I am currently working on a project for a friend who is starting a campaign to raise awareness to the major epidemic of sex trafficking in India and Nepal. The campaign will be run primarily through media/TV in India with some pretty powerful support from celebrities and activists. I am absolutely honored to be helping and assisting where my skills and gifts can be utilized to bring this horrific human action, sex trafficking. Here are a few of the statistics that were presented to me from the group I am assisting, they are overwhelming and heartbreaking. Every year, 10,000 Nepali girls* are deceitfully trafficked into India (by false marriages and false job offers) and forced into sexual slavery in Indian brothels. The average age of these girls is 15 years old. Some are as young as seven.
An estimated 400,000 children are victims of sexual exploitation and commodification within India every year.*
200,000 women working within India as prostitutes were originally trafficked from Nepal, even if now "compliant" prostitutes.
An estimated 10 million women are working as prostitutes within India, at least half of which were trafficked or forced into this line of work when they started.
The trafficking of women to and around India alone is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar a year industry.*
*according to UNICEF
Once trapped, the girls are told that they have to pay back the price that the brothel-owner paid to have them trafficked, and that they cannot leave until this is paid. They are literally prisoners of the brothel, unable to leave or contact anyone, or in some cases, speak to anyone. In some cases, trafficked girls are kept in cages, sometimes packed together with a number of other girls, forced to defecate in the same area which they eat.
When these innocent girls try to protest or refuse, they are severely beaten and tortured. Cigarettes are put out on their bodies, belts are used to beat them, broken bottles to cut them. The methods of torture go on. They are often locked in a windowless room for days, and gang-raped repeatedly until they are "broken," and consent to work as prostitutes. They are powerless to refuse.
They are forced to have sex with several men every day. They are violated in almost every way imaginable. They end up with HIV and are abandoned. Socially ostracized and unable to return to their villages, many become traffickers themselves.
Sex trafficking involves the following crimes:
• Kidnapping • Deception • Imprisonment • Torture • Rape • Murder
It is the greatest injustice in the world.
A big part of the reason that this injustice is able to continue is because it is kept in the dark. Society's ignorance of the true face of trafficking leads to indifference toward its victims. Their cries are unheard in the dark chambers of Indian brothels.
Societal indifference makes trafficking easy. In Nepal and India, there is little public outcry or protest against the corruption, bribery, and ignoring of the law that must occur to make such a horrible crime against such innocent victims possible.
Society's ignorance and indifference makes trafficking easy in the following ways: • Laws are not strong enough • Existing laws are enforced loosely • Corrupt officials take bribes to avoid enforcing the laws • It is easy, and relatively risk-free to traffic young girls • There is much trafficking
One of the activists that will be supporting this campaign is Sunitha Krishnan, who is one of the most influential activists in the fight against human trafficking. You can find more information about Dr. Krishnan by watching her Ted Talks youtube video at [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeOumyTMCI8]
As more information and the ideas/projects begin to take more shape I will continue to update. SAMO4PREZ