Combating Human Trafficking through Rescue, Restoration, and Justice in India

Help us to provide rescue, restoration, and justice to victims of sex trafficking in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Why India?

There are 3 million commercial sex workers in India, of which an estimated 40% are children. These children, particularly girls, are almost all from the poorest social sectors in India. Their families often allow them to accept the promise of a good job in the city or to venture to metropolitan areas alone in order to make money for the family. Just as often, however, parents themselves will sell their daughters into prostitution out of financial desperation.

ODW + Freedom Firm

Our partner Freedom Firm seeks to eliminate child prostitution in India by providing rescue, restoration, and justice for victims of sex trafficking. Their goal is to operate in areas where little anti-trafficking work is being done. They focus on smaller cities with large red-light districts that lack the resources and training to counter trafficking. For our third project with Freedom Firm, we’re tackling rescue, restoration, and justice operations in Uttar Pradesh.

Rescue: In the first phase of the project, undercover operatives locate minor girls in brothels and document the crime. This information is then reported to the police. The Freedom Firm team, along with the police, raid the brothels, rescue the girls, and arrest the brothel keepers and traffickers. The rescued girls are then placed in government remand homes, and the girls file criminal complaints against their oppressors.

Restoration: Next, social workers working in partnership with shelter homes across the country, provide rescued girls with counseling, therapy, job training, education and health care assistance, life skills training, and employment opportunities with the business Ruhamah Designs to help the girls grow in confidence and independence. Social workers frequently travel to towns and villages for follow-up visits and to do home investigations to ensure safe reintegration.

Justice: In the final phase, Freedom Firm actively pursues the conviction of those responsible for trafficking minor girls. Freedom Firm lawyers assist public prosecutors at each stage of the criminal trial. Rescued girls are empowered to testify against their abusers and help bring them to justice. Every trial and every conviction creates a deterrent and raises the cost of sex trafficking in India.

Join Us!

Join us as we partner to provide rescue, restoration, and justice to victims of sex trafficking in Uttar Pradesh, India. The progress bar above includes our intended match amount of $20,000 for a total granting goal of $40,000. Give today to double your impact!