Stories of Hope
Breaking the Cycle
Posted on Apr 12, 2011 | 16 COMMENTS
BREAKING THE CYCLE
Twenty-seven years ago, Rajani was born in a brothel. Her mother, and her grandmother had neither known life outside of the red-light area. “This is your destiny,” they told her. She knew nothing else of her future except to work for the Madame for whom her mother worked. Madame told her she was growing into a beautiful young lady and sent her to the river at night to play with the other children until morning when they could return home.
Madame determined when Rajani would begin her own work in the brothel. When Rajani protested and begged to go to the river with the other kids, Madame reminded her this was her destiny -- then beat her until she could not remember what happened. Ranjani worked eight years for Madame, and after many lost pregnancies, she eventually had two daughters of her own, who played at the river at night.
This would not be her daughter’s destiny. Rajani had the courage to ask for help from the clinic-doctor who told her of people who could help her get her daughters out.
Rajani’s girls will never know the horrors from which she spared them with her great courage and tenacity. As she stitches and works in the sewing center by day, her girls enjoy school and friends and playing without boundaries. At night, they snuggle close to their mother, and all three sleep in peace.
Friday Stories of Hope: Help for Rape Survivors in India
Posted on Mar 18, 2011 | LEAVE A COMMENT
In a report published March 18, 2011, on IndiaRealtime:
India’s health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, has written to federal government hospitals instructing doctors not to conduct vaginal exams –known as “finger tests”- when examining rape victims without their consent.
The report says of the finger test, “In effect, it is a procedure that without informed consent would amount to sexual assault.”
This is a small part of a larger effort to change the way rape victims are examined in Indian hospitals. The effort will seek to give women in India who have been raped a sense of dignity, something that is usually ignored by doctors.
The attention shown by India’s health minister to rape survivors is a positive step towards legal measures that can be taken to honor the dignity of all women of India.
Go HERE to see the full news article.
Friday Stories of Hope: CNN Freedom Project
Posted on Mar 11, 2011 | LEAVE A COMMENT
CNN launched it’s CNN Freedom Project this week, and has committed to spending one year fighting to end modern day slavery.
Tuesday, March 8th, CNN focused on modern day slavery in Uttar Presh, India. The story uncovers a band of enslaved workers, making bricks all day everyday to pay off debt. They were brought to a plot of land with promises of work only to become enslaved to a debt they have never seen ledgers for.
The families that work on the lands are illiterate and too afraid to leave, for fear of being beaten.
See the full article and watch the video HERE.
After reporting on Uttar Presh, India and the slavery she witnessed there, CNN’s Sarah Sider met with India’s Labor Secretary Prabhat C. Chaturvedi.
However, when she asked the official if he considered India’s bonded labor modern day slavery, he said, “Absolutely not. It is not slavery. As I said, it is a problem of poverty”
The official contributed India’s “bonded labor” to poverty, and said that India needs to focus on eradicating poverty.
See the full article and watch the video HERE.
Even so, it is exciting to see a large company such as CNN focused on the problem of modern day slavery, in order to “help unravel the complicated tangle of criminal enterprises trading in human life.”
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