“Mumbai:  A two-month-old baby was stolen from Girgaum and later sold for Rs. 12,000 to a brothel keeper in Kamathipura. Police managed to recover the baby and arrest the culprits on Sunday. Officials believe the gang used to steal infants regularly and traffic them in the red-light area.”

Read more at Two-month-old sold to brothel for Rs 12, 000.

Read more at Rani Hong: Voice of Survivors: Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
Flannery O’Connor

A flat fronted van, we are in four rows, our luggage in a fifth. Our driver only speaks Nepali and our host broken English.

“These lower caste.” He says, his arms spread wide, encompassing everything we can see from small, square windows. A shanty-town, blue tarps, brown ground, bloodshot eyes, this was the price they paid for their last name.

“So there’s no getting out of this?” I ask. “Not even if they get an education?”

“Education? No. These lower caste. No education for them.”

“So how do they get out? What hope do they have?”

He shrugs, looks forward again. I wait for an answer. “Sometime they get jobs out of here, out of Nepal. Thailand. India. You know?”

It’s a few years later and I am meeting a girl named Rehka. She shares a last name with that of my Nepali host years ago, but she’s traveled to America from India. I ask her if she is Nepali. “Yes!” She nods, her eyes lighting up. “You know Nepal?”

“I know Nepal,” I say. I remember the shanty town, the tarps, the hopelessness of faces caged in by genes and a system so unjust to my western ethnocentricity.

Rehka is beautiful, with the light, gentle look for which the Nepali are known. Her wide set eyes are bright, her skin clear, her smile brilliant. She laughs easily and is comfortable immediately among us. She sits gracefully on the floor of our office and tackles a menial task I’ve been putting off in the busyness of the week. She chatters in Hindi and English, switching easily between the two, even though neither are her native language.

She seems like royalty in joyful servitude. A humbling juxtaposition.

And yet, Rehka was sold by her older brother into a scheme more complicated than she could have ever imagined.

The caste system is as unjust as it seems to any westerner raised in an equal-opportunity culture. If “If you can dream it, you can achieve it,” is the our mantra, then “Keep your eyes down, and get what you’re given,” is the mantra of the lower castes. Illegal activity, therefore, seems to be the only way for them to get a little pocket change—which is all her brother received in the trade for her life.

Rehka was drugged repeatedly and driven to Asia’s largest Red-Light District in Mumbai, India. Passed from person to person, each one a different link in a chain that closed more tightly around her over the next week, until she was caged completely.

For the next few weeks Rehka was drugged intermittently and beaten regularly. When her resolve and will were finally perceived to be broken, she was delivered the news that she now owed an insurmountable debt to her captors which could only be paid back one way: sex.

In five years, a child goes from infancy to speaking in full sentences, writing simple ones.

In five years, a gangly middle-schooler graduates valedictorian.

In five years, a hard-worker at a blue collar job in America can make $125,000.

In five years, Rehka was raped an average of 20 times a day. About 36,500 sexual assaults. At the equivalent average of $1 an act, and yet she still could not pay the fullness of her “debt” to her captors.

When she met the director of our rescue program in India, she was broken and void.

I met her seven years later, carrying herself like humble royalty.

As I ask her about her story, she glows, recounting how excited she is to be a part of a ministry that is rescuing girls like her and rehabilitating them, loving them, counseling them, offering them something that supersedes any caste system: the Gospel.

When she says this, I realize that the rescue of trafficked victims is so much more than beating a system, shutting down brothels, arresting pimps, madams, and greedy older brothers. The rescue of trafficked victims is the reflection of the heart of the Father.

The Father says, come to me, all you who are weary, burdened, heavy laden.

All of you.

All.

The caste system seems to be one of the most unjust systems implemented any religion I see around me, subjecting humans to begging, stealing, and selling humans. The sex-trade system seems to be a system of dogs, beating children into submission to horrific acts. The rescue of these girls seems impossible, 60,000 women in this red-light district ALONE. The finances needed to compete with a $32 billion a year global industry, seem insurmountable.

But for the Gospel.

