Go Beyond

I received an e-mail this morning from a friend who is a champion for justice in South Asia. His e-mail rattled me. He attached a copy of a newspaper article featured in the Times of India entitled: Five women rescued from brothel in Kamathipura. But, that’s not what rattled me. The news story contained many of the same things I have read in other articles about women rescued from brothels. There are usually several common denominators in stories about women who are rescued. First: the use of deception. This news article said that the women who were rescued were “duped into coming to Mumbai” from poor villages. Traffickers often lure young girls away from their homes by promising them honest employment so that they can help support their poor families. These young girls then leave their homes with altruistic intentions only to discover too late that they have been duped by unscrupulous individuals whose “eyes are on the lookout for the helpless” (Ps. 10:8).

A second common denominator is the use of force. Injustice is essentially the abuse of power by those who are strong. Psalm 10:10 says of the wicked that “the helpless fall because of his strength.” The news article reported that one of the rescued women had been repeatedly beaten throughout her time in the brothel and another had been drugged in order to keep her compliant. These young girls “had been forced to serve between seven and thirteen customers every day” or between twenty-five hundred and forty-five hundred customers per year. Having sex with that many men multiplies each girl’s vulnerability to contracting and spreading sexually transmitted infections and diseases. These girls are robbed of more than their innocence, in many cases they are robbed of their futures.

A third common denominator is deprivation. The young girls who were rescued worked for payments ranging from 120 to 160 rupees per customer. At today’s exchange rate, these women earned the equivalent of between $2.50 to $3.50 dollars per customer per day. On a good day these girls earned their captors about $40.00 dollars by being raped for rupees. However, they were deprived of keeping any money at all. Instead all of the money they earned was kept by the three brothel keepers, all women. These girls who had left home with the intention of helping to support their families through honest employment ended up with nothing, including the inability to communicate with their families. Imagine the agony that the families of each of these girls experienced not knowing what had happened to their daughters.

But, the thing that rattled me the most about this article was that these girls had been forced to live in filthy 64 square-foot rooms “without access to sunlight for as many as seven years.” That is the ultimate expression of the cruelty that these girls were forced to endure. Wherever you find darkness you will find despair. Even criminals in the worst prisons are allowed access to sunlight. The three women who were arrested for running this brothel used darkness to keep their young victims tethered to despair. I have to be honest and confess that a part of me hopes that these cruel brothel keepers are sentenced to seven years of darkness for their treatment of and crimes against these young girls. That probably won’t happen. According to police sources in Mumbai, the conviction rate of traffickers is only about 2%. But, I pray that things will change and that the punishment of the three brothel keepers will send a strong message that will strike terror in the hearts of all those who are engaged in similar activity.

Please pray for the five rescued girls who now reside at a government-run aftercare home in Chembur. Pray that their hearts will readjust to the light and be filled with hope. And, pray for those champions of justice who are committed to delivering girls from darkness and bringing them into the light. Without the commitment of people who are willing to venture into depraved places, many young girls will continue to suffer all kinds of indignities in the dark. Those of us who enjoy the warmth of the sun every day must not forget those who suffer in the dark.