Namaste-My Five Weeks in Kolkata, India

I got to spend five weeks in India this past summer. I was working in shelters for trafficking survivors and children of sex workers.

I'm really excited about all the opportunities that are going to come from this adventure and to share it with you.

While in Kolkata, I wrote a few excerpts for this blog. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment or email me! I cannot wait to start a dialogue!

"For the next few weeks I will be working at the Destiny Reflection Center in Kolkata, India. The Destiny is a center where girls rescued from the sex trafficking industry come to work and earn a sustainable living.

I've only been to the center once, being that I've only been in the city for a couple of days. I met a few of the girls and saw what they are working on. Monday is my first official day of volunteer work.

During my first few days of visiting here, I am just in awe and wonder of how magical a place like India, and more specifically Kolkata can be. There have been many obstacles to overcome while here. Not knowing how to communciate, going the past six days without my luggage, being taken advantage of by cab drivers and shop owners because I am an American. However, that does not stop the immense joy that I feel while I am here.

There is so much to learn and know about Kolkata, India. This pulsing metropolis is in the eastern part of the country. It is overwhelmingly diverse in people and in ways of life. I'm staying in an apartment right now in a modest neighborhood along the main road of Kolkata. Just a few blocks down the road is a mall that trumps any mall I've ever been to, and you can feel the air conditioning from the street. Yet, 50 feet in front of this mall is a slum full of houses made of sticks, mud, and grocery/rice bags.

Indian people take such pride in their culture, people, and country, yet do not lend a hand to their brothers and sisters in the slums. Walking past a slum yesteray, I heard a car horn beep behind me, and it was a Mereceds Benz. Really? Behind the mall I spoke of, there are three highrise apartment complexes being built. They are complete with tennis courts, swimming pools and state-of-the art fitness centers.

Maybe it's my strong Western sense of community, but I just can't seem to rationalize why a booming economy doesn't help build up its people. No wonder terrible phenomena like Human Trafficking still exists.

I was riding in a cab the other day (quite the adventure) and while stop a young girl reached her hand in the open window and smacked my arm. She was a gorgeous child, maybe seven or eight eyears old. One of the most stunningly beautiful children I have ever laid eyes on; the sad thing was I couldn't look at her. I had to ignore her because she is working for someone, trying to get money she'll never see. I wanted to pull her into the cab with my firend and me, and just take care of her. I don't know how people can walk the streets of this city and ignore what's going on all around them. How a child can walk the streets and beg for moeny instead of playing and pretending; or how a young girl can sleep with numerous men who will never remember her name or love her the ways she is supposed to be loved. My heart cannot help but be open and broken to the situation my eyes are laying witness to. This just has to stop."

"Wandering through the streets of Kolkata give me a whole new udnerstanding of teh world in which Indians live. Slums lay next to luxury tower apartments. People beg for moeny outside of shopping malls. There are thousands of girls that get lured from their homes and taken into the sex industry. Living in filthy and infectious stalls and forced to service man after man.

Working at the Destiny Center has given me a chance to put faces with the name "Trafficking." These girls are barely 16, 17 years of age and have already seen more of a life than their parents. Most of the time they are offered a better life in a bity city. There are promises of good jbos and higher salaries, but these promises never go through.

My heart breaks to know that something like this happens right under the noses of people who live in this country. Everyone knows about it. Does anybody care? Have they become so callused to this way of making money and exploiting people, that it becomes almost justified?

In the USA, trafficking occurs, too. We make up about 10% of the sex trafficking; most of the people trafficked into our country are for labor. They become landscapers, house slaves, domestic caregivers, farmhands and the like. Most Americans don't know that this happens. We say they are "illegal aliens" and that they are "stealing our jobs." Keep in mind that not every foreigner in our country is there by free will.

I'm most outraged at my own country for not noticing trafficking and going something about it. We have so much power and authority, so many means to make trafficking stop, and we all it to continue. Maybe that's why people like me, Faceless International, The Empancipation Network, Free the Slaves, Stop The Traffik, Made By Survivors, and others exist. We are teh ones called to educate and seen an end to such a horrible and unjustifiable way of treating people. Help rescue the ones who are in it and help restore the quality of life they all deserve.

Human beings have the ability to dream, exlore, create, and change the world in which they live in. We are given a complex mind and imagination that no one can compare to; why discourage people to not use that to its fullest power and authority?"

"I, again, got to go through the Red Light District of Kolkata a few days ago. For those of you new to the blog, I'm an Art Therapist, and I went to Khidderpore to work with the children of sex workers.

The first time going through the RLD, I wasn't approached at all. This time I was bombarded. One sex worker spotted me and came running towards the taxi I was in. She was offering me her baby girl, who was maybe seven months old. A beautiful baby girl, don't think it didn't cross my mind to take her home with me.

Being around the children of Khidderpore shelter was like being around any other group of children. They are very joyous, want to be loved and talked to. They drew pictures for me and laughed when I treid to understand Bengali. Watching them walk back to the brothels for the night broke my heart.

