Trade As One

Asia’s largest red-light district, Kamathipura, situated in Mumbai, is home to 20,000 sex slaves. The fourteen “lanes” of the district crawl with people: those in search of some instant, temporary gratification, those enslaved to a life of prostitution, whether by force or by “choice” (lacking a better option), and those who run it all. Each goes about their days with blank, stony expressions, lifelessness behind their eyes.

Then there’s a small group of people in the area who are different; they have hope in their eyes and passion and perseverance in their blood. As they encounter people on the streets and in the brothels, they treat them with with compassion and love. Their faith motivates them to stop to chat and to ask after individuals’ health, seven days a week.

These are Bombay Teen Challenge’s outreach workers. They take a unique approach to India’s sex slavery epidemic, choosing to form relationships with prostitutes and brothel owners alike, to befriend them and to regularly engage in their lives. As they gain the women’s trust, they teach them of their intrinsic value and worth, and offer them a way out of slavery.

As with many of the epidemics that plague India, the roots of Kamathipura go deep into India’s history, making the work to undo the damage done that much more complicated. BTC faces a great deal of opposition, not only from brothel owners and gang members, but also from corrupt police and government officials, who do not actually institute law as they should, and are often tempted with bribes.

Sitting uncomfortably in a cramped, dimly lit room on the bed of a prostitute, with shivers running down my spine, I looked into the lifeless eyes of a fifteen-year-old girl and tried not to fall apart completely. I was on the verge of tears, my heart crying for her brokenness, yelling at such injustice.

Once one delves into the issues of sex slavery and human trafficking, it becomes all too evident how complex and multi-faceted they are, and it is easy to lose hope for ending them. However, organizations such as BTC model how to strive for justice while continuing to love, how to persevere in the face of opposition, and how to live in the present while hoping for the future.