KOLKATA, India — It is a story of human trafficking, however principally it’s a narrative of a mom’s love, the adoring son she raised and the highest-return funding on the planet at present.
Almost twenty years in the past, I interviewed a girl named Maya Gayen who had been trafficked on the age of 12 to a brothel right here. She had not but reached puberty then, however a person purchased her virginity. She wept and pleaded, however the man raped her.
For the following few years, Maya was locked contained in the brothel, crushed with sticks, threatened with dying if she tried to flee, and raped continuously. She had her first interval solely after eight months of those rapes.
This went on for years, however one in every of Maya’s common clients was a taxi driver who felt badly for her when she wept. In the future he helped her escape the brothel. “It might not have been love, however he was sympathetic,” she associated.
Or maybe it was love, for he married her although his household despised her background and disowned him. The couple rented a one-room hovel within the Kalighat red-light district, and Maya reluctantly bought intercourse, however as her personal boss, whereas her husband drove for a taxi firm.
I’ll always remember their shack. It was the dimensions of a walk-in closet on the financial institution of a sewage-laden river that periodically flooded their house. A mattress took up many of the room, and Maya had nowhere else to take clients — so her 4 sons would attempt to sleep beneath the mattress whereas she carried out her enterprise.
I used to be impressed by her oldest son, Avijit, then a scrawny, shy boy of 12 who attended faculty by means of an excellent native nonprofit referred to as New Gentle. On subsequent journeys to Kolkata through the years, I visited Maya and Avijit and witnessed their struggles. Maya all the time displayed a beatific smile and stated she was simply pleased that she was now not enslaved within the brothel.
I misplaced observe of Maya and her household, after which on a go to to the Kalighat slum this month I used to be startled to be greeted by a strapping 29-year-old man who launched himself in fluent English as Avijit.
With New Gentle’s assist, he had graduated from faculty, studied French and Italian cooking and moved to Lengthy Seaside, Calif., to work as a chef for Carnival Cruise Line. He occurs to be again in Kolkata for his annual trip, to take care of Maya.
“She’s the best mother ever,” he informed me as she stood beaming beside him. “I need to do every thing attainable to help this woman, as a result of she did a superb job elevating us.”
Avijit informed me that Maya would generally starve herself to have the ability to feed her sons. She would hug her boys tight and inform them to by no means beg, however reassure them that every thing can be all proper — and in a violent neighborhood, she was a beacon of affection.
“In spite of everything her arduous work, her sacrifices, we needed to give her one thing,” Avijit informed me. So after he bought his job with the cruise line in 2017, he despatched cash in order that Maya might retire from the intercourse commerce and hire a pleasant condominium. He purchased a automotive so his dad might depart the taxi firm and turn out to be an Uber driver for himself — however given that all of the earnings go to Maya to run the family.
My columns from red-light districts through the years have principally been horror tales about fashionable slavery, which continues to be an pressing ethical challenge. “Traffickers exploit tens of millions of individuals in business intercourse inside India,” the State Division wrote final yr in its annual report on human trafficking.
However this column is concerning the flip aspect — all of the expertise alive in these tough neighborhoods if we nurture it.
One other New Gentle alum is Ruma Mondal, 25, whose single mother labored as a prostitute to help her 5 daughters. A pimp tried to site visitors Ruma when she was simply 7 years previous, however her mother shielded her.
Ruma bought an schooling by means of New Gentle and at present is working full time on a grasp’s diploma in schooling — whereas additionally holding down a full-time job in knowledge entry to help herself and her siblings. Oh, and on prime of all that, she commutes 4 hours a day.
“I’m combating for my schooling,” she informed me. And never only for her personal: She not too long ago got here throughout a 12-year-old lady who had been trafficked into a close-by brothel, and he or she contacted the police to rearrange a rescue.
It thrills me to see the success of Ruma and Avijit and so many others. That is the human potential that’s squandered once we enable kids to be locked up in brothels and denied an schooling. The very best-return funding obtainable at present isn’t in personal fairness or hedge funds; it’s in educating kids like Ruma and Avijit.
As for Avijit, his work visa for the cruise ship job sadly permits no path to citizenship. So in case you’re an American govt who wants a chef, have I bought a suggestion for you!
Supply: NY Times
