupees. Laxshmi managed to calculate she got 15 rupees from each client ($0.56) and 5-6 clients a day. When Laxshmi payed off her debt, her owner took advantage of her keeping her for a longer time, until she found out that it was conspiracy and she would be there for the rest of her life until she is caught with a sickness.

One day an American showed up as her client. He handed her a card and told her that he was going to help her get out of the house and live a better life, He showed Laxshmi pictures to prove it. Laxshmi was told that Americans will only punish her and ruin her life. Laxshmi didn’t believe that, and ran up to the American and said “Im Laxshmi, Im 14 years old, and I am from Nepal” and that Is how the story ended.

I thought that prostitution didn’t occur at all, I thought that it was something that used to happen a long time ago, I was surprised that it happened it India, and to an Indian girl, I never thought that they would actually have clients, and if there were prostitutions, there would be 20 years and older, turns out, kids as young as 10 are sold into prostitution. This books presents a social issue: Prostitution and unfair treatment to little girls, practically child labor all over again, for some reason it won’t stop because it seems to be a popular business.

This is a social issue, and the book, overall describes the life of a young prostitute, so you can visualize how hard it is for them to be forced into something they don’t want to do.