Start TC 10:00:00:00Proshanti Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh
In the suburbs of Dhaka, the Bangladesh Women’s Lawyers Association runs the Proshanti centre. It’s a place of security and confinement for fifty-six children.The girls here are victims of a ruthless trade between Bangladesh and its neighbouring countries.Many here, some of them as young as seven, have been forced into prostitution.
TC 10:00:28Girls doing therapy - painting vases
They are the innocent victims of a gruesome trade in human lives yet their families and most of their society considers them disgraced. Sold into prostitution, there’s no way back to their childhood or their innocence.
TC 10:00:43Calcutta images - Girl alone, Group of girlsMusic to TC 10:01:30 (see cue sheet for details)
TC 10:00:54ASTON: Farida (at 10:01:13)*(Out of vision until 10:01:13)Translation (from Bengali):“He asked my father, ‘will you give your daughter to me? She will go to Delhi with me, do some work in the house, get some food.’ My father gave me away for $10. Rashid took me to Delhi and kept me in his house and every night did bad things to me. He would put his hand on my mouth and there were five policemen and three other men and these eight men, they did bad things to me every night.”*Farida does not use any second name.
TC 10:01:30Farida getting ready in Proshanti - holding mirror - combing her hair
Farida was nine years-old when she was sold into prostitution. She was eventually taken to hospital and it took her a year to recover. Then she was kept in New Delhi’s central jail under what the authorities describe as ‘protective custody’.
TC 10:01:45 - TC 10:02:48Farida in boat on big river.Sequence. Water on side of boat. Farida gazing. Forest on shore. Farida. Boatman. Tracking shots of fishing boat.Music to TC 10:02:45 (see cue sheet for details)
Farida’s now on her way home to ask her father why he sold her.
Farida Out of vision (under pictures of river / boat)Translation (from Bengali):“I feel angry at my father. When we were small he didn't let us study, didn't teach us anything, sold me to another country for $10. I feel angry at him. I don't feel good, I feel very bad inside.”
TC 10:02:20Boat turns into narrow stream on river
Farida has grown up in a country where many see young girls as a burden. The dowry due when a girl is to be married is an expense many poor families in Bangladesh feel they can ill afford.
TC 10:02:33Farida looking out, water on side of boat, WS group in boat - Investigator (Mominul Islam) on right hand side behind Farida
It’s not just Farida who wants to know why and how she was sold into prostitution. With her on the journey today is one of the investigators from the Women Lawyer’s Association.
TC 10:02:48Farida arrives in village
It’s a tense moment as she arrives back in her village.
TC 10:02:58 Farida (standing by house)Translation (from Bengali):“It’s muddy - it’s muddy”
TC 10:03:01Pan across from Farida to her father
There is little warmth between Farida and her father - he is clearly uncomfortable to see his daughter and the investigator. The investigator discovers that since Farida was sold her father has taken two new wives and had seven more children.
TC 10:03:18Mominul Islam confronting fatherTranslation (from Bengali):Mominul Islam (Investigator):“Do you love her like a daughter?”Father: Abdul Majid Howlader“Did she say anything about me?”Mominul IslamTranslation (from Bengali):“You know that she hasn't received the love and affection of a daughter in your family.”
TC 10:03:24C/U Father’s faceM/S Farida looking dismayed
Farida’s father claims that Rashid, the trafficker was taking her to a job in a garments factory in a nearby town and anyway, Farida was a difficult child.
TC 10:03:42ASTON: Abdul Majid Howlader Farida’s Father:(out of vision for first 3 seconds)Translation (from Bengali):“She was slightly unbalanced like - would not stay at home - would roam the village. Sometimes she wouldn’t come home for more than a week, living with her grandparents or her sister. I could not keep her at home. Often I tried to tie her to a post and force her to stay in telling her that ‘you won’t be able to go anywhere.’ ”
TC 10:03:57C/U Farida pan left to sister
Farida has one ally in her family, her sister Nasima. She says her father did know that Farida had gone to India and since starting his new family, has had little time and no affection for Farida.
