A Brand New Life

In India I have seen lots of people which teach girls in Red Light districts how to be a tailor, in order to give them a job other than prostitution. That's great, but it seems like there could be a little bit of variety in the skills these girls are taught. While being a tailor is better than prostitution, do all of them really want to be tailors?

I just discovered an Indian news article about how Action against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children (ATSEC), takes young women who were slaves and trains them to be security guards. It not only does this give the women a job, but it also enables them to protect themselves from the risk of future violence and abuse.

"All these girls have similar stories: a troubled childhood, poor families, livelihood pressure and desperate for employment...Trusted acquaintances used the opportunity to exploit them. In most cases, the promised salary was never paid and the girls were shuttled from one house to other. Their troubles, however, remained unchanged even after the change of address till they ran away or were rescued by police and sent home where the welcome was hardly a warm one. In fact, returning home often marked the beginning of a new crisis, as the girls-hundreds in number-had returned with nothing but scars of physical abuse or were victims of sexual exploitation."