Is the pressure to own high-end gadgets and expensive phones weighing us down?
There was hardly any push on us to own a smartphone earlier than now. Especially, teenagers have immense pressure on them to flaunt and use expensive phones and gadgets due to their company. TOI has reported a case of a 13-year-old from Vadodara, who took to prostitution so she could own smartphones and gadgets like her friends.
Her mother, who runs a grocery store in Subhanpura, had no clue about her daughter’s secret. She only got to know about it a year later when the teenager assumed that she was pregnant.
The mother took her daughter to a counsellor at 181 Abhayam service who informed, “The girl told her mother about her act when she thought that she had become pregnant. Her mother was shocked when she learnt that her daughter had turned to prostitution. She tried to explain the teenager that prostitution is illegal and immoral, but the girl refused to budge. It was then that the mother called us up to seek help.”
The little girl was using a secret phone to book her clients, who came to their house upon her mother’s exit from the house to the grocery shop.
The girl was originally adopted from Anand and was taken to Subhanpura with her new family. Her father had died just 3 years ago.
“A rift had developed in the mother-daughter relationship after the father’s death. The mother had to run a shop in the area to support the family. She admitted that she was unable to pay attention to her daughter lately.” reported the counsellor.
The teenager revealed that she had no money and she wanted to use the gadgets that her friends had. Due to the teenager’s inconsistent & changeable behaviour, her mother had sent her to live with her maternal uncle in Anand but she was sent back when she threatened to kill herself.
Numerous high-end gadgets have been found from the girl.
“She was trying to justify her acts for long before we could make her understand that she was wrong. She came out as a defiant teenager who had fallen into bad company .According to her, a close-knit group of friends did know about her,” informed the counsellor.
