The Dressember Network: Prosecutions and Interventions
*Gamya, a 15-year-old girl in Mumbai, has always been fiercely devoted to her family. When her older sister moved away to start a family, she was left to bear the financial burden her family was experiencing. Her father, an elderly man, struggled to meet the demands of his job as an autorickshaw driver. Her brother suffered from tuberculosis. And her mother endured a rare skin condition.
In 2016, when a woman who had seen the family struggle offered them a way to escape their financial difficulties, the family had no choice but to assent. Gamya would have to go to the woman’s home and be sold for sex.
Gamya’s mother would take her by train to the woman’s home, where she would sit outside as Gamya was repeatedly sold to customers. This sex trafficking occurred far from Mumbai’s red-light district, so the authorities were none the wiser—minor girls like Gamya suffered the consequences.
In May 2017, when a Dressember Network partner learned of the private sex trafficking ring, they worked with authorities to intervene in the situation arrest the women exploiting them. Though private sex trafficking rings are incredibly difficult to infiltrate, a decoy customer was able to enter the home and confirm that minor girls were being sold for sex work. Gamya and two other victims (ages 17 and 20) were freed.
With the help of a social worker provided by our Dressember Network partner, Gamya was empowered to share the truth of her experience. She was moved to a safe aftercare home, where she received trauma-informed care and counseling.
Gamya’s family continued to struggle with her mother in jail and following the passing of her brother. Her father tried to move her back home to once again take care of the family. Gamya was able to provide services and support for others through work at the aftercare home. This gave Gamya the purpose and strength to balance her own healing with the painful family ordeal, though it was an extraordinarily heavy burden to bear.
In December 2019, when she was called to testify at trial against her mother and the woman who organized the trafficking ring, Gamya did something that surprised even her social worker. After boldly and completely sharing the truth of what happened to her, Gamya spoke with the judge and asked that he be lenient with her mother. She said, “I want to forgive my mother. I know she has done something wrong, but she had no other options. Please don’t punish my mother.”
Though the trial remains ongoing, Gamya has been able to move forward. She moved back home in January 2020 to support her sister who was about to have a baby. Our local partner supervised visits and counseled Gamya’s parents until it was safe for her to go home. Gamya’s mother has stood up for her even as the madam who exploited her continues to call their home requesting a change in Gamya’s testimony.
Gamya now dreams of becoming a police officer so that she can rescue girls stuck in harmful situations. Gamya is currently a junior nurse, working at one of Mumbai’s biggest hospitals. Her family’s health issues inspired her to care for others, and she has been relied upon as a crucial team member during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The impact made possible on the lives of survivors like Gamya and their families through the Dressember community is far reaching. Gamya’s story offers just one example of the work we have done together in the last year for victims and survivors around the world. The Dressember Network partners with organizations worldwide that support prosecution and intervention in trafficking situations. Alongside local partners, government, and law enforcement, your support over the last tear enabled the aid of 4,269 victims and the restraint of 3,189 perpetrators of human trafficking across Kolkata and Mumbai in India, Cebu and Manila in the Philippines, and Guatemala.
One way in which the Dressember Network resources critical information to aid in the prosecution of human trafficking perpetators is through the Human Trafficking Report. The Human Trafficking Report is a reliable and comprehensive resource drawing data from every federal criminal and civil human trafficking case that United States courts handle each year. The report is generated by a group of attorneys and serves to hold traffickers and states accountable for exploitation. By taking information from a variety of organizations into account, the report presents the most critical information needed to reform the criminal justice system’s response to human trafficking.
With Dressember’s support, the fourth annual Federal Human Trafficking Report was released in June 2021. The report continues efforts to provide comprehensive data about every criminal and civil human trafficking case handled by the federal courts each year. This year’s report was the first to compile data and highlight trends from every year since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was passed in 2000. As a result of the robust data reporting in the 2020 report, it is anticipated that future reports will provide an unprecedented amount of data to empower prosecutors, lawmakers, and advocates to identify and respond to meaningful trends and gap analyses of sex and labor trafficking.
Lindsey Roberson, the 2020 Report Editor, said, “This year’s Report provides in-depth trend analyses and important context on 20 years’ worth of enforcement data that practitioners and the public alike can review to assess how far we’ve come in using the justice system to combat trafficking, and how far we still have to go.”
A notable takeaway from the 2020 Human Trafficking Report are that the number of cases filed increased by 11% from 2019, yet the number of defendants charged dropped by 8%. Additionally, 83% of active sex trafficking cases involved the internet as the primary method of solicitation, and 41% of victims in active sex trafficking cases were cruited online in 2020.
The better-informed we can be, the more successful interventions and prosecutions that can occur. The more successful interventions and prosecutions that can occur, the more empowered survivors, like Gamya, can be offered the care and support that they need to move forward from trafficking situations. The more survivors we can empower, the more likely we are to be able to end trafficking once and for all. The impact of the Dressember Network is deeply felt and offers a real opportunity to support survivors for years to come.
*A pseudonym was used to protect the survivor’s identity.
The Dressember Network is made up of 20 organizations that support programs in the following impact areas: advocacy, prevention, intervention, and survivor empowerment. The Dressember Network partners with the Human Trafficking Institute to make the Human Trafficking Report possible. Human Trafficking Institute is an organization dedicated to ending trafficking by working inside the criminal justice system to provide the experts, training, resources, and evidence-based research needed to free victims of human trafficking. International Justice Mission (IJM) is an international, non-governmental 501 organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. The Dressember Network also partners with IJM to provide rescue from violence, legal support, and trauma-informed aftercare. When you support Dressember, you help dismantle trafficking holistically and in a way that prioritizes survivor needs and voices. Ready to join us? Register to become an advocate (and access accurate statistics that you can share to raise awareness) or make a donation today.
About the Author
Miranda Cecil is a second-year at Northeastern University School of Law. She graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2020 (go heels!) and shipped up to Boston. As a North Carolina transplant in New England, she loves exploring her new area on the weekends. In her free time, she enjoys cross-stitching, cycling, and reading. She hopes to use her legal degree and a passion for urban development to continue advocating for human trafficking survivors (and, despite the Boston winter, looks forward to the style challenge this December).