RED LIGHT AREA RISING – Voices from India

What Justice Means to US

I will continue my fight – Fatima Khatoon  15th January

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“Every struggle has victory hidden in it. If I don’t fight now, how will I change things for the coming generations?”

I started my fight from my home right after I got married. I had to fight them because they bought and sold many girls and were a part of the sex-trade in Uttari Rampur, Forbesganj. My family and my thinking are very different. When I was little I did not know much. I used to see these girls putting make-up and going out everyday. I was not allowed to talk to them and was threatened to not interact with them at all. But I was very curious about them and I spoke to some of them. After I talked to them I realized that they were forced to prostitute themselves. One day, my family was away for a wedding and I was alone at home. I spoke to four girls that day and helped them escape. When my family came back, they were shocked to find this and hit me black and blue. I was tortured for three days – constantly beaten up and kept without food or water.

Every time I was beaten up I got very angry but deep down, I was very happy that I could save those girls. My mother-in-law was very angry as our family’s finances came from prostituting those girls. My family’s source of income was not there anymore because of me. I knew that Apne Aap Women Worldwide’s community workers were talking to people in our area. I approached them to help me. Earlier, I used to watch them from a distance and did not have the courage to approach them. One of them suggested that I should join them to fight what was going on in the red light area. I realized that I could not carry this fight alone. I decided to join them because they were fighting for our rights and had other women like me. I persistently kept persuading my family to allow me to work with Apne Aap. Finally, they got tired and angry of it and gave me permission to join Apne Aap’s movement. They still regret the decision till date.

At Apne Aap, the world changed for me. I heard the community workers talk about women’s rights and entitlements. I wanted to know them better to tell the other women in the red light area. Gradually I started telling them how we could stop the violence that we faced. Apne Aap helped me to understand how we could tackle this violence. The women were reluctant and scared first, they were afraid that they would be thrown out of their houses and that nobody would support them. So, I began alone. I became a rebel. I talked to all the women and constantly kept telling them about their rights and how we all together could save ourselves. There came a time when they realized that I was not going to give up as I was constantly fighting and talking about our rights. So, they decided to join me. We created a Mahila Mandal (women’s group). Our aim was to talk to the mothers first as I knew they would be the best people to understand the need to protect their children. They asked me how to do this and prepared themselves for a very tough road ahead. They started sending their children to Apne Aap’s Basti Vikas Kendra (community centre) for learning and livelihood training.

The next step was to rescue the girls trapped in this horrendous profession. An annual fair takes place in Uttari Rampur’s red light area where girls are exhibited and purchased for brothels. They are made to dance in skimpy clothes like in some bars. We thought that we should do something about this and informed the police. We appealed to them to raid the fair and rescue the girls. We never imagined what followed after this. The plan backfired. The police did not raid the fair but instead they raided our homes in the red light area and picked up 22 girls and 45 boys. My twelve-year-old daughter was also picked up even though they knew that I was fighting very much against this whole system of sex-trade and trafficking. I screamed, fought and even pleaded with them but they took her away. The pain that one goes through when a mother’s child is taken away from her is the cruelest thing in the world. I was in utter shock as my world came crashing down. But then I saw the other mothers also crying for their children. It dawned on me that at least I knew how to carry this fight but they had no clue and were helpless. We all went to the police station and sat there the whole night while our children were kept in the locker. These children were between 8 to 17 years of age. In the morning, the police declared them all criminals. They sent them for medical check ups. Some of the girls who were actually prostituted were let off as their pimps paid money to the police. The other children who were students at Apne Aap’s Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) hostel cum school were not released.  Some of the girls were released two months later, after we showed they various certificates repeatedly, like that of the school they were registered at. The girls were socially ostracized, laughed at, discriminated and shunned once they were back at their schools. They were completely broken as their classmates and teachers embarrassed them constantly by asking about being in police custody. My daughter said that she did not want to go to school, as she could not take it anymore. I told her to avoid them.

I was moved by this incident and thought that my child had to go through this because of me. So, I decided to make my daughter stronger and prepare her for this tough struggle. I told her to tell others that we live in the red light area, and we are trying to get an education to change our lives, and that we were arrested for this courage because your mother decided to fight this violence on her and others like her.

