Young girls, especially from the North-east, are being lured by friendly women by the offer of a job in a beauty parlour in metros. What they are actually offered is anything but beautiful, says Linda Chhakchhuak
Just 17 years old and raring to go, Mita was offered a chance to work in a beauty parlour in the big metropolis of Mumbai. For a girl from Mizoram, a remote corner in India's north-eastern region, it was a dream come true. Mita was offered the job by a man, whose name she did not know nor cared to remember, as it was "too hard to pronounce".
A woman, who was known to both Mita and the man, had made the job offer on his behalf. Incidentally, this woman happened to be 'a friend of a friend', and was from Mita's tribe and employed at the man's parlour in Mumbai. Mita was delighted at her prospects: Rs 8,000 a month for a job at an aromatic spa, in addition to lodging at the spa's 'hostel'. Having undergone training at a local beauty parlour in the state capital, Aizawl, Mita was eager to join.In October last year, Mita and three other recruits travelled to Mumbai by train along with the woman who had made the offer. "When we reached, we were taken to a hostel that the owners ran themselves. We had been told that we would be working at a beauty parlour. Within a day, an employee there was asked to 'train' us in the art of body massaging. This was something I could not do," she said. It was during a ‘live training session’ when she was giving a client a head massage that the client asked her to massage his lower back and stomach. "He told me that he would pay me extra," she said. "We were made to sit in a row in the front room of the parlour where clients would pick a girl of their choice to do their massage," she explained.
Nowhere to go
Already uneasy with the kind of 'beauty job' she was being dragged into, the client's demand frightened Mita, who ran out of the room and hid upstairs. The assistants were sent to bring her down. "I was then scolded by the owners and ordered to massage the client." But she refused. "I screamed and called out for my friend Asha (an 18-year-old recruit from a remote village in Mizoram with whom she had travelled to Mumbai) who was working in another room. She came running. I told her that I could not do this job. She was also scared, but massaged the client on my behalf." Unable to come to terms with their new job, the two young women decided to leave. But how? Coming from less than well-off homes, they had spent a lot of their family's hard-earned money on the travel to Mumbai and the employers refused to pay them their salary and fare. Luckily for Mita, a distant relative was studying medicine in the city and sponsored their trip back home. Dozens of young women from the northeast are similarly lured to Mumbai and other big cities such as Bangalore and Delhi. Those with strong family support - like Mita and Asha - are able to return home. Yet, there are others who continue to work in dehumanising conditions. Says Mita of two of her friends, who stayed on at the 'spa', "The job was not what they expected but they decided to adapt to the situation."According to the police, many may not have much of a home to return to. After that, it's a small step from the body massaging business to the body-selling trade. "Working in that kind of an environment, it is just a matter of a split-second decision to cross the line. But once it's decided, it's a quick move into the world of full-scale commercial sex," said a police official. Are they victims?So, can such young women be called victims of 'human trafficking?' "Some would say that they are not victims but willing participants as they went on their own volition. But I think they have to be categorised as victims as they were lured with the promise of a job," says Angela Ralte of the Centre of Peace and Development (CPD), an Aizawl-based NGO working on woman and child issues. CPD is one of the dozens of NGOs helping women in distress in the region. Mizoram offers fertile ground for traffickers on the look out for fresh faces for their 'parlours'.
Girls from the hills have an added 'chinky' look that has close physical affinity with women from Thailand, a country that has earned the reputation of something of a beauty and sex capital.Traffickers have worked out a more sophisticated approach now, said Ralte. "They never force the girls. They never forcefully keep anyone. The girls are maneouvered into a position where they find it difficult to leave as the person they trusted is still working along with them. The actual trafficker is their friend," she explains. There being no actual 'crime' to report, the victim finds it difficult to go to the police.

The Government today launched a comprehensive scheme for prevention of trafficking and rescue & rehabilitation of trafficked women and children. The scheme 'Ujjawala' will have specific components for reintegration and repatriation of the victims including cross border victims. Launching the scheme here today, Smt. Renuka Chowdhury, Minister for Women and Child Development said that her Ministry has adopted a multi-pronged approach, which has legislation, policy and programmatic interventions to combat trafficking in a holistic manner. Rehabilitation and reintegration of the victims is ultimate objective of the proposed scheme besides prevention of trafficking. Under the scheme, some innovative inputs like mobilization of adolescent groups through formation of Bal and Balika Sangha, community vigilance groups and sensitization of police. Immediate relief that include food and shelter and trauma care/counseling will also be provided to the rescued victims, she said. Underlining the importance of public participation to check trafficking, the Minister said that the proposed scheme will be implemented through NGO and initially about 50 projects will be taken up benefiting over 2500 victims directly. She said that one of the difficult tasks is repatriation of cross-border victims. The scheme would provide inputs for safe repatriation of such victims with shelter facilities at the borders. Corporate sectors are also being involved for skill training, capacity building, job placement and income generating activities for rescued victims, the Minister added. Referring proposed amendments to the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, Smt. Renuka Chowdhury said that the act is being amended to target the traffickers and to withdraw those provisions, which re-victimize the victims of trafficking. She express the hope that 'Ujjawala' would go a long way in tackling the problem of trafficking, a heinous crime.
The scheme 'Ujjawala' has following five components:
-Prevention, which consists of formation of community vigilance groups/adolescents groups, awareness and sensitization of important functionaries like police, community leaders and preparation of IEC material, holding workshops, etc.
-Rescue, safe withdrawal of the victim from the place of exploitation.
-Rehabilitation, which includes providing safe shelter for victims with basic inputs of food, clothing, counseling medical care, legal aid, vocational training and income generation activities etc.
-Reintegration, which includes restoring the victim into the family/community (if she so desires) and the accompanying costs.
-Repatriation, to provide support to cross-border victims for their safe repatriation to their country of origin.
The Minister also briefed about the East Asia gender equality meet being held in New Delhi on December 6-7, 2007. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, will inaugurate the Ministerial level meeting being attended by 16 countries of the region and various international organizations. The meeting will discuss ways and means to promote gender equality in the region and regional cooperation for the empowerment of women. The main themes for the discussion during the meet are – women participation in decision making, violence against women and home based workers. The meeting would adopt "Delhi Declaration" to set directions in this regard. Countries and organizations attending the meeting are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao, People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mynmar, New Zealand, Phillipines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and representatives from UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, UNESCAP and UNODC