Chilling tradition of the town where every girl is born to be a sex slave
By Liz Hazelton
Last updated at 2:28 PM on 22nd September 2011
In a fetid shack swarming with flies, an old woman with a ravaged face is weeping so uncontrollably she struggles to speak.
When she does form words they are jerky and awkward, a string of incomprehensible denials. No, she does not remember. It was a long time ago. She does not understand how it happened.
Eventually, distraught, she wanders out into the filthy yard where chickens peck fruitlessly at the dry earth.
Emotional journey: Actor Anil Kapoor (seated right) talks to the mother of a woman (seated, left) who was sold into sex slavery as a young girl by her own family
Time warp: The woman said she could not remember how her daughter had come to be a sex slave and became increasingly distraught
It is deeply uncomfortable viewing. This old lady, so reduced by age and experience, has just been confronted with the hideous tradition at the heart of her community.
Her daughter - like virtually every other woman in this small Indian town - is a prostitute, sold into the sex trade when she was little more than a girl.
Twenty years on, she is the sole provider for her decimated family, including the mewling baby lying in a wooden crib.
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The child belongs to her dead brother. It is a terrible irony that he was the man who sold her into sexual slavery and destroyed her life.
The footage is part of a new CNN documentary Trapped By Tradition focusing on the town of Bharatpur, in the ancient state of Rajasthan.
It is fronted by the actor Anil Kapoor, best known in the West for his role as the quiz master in Slumdog Millionaire, and one of the most famous men in India.
Obligation: Her daughter (left, face obscured) is still working as a prostitute and is using every penny to support her family
Dependent: She is now supporting the child of her dead brother, the man who originally sold her into sexual slavery
Several months after his visit, he is still deeply disturbed by his encounter with the family.
'I didn't expect it,' he says. 'The condition of the house and the way they were living...'
For a second words fail him. Then he continues: 'The mother came and sat down and I started to speak with her. I asked her was she aware of what had happened, that her daughter was trafficked.
'You could see that she knew. She doesn't want to remember. She is completely not functioning. She is in a kind of time warp. She can't forgive herself.'
The film is part of CNN's Freedom Project, a year-long initiative which aims to expose the horrors of slavery in the 21st century.
And though the subject is heartrending, Kapoor's rapport with the community makes it deeply moving.
Welcoming committee: The town turns out to meet Kapoor as he visits Bharatpur for CNN
Traditional: The community has had a longstanding tradition of women going to work in the sex industry (there is no implication that any of the women pictured here are prostitutes)
Opportunity: Charity Plan India is working to change the traditions of the town by educating children
'I am very well-known in India,' he says, explaining the ease with which he persuaded people, including vulnerable women on the periphery of society, to talk.
'They know who I am and they've watched my films. I suppose I'm like a brother or a friend so they trust me.
'That is why they open up to me.'
It was not the 51-year-old actor's first visit to Bharatpur. He travelled there two years ago as part of his work for the charity Plan India, which protects children against abuse and exploitation.
The initial experience was so shattering, he describes himself as 'completely shocked.'
'It's a kind of tradition,' he explains. 'The society and the family do not see anything wrong. It is an obligation.'
Two years ago there were very few women in Bharatpur. Most were in Delhi or Mumbai, trafficked at a young age to sell their bodies and sending every penny back to support their families.
Plan India launched a programme to educate both the community and shatter hundreds of years of tradition which have blighted thousands of lives.
Conservative state: Bharatpur is in the northern province of Rajasthan
Superstar: Kapoor (right) with Dev Patel in hit film Slumdog Millionaire
Just 24 months on, it is already producing results.
'You can see the difference,' Kapoor says. 'There are schools there and they are trying their best not to send their girls away.
'There's still a long way to go but things have changed.'
He puts this down to a co-ordinated approach between the community, Plan India, the government and the police.
'There are some who are very responsible and are ashamed of what has happened,' he says.
'But there is a certain section of the town who still want to keep this tradition as if there was nothing wrong. It is these people who have to be punished.'
If the story of Bharatpur is heartbreaking, it is also one of hope.
Kapoor, who has starred in more than 150 films, highlights a young girl who tells him she is hoping to train as an actress.
