Combat Trafficking. Save our Children.

Story of Ruhi........

“It has been three years since then but I could still recall every bit of that chilly wintry night. At midnight Mausi, the brothel owner gushed in my room and took me along with my ten other friends in a small dark room. There was a mirror in that room with a death trap behind. It was a hidden chamber. Mausi removed the mirror from the wall, opened the door of that chamber and we were forced to get stacked inside it, hands and legs folded. The door was locked immediately. There was absolute darkness inside. We could not move, could not breathe. It was so suffocating. Death was hovering around us. I was about to sacrifice my senses when that miracle happened. The door opened and we were rescued by the men in uniform. They saved me after four years of imprisonment in Kamathipura. But they could not save Jyoti, my friend. She was stamped inside the chamber before the police could reach.”

That was the story of Ruhi (name withheld), 15 years old who was rescued by the cops from the Kamathipura red light area in Mumbai. Ruhi was born in a small village in Maharashtra wherefrom she was trafficked at the age of 12.

Ruhi is not an exception. Every year in India thousand of women and children get trafficked. Trafficking of women and children has emerged as the third largest industry after arms and drugs trade. According to many, trafficking is a low-investment, high-profit business. Girls are bought for a little as Rs. 1000 per girl. Young girls especially between the age group of 12-18 years continue to be the main targets of traffickers. This is because the clients are more eager to have sex with virgins. Situation is same worldwide. Young boys and girls are bought and sold like cattle and they become the victims of extreme physical and sexual exploitations.

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