The Gospel.

The Gospel breaks into these castes and levels them, setting free captives in red-light districts and in shanty slums. The Gospel breaks into my western ethnocentricity and levels me at my heart—these are humans, living, breathing, thinking humans, no different than me. The Gospel is the only thing that can penetrate the hearts traffickers and victims alike—the only thing that can free them from the cage of greed and the brothel cage.

“Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
– Isaiah 43:5-7

If you’d like to share this post on Twitter or Facebook, consider using using this copy:

A true story from @loreferguson on the Red-Light District: http://bit.ly/xmOrU2 #humantrafficking

You can participate and make a difference, by helping to rescue and restore victims:

$1,800 rescues and provides one year of care for a girl

$ 900 rescues and provides for 6 months of care

$ 450 rescues and supports a girl for 3 months

$ 150 supports a rescued girl for one month

If you can’t give $150 please consider giving $75 to combine with another’s gift to rescue a woman or young girl from this injustice.

or take a pledge to end this horrible form of slavery…

“‪Human trafficking is a $32 billion global industry, the fastest growing and second largest criminal activity in the world, tied with arms and after drug dealing. I applaud President Obama’s effort to bring this issue to the forefront in the minds of Americans by proclaiming January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

“Modern slavery takes many forms, including forced labor, sex trafficking and involuntary domestic servitude. There is no one type of victim — men and women, adults and children are all vulnerable. From every corner of our nation to every part of the globe, we must stand firm with victims.

“In June, I launched a National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) presidential initiative called ‘Pillars of Hope: Attorneys General Unite Against Human Trafficking.’ Attorneys General will continue to make the case that action must be taken to hold traffickers accountable, to mobilize care for victims and to build public awareness.

“Although law enforcement has made great strides, more work needs to be done. We stand with those throughout the world working every day to end modern slavery, bring traffickers to justice, and empower survivors to reclaim their freedom. I urge all Americans to educate themselves about all forms of modern slavery and the signs and consequences of human trafficking. Together, we will combat this crime within our borders and join with our partners around the world to end it.”

via NAAG | January Proclaimed As National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

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“An American baseball player scaling an African mountain for an Indian charity might seem an odd way to draw attention to human trafficking.Steve Mitchell/Associated PressNew York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey.But that’s just what R.A. Dickey is doing. The Mets pitcher is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, which peaks at more than 19,000 feet above sea level and documenting it on Bats, The New York Times’ Baseball blog in part to bring awareness and money to stop sexual slavery thousands of miles away in the gritty lanes of Kamathipura – Mumbai’s largest red light district.”

via What’s R.A. Dickey Climbing For? – NYTimes.com.

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The President of the United States has declared that January is National Human Trafficking Prevention month for modern day slavery. The month is organized to bring awareness to human trafficking in the United States and abroad. The Congress has declared January 11, National Human Trafficking Awareness day.

Right now their are 27 million slaves estimated in the World, even though this number is considered to be on the low side. The number of children that is believed to be enslaved in the World is 13 million. Human rights watch states that are 1 billion in India alone.

via National Human Trafficking Prevention Month this January – Fort Worth Human Trafficking | Examiner.com.

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President Obama is declaring January National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

“We stand with all those who are held in compelled service,” Obama wrote in a proclamation issued today. “We recognize the people, organizations and government entities that are working to combat human trafficking; and we recommit to bringing an end to this inexcusable human rights abuse.”

Read more at: Obama declares human trafficking prevention month.

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via Four burgeoning suburban slums dwarf Dharavi – Times Of India.

via Tracking Hunger | A nutrition crisis amid prosperity – Economy and Politics – livemint.com.

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PUNE: Of the estimated 45,000 children dying each year due to malnutrition in Maharashtra, only around 12,000 are severe malnutrition cases. The remaining 33,000 children succumb due to mild or moderate malnutrition. Also, malnutrition is the underlying cause in about 480 of the 2,850 maternal deaths each year in the state.

via ‘45000 child malnutrition deaths every yr in Maharashtra’ – Times Of India.