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Waiting for Healing
by Adam Hess
4 February 2011 “IT’S TRAGIC,” our host lamented, “that even though these girls have been rescued from the brothels and given safe housing, good food and education, 70% return to prostitution or an abusive boyfriend when they leave at the age of 18.” Why would freed slaves return to exploitation? We were in Mumbai, seeking to better understand trafficking and prostitution. We were learning from a Christian legal agency that works to rescue enslaved girls and prosecute the perpetrators.
We were told that immediately after being rescued, a female minor must be given a medical exam, have her name registered at the local police station and be presented to the Child Welfare Committee (the government social services body which holds powers of custody). She is then assigned to a licensed care home for 4 to 6 months. Our host shared his frustration that since there is not enough shelter space for children, the girls they rescue are shuttled off to overcrowded, under-resourced institutions. Additionally, many Christian churches and orphanages don’t take time to understand the law as it relates to children at risk or to engage with government agencies in order to attain permits necessary to receive such girls delivered from brothels. If they did, they could become part of the solution. The teenagers of whom he spoke are just a few of the 160 women and girls in India who enter the sex trade against their will every day, some as young as eight years old. These are India’s daughters and sisters—Hindu, Muslim, Christian. EnslavementThe typical story goes like this: A family in the village has too many children, too much debt, and too little margin to handle any number of hazards: failed crops, drought, natural disaster such as flood or earthquake, accident or illness. When a well-dressed stranger (or in other cases, a “well-meaning” relative or trusted neighbor) shows up and tells how their daughter could “make good money” in the city to send home and generously offers to escort her there, it seems too good to resist. The girl says goodbye as her parents are paid a handsome “advance.” At something like US$100, the payment must seem like a small fortune to a family who lives on less than $1.25 a day, the poverty level as defined by the World Bank, which is what a staggering 432 million Indians live at or below. Some parents must feel a sense of relief to be rid of their daughter, regarded as a liability. After all, to marry her off would require payment of a sizeable dowry to the groom’s family. In other cases, a girl may be deceived by boyfriends or drugged and kidnapped. Ultimately she finds herself locked in a dark, dirty room in a city far away. What’s more, in a country more diverse than the European continent, the local language may be different from that of her village. Traffickers are known to break a newcomer’s resistance by gang rape and torture (a process they perversely term “seasoning”), until they are sure she will comply with any demand by future clients. Their tactics then switch to psychological intimidation. “If you ever try to escape,” they warn, “we’ll go back and bring your younger sister here or kill your parents.” She is told she must repay the advance they paid her father, let alone the travel cost for bringing her to the city. If she is the one out of every two Indian women who are illiterate, she is likely to believe her captors, year after year, when they explain that she still owes them money. So, why would girls who have endured such horrific trauma in the brothel choose to go right back when they turn 18? Healing at heart levelPerhaps a core reason is a lack of healing at the heart level. Girls are told, and believe, that they are now permanently ruined, that they are good for nothing else, that they can never go home, that they are dirty, that there is no other way of living. They have experienced enslavement at many deep levels, and need not only physical rescue, but an encounter with the God who loves them most deeply. If they don’t receive this, their hunger for love will likely drive them back into the arms of the very people who want to exploit them.We returned home with an increased passion to make it possible for sex trafficking survivors to heal. After all, we have experienced God’s ability to redeem and to heal; we can offer this hope to others. What would it be like if God’s people engaged with what he wants to do to bring hope and transformation to those involved with trafficking and prostitution? Our God told Moses, "I have heard [my people] crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them … So now go." (Exodus 3:7-8, 10) Surely God is the same today when he sees the 160 women and girls in India entering prostitution daily, as well as the many rescued girls who choose to return to the brothels when they turn 18. Now is the time to work for healing and wholeness for the survivors of child sex trafficking in India! 
 
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