Explicit Content
While this episode is incredibly important, we advise viewers to listen at their own discretion. This episode involves topics on sex-work, human-trafficking, violence and abuse.
Ruchira Gupta is one of the world’s leading voices and campaigners in the movement to end global sex-trafficking. A journalist by trade, Ruchira explains her passion for story-telling, and demonstrates her gift as a story-teller by sharing truly captivating (yet harrowing) stories from her time spent documenting life in brothels and villages where humans are bought and sold as commodities. Ruchira won an Emmy for her documentary, The Selling of Innocents, which shined a light on modern slavery. Her continuing work has been instrumental in passing legislation and creating support on a global scale for survivors of human trafficking. Learn from Ruchira’s profound insight into the truths of modern slavery–where it comes from, what keeps it going, and what we can do to stop it.
In Episode 7, Molly and Hans talk with Ruchira Gupta — a writer, feminist campaigner, professor at NYU, and community organizer of women across the world and particularly in red-light areas and in caste-ghettoes suffering from inter-generational prostitution in India. She is the founder of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a grassroots movement to end sex-trafficking in India. She has designed and teaches a course on human trafficking at New York University. She writes columns for The Telegraph, Outlook, The Guardian, CNN, New York Times, Hindu and Jansatta. She has won an Emmy for her documentary, The Selling of Innocents and the Clinton Global Citizen Award for her work to end sex trafficking globally. She has testified to the United States Senate for the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, addressed the UN General Assembly on human trafficking for the creation of the Trafficking Survivor Fund, and this past year she was instrumental in the passage of India’s new anti-rape laws that also criminalize the process of trafficking, the first of its kind in her country.
Show Links
Below are links to all the items we discussed during our conversation with Ruchira.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Selling of Innocents (1997) documentary
The Last Girl Campaign
1 Million Meals
Ruchira is currently in India attempting to provide one million meals to sex trafficking survivors and their children. These families are cut off from their food sources and are in need of outside help. Visit 1 Million Meals to make a donation today and support these trafficking survivors and their children!
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