Film: My Three Swamis (India)

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00:00:00: SOUND UP; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:00:02: CHARLIE: Hi, my name is Charlie and welcome to Explore.
00:00:05: [GRAPHIC] Explore
00:00:08: CHARLIE: To explore is to dream, to grow, to learn, to experience. Come explore. Join me.
00:00:39: [GRAPHIC – Mumbai]
00:00:42: [GRAPHIC] Charles Annenberg Weingarten Founder, explore.org
00:00:44: CHARLIE: I’d always thought of slavery in terms of American history. As I journey through India, I realized that it’s still a contemporary global issue.
00:01:00: [GRAPHIC – Bhavani, Age 14]
00:01:05: BHAVANI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I took my sister’s child to school and dropped him off. I was going back home to do my chores, when a man I didn’t know approached me, and took me away with him. He took me to his house and locked me in a room upstairs. Later, he tried to get me to have sex with him. I told him I don’t do work like that.
00:01:47: CHARLIE: The Explore team visited the Rescue Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to help rescue and rehabilitate girls who’ve been trafficked into Mumbai.
00:01:58: MAHESH RUPARELIA, Program Executive, Rescue Foundation: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] There must be at last 25,000 trafficked girls in Mumbai. These girls are trafficked from Nepal and Bangladesh, and other states of India, for forced prostitution.
00:02:20: [GRAPHIC – Verana, Age 16]
00:02:23: VERANA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I awoke at night to find my father on top of me. My mother was mentally ill. She would try to fight him, but she was always beaten by my father. I ran away to Delhi with a boy I loved. But my father came and found me. He took me by train to Mumbai, and sold me in the red light district for 10,000 rupees (about $250).
00:03:15: [GRAPHIC – Sima, Age 16]
00:03:18: SIMA: He gave me a tea that hypnotized me. I wasn’t unconscious, but I had to do whatever he wanted.
00:03:35: MAHESH: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] There are so many ways they bring the girls to India. One is that they give a lot of money to the father, who cannot return the money, so they take the daughter. These are very poor people, in the villages.
00:03:50: MAHESH: Second way is to lure them to come to Mumbai for better jobs. The family likes it because the family is hard of money. Third is they get married to the girl, bring her to Mumbai, and sell her to the brothels.
00:04:13: [GRAPHIC] Triveni Balkrishna Acharya
President, Rescue Foundation
00:04:17: TRIVENI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] There is also the Hindu concept of devadasi that allows the fourth daughter to be given to the temple. Sometimes, in very poor families, the second girl will be taken to a brothel and left there.
00:04:42: MAHESH: All the girls that we have here, they are brought to Mumbai and sold straight away to the brothels. They are put up in dark rooms. They are beaten, they are starved. All the physical torture happens. At the same time, there is a lot of mental torture. The girls are made to believe that they don’t have any recourse to anything in life except working in a brothel. They lose all faith in mankind.
00:05:18: SWILDA DECUNA, Probation Office: The brainwashing is very good. They are feeling that “the brothel keeper is my mother. She is giving me good food, good clothes. Whatever she is doing, she is giving me a customer, but they are paying me. So, that is good for me. My need is money. I made money and those people are giving me money. That’s why she is good.” And here we are keeping them. We are giving good thoughts, we are giving them good manners, but they do not want that. They miss money.
00:05:52: TRIVENI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] The girls are led to believe they will make 50,000 rupees (about $1,200). But unless she gets a tip, she does not benefit in any way. She will be given clothes, makeup, and a little food and that’s it.
00:06:11: MEN (FACES BLURRED OUT): [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] The moment we receive a missing persons complaint, we start looking for the girl. In most cases, missing girls end up in brothels. At present, we are working on three missing girls, but we are always looking for new girls. Even if we rescue 90% of the girls, we still have a constant flow of new cases. We are always on cases.
00:06:48: FEMALE V/O: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] They look for the girls who appear scared and worried.
00:06:55: MALE V/O, THEN FACE BLURRED: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] You can tell by the furtive look on the girl’s face, that she is being forced into prostitution. You can tell by a girl’s makeup that she’s newly arrived from the village. You can tell by the way they walk, that the girls are not used to high heels.
00:07:18: TRIVENI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] The investigators first visit the girl and just sit with her, give her money, but say they don’t want anything from her. This is how the girls begin to trust them.
00:07:31: MAN V/O: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] Then the undercover investigators show identification, and counsel the girls and prepare them to leave.
00:07:39: MAN: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] When we counsel one girl, when we go to rescue her, we end up rescuing 15 to 18 girls. We can’t refuse them. Anyone who wants to be rescued has to be rescued.
00:07:53: SIMA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] There was a murder and I saw the murderer. When the police came, I asked to be rescued.
00:08:03: VERANA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I ran from the brothel to the police station. I went at six in the morning.
