Film Review: "The Day My God Died." Documentary Film on Sexual Trafficking in Nepal and India.
The title of this powerful and well researched documentary is from a quote by one of the girls kidnapped at a village fair in Nepal, drugged, and trafficked across the border to brothels in the largest red light district in the world, Bombay, India. The girl says, "The day that I was sold was the day that my God died". There are on average fifteen Nepalese girls trafficked daily. Their average age is 14, but some are 7-8 year old. They are sold into sexual slavery for 50,000 rupees and brutalized into submission. It's a $700 million industry, built up $2 at a time from sex workers earning $2 tricks. We see the anguish of a young mother kidnapped while taking her baby for medical help. In the film we meet trafficked victims Meena, Anita, Ava, Sita, and Jyoti. Some like Jyoti have been rescued and now work as front line workers in rescue efforts going back to the actual brothels. In one scene Jyoti shows the rescuers the hiding place she was forced to hide during raids. On one raid she helped 6-7 girls to freedom. But a hundred girls rescued is just a tiny fraction of the hundred thousands still trapped. We witness the rescue efforts by Anuradha Koirala (Maiti Nepal), Harleen Walia (Sanlaap), and Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission (IJM).
The film documents ways traffickers work, brutalizing, starving and raping victims, some as young as seven covered in cigarette burns. The film shows the squalid brothels, interviews with brothel owners, and the police corruption. But the film offers a ray of hope. It portrays three organizations involved in rescue efforts. We see the rescue strategies including the transit homes set up by NGO's, visit Sanlaan a drop in center for the children, Maiti Nepal (translation 'mother's home') a safe place for the girls unable to reenter village life. We see Anuradha Koirala leading and organizing demonstrations in villages, warning parents, talking to the girl prostitutes, we watch the freed girls, some as young as eleven, healing through art therapy, dancing, singing, telling their stories.
The rescue work in India offers pointers for what is needed here in the US. In Minnesota there are few transit centers, or hospices. The difficulties getting the girls to trust rescuers are similar. Many of the girls are dying from HIV AIDS. In India HIV AIDS is now reaching epidemic proportions. In the US HIV AIDS awareness and prevention programs targeting Asian populations are minimal. This film hopefully will draw support for the rescue efforts in Nepal and India. It is also a powerful tool for education and awareness on sexual trafficking here and the need for HIV AIDS awareness and prevention. All the rescuers are worthy of Nobel peace prizes for their work. But I was most struck by the compassion and fearless actions of Anuradha Koirala. These courageous heroines, young and old, are an inspiration to us all.
The documentary was shown Oct 26, 2005 as part of a four hour workshop on Sexual Trafficking A Minnesota Issue, co-sponsored by the Center of Excellence for Women and Health, the Center for Women, Economic Justice and Public Policy, at the College of St. Catherine in St Paul, Mn. The workshop included panelists from the local rescue efforts in Minnesota such as Breaking Free, the Tubman Family Alliance and Civil Society. For more information contact the Centers of Excellence at 651/690-8847
