Other analysts estimate that the disparity is actually far greater. The main victims of low spending for health and education are Burma's women and children. The few health services available are often rudimentary and have deteriorated seriously over the last decade. Even new foreign investment can create difficulties. Mining ventures operate with scant regard to environmental impact, and conditions in many foreign-financed garment factories which employ mostly women and children are poor.
Women are also special targets for direct abuse.
Widespread rape by soldiers is reported from heavily militarized zones along Burma's borders, where the Burmese military has pursued a relentless campaign against minority ethnic groups. Little is done to stop such assaults, and soldiers are not prosecuted for them. Army officers guarding forced labor projects allegedly demand sexual favors in return for lighter duties or release from conscription. The military is also at least indirectly involved in the procurement and trafficking of women into prostitution in Thailand and other neighboring countries. As many as 40,000 Burmese women, most of them from minority ethnic groups, are believed to be employed in Thai brothels.