Our Work

Rescue

RESTORATION

JUSTICE

Watch a video about how Freedom Firm started

WHAT IS SEX TRAFFICKING?

Sex trafficking is the practice where men, women and children are sold into prostitution; their bodies are sexually exploited by innumerable customers all under the watchful eyes of pimps, brothel keepers and brothel owners all for monetary gain. Most victims are usually relocated to another city, state or country, all ploys used by the abusers to get victims to depend on them (a victim from Rajasthan who is trafficked to Kolkata struggles with the language, the food, the culture, the people…she then turns to the brothel keeper for protection.)

How do victims get trafficked?

Victims are either forced into prostitution by their own parents – a common practice by a few communities in India

Sold by their own parents to traffickers – while poverty is one of the leading factors of parents selling children, some parents just want to get rid of their daughters who they see as a financial burden

Lured into prostitution through fictitious job advertisements – when the victim responds to a job in a garment factory and then arrives for the interview, she is threatened, physically abused, and forced into prostitution

Deceived by boyfriends/spouses – boyfriends get their starry eyes girlfriends to elope with them and then sell them to a brothel, the husband gets married to the victim, then sells her to a brothel owner or acts as her pimp

Kidnapped – Children have been kidnapped from public places like railway stations, outside schools, crowded markets and groomed

According to Indian government figures, approximately 1.2 million children are exploited in brothels each year.

Sex trafficking of children is a criminal offense in India. Learn more about the laws here.

RESCUE

Each rescue takes meticulous planning and fastidious execution

Our investigation team comb towns and villages searching for minor girls engaged in prostitution. Once they find these girls, they document the crime, and share their findings with the police. With assistance from Freedom Firm, the police raid brothels and arrest brothel keepers, traffickers, and customers and take them to the police station. An official complaint, First Information Reports is filed. Our social workers take care of the rescued girls’ accompany them to a government hospital where medical tests are completed and then accompany them to a government or private shelter home.

RESCUE

RESTORATION

We have limited time to make a HUGE impact

Freedom Firm’s aftercare team visits the girls in the shelter homes and through life skill and vocational training, arts and craft activities, the restoration process begins. In time the girls heal, grow, and become independent. Every year Freedom Firm organizes two adventure camps for rescued girls living in government shelter homes. Through inspirational stories, personal sharing, arts and crafts activities, outdoor activities, , the girls learn how to heal, let go of the past, how to work in a team and how they can have a beautiful and bright future.

JUSTICE

In Law We Trust

Freedom Firm is fighting to create systemic change throughout India through the consistent application of the laws against trafficking. Our legal team monitors each case closely, working to prepare witnesses, and assist at trial. We pursue every case until a verdict is reached. We will file an appeal or petition in the higher courts whenever our case is dismissed in lower courts.

Communities

Bedia

Kanjars

Banchchadas

Nats

Devadasis

The Bedia were a nomadic tribe in colonial India. After the end of the rule of colonization and the change in the laws of the state, the Bedias had nothing left to do for their survival. While some became agriculturists, many men forced their women into prostitution because of poverty and lack of education.

These factors coupled with few opportunities and a lack of awareness of ones rights cause girls to be forced into the sex trade. Freedom Firm has rescued several girls from this community and successfully reintegrated them into society. Many NGOs have started working with the Bedia community and through various community programs change is taking place.

For the Kanjars, prostitution is an age-old tradition which is called ‘Chaari Pratha’, where parents sell their daughters for lakhs of rupees and sometimes mortgage them for a specific period of time. The Kanjars live in areas where illiteracy and poverty abound. Lack of education and employment opportunities force families to sell their daughters and live off of the earnings of unmarried women who earn income as dhandhewalis (sex workers). Kanjar daughters understand that there is neither education nor respectable work in their future and usually accept their vulnerable situations. Freedom Firm has worked successfully with girls in the Kanjar community by allowing themselves to dream of family life and work that is honourable and respectable.

The tradition originated in the Mauryan Era when girls were sent to the royal courts as respected courtesans. Overtime, it has turned into commercial sexual exploitation. When girls turn 12, they are trafficked from their village to brothels in big cities so that they can send money home to their families.

The tide is changing with Freedom Firm’s presence in Madhya Pradesh. We have a team that is dedicated to stopping the trafficking of Banchhada girls. We are fighting against an age-old tradition, an economic system, a way of life, and an entrenched evil. Help us free the Banchhada girls.

Nat Purwa, a small village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is about a two-hour drive from Lucknow. Like most other villages, Nat Purwa suffers from abject poverty. Poverty has forced women into prostitution and has passed on from one generation of women to the next. The Nat community live in Nat Purwa. The Nats have led a marginalized existence for several decades. The Nats were historically known as performers but later turned to prostitution. Some Nats continue to perform as magicians, dancers, acrobats and jugglers.
Alleviating poverty, increasing opportunities for education and employment will better improve standards of living in Nat Purwa and prostitution becoming less common among Nat women.

Being Devadasis means girls are dedicated as slaves to goddess Yellamma. The marriage between a Devdasi girl and the goddess usually occurs before the girl reaches puberty. They visit this temple, wear necklaces of pearls to show they are bound to Yellamma and give blessings and perform her rituals. When girls dedicated to Yellamma reach puberty they are forced to sacrifice their virginity to an older man. What follows is a life of sexual slavery. They can never marry or have a family. When a girl is dedicated, her parents dress her for marriage. The money the Devadasi earns goes straight to her parents who often act as pimps for her. Today, Devdasi girls are sold to traffickers who take them to cities, far away from their homes