I am not for Sale!

Once just casually, my social studies sir asked me, “Atima, do you know from where your maid belongs?” and very casually I replied, “West Bengal”. He promptly replied, “No! She’s not from Bengal. She is definitely from Bangladesh because these labour-class people just give about ten rupees to the boat skipper and he’ll let you cross the river and you’ll reach India”. I didn’t listen to him carefully and took these words in a very easy-going manner. Four years later, his words echoed in my ears when I read of human trafficking and especially, women trafficking in India. About thousands of young girls and women are forcefully brought to India and made to work as prostitutes in the brothels all over India. For those who are new to this concept, human trafficking is illegal in almost every part of the world and so is in India. Women and girls are trafficked in the country for domestic helps, bonded labour, commercial sexual exploitation and for forced marriages [in regions where the sex ratio is highly skewed in favour of men]. India is the destination for women and girls brought from Nepal and Bangladesh crossing the borders for illegal trafficking here.

Women trafficking in India leads to many physical and mental issues of such unfortunate and luckless women. Women involved in prostitution are mostly prone to HIV, TB and STD’s because condoms are rarely used in such cases and this makes them vulnerable to STD’s and unwanted pregnancies. Further, these unwanted pregnancies of HIV infected women affect their foetus and leads to the spread of such infectious diseases. Illiteracy, poverty and helplessness are the major reasons of this rising trend of prostitution in today’s era. It wasn’t like women trafficking never occurred before, but this illegal activity gained its momentum because of rising prices and inflation, which further encouraged such illegal activities and forced hapless women to get into this filthy, dreadful manholes. Have you ever seen such prostitutes on roads late night? Ever seen them wearing revealing clothes and walking freely around the local areas in such an unsafe city, Delhi? Do you know the reason why the archaic dance bars in Mumbai were forced to shut-off? It sounds weird but at the same time it is very unfortunate that being a part of such a rapidly developing nation, a lot of people are forced to get involved in such illegal activities just for their daily bread and butter for their survival.

In a thoughtful, unspeakable and outrageous mood, I bring about an end to this article but not to the questions which are surfacing in my mind. All of them asking just one question alike- Why?         ———— About the Author: This article is contributed by Atima Dhall, our intern. Atima is an under-graduate from Shyama Prasad Mukherjee college, Delhi University. She aims to conquer the world with her writing and sights at instigating people to differentiate between black and white,i.e. justice and bigotry. With immense optimism and buoyancy, she scrutinizes her society and intends to work for its betterment through her writing.