A Trippy Trip

Human trafficking - for labor or the sex trade, social responsibility, sustainability, oppression through ignorance, resignation, tolerance... I cannot even do justice to the intellectual debates and, as one of my fellow Pepperdine colleagues here referred to it, the "mental gymanstics" in which we have engaged on our long bus rides through the traffic, the dirt, the incredible noise pollution, and the people. Here, modernization backs right up against a general apathy towards the value of the physical life and the impoverished conditions under which the majority of the population live.

Human trafficking is the 3rd largest global crime effort, representing a rough estimated of $ 10 billion in "inital sales" of approximately four million people each year. In India, it is estimated that 250,000-400,000 women and children are trafficked internally each year. People are trafficked for sex trade but also for bonded labor. In either case, what startled us is how much this is accepted as part of the eco-system, if you will. And, while there are NGOs seeking to help these people, they are not necessarily trying to move them out of their situations. To many of these people, it is their means to providing for their children. Without alternatives, removing them without options for them creates a far greater problem and a situation that nobody is yet prepared to handle.

So, we see a need for options and for education to give people choices. I am reminded of Paulo Friere's book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, wherein he advocates for greater interaction, circles of community, and open dialogue to create awareness, foster education and empower a self-interest for an alternative vocation that is not founded in oppression. This is evident at Aastha, a non-profit organization in the center of Mumbai dedicated to raising awareness and education around health issues among women who are on the streets. Through awareness, one woman learned to read and write. She left the streets, volunteered for this NGO, and now has become the President. She just bought her first car and aspires to buy a home. Later, we will meet with another organization that gives a steady job to any woman, making papad that is distributed worldwide.

I didn't get a sense of any regret, hostility, or angst among the women of Aastha. I find myself going back to Zander and Zander's Art of Possibility (tell me it wasn't timely that we read it for a class presentation). This is a group of people who seem to start with Zanders' "what is" and don't dwell on the "should be". A presenter at Welingkar had spoken to us of the "Indian gene" - that being something resilient, loving, celebratory, comfortable in ambiguity, pluralistic, accpeting, social, community-oriented, hopeful, respectful, spiritual, and hard-working. These qualities were no more evident to me in my lifetime than when two of the women from Aastha ran across the street at the end of the meeting and used their hard-earned money to buy me roses for my birthday. There is no value to this kind of thoughtfulness and generosity. It is from the bottom of their heart and it was given to me with a sense of hope... I believe a hope that I will pay this forward to someone in the future.