If you could look into their eyes, like I got the chance to, you'd feel like you had to do something too. We're doing a great injustice to humanity when we know the facts and don't do anything to stop this."

Domestic Trafficking Part II: How Nicky Became a Criminal

Read Part I Here

Nicky never told anyone about Frank’s molestation, not even to her lawyer. Just as many victims of sexual abuse in the United States, she felt nothing but the shame and guilt about Frank’s molestation. She hence never wanted to talk to anyone about how much it bothered her to have Frank coming into her room every night for the past 10 years. Since she had poor academic performance, none of her teachers really paid attention to her behavior changes, either.

Her mom’s negligence out of her drug abuse only drove Nicky to isolation. In Nicky’s mind, if her own mother would not care to listen to her story, no one else would. Nicky felt lonely, depressed, and isolated. Therefore, when some people showed affection or were interested in her, Nicky became emotionally dependent on them. Her emotional dependency becomes worse when a guy shows attention to her. Nicky always let her boyfriend walk all over her. When she was in 7th grader, she once stole her friend’s wallet because her 17 year-old boyfriend asked her to do so to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Likewise, Nicky was more afraid of Leo’s rejection than sleeping with Leo’s client who would only remind her of the nights of the molestation by Frank.[1]

Her fear of Leo’s rejection was also the reason why Nicky refused to testify against Leo before the court. The night when Nicky walked into the motel room to meet Leo’s client, Leo told Nicky that if anything went wrong, Leo would come find her no matter where she would be. Leo also told Nicky that unlike her parents or Frank, he would be the only one who would stand right next to her.

Meanwhile, Nicky’s lawyer felt like her hands were tied. Unlike the Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), the Florida human trafficking statute does not include clarification that “fraud, force, or coercion by the trafficker is not required elements of the crime when the victim of trafficking is under 18 years of age.”[2] Therefore, without proving Leo’s involvement, Nicky would be treated as a prostitute rather than sex trafficking victim.

Nicky’s fear of losing Leo’s affection was not helping Nicky’s lawyer’s case either. When the prosecutor aggressively accused Nicky of committing prostitution, Nicky’s lawyer had no ground to prove that she is a victim of sex trafficking. Nicky refused to testify against Leo or even showed willingness to drop a hint that she was lured into prostitution as she did not, by any means, want to endanger her relationship with Leo or lose his affection towards her.

Nicky was holding onto Leo’s only promises: that he would never leave her even if she would be locked up in a juvenile detention center and that he would never treat her like anyone else has. He even promised Nicky that he would come visit her.

Today, just like many other victims of domestic minor sex trafficking, Nicky is locked up in a juvenile detention center in Florida. Just like yesterday, she is waiting for Leo to visit her with his warm affection.

---

[1] “a dependent pattern of behavior is more pervasive than regressed behavior. A child who exhibits this dependent pattern of behavior often allows other people to make important decisions, such as whether or not the child is hungry or needs help. Dependent children who fear rejection may agree with people even when the child knows that these people are wrong. The child may volunteer to do things that are unpleasant or demeaning in order to get other people to like him/her. A dependent child is vulnerable to exploitation and revictimization because he/she has a tendency to attach to anyone who he/she feels attends to their physical or emotional needs. This pattern of behavior can create major long-term developmental and relationship problems.” http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/treatmen/treatmenf.cfm

[2] http://www.sharedhope.org/dmst/documents/SharedHopeAssessmentReportBrowardandDadeFlorida_June2009.pdf

CNN's Amanpour's Feature on Sex Trafficking Aired Sunday

On Sunday, Christiane Amanpour conducted a show on sex trafficking in India on CNN. Amanpour interviewed Taina Bien-Aime, Executive Director of Equality Now and Ruchira Gupta, filmmaker and activist.

At one point in the show, Amanpour featured a scene from Gupta's movie "Selling of Innocents." After the clip, Amanpour asked Gupta about the scene:

AMANPOUR: That was a scene filmed in Nepal in the startling documentary, "Selling of Innocents." It shows that the problem of human trafficking extends across borders... Let me ask you, Ruchira, you were posing as a trafficker in that scene.

RUCHIRA GUPTA: That's right. I wanted to show how easy it was and how anyone could go into a village in Nepal or India and look around to buy a girl, and somebody would show up to sell the girl, and the girl had no idea about her rights, and for as little as $50 could buy her and do whatever they wanted with her.

AMANPOUR: And it was making that film that turned you into an activist for these -- against this -- this situation? GUPTA: It was a life-changing experience for me, because as a journalist I'd covered war, famine, conflict, hunger, but I had never seen the deliberate exploitation of one human being by another as I saw in a brothel in Bombay, when I walked into a little room which was four-by-four and saw the 10-year-old and the 12-year-olds sitting on the bed.

AMANPOUR: Ten and twelve?

GUPTA: Yes, and 10 or 15 customers a night...

AMANPOUR: Ten or fifteen customers for 10-year-old girls?

