IPP Visits an Aftercare Clinic In the Red LIght District
We arrived in Mumbai yesterday and had the tremendous opportunity today to visit the Red Light District from which many of the women at our sewing centers are rescued. It was election day in Mumbai and a national holiday, so traffic was light, and we were able to drive through different parts of the city. When we arrived in the Red Light District, it was late morning, and many women were already working the lines. We met with several social workers and a doctor at a clinic run by the aftercare center with which our first sewing center is affiliated. Several of the social workers at the clinic are former prostitutes who have restored their lives and returned to help other women do the same. Out of the twelve of them we met, eleven had been working at the clinic for over a decade. The twelfth had been there only three months. Each woman spoke a different indigenous Indian language, and they all spoke Hindi, so their capacity for reaching out to women from all backgrounds is immense.
It was a privilege to meet with these individuals who are working on the forefront of the fight against human trafficking. They are the ones who go out into the District on a daily basis to meet the women working the lines. They established their clinic as a safe place for the women to come for help -- both medical and emotional -- and eventually provide the escape for women who desire to flee their lives of prostitution. The clinic has been in the District for over a decade and has become a safe-haven for many women and their children, as well as men suffering from drug addiction.
