Goa, India, January 3 (IPS) – For more than two decades, Nina has turned like a leaf in a storm. As a teenager, she was lured into the sex trade, and pimps kept a large portion of the money she earned as a sex slave. Nina is often bruised. Once, she refused to have sex with a man who didn’t want to use a condom. He beat her so hard that she found it hard to breathe.
One day, the police raid the facility where Nina and the other girls are kept as prisoners and arrest the pimps. The girls were taken to a shelter run by the local government. She, like many other trafficked women, abuses alcohol and smokes to relieve grief.
Nina is now in her thirties and has recovered from her addiction. Her life is quite comfortable compared to her twenties when she is forced to live in the company of traffickers and pimps.
Lisa Pires of the Presenting Sisters told IPS that she first met Nina in 2019. However, Pires refused to share Nina’s name and whereabouts. Today, both government officials and activists jealously protect the identities of all human trafficking survivors who are struggling to lead normal lives.
Survivors need help dealing with post-rescue trauma, and the experience they go through during identity interviews and legal proceedings is painful. Some face re-victimization and punishment for the crimes traffickers force them to commit. Others are stigmatized and have no support system.
Amala Kulandaisamy, 40, social activist and head of administration at central Nagoa, said: “We are happy to share the stories of the victims without revealing their exact identities because Society needs to listen to and learn from human trafficking survivors.
The Presentation Sisters have been working in Goa since 1967.
The Nagoa Center opened in 2001 in the hometown of Pires ancestors. Her parents donated the 110-year-old house to the Order of the Presenting Sisters.
Pires joined this order in 1958 and shared her concerns about what is happening to young women today.
Nina’s story, says Pires, is similar to that of countless Indian women from impoverished areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP) trafficked to Goa for commercial sexual exploitation.
Surrounded by half a dozen hungry siblings, a mother with mental health problems and an alcoholic father, Nina ran away from the village when she was 15 years old. Soon, a group of boys picked up the vulnerable Nina. They promised her a job in Goa.
Goa is considered an important destination in India for human trafficking and related commercial sex activities. Girls and women are trafficked to Goa from almost every state in India, including the countryside near Goa. They are also trafficked from Nepal, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Russia and Thailand. Although fewer women are trafficked from Nepal, the number of people trafficked from Bangladesh has increased.
Prostitution is largely concentrated in the coastal belt of North Goa, with maximum police rescue operations taking place around the stunning beaches of Calangute and Arjuna. Commercial prostitution is now believed to be spreading from the tourist areas of the North Goa coastal belt inland and away from the tourist centers.
Throughout the last year, Pires has worked to reduce human trafficking. The theme for 2021 is Victim Voices leading the way, with activists setting aside time for victims of trafficking to counsel them. Survivors are seen as key in the fight against human trafficking. Themes focus on preventing crime, identifying and rescuing survivors, and assisting them on their path to recovery.
Locals are encouraged to do background checks on those wanting to rent accommodation and to ensure that tenants are not involved in any human trafficking activities.
The Presenting Sisters are diligent in their work against trafficking in women and children and are sensitive to their sexual exploitation. They provide alternative employment opportunities for survivors and are constantly raising awareness against this organized crime.
An important exercise today is to document the experiences of survivors without disclosing their identities.
The idea is to turn survivors’ suggestions into concrete action – a more survivor-centered approach to combating human trafficking and encouraging legislators to pass legislation that will better protect than citizens who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and ensure they receive justice.
They argue that there should be stricter regulation of massage parlors and bars, where there are levels of sexual exploitation of vulnerable people.
ARZ, based in Vasco, Goa recommends that women engaged in commercial sex activities be rescued and not arrested by the police. It recommends, among other things, a speedy trial of crimes under the Immorality Prevention Act and the creation of a special court that would convict offenders – who often escape punishment. .
ARZ is the publisher of Beautiful Women, a book about ten inspirational stories of sex trafficking women and some of them who work at Swift Wash, a laundromat run by the organization. this office was established.
Nina is so lucky. She survived the mining and recently visited Potta, a famous temple town in Kerala. Here she experienced mental calm and returned to Goa to find a casual job as a carer in a private home.
This is part of a series of global features on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Corporation.
The Global Sustainability Network (GSN) http://gsngoal8.com/ is pursuing United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 ‘taking immediate measures’ and effectively to eliminate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and ensure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, including the recruitment and use of soldiers. child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labor in all its forms’.
The origin of the GSN comes from the efforts of the Joint Declaration between Religious Leaders signed on December 2, 2014. Religious leaders of different faiths, gathered to work together “to defend human dignity and freedom against extreme forms of globalization of indifference, such as our exploitation, forced labor, prostitution, trafficking people “.
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