Women from Araria's red light area rally to end sex trafficking

To check the rising crime against women and spread awareness about them, a number of women from red light area of Araria took out a rally.

The rally was also attended by feminist icon Gloria Steinem, including philanthropy icons Peter and Jennifer Buffett on April 7.

Apne Aap Women World Wide organized this rally, and asked the Bihar Government to immediately check crimes against women, such as trafficking, prostitution, child marriage, female feticide, dowry death, eve teasing and rape.

Manish K Jha, state head of Apne Aap Women World Wide, said women will have to protect themselves, hoping that the state government would make efforts to curb violence against women.

They visited Bihar on a "learning tour" conceptualized by Steinem, funded by the NoVo Foundation run by the son and daughter-in-law of Warren Buffett.

The India tour for the team started on April 2 with a visit to Gandhi Smriti in Delhi followed by a trip to Kolkatta and then Bihar's Araria district.

The demonstrators demanded security for women from the Bihar Government, and said if government fails to provide them adequate protection cover then women would be forced to come on to the road to defend themselves.

Ruchira Gupta, founder president of the organisation, apprise the team about the coming together of all the marginallised women on a common platform to raise their voice.

She founded Apne Aap Women Worldwide with 22 women from the red-light districts in Mumbai in 2002 before expanding its offices in Delhi, Calcutta and Bihar.