Red Light Girl Saviour

The teacher was horrified to learn the awful tales from the kids. Trina Talukdar was employed to teach the children of the women involved in the sex trade in Kalighat, Kolkata.

- F. M. BRITTO

These minor girls shared with the new teacher how they too had often been forced to work in the flesh trade against their will.

That night, 18-year-old Trina couldn’t sleep. She was further shocked to learn that more than three million females are trafficked in India every year; 40 per cent of them are minors. The girls, who should have been with their books in schools, are forced to please their customers. When these innocent girls don’t entertain their clients, they are starved and tortured.

Instead of selfishly pursuing her future career, the teenager decided to do something to save these hapless girls from sex slavery. Their agony spurred Trina’s passion to spend her life working for gender empowerment. She began to interact with commercial sex workers at Kalighat, one of Asia’s oldest and largest red-light areas.