Sagas of Baubles and Beads, Oct 19, 2014.
It was a jewellery party in Chicago. The hostess, Evangeline, placed colourful earrings, necklaces and bracelets on a large coffee table in the centreof the room. There was a name attached to each piece -- Laxmi, Nisha, Kajol, Mangala... Once the guests gathered around the table, gawking at the exquisite pieces, the hostess announced: "Let's play a game."
It went like this: The hostess would reel out certain traits of the girls whose names were attached to the jewellery — "She is intelligent, versatile, computer savvy...She loves the camera....She is good with her hand..." and so on. The guests had to match the traits to the names. The ladies were having fun playing 'name-guessing'. Some were right, most were wrong. Then came the most important part of the game: Evangeline began narrating the stories behind these names — "Laxmi was 14 when she was lured to Pune with a promise of a job and sold to a brothel for Rs 12,000...Kajol belonged to the Bedia community that has been into forced prostitution for generations... Nisha was trafficked when she was still a teen, but later married a customer who in anger threw hot oil on her face..."each one of those names was accompanied by a gut-wrenching backstory.
Catherine Raja (38) Director of Operations and CEO of Ruhama, is full of such stories. Ruhama is a micro-enterprise of Freedom Firm — a place where girls like Nisha and Laxmi come together to craft jewelry with embroidery and metal work.
Freedom Firm was started in 2006 with the purpose of rescuing minor girls, restoring their identity and dignity and seeking justice against those responsible. It operates mainly from Tier 2 cities like Pune and Nagpur.
Raja, who was in Bangalore recently for a panel discussion organised by the British Council to spread awareness on child protection, is a trained hospital management professional who had earlier worked at Baptist Hospital and organisations like Fedina (a network that empowers the marginalised) and Development Focus (that facilitates and builds the capacities of grass root-level organisations). "There are challenges," Raja says about the rescue operations.
Sometimes, girls from certain communities are expected to support their families through prostitution. "In such cases, the girls are upset that their life has been disrupted by us." Often, the raid is compromised by leaks to the brothel. Once rescued, some girls refuse to testify against the perpetrators. Sometimes, the testimonies do not match with their statements. "Our legal system should be faster and give more convictions. The bail amount is also ridiculously low," Raja believes.
So far, Freedom Firm has helped to get nine convictions. And Raja has helped rescue 80 girls. The rescued girls are mandatorily placed in government shelter homes and only when their homes are found to be safe, are they released to their families. After rescue and rehabilitation comes vocational training. This is where Ruhamah comes into the picture. Started by Mala Malstead and Leah Henck in 2010, its four units at Pune, Ooty, Kolkata and Nagpur are also overseen by Raja.
"The girls have a sense of self-esteem when they create something," she says. From aari embroidery jewellery to handmade metal jewellery with semi-precious stones, Ruhamah has a good variety. There are plans to open a unit in Bangalore in the future.
The girls are trained and start off with a monthly salary of Rs 5,500. Having gone through a traumatic phase, the girls often have problems settling down. No one is sacked but they can be suspended for a while if there are behavioural issues. "The longest suspension was for three months," says Raja with a laugh.
Even if they go away without telling and later come back, at Ruhamah no questions are asked. Girls have come back, sometimes with their new families, sometimes with their sisters facing a danger of being trafficked and sometimes to work again. Social workers keep in touch with them and with the money earned, girls have opened bank accounts. Ruhamah offers loans for rental deposits if someone wants to live independently. The hope that the organisation can make a difference to a girl in jeopardy keeps Raja motivated. "I can't change the world by myself," says Raja, "but I can change my sphere of influence."