A Norwegian journalist has authored a book which tells stories of the plight of women who are victims of trafficking and forced into sex trade in India.
"Prem Nagar: Town of Love" by Anne Ch. Ostby is a searing indictment of a practice that turns humans into chattels. Tamanna is sold to the Nats, a community whose women are forced into prostitution for a living. Sucked into the flesh trade, Tamanna eventually manages to make her escape, but has to leave her little daughter Rupa behind.
She then takes the help an organisation to free Rupa from the clutches of Jabbar Aslam, the kingpin of the trade.
According to the author, the story is told through many voices in many places - some real, some fictional.
"But everything that is important in this book is true. That human beings are bought and sold; that young girls are kidnapped and hidden away; that children are assaulted, abused and raped.
"That there are mothers who cry tears of desperation over their newborn girls' cribs because they know the vicious cycle that awaits them - the same fate that lay in store for themselves, their mothers and their grandmothers. That those who reap the benefits of the human flesh trade, with its violence and brutality, mostly walk free," she says.
The author also says that this book, published by Supernova, finds a glimmer of hope for the women who walk the streets of the Town of Love; the girls on display in doorframes and on balconies.
"Those who do not turn away, but enter the tiny rooms of Prem Nagar, push back the curtains, breathe in the same air as Rupa and Salma, share their pain. Like Tamanna and Fauzia there are those who reclaim the governance of their own lives and their own bodies," she says.
Ostby has authored several books which address multicultural and women's issues, and her novels for young adults have been listed by the Norwegian MFA as recommended reading for families moving abroad.
The launch of "Prem Nagar: Town of Love" in Norway was supported by FOKUS, the Norwegian resource centre for international women's issues.
