Shattered Innocence

By Soulful-Writer
Copyright 2001-2005

She was born innocent like the gentle morning dew that caresses the gardens of the Taj Mahal.

Her mother, a child herself, like many other young females, was kidnapped or lured from her village to become a prisoner of a man’s greed and disdain for human life. She is powerless to protect her daughter from following her fate. She serves the lust of many men who come to her door for a price. Fleeing is not an option. Her captor keeps his “merchandise” tightly secured under chained and locked metallic sliding doors and bars on the only window that brings some light into their world.

Now, Pavithra has joined this circle of hopelessness, vice, and despair. Like many of the other children born to women forced into prostitution by an insensitive world, she will quietly sleep on a mat placed carelessly on the floor while her mother performs her duties to keep them alive. That is the only world she will ever know. Her turn will soon come, even before she has had a chance to be a child.

They are victims of “white slavery,” kidnapped women sold to brothels to satiate men’s sexual needs and fill their pimp’s pockets with their woe and shame. Their situation has reduced their status to that of “goods,” “objects,” “merchandise.” They are no longer human beings deserving of compassion and protection from their captor’s greed and brutality. The local police stand impervious to their suffering and look the other way for a share. They are destined to live and die as sexual toys because the voices of a few that cry and urge for their release, bounce off barriers of police and social indifference.

Sadly, their tragedy repeats itself in the story of so many other women from Third World countries, even here in America, the land of the free and strong. Chinese women in New York City brought into this country under false pretenses; bear witness and testimonial to this, the highest form of cruelty and abuse. American women are not immune to this tragedy. Television networks have reported in various occasions the story of American women who were misled to move to a foreign country and became unwilling “members” of this ring. Others have been subjected to the same fate right here in their own homeland. Foreign television shows broadcast their situation as just another report on the human condition here and afar. Some viewers watch in horror while others brush it off. However, what are we, as individuals, doing to halt and prevent it? The strongest chain begins with just one link.

Those who care wonder: What can we do to help them? How can we stop their misery when not even their own government would do anything to end it?
Such is the challenge life presents before us. We can either tell ourselves that we are too far away and powerless to help them and move on with our lives, or we can join forces with those souls who dare to fight back. How do we do it? With the advent of modern technology and the Internet, human affairs in any part of the world have become global issues. These modern means have brought into our life the tools we need to empower us to make a difference in the world. Let’s not use them just for our own personal gains but for a greater purpose: to raise our voice against abuse and injustices happening to human beings here and across the globe.

Using all tools available to us, we must leave our passive stand and actively join the chain of others making a difference against inhuman acts. We start by contacting the one International Organization that holds much power on the affairs taking place in various part of the world: The United Nations. We write to their leaders demanding sanctions imposed to those governments that remain impervious to these women’s tragedy. We cry out for justice not once or twice, but as many times and as often as we must to get the results we seek. In the comfort of our world and “water cooler” chats, we make others aware and invite them to spread the word and join our cause.

Some of you might be wondering why should I even care about what is happening to women in other places of the world? Because, dear reader, life has a way of recoiling issues we dismiss right back into our life in one-way or another. You never know the turns your daughter’s or sister’s life might take! What you might think today is happening too far for you to be concerned, might indeed be unfolding in your own back yard! After all, what does happen to those missing women and children who are never found? Furthermore, Isn’t one of the greatest traits that makes us human caring for the misfortune of others? You have the power to prevent another child from becoming a sexual slave here and abroad. Act now!