She is the sister of the woman trafficked by her own brother so many years ago
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040138/Anil-Kapoor-Trapped-Tradition-Every-girl-born-sex-slave.html#ixzz1YjIg7WP3
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'Mother's home' saves Nepal's smuggled sex slaves
In a picture taken July 21, Nepalese social worker Anuradha Koirala gestures during …
The unassuming, slight, 62-year-old may look every bit the timid retiree but to the thousands of Nepalese girls she has rescued from a life of sex slavery she is the heroine they call "saviour".
Anuradha Koirala left teaching 18 years ago to devote her life to waging war on the traffickers who smuggle women and children into the brothels of India, where they are often raped, assaulted and starved.
From setting up a safe house in Kathmandu to a daring undercover raid on a Mumbai brothel, Koirala says she has helped more than 10,000 victims of a cruel underworld which sees victims trafficked daily across the border.
"I wish for a day when I don't have to look after any more victims," she told AFP. "I want the sex trafficking to end."
An estimated 12,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked each year, the victims of a cycle of unemployment, poverty, gender discrimination and a 10-year Maoist insurgency which wrecked the economy and ruined countless lives.
Some estimates put the number of victims trapped in India's lucrative sex industry at 200,000, while local NGOs in Mumbai have reported that about 40 percent of girls rescued from Mumbai brothels were Nepalese.
Koirala decided the misery had to end and in 1993 set up a charity she named Maiti Nepal -- using the Nepali word for "mother's home".
In August 1999 she risked her life to travel to Mumbai's most notorious streets, where mostly underage Nepalese girls are forced by brothel owners to sell their bodies to locals, businessmen and sex tourists.
In Kamathipura, the city's red light district, she pretended to be a fan among the entourage of the late actor and lawmaker Sunil Dutt, who was well-known for his social work visiting brothels and talking to sex workers.
But her cover was blown and the visit turned violent.
"The rescue was quite bizarre. The majority of the brothel owners turned out to be Nepalese who had themselves once been victims," said Koirala.
"It turned violent. The brothel owners and their aides started to hurl shoes and kitchenware at us. They even tried to hide the girls.
"They were mostly underage girls, many of them barely 12, and were kept in a structure where it was difficult even to breathe," she added.
Koirala, a mother of one, set up Maiti Nepal in Kathmandu after meeting dozens of homeless victims of domestic violence whose children were identified as a prime target for sex trafficking rackets.
She launched a network employing the women to sell cigarettes, chocolate and snacks from woven bamboo trays, and then rented a house to shelter 80 of the women's children.
Koirala's work now extends to the countryside around Kathmandu, where a centuries-old trade in sex trafficking is burgeoning.
Young and middle-aged men trick poor, jobless village girls into marrying them with promises of work in the cities, only to sell their new brides to Indian brothels.
The victims have their drinks spiked while travelling and are diverted to brothels, Koirala said.
"They usually find themselves in a strange place where an unfamiliar language is spoken," she said. "And from then, their life of misery begins."
One 16-year-old whose identity AFP is protecting had moved with her family to northern India and was trafficked into sex slavery by a 22-year-old man promising her a job in Mumbai.
"If I did not have sex with men, they would not give me food and torture me for hours," she said.
For 10 months her life was a living hell until she was rescued in a brothel raid by Maiti Nepal and local police two years ago.
Now studying in a school run by Maiti Nepal, the girl, who doesn't know where her parents now live, described Koirala as her "saviour".
"I had never imagined I would come out of the hell. I got new life which wouldn't have been possible without her," she said.
"I feel blessed to be able to get her love. Now, she's like my mother."
Maiti Nepal, whose growing list of patrons includes actresses Joanna Lumley and Demi Moore, came to the attention of the global media after Prince Charles visited in 1998 and donated more than $100,000 from the sale of his paintings.
It now boasts a sprawling complex of offices, a shelter, hospice and school, as well as a network of anti-trafficking checkpoints along the country's porous border with India.
Koirala, a recipient of the CNN Hero award last year, believes the fight against sex slavery is more important than ever.
"Now, the girls are trafficked to Middle East," she told AFP. "And domestic trafficking has significantly increased. Young girls from rural areas are lured into Kathmandu's thriving sex industry."
Koirala says shutting down her charity is her ultimate goal.
"I want to do this not because I'm tired of the work but because I don't want this problem to continue forever."