Today things have changed very little. The pimp, Gainur, bought another girl and forced her into prostitution in front of our eyes. He roams freely as he has very good connections with the police. My fight will go on to challenge criminals like him, to get them arrested and seek justice. I ask you all, I want to ask the government, how is that we call ourselves a free country when there are women like us who have no choices and are truly not free in any way and trapped in prostitution? I urge you all to work with us, support us and not look down on us because we live in red light areas. The girls and women in the red light areas do not want to sell their bodies, it is these men who buy their bodies that makes this trade thrive today and continues to ruin the lives of women like us.


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Born a Criminal? – Md Kalam  16th January 

“ We have no social- political acceptance in our own country.  I am determined to save the lives of the girls and women who have no choice and have no experience of violence-free life.”

When I think of my childhood days, I don’t know from where to begin. My father was a patient of asthma. When he used to have bouts of asthma, he used to lie down on bed. The older people at home used to remain busy in their own work.  My father used to befriend the children at home. He used to tell us all kinds of stories, stories from past, our own history. He told that only I was born after they had settled down in Bihar. The rest of my siblings were born in different states when they were traveling from one state to another like many others nomads from his community.

The majority of our clans-men used to do snake charming, tattooing, livestock rearing, selling herbal medicines. These were our major occupations. Cattle-rearing was the most common for the nomadic communities as these were reared to carry our belongings when we used to move from one place to another. Our community came to a place called Giddharpatty in Bihar and got settled there. After few months, the police came and arrested men from our community. They told that a robbery had happened in ‘x’ village, and our male members have committed that robbery. Without paying slightest heed to their plea that they were not there when this had happened,  the police men beat up the male members from our community mercilessly. My father got hurt on his chest and later this led to permanent damage of his lungs.

After a few months, he started huffing and puffing whenever he tried to walk a little with his bungee where he used to keep the snakes.  By then his elder brother, my uncle, settled  down in the village of Khawaspur. Actually the local landlord allowed him to settle there in lieu of sexually using his daughter.

My father’s income was dwindling. My mother used to move around villages and make tattoos. But that was not sufficient to support the family of nine people. Then my uncle asked my father to come and live with him in the same village. My father had no alternative but to listen to him. My family survived somehow for one year. But then it became almost impossible to survive. Eventually the pressure started mounting on my elder sister to get prostituted like her cousin sister. Looking at the despondent state of our family, my sister had no option but to let herself get prostituted. She was only thirteen years old at that time. Gradually, three of my other sisters were also forced into prostitution.

Our house was situated outside the village along with other marginalized communities like Doms and Mushahars. The buyers from other villages used to visit the brothel during daytime, whereas, the local villagers used to frequent during night. My elder sister tried very hard to educate my other two brothers. But they dropped out after attending the local school for a year or two.

It was very easy for any outsider to come and attack us because the local villagers never come to our rescue. My brothers used to hunt and do nothing else. The only time they used to go out other than this, was to buy food from the local market. All the time, they used to be treated as untouchables. No body used to come and eat with us. We were completely socially excluded. Even within that small village, our settlement was like an island. Our community used to interact within themselves only, the children, the adults or the aged.

There was a custom that during Dussehra, the women from our community would have to line up in front of our houses when the landlord would go on a round about the village. They used to throw some money on the folds of the sarees of the women. In the evening, some of those women from our community used to be called into his court.

Every year, during winter, mela (village fairs) used to be held throughout Bihar. This is the time when the demand for prostitution used to be the highest. My mother used to escort my sisters to different melas where they were kept in temporary brothels. The contractor used to fix a rate which he used to collect from the girls every day. He had to bribe the police out of that collection. So, there used to be huge pressure on the girls to earn more money to cover up all the costs and then save money for their families as well. For that, each girl had to get raped at least twenty-five or thirty times a day. The villagers used to ask – how much does the kilo of flesh costs ? It meant how much they would have to pay for raping the girl.

My mother also used to tug me along with her. My elder sister felt that I would not be able to attend any school if I keep moving with them. So, she took me to another small town, Saharsa where she herself started living in a big brothel and put me into a residential school. I was a child then. I used to get very upset upon the fact that she would not visit me regularly. When I used to complain about that, she used to tell me that as a student my only duty is to study hard.

When I look back today, I wonder how many levels of discrimination and exploitation a women from our community goes through in her life. Every girl I try to save reminds me of the pain and sufferings of my own sister.

