sex trade

Subhasree and Nihar Raptan are helping trafficking survivors who have to deal with the social stigma attached to their past after going through physical and psychological trauma of being forced into the sex trade.

I am in the heart of North Mumbai’s lesser-known red-light district where underworld crime syndicates run prostitution rings. This is where spine-chilling and heart-wrenching stories come alive.

“When I realised I was pregnant, the first feeling was of fear. I was afraid of the world and how it would receive or treat my child. People around me kept pushing me towards abortion. They said that I was not fit to be a mother. But, who are they to tell me if I will be a good mother or not?"

“It was after a jarring incident, when a desperately hungry child asked his mother to take a customer, that the gravity of the situation hit me hard.”

Sex workers usually come from economically marginalised communities where they are often denied the education or skills required to secure employment in the formal sector.

A devadasi recounts her journey from suffering horrifying sexual abuse as a teen to becoming independent and raising her two daughters with quality education.