Land of Missing Children

Every once in a while, you watch something on TV which leaves an indelible impact on you.

Old habits die hard. I was deep asleep, with the lights, laptop and TV on. At 3 am, I wake up, and head towards the TV, to shut it down. Just as I'm about to turn the knob, this documentary begins. "World's Untold Stories: Land of missing Children". I am pretty drowsy, but I decide to watch the first few minutes, and am pretty shocked by what I see. YouTube link given below.

Basically, the documentary is about sex slavers, and illegal trafficking of under-aged girls in the sex trade. It starts off in Silliguri, with a family whose daughter had been abducted, forced into prostitution, raped, but rescued by the family ultimately. Similar stories of abduction along the India-Bangladesh-Nepal-Bhutan trade route continue, and slowly the story moves into Kolkatta and Mumbai.

The lead journalist goes to various prostitution union offices, dalals and red light districts all the way, trying to figure out who can give the right information on under-age sex slavers. Teenage girls, some probably as young as 13, are shown at red light districts, not allowed to speak without permission. Denials of any under-age trafficking follow from dalals and authorities.

The really shocking part is this. Finally, Sam Kiley(the journalist), manages to find an activist who, who can take him to a brothel in Bombay, and decides to take the police along. Going up to the ADCP, he requests him to come along and follow the lead, mentioning the instances of abductions and children being forced into prostitution, to which the officer replies:

This is the need of the society. This is the need of the male person. If these need are not fulfilled, I think they will commit some rapes. Or some molestation of the good girls and ladies of the society.

The wind is knocked out of my sails.

Stress on the words in italics. Obviously, this is not about legalization or legalizations of prostitution, which is a totally different issue altogether. This is about the system. The fact that to come to terms with crimes like rape, the police needs to adopt such measures. The fact that prostitution is viewed as a channel to avoid other crimes. The fact the women involved in prostitution are categorized to be inferior to the good girls and ladies, in spite of never having made the choice. I am too disgusted to say anymore.

The documentary ends on a terribly shocking note, with a raid being conducted, and the true intentions of the police revelaed at the end. Just when you thoughts things would fall into place, the ground below breaks apart. Devastating. Shocking. I'm ashamed.

The documentary is on YouTube in 3 parts. Just click here. Please do watch it.