This article is a part of Meri Suno, a campaign to give voice to survivors of trafficking. The campaign is led by members of the Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking, a survivor-led organisation formed to combat trafficking. Visit ILFAT.org to know more. 

Priya (name changed) was just a child when she was trafficked for sex from her home in West Bengal. Her trafficker was a friendly neighbour who lived just next door. After years of abuse, Priya thought her woes would end when she was rescued. But as the assault of the pimps and customers ended, the assault of the system began. She had to run from pillar to post with an application for financial and livelihood support. Returning to her hometown was a terrifying thought for Priya, as going back home only meant a higher risk of being dragged back into sex work. Added to it was the stigma she would face from society.

All Priya wanted was some support from the government to find herself a home, and start afresh. But that didn’t happen. Soon, the organisation that was helping her found out that she had gone back into sex work – she was now working at a ‘massage parlour’.

Priya’s story is not an outlier, it is representative of the thousands of such cases where women, often trafficked into sex trade as children, are rescued from their traffickers only to end up returning to a life of abuse – because they just do not have any other option. The ‘rehabilitation’ which happens at the shelter homes are often either ineffective, or just a sham.

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA) states that a survivor of sex trafficking is to be placed in a protective home for rehabilitation with adequate services, in cases where reuniting them with the family is not in the woman’s best interests. Currently, in most cases, survivors are institutionalised in shelter homes. These are often heavily guarded and curb the freedom of the survivors.

Survivors of human trafficking, especially those trafficked at a young age are often conditioned into thinking that what happened to them is their fault. In addition to that, the society looks down upon survivors, especially those who were sexually exploited.

Moreover, being institutionalised means that survivors are unable to have agency over their own lives, and cannot take care of themselves.

Subhasree Raptan, Program Manager at Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra (GGBK), an organisation that works with survivors of sex trafficking, says that the definition of rehabilitation in India is currently not clear at all. She says that in the last five years, out of 150 survivors that they have worked with at shelter homes across India, none of them are doing anything right now in terms of earning a livelihood or rebuilding their lives.

“They received some training like sewing, etc., but when they go back to their hometowns, there is no support for them to actually set up and start something. In many cases, what they are trained for, or ideas they are given, are not something that work in remote rural areas, which is where survivors are from most often. If you help them set up a beauty parlour in remote West Bengal, it is not going to run, because residents of a poverty-stricken village will not go to a parlour regularly,” Subhasree adds.

These 150 women are now at the risk of returning to the very life they longed to get out of, in the hope of earning some money.

Nisha Mehroon, a sociologist from West Bengal, says that while shelter homes provide some basic services or training to survivors, data shows that survivors who have tried to get several services have been failed. “Say if a survivor needs psychiatric help, something that is expensive – there is no provision for her to receive that. The problem is that the institutions and shelter homes are not victim-centric,” she adds.

Subhasree says that her organisation is now working to link survivors with government schemes in a bid to receive some support from the government. But this requires having some basic documents, and in some cases, a bank account. Most survivors have neither.

In cases like that of Harini (name changed), who was rescued with the help of an NGO in Guntur, receiving victim compensation, or basic support, became an impossible task because of lack of documents. She didn’t have an Aadhaar, PAN or ration card. “They ask for PAN and Aadhaar card everywhere. Even getting a ration card requires a permanent address proof, something we don’t often have. As a result of this, I let go of the victim compensation I was entitled to,” she says.

And getting these documents in order is an uphill task. Take the case of Sneha (name changed), another woman from Guntur. When she wanted to get a ration card made for herself and her daughter, she had to face lewd comments from the government officers, who questioned her as to how she had a child without a husband.

Subhasree says that nearly 85% of survivors don’t have any ID proof. This is for various reasons including the fact that some are trafficked when they are very young, or that whatever documents they did possess are snatched away by traffickers.

In India, right from getting a SIM card to opening a bank account requires an address proof. Most government schemes in the country have been linked to Aadhaar. The absence of these documents means that a survivor is not able to even open a bank account.

Harini now works relentlessly for survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking in helping them get required documents and ID proof, which will then aid them in rebuilding their lives. In several cases, NGOs are helping survivors form self-help groups (SHGs), which can help them get access to government schemes under the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

Harini and Sneha are also a part of a similar group in Guntur. And Harini says that forming a community like that greatly helps them not only in receiving support, but also in boosting the confidence of survivors. “Our community is looked down upon in society. But when we are together as one community, we have the strength to fight against odds. It has helped a lot of us. We know we are there for each other, and that confidence goes a long way,” Harini adds. Even when Sneha faced stigma while applying for a ration card, Harini says that the entire group went and fought on Sneha’s behalf and helped her get a ration card.

However, according to sociologist Nisha Mehroon, the need of the hour is a comprehensive rehabilitation policy exclusively for survivors of trafficking.

They have even filed a PIL on behalf of some survivors at the Calcutta High Court in this regard. The PIL claims that funds allocated for schemes around human trafficking are poorly implemented, and that there is no protocol for victim protection, no provision for food, medicines or psychological treatment once they are rescued. The PIL asks for a comprehensive rehabilitation policy that not only clearly defines rehabilitation, but also clearly addresses how a survivor’s health related needs are taken care of, how survivors will be protected from stigma and discrimination, and how they can receive life services such as educational and vocational trainings.

The real definition of rehabilitation is restoring a sexual trafficking victim back into the society, so she is part of the mainstream society. This is what the focus needs to be on, so that the hundreds of failed rehabilitations like that of Priya can be avoided.