School For Justice: Turning Survivors Of Human Trafficking Into Lawyers

School for Justice is an initiative by Free a Girl Movement to help the girl’s abducted or sold for human trafficking. The campaign’s main objective is to take the girls out of the brothels and into the law school, so that the survivors can fight for their own justice. The girls will be given all the necessary training and mentoring needed to enter the main stream law colleges across India.

The School for Justice was launched on 6^th of April at press conference followed by a panel discussion at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla, Mumbai. Panelists included eminent social activists like Meenakshi Arora (lawyer designated as senior counsel practicing at Supreme Court of India), Neela Satyanarayana (a retired IAS officer who was appointed as the first woman State Election Commissioner of Maharashtra).

The campaign wants to enable these girls to make a change for themselves by getting within the system.

Francis Gracias, Free a Girl Movement CEO and spokesperson hosted the event and even took part in the discussion. On being asked what triggered this campaign, he said the increasing number of crime rates made them take such a radical step. Out of 1.2 million children working in brothels against their will only 55 cases have been led to conviction. As the perpetrators are not being punished, it just makes them believe that they are above the law, he explained. So was this a case of “Justice delayed is justice denied” ?

The campaign wants to enable these girls to make a change for themselves by getting within the system. The event was flooding with solutions as how we can use different ways to change the legal system and make our country safer. Meenakshi Arora even made a commitment to help these girls find internships at top law firms. The conference also witnessed the girls that are the 1^st batch of the campaign sharing their stories.

Sabnam (student of the school for justice) said that she was only 9 when she was sold for prostitution and that after all these years of struggle her culprits are still free. She is determined to bring the change for her own good and other girls whose fate are just like hers.

The campaign has a powerful video featuring the students themselves.