Sex-trafficking Abolitionist From India Is Honored
By a StaffWriter
week after she spoke
about the victims of
human trafficking at a
special event at the
United Nations in New
York, Ruchira Gupta, journalist
from India and a sex trafficking
abolitionist, was honored May 15
at Smith College in
Northampton, Massachusetts, for
her decades of leadership in one
of the “greatest abolitionist move-
ments of our time”.
Gupta, who was presented
with the degree of Doctor of
Humane Letters, Honoris Causa,
is founder of Apne Aap, an Indian
grassroots organization to end
sex-trafficking, and editor of the
book "River of Flesh and Other
Stories: The ProstitutedWoman
in Indian Fiction". At the U.N.
event tiled “Voices of Victims of
Human Trafficking she briefly
spoke at a discussion co-orga-
nized by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime and
Apne AapWomenWorldwide
May 3.
Among those who addressed
the event included Cristina
Gallach, under-secretary-general
for communications and public
information.
Gupta said that she is worried
that most policymakers do not
understand the lived experiences
of girls and women who are
pushed into prostitution and are
subjected to repeated exploita-
tion and violence.
Although the stories in her
book are based in India, they
speak to the experiences of
women around the world. T
OrtizWalker Pettigrew, an
American trafficking survivor
speaking at the event, said that
she understood the loneliness,
oppression and heartbreak in the
stories, according to a Europa
newswire report. “In India they
are poor, female, teenagers of
low-caste, while in the U.S. and
Europe they are poor, female,
teenagers of color. The violence
they face from their pimps and
customers is the same”, Gupta
was quoted as saying.
In Northampton Gupta was
honored at the 138th
Commencement of Smith
College along with Megan Smith,
Chief Technology Officer at the
White House, Roslyn Brock, chair
of the NAACP board of directors
and Stephanie D. Wilson, NASA
astronaut, among others.
President of Smith College,
Kathleen McCartney paid trib-
utes to Gupta while bestowing
the honor on Gupta. “Through
you work as an Emmy-winning
documentarian and activist, you
ensure that the public-and gov-
ernment policy-can no longer
ignore the victimization of mil-
lions…Your filmThe Selling of
Innocents had repercussions well
beyond networks of criminal traf-
fickers that spread from
Kathmandu to Mumbai,” she
said. “It led, in one Senator’s
words, to the passage of the first
U.S. law against human traffick-
ing and similar actions in nearly
another dozen countries. Your
work resulted in the founding of
Apne Aap-a grassroots organiza-
tion dedicated to a world where
no woman or girl is bought or
sold, and every girl or woman can
realize her full potential,”
McCartney said.
Smith has students from 32
countries and 41 states. The past
recipients of its honor include Ela
Bhatt, Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur,
Romila Thapar and Christiane
Amanpour, among others.
12
May 27, 2016
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Sex-trafficking abolitionist, journalist and founder of Apne Aap, Ruchira Gupta,
being conferred a Doctor in Humane Letters, honoris causa May 15 at
Smith College College in Northampton, Mass.
A
By Emily Heil
P
olitical-junkie audi-
ences might be eager to
parse the details of
“Weiner,” the forthcoming
documentary about the scan-
dal-plagued 2013 campaign
of former U.S. representative
AnthonyWeiner as he runs
for mayor of NewYork City.
The just-out trailer shows
plenty of juicy behind-the-
scenes tidbits (the crew began
filming before news broke
about the Big Apple
Democrat sending naughty
pics to a woman who defi-
nitely wasn’t his wife, so they
were able to capture the ensu-
ing meltdown).
There’sWeiner, grimacing
in private moments. And his
wife, top Hillary Clinton aide
Huma Abedin, instructing a
campaign staffer during what
looks like a tense strategy ses-
sion. “Just a quick optics
thing — you will look happy,”
she says.
But at least two insiders
aren’t eager to see it:Weiner
and his wife.
“We offered it to them
many times, but they haven’t
chosen to see it,” says Lauren
Schwartz, a spokeswoman for
IFC, whose Sundance Selects
label is distributing the film.
In an interview with Larry
King,Weiner explained his
reticence about the movie,
which he said seems to be
hyping his wife’s role —
something he called “a bit
phony,” since Abedin did not
sign off on participating. “I
know how the story ends, so
I’m not eager to go watch it,”
he said.
– TheWashington Post
New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin
attend a news conference in New York, July 23, 2013.
Anthony Weiner And Huma Abedin Didn’t Want To See
The New Documentary About His Campaign
