This International Women’s Day, we want to share with you the experiences of the #PowerfulWomenOfAHT. In this interview, Triveni Acharya, Founder of Rescue Foundation, spoke to us about the challenges of running an Anti-Human Trafficking NGO in India. 

What is the biggest challenge of running an NGO addressing sex trafficking issues in India?

In the last 25 years, the challenges that we have faced has definitely decreased but they are still there of course. An NGO needs funds to be able to run its programs well. Most importantly, you need local funds and support also considering local funders understand the challenges of the country’s systems well. But there is very less support from local funders for this cause. Even today, there is social stigma among the local people. They perceive the crime of human trafficking as sex work and do not see the need to help these trafficking victims because of that. The general understanding is that people think there is consent involved without having an understanding of the context of the consent. People assume that the women from Kamathipura who stand on the roads with their lipsticks on are doing so because this is what they have always wanted to do. People assume and judge them and hence, find it difficult to see them as victims of a crime. For me, this has been the biggest challenge. It is important for me that I hire the best staff to ensure that my programs are executed well and our beneficiaries get access to the best support. We need good social workers and qualified counsellors to ensure better impact on field but this will not be possible if I do not get access to sufficient funding.

It saddens me to say that trafficking was unknown a few decades back and continues to be unknown even today. This makes running an anti-human trafficking NGO even more challenging. People do not know about the violence that these women endure so if you don’t know about the crime, will you even think of fighting it in the first place? People still don’t know what shelter homes are and why they are important. When they come to
donate to the shelter home, they expect to take photos with the children which we do not allow. They don’t understand the importance of protecting the identity of the children which worries me.

If you could improve one law or policy that will help protect girls and women from Trafficking, what change would you bring?

If I get the opportunity, the first step I will take is to choke the demand. By that I mean I will implement a strict policy to discourage demanding for paid sex. Men who demand for sex from young girls and children have to be stopped by the law. Ideally, they should be punished severely to ensure that they are intimidated to take these steps. The punishment should be equivalent to that of rape cases which is basically a non-bailable offence. The clients who come to the red light areas to participate in the sex trade are the ones who should be booked.

I personally believe that regulating demand is a good way to ensure that vulnerable girls are not being exploited.

You have spent so many years restoring victims across country borders. Please share your most satisfying experience with us.

I can proudly say that we were able to start an official cross-border repatriation effort with Bangladesh in 2008. I will always remember that as a consequence of all our efforts. Before 2008, the repatriation process was complicated because we had to take the girls to the border and BSF used to then take them to their respective locations from there. At that time, we were able to do cross-border repatriation with ease in Nepal. The Nepal embassy would not interfere with the process and we would cross the borders and ensure that the girls are reaching home safe. But, in the case of Bangladesh, we wanted to try harder to ensure safe repatriation. The process started in 2007 with Bangladeshi officials coming down to Mumbai. They interviewed the girls who were meant to be repatriated to Bangladesh and obtained a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Home Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs. Subsequently, in 2008, the Ministry of External Affairs of India spoke to the Bangladesh High Commission and their respective Ministries to officiate the repatriation process. For the first time, we took 27 girls from Mumbai to Dhaka by air and the handover process was an official one. This was a proud moment for me which made me feel contented with the work I do. I also felt happy that Maharashtra was the first state to initiate an official repatriation. But, like all other experiences in our line of work, there were some challenges. We had ensured that we protect the identity of the girls in India but when we landed in Dhaka, we saw camera and news persons waiting to click pictures. This infuriated us because we realize the importance of protecting the identities of the girls. Some people around us started commenting on the girls that they had come back after engaging in activities that were not “good”. We had to fight the media persons in Bangladesh to ensure their identities were protected. Thankfully, we were successful.

In your observation what is it that people misunderstand about Human Trafficking?

The social stigma and the judgement that surrounds women in the sex trade really bothers me. People do not have sympathy for these women because they have no idea what they have to go through. Sometimes, at Rescue Foundation, we get calls from people to rescue birds and animals by mistake. I wonder if the same people will be alert enough on trains to observe whether children are being trafficked and then call us to complain about that. They do not even know about the basic nature of the crime so they are not alert about contributing in fighting it. I have noticed that there is some awareness in urban areas but it is negligible in smaller places and that concerns me because this crime is spreading to these less prominent towns and villages too.