TC 10:04:10ASTON: Nasima BegumFarida’s Sister(Out of vision until TC 10:04:20 - over shots of Nasima collecting water)Translation (from Bengali):“We had two step mothers. They were not nice to us. After not seeing Farida for four or five days I asked them where she was. Father answered that it was not my problem where she is - Farida has gone for a holiday. After four or five days I heard that Farida had gone to Delhi. I asked ‘why did Farida go to Delhi?’ and he said ‘it is because I can't feed her. What can I do?’ It's good that she's in Delhi and earning her own money."
TC 10:04:32Farida with father
Farida will not stay in the village. She fears that if she does her father will sell her again and this time there will be no escape.
TC 10:04:41Farida’s father, Abdul Majid Howlader talking to FaridaTranslation (from Bengali):“You say you haven’t brought any money? You gave your sister some money - so you haven’t brought any money?”
TC 10:04:55Sync. FaridaTranslation (from Bengali):“What happened to me should not happen to any other girl ever, even by mistake. No parent should ever send their young girls with any other men in this way. Something like this should never happen to any other girl.”
TC 10:05:18Mominul Islam working in office
And there are plenty more stories like Farida’s. The Bangladeshi National Women’s Lawyers Association estimates that over five years at least 12,000 children have been sold into the Indian sex industry. The 12 or so girls they rescue and repatriate each year represents a tiny fraction of those currently being abused.
TC 10:05:39ASTON: Mominul IslamInvestigator, BNWLATranslation (from Bengali):“Polygamy has led to unplanned families, children of these families are being abandoned, women likewise are being victims of polygamy. Abandoned by their husbands, they are being forced to fend for themselves. The traffickers are exploiting this situation.”
TC 10:05:54Sun rise , Man fishingMusic to TC 10:06:31 (see cue sheet for details)TC 10:06:04Dissolve to river smuggling shots
The trade in children has become so widespread that in some of these border areas it makes a significant contribution to the local economy. Never before filmed, an illegal crossing point on the border between Bangladesh and India.
TC 10:06:25Kolyan Banarjee walking down path through trees(music fades out after 6 seconds at TC 10:06:31)
Kolyan Banarjee is a local journalist with a mission to expose the trade in human cargo. He has been threatened and even once briefly kidnapped by the traffickers. He has some powerful enemies including members of Bangladesh’s border protection forces, the BDR.
TC 10:06:45ASTON: Kolyan BanarjeeJournalistTranslation (from Bengali):“Under the present economic circumstances it is not possible to stop trafficking totally. This is my personal opinion. But it can be brought down. The first step has to be taken by the BDR and the police because they are directly involved in the trafficking.”
TC 10:07:07River shots
We asked the BDR for an interview, they refused and shortly afterwards we were expelled from the area.
TC 10:07:16Abdul Matin Khasru on mobile phone in office
Instead we put the allegations of police and BDR involvement in child trafficking to Bangladesh’s Minister for Law.
TC 10:07:26ASTON: Abdul Matin KhasruMinister of LawEnglish:“There may be some allegations against a very microscopic number of the members of (the) police and (the) BDR. And this is a government (that’s) very, very serious - we are monitoring and making supervision about this. So (but) until and unless we get overall economic development and we can impart proper education to our people, it will be difficult to solve this problem altogether in a day, it will take time.”
TC 10:07:57Calcutta street scenesMusic to TC 10:09:34 (see cue sheet for details)
Calcutta, India, one hour’s drive from the Bangladeshi border.Most of the young girls trafficked from Bangladesh end up here. Conventional filming of young prostitutes proved difficult so we used a secret camera and went undercover.
TC 10:08:24ASTON: Secret CameraSecret filming of prostitutes along side of narrow streets
This is Sonargati, one of the largest red light districts in all Asia. Thirty thousand prostitutes work on these streets. An estimated 6000 have been trafficked across the border from Bangladesh.Fear of AIDS drives this increasing demand for young Bangladeshis. Because they’re from a Muslim country they are perceived as purer than their Indian counterparts.
TC 10:09:00M/S Pimp - chewing
We asked the pimp if he could take us to a house with young Bangladeshi girls. He told us to follow.
TC 10:09:07Following pimp along street into brothel - shots of girls standing around inside - freeze on one girl - fades to black
TC 10:09:36Howrah Bridge Calcutta Street scenes
It is hard to imagine what it must be like for a trafficked child arriving here for the first time, a child removed from a small village, everyone they ever knew left far behind.
