THE RICKSHAW PULLED UP a short distance away from our destination—the driver was reluctant to go any closer. I had arrived at Rampur, an area of Forbesganj, a city near the Nepal border in Bihar. With me was Sanju Jha, an employee of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an NGO with the stated goal of ending sex trafficking. Apne Aap operates a centre in Rampur’s red-light area, where it claims to have made great strides towards its mission. “We have not been able to stop it completely but we have saved the next generation from this work,” Jha told me on our rickshaw ride. “Now, women venture out into public spaces. They go to see a doctor. They even go to the bank.”
At the centre, Jha told me that sex work was long an inter-generational occupation in the area, but “it has stopped with their fourth generation, which is under our guidance, because we have completely connected them with education.” Children were now imploring their mothers to quit sex work, she added, and the presence of Apne Aap’s workers also deterred soliciting. “We are on duty for eight hours here,” she said, and “the work done by existing sex workers in those eight hours is next to nothing.”
Denne historien er fra June 2020-utgaven av The Caravan.
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Denne historien er fra June 2020-utgaven av The Caravan.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Mob Mentality
How the Modi government fuels a dangerous vigilantism
RIP TIDES
Shahidul Alam’s exploration of Bangladeshi photography and activism
Trickle-down Effect
Nepal–India tensions have advanced from the diplomatic level to the public sphere
Editor's Pick
ON 23 SEPTEMBER 1950, the diplomat Ralph Bunche, seen here addressing the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The first black Nobel laureate, Bunche was awarded the prize for his efforts in ending the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Shades of The Grey
A Pune bakery rejects the rigid binaries of everyday life / Gender
Scorched Hearths
A photographer-nurse recalls the Delhi violence
Licence to Kill
A photojournalist’s account of documenting the Delhi violence
CRIME AND PREJUDICE
The BJP and Delhi Police’s hand in the Delhi violence
Bled Dry
How India exploits health workers
The Bookshelf: The Man Who Learnt To Fly But Could Not Land
This 2013 novel, newly translated, follows the trajectory of its protagonist, KTN Kottoor.