Human Trafficking Quotes

The country of East and South Asia suffers a lot from internal problems, one of the problems, though, is human trafficking in particular. Human trafficking plays a huge role in the life of the main character in the book, Lakshmi. The first quote shows the role of women in Indian society “Once you are married, she says, you must eat your meal only after your husband has had his fill. Then you may have what remains”(McCormick 15). This quote explains how women in this country are trained to fully serve their husbands’ needs, and then only tend to their own, women are undervalued in this society and manage most of the household. Another quote referencing the role of women in Asia is “Ama stands and goes to the fire to bring him some lentils”(McCormick

Enough for a coat for the baby and a sweater for you”(McCormick 49). This quote references how Lakshmi wanted to go work as a maid in the city so that she could send her wages back home and support her family that is in poverty. The next quote is about the crime Lakshmi had to go through when she realized she was being sent somewhere, not anywhere else not in the city, there are many times when the people at the border cannot stop the human trafficking problem from happening. and in most cases, it goes unnoticed. This is shown through the quote about the smuggler telling Lakshmi how to avoid the border patrol quote “The border is a very dangerous place, there are bad men there, men with guns, men who might harm you, or try to take you away from me and Auntie”(McCormick 77). The next quote brings into light the injustices of the human trafficking crime when Lakshmi is forced against her will to call the one smuggling her across the border “Uncle Husband” and that she can get killed or even abused if she doesn’t listen to the human trafficker “Uncle Husband isn’t young and handsome like Krishna, and I can never tell when he might grow angry and slap me”(McCormick

Many women around the world, not only in Asia, have to endure this annually, some having no hope of being saved. It is a horrible situation because It shows the experience of multiple different horrors that nobody can ever imagine. The next quote shows what horrors Nepali girls have to endure if they get forced into prostitution, particularly the abuse they have to face if they want to escape ”But if you try to run away, I will grind hot chilies and put them in your private parts”(McCormick 133). 12,000 Nepali girls are put into the sex trade every year and this quote shows one of the horrors that the girls have to deal with. This is not something that anyone has to go through just because they’re poor and need the money, the suffering endured in the sex trade is even worse than being poor. The next quote exposes yet another one of the horrors of the sex trade, one of the girls having been beaten senselessly after trying to escape from the sex trade which made one side of her face unable to smile from being hit in the jaw so many times “Anita escaped once, when the goondas found her, they beat her with a metal pipe”(McCormick