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Last year, after a sting operation against a trafficking ring, Md. Kalam was falsely implicated and kept in a police lock up for five nights. Even though later police investigations reveals that he had been falsely arrested charges against Kalam have still not been dropped. On behalf of the Nat Community of Rampur, a PIL was initiated by Apne Aap Women Worldwide asking the Bihar government the status on the what measures were being undertaken to address human trafficking in the state of Bihar. The PIL further appealed for the dropping of charges against Kalam’s pending case, who after his initial arrest was released since police investigations revealed that the wrong person was arrested to this end Kalam even began an online petition.


The Importance of a Girl’s Education – Neeta’s View  17th January 

The importance of educating girls is often repeated within international development circles as gospel, but it’s sometimes forgotten how difficult it can be to convince people to readjust their views of a girl’s role in the family and to view investment in a girl’s education as having the best long-term payoff for everyone. Neeta’s words demonstrate the difficulty in keeping girls in rural India in school:

“My name is Neeta and I have studied up to the 10th grade, only to be removed by my parents because they only see the value in educating their son. They believe the son is more likely to be able to care for them in their old age and point to the other girls in the village who also stay home as a way of backing up their decision. I want to stay in school but I cannot fight against my parents wishes.”

Read here about Apne Aap’s efforts on behalf of girls’ education.


Breaking Everyday Barriers  18th January 

On January 18, some children from Apne Aap’s children’s programs participated in a community fair that brought together more than 100 children from surrounding areas. The children enjoyed learning new skills and expanding their horizons. Rani Khatoon said, “I enjoyed this workshop. I chose crafts because this is one of my favorite things – I get to show my own innovations. I would like to participate again in this kind of workshop next year.” Another girl, Madhu Paswan, said “I chose pottery because I saw many women in my village doing pottery. As I am staying with my family at Munshigunj, I never get the chance to do pottery but this time when I heard about pottery, I felt excited.” Radha Prasad said “I enjoyed this program because I got the chance to choose my favorite activity – dance ! I got a chance to dance and make new friends!” The fair provided an important opportunity for the girls to branch out of their immediate community, which they are rarely able to do. Simply attending the fair amounts to breaking the everyday barriers on their freedom of movement. Forming connections across communities is the first step in helping the girls develop the inner strength to stand up against the oppressive systems that make them vulnerable to trafficking.


Unlearning Violence  21st January 

During a workshop on community violence, children from Apne Aap’s center in Kolkata were shown drawings of various situations involving gender-based inequality or abuse and asked to describe how they felt. Fourteen-year old Rani from the Red Light Area of Munshigunj describes her thoughts here:

“When we were shown the various pictures, it really got me thinking. I realized that I had normalized the use of abusive language by men in my head. I see it everyday around me, in the locality I live in, as well as in the school I go to. It has never occurred to me to take a stand against and ask them to speak properly. After today I realized that if they use abusive language on us or see us with the wrong eye, we are not to tolerate it. We need to make a stand and get our voices heard and I promise to do that from today.”


The Importance of a Girl’s Education – Kusum’s View  30th January 

The importance of educating girls is often repeated within international development circles as gospel, but it’s sometimes forgotten how difficult it can be to convince people to readjust their views of a girl’s role in the family and to view investment in a girl’s education as having the best long-term payoff for everyone. Kusum’s words demonstrate the difficulty in keeping girls in rural India in school:

“My name is Kusum and I dropped out of school myself after the 6th grade because I didn’t understand the value of education myself. No one else around me saw much value in it either, and after my friends stopped going, there wasn’t much incentive for me to continue either. Even if I would have wanted to I felt afraid to go on my own,traveling for a girl alone in my village is very dangerous. But now, looking back, I regret having dropped out of school, I wish I could go back and build a better life for myself.”

Read here about Apne Aap’s efforts on behalf of girls’ education.


