' हम जीतेंगें '

इस बार हम हार गए तो क्या !
थक कर बैठ जाएँ
या फिर मातम मनाएं
अपनी 25 वर्षों के संघर्ष पर
जिसे छेड़ा था हमने उस वक़्त
जब अंतिम सांस ले रही थीं
न जाने कितनी मासूम जानें
अपनी माओं कि गोद में
कुछ माँ ने छोड़ दी उँगलियाँ अपने बच्चों कि
और कुछ बाप हो गए सुपुर्दे खाक
और खाक हो गए उनके साथ ही
उनके सपने भी, अरमान भी,
और इन सब के बीच
कुछ मुट्ठी भर लोगों ने
खाक कर दी इंसानियत भी l

"ज़ोर का धक्का धीरे से लगे "
कि तर्ज़ पर पूंजीवादी ताक़तों ने
धक्का दिया है हमें
उस न्यायपालिका के मार्फ़त जो
बिक जाती है चंद सिक्कों में l

अब क्या करें हम ?
यूँ ग़र हाथ पर हाथ धरे बैठे रहे
तो फिर ख़ाक होना पड़ेगा हमें भी
उन मज़लूम, लाचार लोगों कि तरह
जिन्हें झोक दिया जाता है उस भट्ठी में
जिसकी आँच से ठंडा होता है कलेजा
चंद अमीरों का जो भूल जातें हैं
कि अगर ये कौम नींद से बेदार हो जाये
तो फिर सोना पड़ेगा उन्हें ताउम्र l

एस बार नहीं हम छोड़ेंगे
हम जीतेंगे , हम जीतेंगे l

परवेज़ आलम
जे.एन .यू .

ये कविता मैंने भोपाल गैस त्रासदी के पीड़ितों के सदभावना में 12 जून को लिखी l इस कविता को 12 जून को ही मैंने 'फ्रेंड्स ऑफ़ भोपाल ' के द्वारा जन्तर-मंतर पर बुलाये गए 7 जून के फैसले के विरोध प्रदर्शन में पढ़ा l 7 जून को जो फैसला आया उस फैसले से हम खुश नहीं हैं , मेरे ख्याल से देश कि जनता को अब समझ में आ रहा होगा कि यही अदालत किसी व्यक्ति को एक खून के बदले में उसे फंसी कि सजा या उम्र कैद कि सजा सुनाती है , लेकिन जब बात आती है बीस हज़ार लोगों के कातिलों कि तो फैसले में मिलता है पच्चीस हज़ार का मामूली जुर्माना और दो साल कि क़ैद l ये कैसा इन्साफ है भाई l क्या हमारे ये मुंसफ पैसों में बिक गए l क्या इन्साफ कि देवी के तराजू में थोड़ी हरकत भी नहीं होती l क्या अबसे हम मानले कि कानून अँधा होता है l

साथियों देश टूट रहा है l एस देश में हमें ही रहना है , और एक सच्चे नागरिक कि हैसियत से हमारा कर्त्तव्य बनता है कि हम हर उस ग़लत चीज़ का विरोध करें जो समाज के लिए ग़लत है l इस वक़्त हमारे सामने सबसे जटिल मुद्दा ग़रीबी का है l अमीर ग़रीब को चूस रहा है , अमीर दिन ब दिन अमीर होता जा रहा है और ग़रीब दिन ब दिन ग़रीब, और ग़रीब , अति ग़रीब l हम अग़र प्रण कर ले कि जिन राजनेताओं को गद्दी पर बैठाते हैं उनसे पाई-पाई का हिसाब मागेंगे , तो इन नेताओं कि हिम्मत नहीं कि हमारे पैसे से एयर कंडीशन में मस्ती करें l
Join the Movement Eradicate Poverty in INDIA

ग़ुस्सा मुझे भी है और मुझे मालूम है कि गुस्सा आपको भी होगा l मेरी गुज़ारिश आप सभी से सिर्फ इतनी सी है कि आप देश के जिस कोने में भी बैठे हों वहीं से देश के हुक्मरानों को ये सन्देश दे कि आप बेवक़ूफ़ नहीं हैं , आप को सब कुछ पता है l आप एक Massive Campaign के ज़रियें Nuclear Liability Bill का ज़मकर विरोध करें , और इस बिल को समझने कि कोशिश करें l अग़र हम इस मिशन में कामयाब हुए तो हम एक और भोपाल गैस त्रासदी होने से बचा लेंगे l
इन्किलाब ! जिंदाबाद !

An Encounter with Human Trafficking

Nandini Mazumder and Samuel Joseph
14th June 2010

Anita was a bright, happy and a pretty girl from a small village in West Bengal. But the fairy-tale was to end soon; Anita’s mother passed away and her father re-married, leaving Anita with a cruel stepmother. To escape from her miseries, Anita found happiness in ‘Hindi films’ that were shown in her village. Looking at the happy smiles and the respect all film-stars commanded, she often dreamt of being a heroine herself. Since she was pretty, she believed she had a huge chance. As luck would have it, she met a man who had been to the city, and fortunately had taken a liking for her. Once he found out about her desire to become an actress, he promised to take her to Bombay and help her become one. This is where the fairy-tale plot tears apart to betray a gruesome shade of reality beneath. Poor Anita could little understand the grave mistake she did to believe and run away from everything she knew with this stranger. Soon she found herself in a brothel, in a red-light area in Pune. She was raped, tortured and abused. Made to prostitute her body and eventually she became victim to the deadly HIV.

