Rescued 14-year-old trafficked victim thriving in shelter home

From her horrific ordeal of being sold to a pimp by her ‘boyfriend’, Taruna is now in a shelter home, having learnt another language, developed her artistic side and now hopes to return to school soon

Some of Taruna's drawings

MUMBAI, MARCH 2012: On a muggy afternoon in August, a member of Justice and Care’s Fact Finding team was walking through the narrow corridors of a brothel on the outskirts of Mumbai when he spotted a teenage girl in the doorway of one of the rooms. When she saw him, her eyes filled with fear and she ducked quickly behind the curtain into the darkness beyond.

The team member could tell that the girl was very young, and she seemed new to the brothel. He tried talking to her to find out where she was from, but she could only speak Bengali, a language he couldn’t understand, so he communicated with her through signs.

The team member went home and called up a colleague from Justice and Care’s Kolkata office in West Bengal who helped him translate a few sentences from Hindi into Bengali. He memorised them and went back to the red light district the next morning.

How had she come here? Where was she from? He asked the girl in halting Bengali. But she was too frightened to speak in case the ‘madam’ heard her through thin curtains that divided the brothel. “My name is Taruna*,” was all she could muster up the courage to say. So the investigator gave her a piece of paper and asked her to write her name and address on it. He sent the information to Justice and Care’s office in Kolkata. The team there followed Taruna’s directions and found a family sick with worry. They had filed a missing person’s complaint and were anxious for her return.

Two days later, police and Justice and Care rescued 14-year-old Taruna from the brothel where she had been held captive for 15 days and forced to have sex with men. She had been brought to Mumbai from West Bengal and sold to the ‘madam’ by her boyfriend.

Taruna was relieved that she was leaving the brothel, but when our social workers asked her to pack her things before taking her to a shelter, Taruna refused. “These are all the things the madam bought me,” she explained. “I don’t want them.”

She left with the clothes she had on, vigorously rubbing her make-up off with her dupatta**.

In the seven months since that day, Taruna has been living in a shelter home. She has learnt Hindi and now translates for other Bengali girls when they arrive at the shelter. She takes part in all the activities at the home, but her favourite is the drawing and art therapy class. Aftercare workers bring her drawing pads and she fills them with portraits and designs. Taruna has also been attending informal education classes and has a keen desire to go back to school. “If my mother is ok with it, I will go back to school when I go home,” she says. An avid reader, if she sees our aftercare associates with books, she immediately asks to borrow them.

Taruna has also made a clear statement to the police about how she was trafficked. They arrested the brothel keeper and she is still in jail. She described her boyfriend to a police sketch artist and the police are searching for him.

But Taruna cares little about vengeance. She is just happy her ordeal is over and is looking forward to going home to her family next month. “I was like a mother to my little brother and I can’t wait to see him,” she says. “I want to make sure he is ok and makes something of himself.”

*name changed to protect identity

**scarf