The Importance of a Girl’s Education – Yavnika’s View  1st February 

The importance of educating girls is often repeated within international development circles as gospel, but it’s sometimes forgotten how difficult it can be to convince people to readjust their views of a girl’s role in the family and to view investment in a girl’s education as having the best long-term payoff for everyone. Yavnika’s words demonstrate the difficulty in keeping girls in rural India in school:

“My name is Yavnika, no one ever told me to quit school and stay at home , I wanted to keep going, but competing pressures from both home and school combined to making it impossible for me to remain in school.I was expected to attend to my family’s domestic needs; including cleaning the house and washing the clothes of 10 other people, cooking all the meals and tending to my mother. My duties at home prevented me from finishing my homework, which led to me getting regular beatings at school. The beating and the resulting sense of shame led me to running away from the situation entirely. I always look back in regret at my decision to have left school.”

Read here about Apne Aap’s efforts on behalf of girls’ education.


Kya Sahi, Kya Ghalat? (What is wrong, What is right?)  2nd February 

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Nidhi’s story:

“I find around me that people are not as they seem to be. The real side is something else.”

As young Nidhi* (name changed) looks out on her community, she knows something is amiss. She sees a world in which the women, married off at young ages, get dressed up to go to work in the evening and do not return until morning. The husbands then take all their earnings and use them to fuel their alcoholism. And yet, no one else seems to express any outward disdain at the unspoken arrangement. The days and nights churn in and out, time marked by the steady rhythm of entrenched inter-generational prostitution, and yet no one speaks out. The real side of things is hidden from view, glossed over by the cloak of normality.

Nidhi  doesn’t need anyone to explain to her the details of what the women do at their nightly jobs (she never once uses the word “prostitution” or even “sex” when describing her observations), or any sort of academic debate about the pros and cons of prostitution as a survival strategy, to know there is a fundamental misbalance of power between men and women in her community. She also doesn’t need much outside help to realize there could be an alternative – armed with the little bit of formal education she has been able to receive, thanks to the help of a resourceful uncle, she is able to envision a different future for herself. She #aspires to be a police inspector so she can help the women in her community fully realize their #rights and #breakfree from  the inter-generational prostitution her community determines to be their fate.


Ek Din Chamkega Sitara (One day a star will shine)  3rd February

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Vidhi’s story:

Vidhi, like many children around the world, dreams of making it one day on the Big Screen. She expresses the confident optimism of youth and admonishes the audience, in the words of many a Bollywood hopeful before her, not to forget her name.

However, compared to her global peers, Vidhi’s confidence to proclaim her future is remarkable given the context of her life. She comes from a rural Indian community that is burdened not only by poverty, but by an entrenched system of intergenerational prostitution that is forced upon girls when they are married off around the age of 13. Either too young to realize this, or willful in the face of the odds against her, she proudly proclaims that she will be successful and go on to marry someone of her choice – namely, the son of famous Bollywood actor Sharukh Khan!

Vidhi’s exciting description of her future is both amusing in its grandiosity and sad in its almost blind optimism. Her idea of justice is #freedom of choice and she wants to be able to choose her career and future life partner by herself some day.


Mai Awaaz Uthaungi (I will raise my voice)  4th February

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Preeti’s story:

Preeti recounts in chilling simplicity the dangers she and other girls face in her community simply for being born female: “Here these girls are raped and then killed. They are put into sacks and passed out through the drainage.” Ironically, her mother sent her to live with her aunt in this new community specifically to avoid the dangers of being a girl in her hometown. She is in danger everywhere she goes, simply for being born the ‘wrong’ sex.

At the same time, Priyanka represents the best hope we have for ending these deeply entrenched #injustices. Fully aware of the dangers surrounding her, she continues to push forward with her schooling at the nearby Apne Aap Community Center in the hopes of one day becoming a lawyer to “help the helpless girls.” With the financial, logistical and emotional support provided by organization’s such at Apne Aap, access to government programs, Preeti can grow to become the kind of homegrown #champion for the women in her community that the women’s rights movement need to succeed in achieving #genderequality.


Ab Faisla Hum Karenge (Now We Will Make the Decision)  5th February

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Savita’s story:

Savita  describes her marriage as an arrangement organized by her parents years in advance (her father has since died) and yet, something she started looking forward to since she reached the “age of maturity.” She includes a clip of her smiling lovingly at photos of her and her husband to convey that she does indeed have real feelings of affection for her husband.

