Hello
Gemini Dhar
A take charge expert and author.
Sharing something that shook me to the core
This world is so very beautiful and mesmerising, in our day-to-day pursuit of happiness, we always look up to our bigger goals and larger vision. Then, it comes around, a challenge or a moment of utter shock, some facts and occurrences that make you shudder in the utmost disgust.
As a Take Charge expert and someone who is constantly looking for ways to improve people’s quality and comfort of their lives, who has always advocated for a change in horrible circumstances and treatment of people’s lives, so when I got the opportunity to empower minor girls rescued from the cruel grasps of human trafficking, I didn’t hesitate or stop for even a fraction of the second to say yes.
For the first time I was facing girls who have gone through hell, who were betrayed by their own family members, some paid the price of trusting people who had sold them for a few rupees. A couple of them have lured into leaving the safe haven of their homes.
With my experience with empowering people, I felt it was my responsibility to give these girls, these very girls, who had their choice and will ripped apart from them, a way to own the course of their lives, showing them if they wanted to do something, the can and they absolutely will. Lighting a spark in their eyes is all I needed to see, so I’d know that my work here, on this planet, continued to form a concrete hope in their own abilities and self. Every face lit up the moment they saw us. Many of them were chirpy, clapping and greeting.
They called me Didi, I had to control my sentiments. How can this world be so cruel, how can a child be sold and abused, where is the legal system, what have our very values deteriorated to? Who would impose something heartbreaking like this on unknown girls and worse, their own families? How does someone get away with using humans for trade, receiving notes of paper in exchange for someone’s entire life?
Devastated to the core, I knew putting forward or an answer to these question would not decrease human trafficking, many great people have tried but yet, this monstrosity still thrives…So what could change the situation? While I conversed with the lady behind the rescue operations, she had one sentence. One that changed my entire perspective of the world. While there is demand, there will be a supply.
The statement sounded like that of a business school, yet its implications were horrifying. There must be a huge demand for the inhumane operation to still be running without much of a hitch. For the part of some sort of good news, last 25 years have seen a decline in the rates of human trafficking…and yet there are high pressure and growing demand for minor children, be it girls or boys.
On the other hand, there are people working day and night to rescue, rehabilitate and empower the victims. Individuals who have kept a lot of stakes and are striving to do the best thing possible for the children. Donations are raised, more and more people keep assisting and aiming to save these children and on the contrast, the very own nearest people a child needs support from, their own family, are the ones selling them.
Rising above their challenges these children were intelligent and sharp, they did not know they had the power within to overcome their trauma, but each one, every single one had a dream and determination to work towards a better future. If that’s not the most beautiful thing to learn about, then I don’t know what is.
Some wanted to do business, some wanted to work, few wanted to educate themselves for a brighter tomorrow, not a glimmer of pain was shown, no vulnerability in their eyes and not a single child had given up. Every face I saw, buoyant, radiant and full of hope for the future, is etched in my memory, making my mission infinitely bigger.
We shared stories, we shared laughter, and we share the formulas to success and how we can build focus, and aim for our dreams to come true. When I shared business tips with them, I could see the excitement in their voice, hear the sound of their grin, smell their warmth engulfing me and feel the absolute sincerity of the palms resting against the deepest valley of my heart.
They pledged with me,
I am strong.
When I share my strength with others,
I support.
Together, we can empower each other.
I am responsible.
I take charge of my life.
The session ended for them, but the journey of change for me had just begun, there was no learning of a lesson so profound. Therefore it is crucial to spread awareness, education and empower them.
While we sit comfortably in our offices and homes, somewhere, someplace a child is unsafe. Stop the demand, or help in the best way we can, and soon, the supply of innocent children will cease.
If we sit still and pretend to be oblivious to what is happening to the future and the wellbeing of these children, we’re sunken to the level of the people demanding awful acts and use of children in the first place.
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