‘ GIRLS ARE CAUGHT IN A VICIOUS CYCLE, RESCUE IS EASIER THAN REHABILITATION’

Jobs, the promise of a better life, an education: These are the people who trade in hopes and dreams, trafficking lakhs of women and children every year. Lured away from their homes and to cities far away, they’re pushed into the sex trade or forced to perform cheap entertainment in dance bars.

All to make ends meet. To these women, survival means ensuring their keepers are happy and huge part of their earnings is taken away as protection money. Boys serve a purpose too, they’re forced into bonded labour, beggary the illegal organ trade and drug testing.

To those in the know, these are the ‘ aunty homes’ by those in the know. Houses rented out in remote corners of the city serve as replacements for brothels, where girls entertain their clients. “Bengaluru doesn’t have a designated red light area,” says an activist, who has been working in the rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked girls. “Traffickers are hand - in- glove with women, who run the sex trade. They take houses on rent in remote areas and girls come in batches of two or three to avoid attracting the attention of the neighbours and the police. They are dropped and picked up by men, who are known to them.” The girls are caught in a vicious cycle, one they cannot escape from, the activist explains. That’s not all. The profession affords these women a certain standard of living and they find it difficult to reconnect with the ‘ wanting’ and deprivation of their past. Another activist agrees, “Rescue is much easier than rehabilitation. It’s a huge challenge.”

Children below the age of 18 when they are rescued are produced before the Child Welfare Committee. The child is rehabilitated in a government home until she is repatriated to her own home and family by the CWC, in cooperation with the organisation’s chapter in the state concerned.