A Safe Space

Rehabilitation and reintegration of human trafficking survivors into society is a journey fraught with challenges

- Sona Singh

KHADIJA Khatun, a member of Bijoyini survivor’s collective and a survivor leader at the Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking (ILFAT), was 15 years old when she was trafficked to Bihar by a friend. For many years, she experienced both mental and physical torture at the hands of her traffickers. Today, 11 years later, she remembers that time as the most difficult phase in her life when she battled both physical and mental trauma.

After competing rehabilitation, she joined Bijoyini in Hasnabad in North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, and started working as a volunteer, helping plan awareness campaigns against issues such as child marriage, domestic violence, and human trafficking.

She says her journey from a survivor of trafficking to survivor leader was full of challenges, but she wanted to move on. Today, Khatun, who is five months pregnant, works with young girls in the community, motivating them through positive dialogue so that they can learn from her experience. In the future, she plans to build a house for her child.

Dipti, a member of Alorpath survivor’s collective and survivor leader at ILFAT, was trafficked from West Bengal to Bihar to work as a dancer in an orchestra when she was 14 years old by a woman known to her family. Recalling her experience, Dipti says that being a part of the dance group meant wearing short clothes, which made her uncomfortable, and being forced to drink. Her traffickers used to feed her pills on the pretext of boosting immunity since she suffered from headaches, but she was being given intoxicants.