Yet thousands have stayed to become part of this city’s lucrative sex industry. They have little option. In the society they left behind they are viewed as soiled immoral non-persons.
TC 10:10:09Tilt up to show face ‘Beauty’s’ face
She calls herself ‘Beauty’ and she left her old name and her childhood behind in Bangladesh when she was trafficked here five years ago at the age of fourteen.
TC 10:10:18ASTON: ‘Beauty’Translation (from Bengali):“Now even if I wanted to go back home I can not. They won't accept me back home. The person who brought me here will tell them you're daughter is in this place. My parents won't accept me back. I would have gone if they had accepted me.” (‘Beauty’ at door way overlaid for 2 secs at end)
TC 10:10:30‘Beauty’ at door way
TC 10:10:39UNICEF Headquarters, Dhaka Bangladesh
Despite their best efforts, the children’s agency, UNICEF, has been unable to break down the prejudices these child victims now endure.
TC 10:10:49ASTON: Birgithe Lund-Henriksen Programme Officer, Child Rights UNICEFEnglish:“If there is any chance that this girl’s honour has been spoiled then the family just can’t take the risk of taking her back because that is going to affect the honour of the whole family which means if she has any sisters or female cousins, then they may well not get married. [So it’s actually, I mean...] That too is a serious problem that many families just don’t want to take the risk because it’s going to have such huge repercussions on the whole family.”
TC 10:11:17Girl standing by bars on window in Proshanti CentreGirls praying
Rescued and repatriated, these girls have nowhere else to go. The Proshanti Centre is now their sanctuary and for some a prison - there are girls here who would choose to return to their lives as prostitutes and anonymity, rather than endure the shame and prejudice of their family and the neighbours back in the villages from where they were taken.
TC 10:11:40Dissolve to Farida humming
Farida doesn’t think much about the future. She now lives at the Proshanti Centre and says she’ll never go home. At least she now has a life of sorts.
TC 10:12:01Girls - single shotsEnds on shot of one girl bowing her head in slo-mo
For most of the young Bangladeshi girls who have lost their childhood and their innocence, it turned out to be a one-way journey to hell.Martin Adler, Insight News Television, Bangladesh.
TC 10:12:15
In the suburbs of Dhaka, the Bangladesh Women’s Lawyers Association runs the Proshanti centre. It’s a place of security and confinement for fifty-six children.The girls here are victims of a ruthless trade between Bangladesh and its neighbouring countries.Many here, some of them as young as seven, have been forced into prostitution.
TC 10:00:28Girls doing therapy - painting vases
They are the innocent victims of a gruesome trade in human lives yet their families and most of their society considers them disgraced. Sold into prostitution, there’s no way back to their childhood or their innocence.
TC 10:00:43Calcutta images - Girl alone, Group of girlsMusic to TC 10:01:30 (see cue sheet for details)
TC 10:00:54ASTON: Farida (at 10:01:13)*(Out of vision until 10:01:13)Translation (from Bengali):“He asked my father, ‘will you give your daughter to me? She will go to Delhi with me, do some work in the house, get some food.’ My father gave me away for $10. Rashid took me to Delhi and kept me in his house and every night did bad things to me. He would put his hand on my mouth and there were five policemen and three other men and these eight men, they did bad things to me every night.”*Farida does not use any second name.
TC 10:01:30Farida getting ready in Proshanti - holding mirror - combing her hair
Farida was nine years-old when she was sold into prostitution. She was eventually taken to hospital and it took her a year to recover. Then she was kept in New Delhi’s central jail under what the authorities describe as ‘protective custody’.
TC 10:01:45 - TC 10:02:48Farida in boat on big river.Sequence. Water on side of boat. Farida gazing. Forest on shore. Farida. Boatman. Tracking shots of fishing boat.Music to TC 10:02:45 (see cue sheet for details)
Farida’s now on her way home to ask her father why he sold her.
Farida Out of vision (under pictures of river / boat)Translation (from Bengali):“I feel angry at my father. When we were small he didn't let us study, didn't teach us anything, sold me to another country for $10. I feel angry at him. I don't feel good, I feel very bad inside.”
TC 10:02:20Boat turns into narrow stream on river
Farida has grown up in a country where many see young girls as a burden. The dowry due when a girl is to be married is an expense many poor families in Bangladesh feel they can ill afford.
