Mumbai, Feb 8. The stark, storefront office seems a strange new addition to a quiet street in the western Indian city of Thane, nestled among traditional grocery stores and a men’s hair salon.
But this ‘legal aid clinic’ is India’s latest effort to inform trafficking victims of their rights after liberation from the sex trade.
“Most victims assume there is no justice system for the poor and continue to struggle after their rescue,” said Michael Yangad of the campaign group International Justice Mission.
Yangad’s non-profit organisation set up the clinic with a local judicial body, the District Legal Services Authority.
Lawyers at the new centre – it opened just last week – help victims access education, jobs and housing: benefits to which they have been eligible for more than a year.
Similar clinics exist nationwide to help the poor with free legal services and in settling disputes. But the clinic in Thane, just 20 km from Mumbai, is one of the first to focus solely on the rescued victims of sex trafficking.