Anita's life is real. Sadly, no one finds this shocking anymore. Because, trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation is old and rampant in India. Interestingly, India is a breeding ground for trafficking for the purposes of prostitution because of two reasons: (1) it has huge red-light areas; Shonagachi in Kolkata being one of the largest red light areas in Asia; and (2) the availability of poor women within and outside the country (owing to the large tracts of un-monitored, porous borders with poor neighbouring nations such as Bangladesh and Nepal). Girls from small villages and towns within the country, and from poor neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh are constantly being trafficked to large cities and sold to brothels.

What exactly do we mean by Human Trafficking? Human Trafficking involves the use of force or deception, with the help of which the victim is shifted from the place where (s)he was born and raised to another place for commercial sexual exploitation or any other form of forced labour. Human trafficking includes various forms of exploitation, abuse and gross violation of human rights of the trafficked person. It is the third largest and most rapidly largest growing criminal industry in the world after the illegal weapon trade and drug smuggling industries. (It is also believed that these crimes are interlinked in the international criminal nexus).
Equipped with a sociology degree from the university of my dreams I was ready to take on the world. I decided that I had studied enough of the science of society and it was time I experience these things at the ground level. After getting a job in the first NGO I was interviewed at, I walked away with my head held high and with a feeling of contentment. With a Masters degree and then a job with a developmental organisation, I felt I had everything I had wished for!
The word 'Ground reality', has its ominous ring for good reason. My work forced me to realize that not everything was as it was supposed to be, and the things that were most wrong in our society were comfortably overlooked.
The organisation I worked with; SANLAAP – Speaking of the Unspoken, helped me reconsider certain things that I was so used to label as, ‘vulgar, indecent, cheap and taboo’. Just getting to know a group of people we tend to keep away from a bit more sometimes reveals to us a whole new world. Every place I went and every face I saw haunted me with several uncomfortable questions.
While working with SANLAAP, we constantly visited red light areas in Kolkata, namely Kalighat, Bowbazar and Sovabazar. Almost every girl we encountered in the brothels was trafficked from poor villages. Because they are not in the profession by choice, they have to be tortured to submission. The girls were (and still are) abused all night, every night by the pimps and customers. The effects of the torture show even in the extremely spicy food they eat; the exertion numbs their taste-buds. If they were lucky enough to be rescued and brought into our shelter home, the girls showed signs of severe physical and mental abuse, namely extreme trauma and depression symptoms. Seeing the hell that the trafficked girls had to go through in the brothels, we as an organisation chose to not use the term ‘sex-workers’, because something as exploitative as forced sex cannot be labelled as ‘work’. Therefore we continue to use the term, ‘prostitutes’. As an organisation we do not support the legalisation of prostitution. Legalisation would mean the validation of flesh-trade, leading to massive growth in trafficking in this part of the sub-continent, making it even more difficult for us to fight it.
SANLAAP managed to rescue Anita from the hell-hole she was in when after it had done its worst to her. She was pregnant, and was the bearer of the dreaded HIV disease. Modern medicine and liberal amounts of love helped her normally deliver a healthy baby. She later on fell in love and got married to a man who was willing to take care of her and her baby.
I have spent hours thinking about the little children I have encountered that have been sold off to brothels, faced extremes of abuse, been raped several times, and remain silent due to trauma and finally shared their pain with few people they came to trust.
These young people continue to be shunned to live an invisible life, by the larger society. It is upsetting to see how the world (and once upon a time, me included) considers those, looking down on them, the one’s who live in the red-light areas. We consider it best to step away and turn away lest anything happen to us. This is one of the main reasons why such a menace continues to exist.
I firmly believe that if I do not do anything about what I saw and what I felt through them, I will live forever guilty of having failed them. I have decided to commit to fight against it and towards the betterment and empowerment of those it has already victimised or those who are at the risk of being victimised. My interaction with Human Trafficking and its victims was brief but it was enough for me to realise that my life will eventually be dedicated towards fighting against this evil.
Doing nothing while something as sinister as human trafficking goes on, is not justifiable at all, a spirit is inspired and reflected by the words of wisdom, spoken by a child: “How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
Therefore, I have decided to act NOW and change the situation towards the better by being a part of the Dastak Collective. I continue to fight my battle against human trafficking, now with the advantage of having the support and help of my friends and like minded people. As we strive to make a difference and prevent girls and women to fall prey to human trafficking and bring those who are already victims of trafficking back to a normal life. We hope to have more of you support us in our battle, eventually joining in as a committed soldier to fight against Human Trafficking.


(All the names and identities in this article have been changed to maintain the secrecy of personal identities)