Well, I had this wonderful chance to visit an organization named Rescue Foundation (RF), Mumbai. This is one and only NGO in India working for rescuing girls from forced prostitution in India. They do an amazing job. This is the scene in India:
There are many villages in our country where there is no importance given for education at all; girls are married at the age of 13yrs, 14yrs of age. Hardly giving them any chance to grow as a person! I came across many girls in the organization who had ran away from home, because they could not stand abuse from husband, because they couldn’t face the poverty and wanted to earn some money, ran away with boy friend’s at age of as little as 10yrs, came to Mumbai with husbands etc.. Whoever ran away and came to Mumbai had a trustworthy accomplice who had told them that Mumbai is the place where they’ll get solutions to all problems. They came to Mumbai trusting these friends, uncles, boyfriends, husbands only to get sold to some Brothel (prostitute house) keeper.
It was surprising to know that there are rates for which these girls are bought and sold. Price is fixed based on their origin, say, a girl from Bangladesh or Assam is sold for more money than Bangalore, based on virginity, virgin is worth more. Price ranges from Rs. 80,000-Rs. 200,000.
Once they are bought, Brothel keepers brainwash these girls about the world, police etc, they are abused verbally, physically, kept hungry, threatened until they budge. There is no hope once they enter the Brothel they are tortured so badly that they end up in prostitution which is initially forced and one day accepted by these girls as livelihood. During which girls are further tortured (a girl I met had marks of cigarettes lit off all over body), they are even given drugs and are made addicted to alcohol, hash, marijuana etc.
There is a long gap in between the time they are forced and the time they accept prostitution voluntarily. This is where RF intervenes. There is a bunch of Investigators who disguise as customers and visit these Brothels and counsel the girls for over a period of time and prepare them to get rescued. If its minor girls they are taken away whatever might be the girls decision is, but girls above 18years of age need to agree to get rescued voluntarily.
One of the investigators I spoke to said that whole process of getting them involves at least 15 visits, where in they go to same girls again and again, build some trust and then slowly release their purpose of visit and then find if there are more girls minor or major wanting to get rescued. Once this is done then investigator reports to police and sketches with them a rescue mission. And a raid is done in respective brothel and girls are rescued.
The girls are then rehabilitated and repatriated. I.e. they are sent back home after intervention is made at family level. Organization rescues around 700 girls until now since its inception in
It is not as simple as it sounds. It’s a tough job for investigator because many a times the girls discuss about investigators with wrong girls and end up getting shifted to different brothel. There is huge threat to investigators too. Even if they did whole process on preparing girls and reported this to police, a lot of time information leaks out to brothels before raid is done (its simply unbelievable, as per the investigator I spoke to, they take only 2hrs for preparing between the reporting and going on raid) and girls involved in rescue process are vanished in no time. Making the whole raid a pure failure, making whole process itself huge failure!
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?
· Very few men to take up the challenging task of rescue mission.
There are hardly few people who stick to this job for long time as it is too stressful, threatening to life (there are many instances where investigators were attacked). The field itself is scary, to walk into brothel, Looking at almost naked young girls, counseling needs a nerve.
· Information leaks out in no time
People at RF told us that mostly information is leaked out by police (not proven but assumed as obvious) and it’s not the higher level officials but the lower one’s who do it for money or for free sex!
· Only organization working in the field
There is no other organization working in the field of rescuing except for RF, even though many organizations are working on trafficking… they mainly concentrate on child labor etc. But still much is not done in catching the real culprits like traffickers or brothel keepers.
· Traffickers are safe, as they cannot be traced
It is too difficult to trace the traffickers through these girls because most of time, more than one person is involved in bringing them to Mumbai, they are passed on to many hands and girls are scared to look or identify these men. If it was husband or boyfriend, they would have run away with money long time before girls were rescued. There is no continuous surveillance to check trafficking of under aged.
· Less check on trafficking across border
Girls are trafficked from West Bengal, UP, Assam, Bangalore, Mumbai itself etc and also from across border. I.e. Nepal, Bangladesh. Governments of concerned nations, NGOs like IJM etc are working to find some solution to the problem, but it is very hard to keep check on cross border trafficking.
· Brothel keepers get bailed out in no time
Investigator also said that there 100s of pending cases on brothel keepers, who in the meanwhile are continuing their crimes! They always get bailed out with no problem at all.
· Girls are too young, have undergone too much of trauma
Girls who have been rescued are usually traumatized and fear that they will not be accepted back home. Many of them have STIs, AIDS. They are suicidal, depressed. They find it difficult to accept life as it is (tell me who can after all that?). There is relapse in some cases. i.e. some girls are found in brothels again as they return to prostitution!
· Illiteracy among girls
Illiteracy itself creates such a problem, because the girls whom I’ve met are those who wouldn’t have ever gone out of their village, learnt anything about the world outside, they are taught how to manage household and brought up to be married once they mature. They are just scared once they are out of the world, they don’t know whom to believe, what to believe. There was one girl I spoke to who said, “wo admi bola mein uske bahan jaisee hoon, tho mein bharosa kaise nahi karthi?” ( that man said I’m like his sister, how can I not trust him?); yet another girl told ‘mein ikkis saal ki hoon, ab zindagi mein bacha kya hain?’(I’m 21 now, what is left in my life now?) when asked what she would do from here after in life; another girl said – when I suggested her to learn reading and writing – ‘didi mein padhoongi tho kya hoga, hamare gaon mein iski koi upyog nahin hogi, ladki ko ghar aur bachche ko dekna hain, isse mujhe koi pharak nahi padega”( sister what will happen if I learnt to read or write, there is no use for education in my village, girls have to look after house and children, education won’t make any difference).
I don’t know why but I feel one huge solution in bringing the end to most of problems is education. I don’t say educated never make mistakes; but trust if these girls were educated, half of them would have enough guts to face the world, most of all these traffickers and brothel keepers themselves won’t dare to catch literates, literacy is amazing weapon!
Tell me what do you think is that we could do to help these girls, bring end to the traffickers dirty business?
If you want to tell me your opinion or know more about the organization or share your experience in this field, Feel free
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