PANDEMIC and TRAP

This is story about a young girl from Bangalore city of India. Her name is Sonia. She is the eldest daughter of her family. She has one sister and one brother. She lost her father at the age of 10. Her mother has been working a domestic worker in Bangalore city.  It is quite difficult for her family to manage day to day requirement from the income earned by her mother. She decided to stop her further education and started a job in a spa, where she used to get around Rs.5000 to Rs.7500 per month based on the turn over of customers. In 2020, the real problem started, when government started putting restrictions over opening of shops due to COVID-19. The owner stopped paying money to her as there was no income from the shop. Her mother started losing household works. 

During interaction with her, she told me that since pandemic, they have been facing a lot of problem. Even they spent few days without food. She had searched for a job, but everywhere she got one answer "SORRY".  Finally she got a job, which she never thought. The job is online "SEX". Initially she was not interested, but there was no alternative option for her. Now she is able to earn at least Rs.500 in a day. In her family no-one knows what she has been doing. 

During interaction I came to know that a number of rackets have been working and they are trying to catch hold young girls for this type of trade. Even some time the rackets are also threatening them by saying that they will disclose to their family members and friends about their work.  

Last six month I got a number of friendship requests in messenger. I accepted their friend request and slowly started interacting with them. It was not a easy task for me. Some were rude and some were very friendly. Even in some cases I did something which my concise never permitted me, but as a part of research I did it. 

I talked with more than 87 girls from 10 big cities of India. Sonia is the first girl, whose story inspired me to venture into this research. Even in few cases I received threatening call from them. One such incident I am sharing here. I got a call from a girl, where she told me that if I will not give her ransom money, she will upload my chat online and make it viral. I know that once they will upload it, I may go through a lot of problem. But I decided to go ahead. Out of 87 girls, I found that stories of 73 girls are more or less same. They are dare need of money, because they are sole bread earners for their families.

I don't know how many girls are under such a trap. Question is that who is responsible for this situation?