THE RETURN

OF

HOPE

The great escape

STARS shone brightly across Mumbai during one of the coldest winter nights in

living memory.

Inside the freezing brothel, Radhika, Laxmi, Riya and Reeta drew the curtains

around their filthy third-floor cubicle and huddled together in a tight circle; eyes

wide, they clutched desperately at each other’s hands. The four girls had plotted

how to escape and the time had come for their plan to be executed.

The girls’ terror was palpable; all of them were aware that if even one thing

went wrong they were doomed. They began to recount their plans, going through

them meticulously in detail even though they had done so more times than any

of them could recall. Now tired, emotional, terrified yet also excited, they went

methodically through their escape plan one last time, each aware that if one of

them made even a tiny error, all of their lives – including that of little Rohan’s –

would be over. The stakes were just too high for them to mess up at this late

stage in the game.

At just 16 years of age, Reeta was the self-styled ringleader of their little gang.

With pale skin and chiselled features, she possessed the kind of beauty that

would have, in another lifetime and with a few more inches added to her height,

arguably have catapulted her to great success as a model or actress. But what she

lacked in height she made up for in character. Reeta was feisty, direct and

honest. She was a planner; she never left anything to chance. She was

unfailingly positive in her attitude, making the best of her lot but also totally

unwilling to accept the label of ‘victim’. She simply did not accept that she was

going to be a prostitute for the rest of her life. So, she schemed and planned and

chivvied the rest of them on, until they had tonight’s plan in place. Until they

believed escape was possible.

Reeta was reluctant to discuss her upbringing, perhaps indicating that it had been harsh and she didn’t really want to dwell on it. But it was clear from the

start that she and the other girls hailed from Nepal, something that had

immediately drawn them all together. Reeta was also a natural leader and gave

out orders with almost military precision. In another time, another place, she

could potentially have done more with her life, as even at the tender age of 16,

people listened to Reeta when she spoke.

‘Remember, the most important thing is to stay calm,’ she whispered to her

comrades. ‘We will leave in 10 minutes at approximately 2 a.m. and make our

way downstairs together.

‘I will lead the way and stay out in front. Radhika, Rohan and Riya will be in

the middle and Laxmi will lag a little way behind. If the security guards at the

back of the building are still absent, we will walk confidently out of the door. If

they have returned, you will hear me say: “Namaste” and that will be your signal

to go back to the room. Then I will simply say that I am thirsty and have come to

get [some] water.

‘If everything goes to plan and we … make it [out of] the door, we will walk

quickly to the station [and] Riya, Laxmi and I will go ahead of Radhika and

Rohan to buy tickets for us all.

‘Now this bit is important,’ she paused, studying her friends’ faces intently,

before saying with great emphasis, ‘DO… NOT… RUN! [We do not want to

alert] anyone.’

Reeta looked at her friends intently, girls that had come to mean so much to

her within such a very short space of time, and on whom she was staking her

future. She scanned their faces, reading the same fear that she tried to bury deep

inside herself. When she spoke again, her voice was shaking and tears pricked at

her eyes:

‘Now, find all the courage you can and go [fight] for your lives. Remember,

whatever happens to us from now on can be no worse than what we have to

endure here each day.

‘We have nothing to lose other than our lives – and what is life worth here?’

All the girls nodded. All of them felt the same as Reeta. This close-knit group

of girls was about to risk everything in a daring bid for freedom. But even if

their plan failed, there were few worse punishments that could be meted out than

being forced to sleep with up to 30 clients a day, that they all knew. The risk for

them was worth it.