At the same time, she is clear that her marriage is not the norm for her community. She mentions that men in her town frequently gamble and make their wives earn money for the family “by any means” – which, in the Sapera community, generally means by prostitution. By contrast, her favorite thing about her husband is that he doesn’t put any restrictions on her. He allows her to go to market whenever she wants, doesn’t make her earn money like the other women in town, and works as a rickshaw driver to support the family rather than wasting money on gambling and alcohol. Tellingly, she notes that she “even calls him by his name” – such a relationship of familiarity between spouses is clearly a rare trait.

Her ability to differentiate between her unusually free life and the restrictions normally placed on women in her town allows her to both express happiness about her life and speak out against forced marriage among her peers without seeming intellectually inconsistent. She seems aware that she has struck it lucky in life by way of chance, and that her odds cannot be guaranteed for other women. She describes a friend of hers who is arranged to be married but doesn’t seem ready – she thinks her family should allow her to continue her studies and “develop health so she can be ready for the marriage” (seemingly insinuating her friend is too young for healthy sex and childbearing). Overall, though, she simplifies the matter down to the most important criteria of all: “she should say what she feels like doing.” In a community where women generally “do not take decisions about their lives by themselves,” her vision of a world in which “now we will make the decision” (ab faisla hum karenge) is beautifully and radically simple.


Minal Ka Kamera (Through Minai’s Lenses)  6th February

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Minal’s story:

“Through this we kept such problems in front of the public.”

One of the ways in which injustices are continued throughout the world is by being kept hidden from public view. When we see a stranger on the street in need whom we do not want to help, the first thing we do is avert our eyes. Those who want to rise to claim justice for themselves must insert themselves boldly and unapologetically into the public view. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem stressed this principle repeatedly throughout her visit to Apne Aap Women Worldwide in January 2014 – every great revolution starts with people gathering together, bringing down their walls, and speaking their truth.

Fourteen-year old Minal is making her first steps to speak her truth as she learns to make her first documentary about her life. She recounts how her teacher instructs her and her peers to “speak clear and loud,” requiring several attempts to learn the art of effective communication. She learns how to portray the social problems she sees around her and to keep “such problems in front of the public” by bringing them “to light.” As Minal and her peers gather to discuss what they see and what they hope to change, we watch a kind of earnestness take over that is hard to ignore.


“I’m But a Teenager”  7th February

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Rajeena’s story:

Rajeena illustrates the challenges that oftentimes push poor women in rural India into prostitution if they are not tricked or forced into it by another person. At the age of 16, she is left to take care of a bed-ridden father on her own. Doing so would be difficult under any circumstances, but it is especially so in a poor village without many economic opportunities – particularly for young girls – and no savings on which to fall back.

Fortunately, Rajeena happens to live in an area that has one important resource available  – an NGO focused on helping young girls vulnerable to prostitution. Through the community center run by Apne Aap Women Worldwide, Haseena is able to learn how to sew, and hopes to open up her own shop to earn enough money to care for her father.

Of course, she still faces an uphill road as she works to make her endeavor profitable. She ends her video with a message to whatever well-intentioned person might be watching – “You can help my dream by providing me with more and more sewing work.” She has the will to succeed, she just needs help to find the way.


Words of a Survivor  8th February

In the audio below, a survivor of trafficking speaks about her experiences. For Hindi speakers 🙂


Meri Udaan (I took flight) 9 February

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Komal’s story:

“I was shy and uncertain as a young child, but gained confidence by learning a new skill at a local community center run by a nonprofit organization (Apne Aap WomenWorldwide). I was able to develop a  close personal relationship with a teacher at the center, which then evolved into a professional relationship when the teacher  offered me a cleaning job at her home. My new found confidence enabled me to ignore those who didn’t think I should take the job. This led to me becoming the first girl from the community to work in “the outer world.”

My job provided me with some money that I used to fund my next dream – learning dance at the local dance academy. Once again I was discouraged by my  family and peers not to waste money on the classes, but I remained determined and confident. When I heard about upcoming auditions for a dance show, I just jumped at the opportunity!

I practiced daily to perfect my craft until the day of the audition, mustering enough courage to perform in front of 8,000 other young people. In the meantime, my previously skeptical neighbors had been inspired by my dedication, many of them requesting to come  to the auditions. When I returned home I found that many children wanted to learn to dance as well, and parents were eager to enroll them in the dance academy at which they had once scoffed.”

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Seventeen-year old Komal illustrates the way in which a young person can live an empowered life and improve their living situation through a combination of determination, assistance from a personal mentor, and a formal support network.

