Several African women from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, come to Delhi in search of new opportunities. But not all of them succeed in achieving their goal of a better life. Several women are forced into sexual exploitation to satisfy African men living in New Delhi.

The Logical Indian spoke to Nyasha Kadandara a Zimbabwean-born visual storyteller who worked with the BBC News Africa and directed ‘Imported for my Body’ documentary for which she approached Grace.

Grace, a Kenyan girl who was trafficked to New Delhi, went undercover for the BBC to expose the dark world of the illegal sex network that spreads from India to Africa.

The investigation aimed to reveal the faces behind this sex trade network. Nyasha had earlier produced the Africa eye series ‘Sex and the Sugar Daddy’, and Grace was one of the women featured.

‘I have known Grace since 2017, I contacted her to inform her about the series, and that is when she told me that she isn’t in Kenya anymore. She has been trafficked to India,’ Nyasha said.

India-Africa Chain

As the earlier Africa Eye series aired, Grace received messages in a Whatsapp group asking her if she would like to travel to India and earn as much as ₹10,000 in one day. The recruiters told her that they were looking for dancers and hostesses for tourists.

The lure of good money got Grace hooked, and she agreed to move to India. Grace was then connected to a Kenyan woman, who would later be her ‘madam’, her warden.

‘Madam’ helped Grace to get her documents in order. She then received her visa and ticket to India on mail. On reaching New Delhi, Grace met Goldie, a well known ‘madam’ from the local sex industry. Goldie then took her to Govindpuri in South Delhi.

Not hearing from for weeks, she called Grace. ‘I started asking her questions, to which she told me that she owed a debt of ₹2,70,700 and that her passport has been taken away. She told me that now she was forced to solicit to pay back the people who trafficked her’ told Nyasha.

Grace informed Nyasha that there were scores of other African women, who shared her fate, at the place where she was being stationed. ‘I knew I had to go to India and investigate how women like Grace were being tricked into getting trapped in this business,’ said Nyasha.

Nyasha managed to set up a meeting with Grace in Delhi. When Grace left for India, she expected she would be working with tourists. But instead, she was forced to solicit. She wanted to tell her story as a warning to others. During this meeting, the plan to bust the racket was formulated. Grace was ready to expose the underworld of her captors, where women are reduced to being merchandise.

Grace’s Debt

Nyasha set out to find out if the debt that Grace owed was accounted for. In the course of her research, she found out that, on an average, a ticket to India from Kenya is $500 (US). Visa would require $80 and another $40 for the passport.

This revealed that even with the living cost, Goldie’s profit was around $3000. In six months, Goldie had trafficked five women making almost $18,000 in profit.

Pain Breaks Patience

Grace was first taken to the Goldie’s Brothel in Govindpuri. Men would frequently visit the brothel. If one of them had a client, the other would sleep in the sitting room outside.

She recalled one time when she came back home with ₹10,000. She was in excruciating pain. She informed Goldie she needed rest. She was forced to go out again immediately. ‘You have to go work’ was the only answer she received. The incident pushed Grace to tell her story.

‘At first, when we found out what had happened to Grace, we only wanted to get her out. We hadn’t thought of a film, to begin with. But when she had left Kenya, she had told her family that she would change their lives for the better, which is why she wanted to stay and see it till the end’ said Nyasha.

‘Being forced into prostitution was something she had never dreamt of, she decided she wanted to stay. Their movements were constantly watched. It was difficult for us to communicate until she paid off her debt in January 2019,’ Nyasha added.

After the debt was paid off, Grace found herself in a different predicament. The visa she was issued was a 60-day tourist visa. Since she had extended her stay, her status was now of an illegal immigrant in India.

‘Grace was very strong and adamant. She did not want anyone else to go through what she had to suffer. That’s when we decided to make the film.’ said Nyasha

Investigation

The first stage of the investigation occurred in Govindpuri, the place where Grace was first taken. Equipped with a hidden camera and microphone, Grace went back to the place were her ordeal had started, the Goldie’s Brothel.

Grace had lived there for five months with four other women. The secret camera caught a man exchanging currency notes with one of Goldie’s trafficked women, who later left with him. The common term used by girls or women for the woman who trafficks them is ‘Mother’. The woman who had trafficked the ‘Mother’ is referred to …