TC 10:02:33Farida looking out, water on side of boat, WS group in boat - Investigator (Mominul Islam) on right hand side behind Farida
It’s not just Farida who wants to know why and how she was sold into prostitution. With her on the journey today is one of the investigators from the Women Lawyer’s Association.
TC 10:02:48Farida arrives in village
It’s a tense moment as she arrives back in her village.
TC 10:02:58 Farida (standing by house)Translation (from Bengali):“It’s muddy - it’s muddy”
TC 10:03:01Pan across from Farida to her father
There is little warmth between Farida and her father - he is clearly uncomfortable to see his daughter and the investigator. The investigator discovers that since Farida was sold her father has taken two new wives and had seven more children.
TC 10:03:18Mominul Islam confronting fatherTranslation (from Bengali):Mominul Islam (Investigator):“Do you love her like a daughter?”Father: Abdul Majid Howlader“Did she say anything about me?”Mominul IslamTranslation (from Bengali):“You know that she hasn't received the love and affection of a daughter in your family.”
TC 10:03:24C/U Father’s faceM/S Farida looking dismayed
Farida’s father claims that Rashid, the trafficker was taking her to a job in a garments factory in a nearby town and anyway, Farida was a difficult child.
TC 10:03:42ASTON: Abdul Majid Howlader Farida’s Father:(out of vision for first 3 seconds)Translation (from Bengali):“She was slightly unbalanced like - would not stay at home - would roam the village. Sometimes she wouldn’t come home for more than a week, living with her grandparents or her sister. I could not keep her at home. Often I tried to tie her to a post and force her to stay in telling her that ‘you won’t be able to go anywhere.’ ”
TC 10:03:57C/U Farida pan left to sister
Farida has one ally in her family, her sister Nasima. She says her father did know that Farida had gone to India and since starting his new family, has had little time and no affection for Farida.
TC 10:04:10ASTON: Nasima BegumFarida’s Sister(Out of vision until TC 10:04:20 - over shots of Nasima collecting water)Translation (from Bengali):“We had two step mothers. They were not nice to us. After not seeing Farida for four or five days I asked them where she was. Father answered that it was not my problem where she is - Farida has gone for a holiday. After four or five days I heard that Farida had gone to Delhi. I asked ‘why did Farida go to Delhi?’ and he said ‘it is because I can't feed her. What can I do?’ It's good that she's in Delhi and earning her own money."
TC 10:04:32Farida with father
Farida will not stay in the village. She fears that if she does her father will sell her again and this time there will be no escape.
TC 10:04:41Farida’s father, Abdul Majid Howlader talking to FaridaTranslation (from Bengali):“You say you haven’t brought any money? You gave your sister some money - so you haven’t brought any money?”
TC 10:04:55Sync. FaridaTranslation (from Bengali):“What happened to me should not happen to any other girl ever, even by mistake. No parent should ever send their young girls with any other men in this way. Something like this should never happen to any other girl.”
TC 10:05:18Mominul Islam working in office
And there are plenty more stories like Farida’s. The Bangladeshi National Women’s Lawyers Association estimates that over five years at least 12,000 children have been sold into the Indian sex industry. The 12 or so girls they rescue and repatriate each year represents a tiny fraction of those currently being abused.
TC 10:05:39ASTON: Mominul IslamInvestigator, BNWLATranslation (from Bengali):“Polygamy has led to unplanned families, children of these families are being abandoned, women likewise are being victims of polygamy. Abandoned by their husbands, they are being forced to fend for themselves. The traffickers are exploiting this situation.”
TC 10:05:54Sun rise , Man fishingMusic to TC 10:06:31 (see cue sheet for details)TC 10:06:04Dissolve to river smuggling shots
The trade in children has become so widespread that in some of these border areas it makes a significant contribution to the local economy. Never before filmed, an illegal crossing point on the border between Bangladesh and India.
TC 10:06:25Kolyan Banarjee walking down path through trees(music fades out after 6 seconds at TC 10:06:31)
Kolyan Banarjee is a local journalist with a mission to expose the trade in human cargo. He has been threatened and even once briefly kidnapped by the traffickers. He has some powerful enemies including members of Bangladesh’s border protection forces, the BDR.