00:08:13: BHAVANI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] When the police used to pass by the brothel, they would put me in a crate to hide me. We waited six months for someone to help us.
00:08:39: WOMAN: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I was part of an undercover raid. We knew the names of the girls we were looking for and we were sure they were hidden in this brothel. We were calling the girls’ names, but no one answered. Finally, one of the girls cried out to us and we took the crate apart and found them.
00:09:13: MAHESH V/O: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] They’re very young. They are totally underprivileged. We have to counsel them at every stage of rehabilitation. We even call parents here and counsel the parents also, if need be. Parents are willing to accept in most of the cases. Once they are here, we give them all affection and love. Madam is mommy to all of them. They come here and talk to her, anytime. She gives full preference to the girls.
00:09:44: SIMA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I feel like I’m at home. The staff feels like family.
00:09:50: MAHESH V/O: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] We give them full healthcare for whatever is necessary, including operations, abortions, including deliveries. We give them free medicine, free consultation, everything is free here. We give them a lot of training, vocational training in life sustaining trades. So, once we repatriate them, they can at least do some work, somewhere and sustain themselves. That’s very important. We give them legal aid for prosecuting traffickers and the brothel keepers. [SIGN, “Let’s prevent trafficking”]
00:10:24: WOMAN: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] It can take 3 to 5 years for the cases to be brought to court. It’s hard for them to come back to testify after escaping that life.
00:10:38: BHAVANI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] The want to catch the man who did this. He has ruined many girls and I want to help them.
00:10:48: CHARLIE: So, here I sit with three girls who have been forced into sexual slavery. Why do I need to bring up the past?
00:10:57: CHARLIE: (ADDRESSING GIRLS) What do you do here at the Recue Foundation? What’s your day like?
00:11:01: BHAVANI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] We get up at six in the morning. We pray.
00:11:08: VERANA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] We do darning and sewing. Then, we work with the art teacher.
00:11:10: CHARLIE: I love this art work! These are beautiful.
00:11:15: VERANA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] Our teacher comes and teaches us yoga.
00:11:21: CHARLIE: You do yoga?
00:11:22: GIRLS TOGETHER: Yes.
00:11:24: CHARLIE: I’m trying to learn how to do yoga. Can you teach me a pose?
00:11:30: BHAVANI: Ha!
00:11:33: CHARLIE: I’d always had the fantasy of meeting a wise sage who could teach me how to incorporate yogic philosophy into my life, but here, in the Rescue Foundation, I’d found the swamis that I’d been looking for.
00:11:46: BHAVANI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] Keep your fists next to your face. Take a breath. Take another breath. Hold your hands in that posture. And then start. (RAISING ARMS AND EXHALING) Now, put your hands down. (THEY LAY DOWN ON FLOOR)
00:12:30: CHARLIE: (AS THEY PULL ON CHARLIE’S ARMS, LAUGHING) Hey, hey, careful! That’s as far as I’m going. (BACK AND FORTH TALK AS THEY SHOW HIM POSES) Like that? What do I look like, a pretzel?
00:12:57: VERANA: [TRANSLATION GRPAHIC] When we do yoga, we feel peace.
00:13:02: SIMA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] When we have low energy, it makes us energized.
00:13:14: GIRLS TOGETHER: (LAUGHING, EXCHANGES BACK AND FORTH)
00:13:39: BHAVANI: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I’m going to show you something else. We fall asleep like this so we can forget our past.
00:14:02: SIMA: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I feel like I’m strong. A lot of other girls were afraid of going to the police, but I went, so I know I am strong.
00:14:28: CHARLIE: By the end of the day, my three swamis has become three smiling children again.
00:14:38: BHAVANI V/O: [TRANSLATION GRAPHIC] I am constantly aware of how to be happy. You need to move forward and keep yourself in a happy frame of mind. Hopefully, I’ll see my parents again soon. That’s all.
00:15:01: [GRAPHIC - CREDITS ROLL] Director and Host Charles Annenberg Weingarten Executive Producer Tom Pollak Written by Lisa Rossiter and Charles Annenberg Weingarten Producer Les Guthman Associate Producer Liz Marks Camera Girjashanker Vohra Shalini Kantayya Sound Recording Alex Ramos-Ariansen Editor Lisa Rossiter Music Composed and Arranged by Richard Horowitz Show Open Design and Graphics BELIEF Post Production Supervisor Christine Steele Color Timing Paul Roman Linda Olague Pre-recording Mixer Phillip Blackford Sound Editor Olivier Hermitant Assistant Editor Andrew Goldenberg Hindi Translator Saeeda Wali Mohammed India Consultants Madhu Krishna Stanley Wolpert Special Thanks The Annenberg Foundation Wallis Annenberg Leonard Aube Sylia Obagi Ericka Novotny Alison Gister Greg Cherry Roger Jackson

The producers of Explore India wish to thank the countless individuals and non-profit organizations throughout the world working to make a difference in the lives of others, with special thanks to:
Trevani Acharya
Mahesh Ruparalia

explore.org
2007 Explore Annenberg LLC
00:15:29: END OF FILM

Now Viewing: My Three Swamis

I came to India looking for a sage. I found it hidden in the souls of three adolescent girls sold into slavery. Meet the Rescue Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to freeing girls from Mumbai brothels.