The project also ensures that the girls directly get the money received from selling the products they make so they understand that their hard work is being appreciated and compensated. We recently started a center for survivors of domestic violence in Lanka Assam after identifying a recent trend where domestic violence survivors were trafficked to red-light areas and forcibly married off. These women, desperate to escape domestic violence, got lured by anyone who gave them hope for a better life without realizing the repercussions.

Our main objective is to mainstream the trafficking survivors and give them a voice and a platform using which they can work towards bringing reforms in the policy and laws related to these crimes. We must change this mindset of looking down upon the survivors and behaving as if it was their fault that they got trafficked. Instead, it is the society that has failed them. Giving them back the dignity of life is the primary focus of IDF’s activities. We have been trying to rehabilitate, engage, and empower them to speak up and ask for their rights.

We are also working on a center for trafficking survivors in Canning, West Bengal. We will train the girls from the neighboring villages and towns in stitching and other skills. We will also ensure their holistic development by facilitating victim compensation, procedural correction, mental health workshops, and counseling of the families to remove stigmatization and other assistance.