GUPTA: Raped repeatedly every night.

AMANPOUR: How many girls and women does this affect?

GUPTA: According to the government of India, just recently in May, they said 1.3 million children are sold into prostitution in India right now. And there are 1.3 million prostituted children in our country right this second.

Although the video of the full show is not yet available, you can find the transcript of the show here.

New Website Provides Information on U.S. Labor Laws in Filipino

Noah Theriault, a friend of mine and Fulbright scholar (Philippines '07), recently launched a website that translates U.S. labor laws into Filipino. In his words:

We made this website as part of a “service-learning” project for an Advanced Filipino language course we took over the summer at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. Our initial research suggested that there was very little information on U.S. labor laws available in Filipino on the Internet. Even though many Filipinos speak English well, we felt that having the information available in the other national language of the Philippines would be beneficial to those looking for additional clarity. With that in mind, we wrote brief but informative summaries of the key federal labor laws that protect workers’ rights, as well as a brief explanation of what happens when local, state, and federal laws differ. In essence, we designed the website to highlight the basic rights and protections of which all migrant workers should be aware when coming to work in the U.S.

Although many people assisted us with this website, we are entirely responsible for any errors contained in it. Ultimately, the information on this website is not meant to replace professional or expert counsel. Instead, it is intended to: (1) promote consciousness of labor rights among Filipino migrant workers in the United States and (2) provide links to legal information and resources for workers.

- Allan Lumba, Marites Mendoza and Noah Theriault

Visit the website here (in Filipino)

For information on migration in the Philippines click here

Swedish Institute Releases Films on Human Trafficking Efforts

The Swedish Institute, in conjunction with The NewsMarket, has released two short films about Sweden's efforts to combat sex trafficking, at home and in its capacity as current president of the European Union.

The first discusses Sweden's Action Plan against human trafficking, and sets forth the Swedish government's stance that prostitution is inextricably connected with human trafficking. This view led the Swedish government in 1999 to become the first country to criminalize the buying of sex while allowing the selling of sex, treating the prostitute as more of a victim than a criminal.

The second video highlights the conference "Towards Global EU Action against Trafficking in Human Beings" that was held October 19-20 in Brussels. At the conference, future efforts to combat trafficking were addressed, including the Stockholm Program and increasing cooperation with origin and transit countries.

Queen Silvia of Sweden stated during the conference: "It is important that we recognize that the demand for sex with minors is a very strong driving force behind this global problem, and therefore needs to be addressed urgently. And to deny, to turn a blind eye, or to passively observe, is a contribution to the continuous contemporary slave trade that is manifested by trafficking of human beings."

Reverse Trick-or-Treating

With Halloween right around the corner, the connection between chocolate and slave and/or child labor is particularly timely. According to the US Department of Labor's 2009 report, "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor," cocoa has been found guilty on both counts. Rather than being immobilized or depressed by the fact that much of the candy given out on Halloween will be tainted by slavery, Global Exchange has started a campaign called "Reverse Trick-or-Treating." The concept is simple: instead of taking candy, children and adults go trick-or-treating and give the households they visit fair-trade chocolate and cards explaining the connection between slavery and chocolate and ways to change this abuse.

This year marks the third year of the campaign. According to Global Exchange, "Ten to twenty thousand groups of children will hand chocolate back to adults during their regular neighborhood trick-or-treating rounds this Halloween. The children will distribute Fair Trade certified chocolate attached to a card explaining the labor and environmental problems in the cocoa industry globally and how Fair Trade provides a solution." Last year I participated, and having the chance to speak with approximately 100 people about human trafficking and chocolate was extremely rewarding. The houses we visited were receptive to the information, and my friends and I had some great conversations around this issue.

2009 has been a year of progress and increased awareness, though this problem still persists. In August, Interpol rescued 54 children from plantations in the Cote d'Ivoire. The children, "aged between 11 and 16. . . told investigators they would regularly work 12 hours a day and receive no salary or education." Global Exchange argues that this "demonstrates that the chocolate industry has still not gone far enough to end child slavery and trafficking in the cocoa fields." In 2009, Cabury became the first major chocolate brand to receive fair-trade certification in the UK; activists are pressuring Hershey's to follow suite in the US.

While the free kits distributed by Global Exchange have already been claimed, people who want to participate in reverse trick-or-treating can download the information card or flyer, and purchase fair-trade chocolate to create their own kits. A Spanish version of the card is also available. Global Exchange can be reached at fairtrade@globalexchange.org.

MTV EXIT & The Killers: Human Trafficking Music Video

The MTV EXIT Campaign has been working with The Killers on a follow up to last year's multiple award-winning music video collaboration between MTV EXIT and Radiohead for their track All I Need from the In Rainbows album.

A new video has been produced for The Killers' track Goodnight, Travel Well from the band's third studio album, Day & Age. Directed by David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy) and produced by Anonymous Content in Los Angeles, the video is a hard hitting view of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Visit MTV Exit here