New day, good day
Each day in Kolkata, India presents a new challenge. The slow but methodological work of Destiny makes for long days. Megan and I spend most of our time sitting in the sewing room with the girls who make the products that Destiny sells. These are young women 18 years and older who have left the sex trade and gone through Destiny’s training program. They are skilled artists, to say the least, sewing and embroidering scarves, bags, blankets and many more items. Although the seven young women at Destiny speak very little English, they have become our good friends. Timid and wary at first, they have grown comfortable around us and now enjoy teasing us in Bengali. On the first day of our second week, I woke up feeling very homesick and down. As I sat in the sewing room with a knot in my throat one of the girls came up to me and gave me a hug. “No sad,” she said in her broken English and thick accent, “new day, good day.”
When we are not in the sewing room with the girls we are in red light district. Last summer, Destiny opened a community center in the heart of Kolkata’s second biggest red light area, Khiddirpur. The center offers sewing training and a literacy program for women working in the brothels in addition to women and young girls who are at risk for becoming victims of the trade. Megan and I go to the center about twice a week to teach English. At first, it was hard to understand why Destiny doesn’t rescue these women from the trade, but it has become clear that things are not that simple. I’ve come to understand the complexity of human trafficking and how the different dimensions (stigma, poverty, mindset, etc.) make the problem even more intricate.
The founder of Destiny and our boss, Smarita, explained to us that many of the girls are taken from their villages at a young age and sold into the trade. They spend their entire lives being owned by someone else, sold from customer to customer like a product. Having known nothing else, many of the women have no desire to leave the trade, unable to digest the idea of being out in the world on their own. With no employable skills and the stigma of having worked in the trade, leaving can result in returning shortly after.
But these women are eager to learn and full of laughter. It’s often confusing when our time with them is over and I remember how different their lives are from mine. In just two short weeks I feel that I have come to understand the factors that contribute to sex trafficking and the way it impacts so many young women’s lives. Over cups of hot tea and broken English I have come to understand the beautiful work of Destiny. I miss my family and friends (and avocados) and some days are very tough, but there is no where else in the world I would rather be than learning and exploring in this crazy country with my partner and my rock, Megan. Every new day really is a good day at Destiny.