TC 10:06:45ASTON: Kolyan BanarjeeJournalistTranslation (from Bengali):“Under the present economic circumstances it is not possible to stop trafficking totally. This is my personal opinion. But it can be brought down. The first step has to be taken by the BDR and the police because they are directly involved in the trafficking.”
TC 10:07:07River shots
We asked the BDR for an interview, they refused and shortly afterwards we were expelled from the area.
TC 10:07:16Abdul Matin Khasru on mobile phone in office
Instead we put the allegations of police and BDR involvement in child trafficking to Bangladesh’s Minister for Law.
TC 10:07:26ASTON: Abdul Matin KhasruMinister of LawEnglish:“There may be some allegations against a very microscopic number of the members of (the) police and (the) BDR. And this is a government (that’s) very, very serious - we are monitoring and making supervision about this. So (but) until and unless we get overall economic development and we can impart proper education to our people, it will be difficult to solve this problem altogether in a day, it will take time.”
TC 10:07:57Calcutta street scenesMusic to TC 10:09:34 (see cue sheet for details)
Calcutta, India, one hour’s drive from the Bangladeshi border.Most of the young girls trafficked from Bangladesh end up here. Conventional filming of young prostitutes proved difficult so we used a secret camera and went undercover.
TC 10:08:24ASTON: Secret CameraSecret filming of prostitutes along side of narrow streets
This is Sonargati, one of the largest red light districts in all Asia. Thirty thousand prostitutes work on these streets. An estimated 6000 have been trafficked across the border from Bangladesh.Fear of AIDS drives this increasing demand for young Bangladeshis. Because they’re from a Muslim country they are perceived as purer than their Indian counterparts.
TC 10:09:00M/S Pimp - chewing
We asked the pimp if he could take us to a house with young Bangladeshi girls. He told us to follow.
TC 10:09:07Following pimp along street into brothel - shots of girls standing around inside - freeze on one girl - fades to black
TC 10:09:36Howrah Bridge Calcutta Street scenes
It is hard to imagine what it must be like for a trafficked child arriving here for the first time, a child removed from a small village, everyone they ever knew left far behind.
Yet thousands have stayed to become part of this city’s lucrative sex industry. They have little option. In the society they left behind they are viewed as soiled immoral non-persons.
TC 10:10:09Tilt up to show face ‘Beauty’s’ face
She calls herself ‘Beauty’ and she left her old name and her childhood behind in Bangladesh when she was trafficked here five years ago at the age of fourteen.
TC 10:10:18ASTON: ‘Beauty’Translation (from Bengali):“Now even if I wanted to go back home I can not. They won't accept me back home. The person who brought me here will tell them you're daughter is in this place. My parents won't accept me back. I would have gone if they had accepted me.” (‘Beauty’ at door way overlaid for 2 secs at end)
TC 10:10:30‘Beauty’ at door way
TC 10:10:39UNICEF Headquarters, Dhaka Bangladesh
Despite their best efforts, the children’s agency, UNICEF, has been unable to break down the prejudices these child victims now endure.
TC 10:10:49ASTON: Birgithe Lund-Henriksen Programme Officer, Child Rights UNICEFEnglish:“If there is any chance that this girl’s honour has been spoiled then the family just can’t take the risk of taking her back because that is going to affect the honour of the whole family which means if she has any sisters or female cousins, then they may well not get married. [So it’s actually, I mean...] That too is a serious problem that many families just don’t want to take the risk because it’s going to have such huge repercussions on the whole family.”
TC 10:11:17Girl standing by bars on window in Proshanti CentreGirls praying
Rescued and repatriated, these girls have nowhere else to go. The Proshanti Centre is now their sanctuary and for some a prison - there are girls here who would choose to return to their lives as prostitutes and anonymity, rather than endure the shame and prejudice of their family and the neighbours back in the villages from where they were taken.
TC 10:11:40Dissolve to Farida humming
Farida doesn’t think much about the future. She now lives at the Proshanti Centre and says she’ll never go home. At least she now has a life of sorts.
TC 10:12:01Girls - single shotsEnds on shot of one girl bowing her head in slo-mo
For most of the young Bangladeshi girls who have lost their childhood and their innocence, it turned out to be a one-way journey to hell.Martin Adler, Insight News Television, Bangladesh.
TC 10:12:15