Another misunderstanding among people is between sex work and human trafficking. They are not the same but people do not know the difference. They assume that women in the red light areas are sex workers who have consented as adults to be in the trade. They also believe that these women are in the sex trade because they have made that choice and that they always have a choice to leave if they want. The challenge that stands
before us to explain that choice cannot be looked at in isolation and that these choices are made in very difficult contexts. I remember thinking the same way when I was working as a professional journalist decades ago. The knowledge around this crime is so low that even though I was an educated professional, I could not comprehend the nature and severity of the crime of human trafficking.
 

Lastly, another misunderstanding that I have observed is with respect to shelter homes. Since Rescue Foundation runs shelter homes of its own, we have faced some challenges due to these misunderstandings. People who live near our shelter homes do not understand that this is a protective home. They refer to as ‘ladkiyon ki jail’ or the prison for women. Even in today’s time when access to information is easy, they think that these girls have been caught doing something wrong and so the police pick them up and drop
them here. They are unable to empathize with the girls because they have no awareness about the suffering and trauma that they have had to endure.

Do you think common people who are not from this domain and space in contribute towards Anti-Human Trafficking? If yes, how can they contribute?

I definitely think that everyone can contribute. But there are two groups that I personally think can contribute the most. They are – the media and the youth. Media can take the responsibility and the ownership to spread more awareness about human trafficking while sharing updates on rescues in the news. Similarly, young people can spread awareness utilising social media channels. With respect to spreading awareness, I think young people should focus on reducing the demand. They should gain knowledge and become aware before sharing the importance of not demanding paid sex in India. Young people should be made aware about commercial sexual exploitation at the earliest.

The best way to contribute towards anti-human trafficking work is by becoming aware and then taking the effort to spread this awareness. This will eventually lead to more people contributing towards preventing this crime actively.

What advice would you give young girls or women wanting to start an NGO or social enterprise of their own?

When we started an NGO, our motivation was never to start an organization. We went to rescue one girl from the red light areas and ended up rescuing 15 others. The next step for us was to try and rehabilitate or repatriate them. We struggled with each case and in some cases, families did not accept the girls because of the stigma around their experience. This motivated us to start shelter homes so that we could provide a safe space to these girls who had been through so much trauma at such a young age. Our next motivation after that was to try and create alternate livelihoods for their future so that they are able to lead a safe and normal life. All these experiences were the motivation behind us starting our own organization. If young people want to start their own organizations, they can do that only if they are committed to the cause just like we were. If they are motivated to be change agents, I suggest that they begin by volunteering in an existing organization and contribute individually to the cause. Eventually they can go ahead and start their own organizations. However, they must remember that running an NGO can become challenging every single day. Their ultimate goal should be to do whatever they can do. Even something as small as spreading awareness using social media can have a much larger impact. I remember when the Nirbhaya case happened, people raised their voice for safety of women in public spaces. They were determined and protested against the injustice. What happened then? The government had to make amendments and allocate funds for the cause. We must remember that rapes happen frequently in red light areas. The rights of these women are violated almost every day. I hope the youth can raise their voice against these crimes the same way they raise their voice in rape cases. I hope that the next time there is news of a child getting exploited, young people will raise their voice, be alert and protest.

How did COVID affect your organization’s work and was there any impact on you/your work individually as a woman?

We had both good and bad experiences during the COVID induced lockdown. One major concern for us was the lack of transportation which meant that the staff in our shelter homes could not travel to and fro from the homes to their houses. So, some of the staff had to become residential.  In my case, I did not work from home. I worked from our shelter in Bohisar. That was my home for 8 months. I played the role of a house mother and a superintendent in those months. My shelter home staff eventually started taking turns to come and stay at the homes. For example, if four of the social workers stayed for 2-3 weeks, then another four of them would come and replace them and stay for some time. This ensured that they got time to spend with family too. One good consequence of the lockdown was the self-reliance among the girls. Since they were cut off from everyone and were also watching news of how people were affected by COVID, they took it upon themselves to keep themselves occupied. Earlier we used to have trainers and teachers for a diverse set of activities for the girls but that got affected due to the lockdown. The girls started taking different classes for their peers – from jewellery making to yoga to zumba classes. When we saw them taking this initiative, we decided to give them more responsibility by bringing them on board as trainers. We finally appointed 8 girls as trainers and 4 girls as caregivers. Another challenge we faced was the low morale of the girls. Some of them could not go back because cross-border repatriation had stopped. The others were upset that they were unable to meet their families. The biggest challenge for us was that a lot of our efforts had to be paused. Our rescue operations were paused and so were our legal processes. We were not able to cater to the complaints that we received via Childline. Having said all of that, I believe COVID taught us a lot and made us stronger than ever before.