Walking down the meandering lanes of Periamet, in Chennai, it took me about 15 minutes before I finally spotted the cart that doubled up as a makeshift dosa-and-idly corner for passers-by. Efficiently doling out food to famished customers was a tall, lithe, 18-year-old Lalitha, who had finally consented to talk to me, after two months of relentless pursuit. I stood in a corner, wordlessly observing her, as she put out her hand to receive money from a man, a customer. Though seemingly indiscernible, it was hard to miss the slight tremble of her hands while accepting money.
“It is going to take me a long time before I can trust men; they have frightened me enough, the last eight years,” she said, as I looked at her searchingly, her voice dropping by several octaves, as she instinctively rubbed her fingers on a scar on her feet. She was inadvertently recounting the horrors she had faced eight years ago when she was kidnapped and sold to a brothel where she was abused and tortured. Rescued a few months ago and reunited with her family, she has been trying to bring some semblance of normality into her life by helping her mother eke out a livelihood selling food. “I want to study, but I am 18 and amma says I can forget about all of that now and get married. People treat me like whatever happened is my fault. It really isn’t….. I want to study…” she trails off, her voice barely a whisper.
This is the stark reality that many children around the globe, all victims of prostitution, face. And for no fault of theirs, they are marginalised. By outsiders and their own kin. They may receive society’s sympathy, at best, but are seldom given a real shot at life, education and the consequent empowerment.
Asha, who, a few years ago at 13, found herself in Kamathipura, far from her hometown in Nagpur, where she was trying to escape from her abusive stepmother, explains how she was sold by a woman who promised to take her home. “What followed was a living nightmare. If I refused to comply with her demands, I would be beaten and starved for weeks,” she adds. She elaborates on how even after being rescued, her troubles were far from over — people would covertly look down upon her for the abuse she underwent. “They wouldn’t pass any snide remarks, but whenever I would be around them, they would look at me differently. It made me feel awkward. People believe that girls living in rehabilitation homes do not have any manners or morals,” she says matter-of-factly, the bitterness in her voice undisguised.
The justice league
It is to break the vicious cycle of further victimising victims that Francis Gracias, CEO, India chapter of the Dutch organisation, Free a Girl, and his team, stepped in and decided to make a difference through School for Justice (SFJ), an initiative where girls who are trafficked are rescued. But it doesn’t stop there. Those rescued will be trained by professionals to appear for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) which will grant them admission into the 18 National Law Universities in the country, and equip them to legally fight sexual offenders. The initiative is a move to attack the culture which allows perpetrators of child prostitution to walk scot free. The team’s efforts did not go in vain; a batch of 19 girls from West Bengal who were rescued over the years, are on board.
“It emotionally breaks the girls when they do not get justice for what they have experienced,” elaborates Gracias. “It makes them feel worthless. More than a year ago, when we interviewed a couple of girls for a documentary, they expressed their frustration, rage and helplessness at not being able to take on the criminals who abused them. They also wished they had something they could use, in order to help other victims; they did not want to remain mute spectators. It was at that moment I realised that these girls could be a part of the solution and combat crime, as opposed to remaining mere victims in the eyes of society. Thus, School for Justice was born.”
It’s about law
Ask Gracias why SFJ focuses on law when there is a cornucopia of careers that these youngsters can pursue, and he is quick to add that there was an immediate need to address the issues of the legal system, with regard to child trafficking-related prostitution. “The low conviction rates and justice not rendered to victims affect them and their future, their family, and ultimately, the society. We felt the need to involve the rescued girls and empower them with the knowledge of law wherein, they could be a part of the criminal justice system and help other victims.” He believes that this is a healing process for the batch of 19 girls at SFJ. “In the future, we would like to create programmes where we can train girls to be qualified as social workers or to enter the law enforcement system by becoming a police officer,” he adds. “The objective of these programmes would still be to have the survivors be a part of the system to combat crime and work for other victims, in their own capacity, with sensitivity and passion.”
Time has not dimmed the torment that 26-year-old Shabnam underwent, two decades ago. She was all of six when she was sold to a brothel owner by her father. Before she could make sense of what was going on, she found herself in the dark alleys of Sonagachi, Kolkata’s notorious red-light area. She suffered a fate that defied her imagination. “After what was an eternity, I was rescued and sent to Sanlaap Foundation,” she adds, unaware that the next few years would be transformative, for, it is from Sanlaap that many rescued girls were housed and would go on to become a part of SFJ and stand up against the assailants who had broken their body and spirit.
The girls have a unanimous goal — to save others from a fate that they could not escape. “There are so many girls who are embroiled in child trafficking and prostitution. I want to study criminal law and help them get the justice they deserve,” says Asha resolutely.
And that is precisely what the SFJ programme intends to achieve. It will work across India, aiming to motivate and get more survivors to join the legal education programme, to become passionate and sensitive lawyers, punish the perpetrators, and help deliver justice to victims.
The SFJ girls from a particular city/state will be coached for the tests and trained to become lawyers in the same state/city where they currently reside. Free A Girl Movement will partner/associate with that city’s law university/college, for SFJ candidates’ admissions. “Upon securing admissions, SFJ will finance them through their entire three or five-year course and place them in strong internship programmes, with well-established firms, especially those experienced in human/sex trafficking and Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) cases,” affirms Gracias.
