Every day men, women, and children are transported across the subcontinent and forced into slave labor or sex work. And though there are no official figures on how many become victims of sex trafficking, activists estimate the number is somewhere between 3 million and 9 million.
In alone, almost 20, women and children were moved around India for this purpose, a 25 percent increase from the previous year according to government data, though the unofficial number is much higher. According to the Indian government, an average of girls and women went missing every day in — and many are feared to have been forced into sex work.
The hardware shops along the street close at night, but dark stairways fill with men queuing up to enter one of the many brothels. A pimp in a tattered shirt gestures at a doorway. Good price, good price. Halfway down the road is Kotha 64 — the largest brothel.
Inside rooms are filled with darkness and a smell of dirt and perfume lingers. The floors are littered with used condoms and cigarette butts. In the first room, all the windows are boarded up and several LED lights give the place a hospital-like glow. Around the sides of the room there are a dozen tiny compartments. Twenty women sit on benches as men stand around ogling them. Local charities working to free women from the sex trade say that at least 90 percent of the women and girls here are victims of sex slavery.
Girls forced into the sex trade usually start at the age of 12 or Often, this process will happen in the brothels themselves. Bina Rani, the CEO of IPartner India, a charity funding anti sex trafficking campaigns, says that this is often where the children of trafficked women live. Some small-scale charities are making inroads to help these women and children. Even when a girl is somehow rescued from this horrific trade, rehabilitation can take a lifetime.
