She Hoped to Become a Film Star [Victim Testimony #1]

(from “The Rape of 100,000 Girls,” by Helen Brown)

Seema had left the poverty of her home village to work in Kathmandu. She was barely twelve when a smooth-talking flesh trader lured her to Bombay with talk of a better job. She hoped to become a film star. Instead she was sold into a brothel.

At first she resisted, screaming, crying and fighting off prospective customers, but the madam who ran the brothel would have none of it. She sent in a muscled toughie to hold the girl down while an old man raped her. The pain was so intense that Seema lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized for a week. After that it was back to the brothel where the other child prostitutes told her she could not win this battle.

Now Seema appears resigned to her fate. She hits the streets of central Calcutta as soon as it gets dark and stands near a lamp-post soliciting customers. Her parents in Nepal have no idea where their daughter is. She does not have the courage to tell them, and anyway, they probably think she is dead. It is better that way...

It is estimated that every year 10,000 Nepalese girls get trafficked and sold to India. Most of them end up in brothels where they are enslaved, raped, tortured (physically and mentally) until they give in. A single girl might have to serve 10-15 customers per day.