She reminds us that the target audience of women’s empowerment organizations are capable of achieving great things with their own internal strength – they just need to be given the opportunity and support to do it. Komal is still young and will need to continue her journey to fully obtain financial independence, but she has already chosen her own path and designed her own life as an empowered young woman. Given the odds against her as a girl growing up in a poor rural community in India that traditionally grooms its young girls for early marriage and a life of forced prostitution, her accomplishments are even more impressive and encouraging.


“Why, Mother?” 10th February 

Some of Apne Aap’s adolescent girl participants took part in a workshop on how to express themselves and articulate their stories. To protect their privacy, their direct words are not posted here – rather, we have used their work as a launching pad for written blogs. This is Preeti’s story:

“I wonder how my mother, who loves me most in the world, could make me marry a man from the Sapera community who has now ruined my life!. How could mother not foresee the kind of person her husband turned out to be. The first sign of trouble in my marriage appeared when it became clear that my husband was not faithful. I confronted him about it and he responded by beating only beating me like an animal.”

“I have also suffered abuse by at the hands of my mother-in-law, who one time even tried to burn me for the sake of dowry. Although I survived the attach , I became pregnant, and my mother-in-law even tried to kill my unborn baby. I was so relieved when my baby came into the world !”

“During these continuous abuses my mother remained quiet because my husband was from the Sapera community. There was too much social pressure on me and on my maternal family to ensure that my marriage was intact. However, I was was somehow able to separate from my husband and it is now heart breaking that mother refuses to accept any proposals, for me remarriage , that come for me from men outside the Sapera community. I will have to wait forever for a person outside the Sapera community to marry me.”

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Preeti’s life illustrates the difficulties posed to young women in the Sapera community by the older generation, entrenched constrictive ideas about marriage, and a strong social pressure to remain faithful to the cohesiveness of the community.

Preeti’s desire to remarry may seem surprising given the trauma she suffered during her first marriage, but she now has a four-year old daughter to raise on her own within a culture in which the odds are not great for single mothers. She hints at the difficulty she now faces in maintaining a basic standard of life, comparing her current skinny frame to the “beautiful,” healthy-looking girl she was in photos before her marriage. She ends by imploring her mother for “justice,” which in her mind means her mother allowing her to obtain a husband potentially from outside the Sapera community. The fact that she still requires her mother’s permission to do so hints at the uphill battle she faces to obtain a healthy, stable life free of abuse for herself and her daughter.


Feminism Beyond Boundaries: Apne Aap’s Event with Artist Leena Kerjiwal  11th February

by Florence Carson, AAWW Volunteer

The UN Development Programme (2010) claims that Asia is missing approximately 96 million women, as a result of death through practices such as neglect, sex selective abortion and domestic violence. India’s Census (2011) reveals that only 914 girls were born for every 1,000 boys, which shows that a huge proportion of these missing Indian women were not just killed, but never born at all.

Leena Kejriwal, a Kolkata based photographer and artist, considers this to be a devastating social truth and has forced her art and audience to address this issue. Kejriwal has been working alongside NGOs that combat trafficking and prostitution for some time, but it was her latest piece M.I.S.S.I.N.G… which launched at the India Art Fair 2014 which provoked countless international discussions and media attention onto this stigmatised topic.

‘It should be there for everyone to see it, even if they don’t want to’ Kejriwal insisted to the audience and Dr Kumari as she described the idea behind her latest outdoor installation. M.I.S.S.I.NG…, uses black steel to portray an inescapable and mesmerising silhouette of a girl against the backdrop of the sky. Kejriwal’s ‘public art’ is an enormous political statement. By taking her art out of the confines of a gallery space, Kejriwal jolts the collective consciousness of India and beyond, and urges everyone to realise the extent to which these girls are disappearing.

Dr Kumari talked with Kejriwal about the anonymity of these figures, maintaining that the indistinguishable nature of these silhouettes reminds us of the lack of support and protection the women and girls who are trapped in trafficking and prostitution receive. ‘They are invisible citizens, without identification cards, without any kind of legal documentation’.

Kejriwal’s installation reveals the powerful way in which art can be used as a medium to express anti-trafficking messages on a global scale, which is something that Apne Aap wholeheartedly supports in their effort to reach and save the most marginalised, last girl.