In a decade where India has seen unprecedented growth and a sharp decrease in the percentage of the population living below the poverty line, at least one group has contradicted this trend and seen falling wages, exploitation and even a decline in life expectancy. This group is India's approximately 20 million commercial sex-workers and 75% of them are victims of sex trafficking. Kidnapped or lured from their homes, they have been forced into sexual slavery through a combination of coercion, torture, starvation and rape. Typically they are taken from rural communities and relocated to cities hundreds of miles away, across state and even national borders, where they have no support network and often don't even speak the local language. West Bengal contains important transit points which are used by the traffickers to bring victims not only from adjoining states, but also from Nepal and Bangladesh. The district of North 24 Parganas sharing its frontier with Bangladesh is such a transit point with Swarupnagar block being one of the most notorious locations for these illegal activities. Being a pioneering anti-trafficking organization working on the issue of sex trafficking and sex crime over 2 decades, SWANIRVAR decided to skill up trafficking survivors to deliver Community based healthcare services last year. This approach was taken keeping in mind the inadequacy of healthcare services in Rural India as well as the scope of economic independence and social dignity it would provide to the survivors. The training started with 15 girls for 1 year with 11 of them successfully completing and receiving the certificate from Seva Kendra Community College this year. Today the girls are not only living a life of economic independence but also a life of social dignity within their own community. SWANIRVAR’s innovation has motivated many to adopt the program and replicate it in other contexts.
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