July 30 continued

Around 4:00 we journeyed to the Kalighat area of Kolkata which is an area around the Kali Temple of which part is a "red light" district or center of Bengali human trafficking of young males and females from villages to the cities for prostitution. Sex workers as young as ten or eleven are also trafficked in from Bangladesh and Nepal. Basically a prostitute from the city returns to his or her home village, visits friends and relatives who typically have young girls they no longer want to support, and offer to bring them to the city to help them find a job.  The families think it is a great opportunity for their child.  They have no idea that it is the child's entry into the sex trade.  Even the Untouchable cast will not sit with a prostitute. 

Thirteen years ago the remarkable founder and director walked into this area of Kalighat with a fresh MS Social Work and could not turn her back on what she found. She started an NGO called New Light which runs a night shelter to protect and educate young boys and girls and women of this district to truly give them new life.  Her work is paying off with many young professionals and skilled people in the legal workforce.  They also return to their villages today to educate the villagers families about human trafficking and emphasize that if parents hold off and educate their girls a few more years that they will be equally capable wage earners as sons.

Positive changes are being made and the founder met last year with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  She mentioned being in Seattle last year and learning that it was the number one gateway for human trafficking in the USA.  Of course there are significant geographic reasons for that access, but it is a blight on us for sure.  

New Life was one place featured in the book Half of the Sky and will also be featured in a movie coming out in November titled Sold. Being at the center was a powerful experience and it is a remarkable NGO.  It was an honor to spend an evening there.  Pretty tough when one boy looked up and said "please come again tomorrow Miss".