India’s Ex-Slaves Raise Money Online to Get Back on Their Feet

Trafficking survivors in India have joined forces to become more self-reliant in paying for awareness campaigns and lawyers: they have given online crowdfunding sites a go, already raising $7,000 in February.

India’s number of slaves is the highest in the world, and barely 1% of survivors receive the victim compensation they deserve from the state after being rescued. In response, the India Leaders Forum Against Trafficking (ILFAT), consisting of eleven survivor groups, has been working on becoming less dependent on others for funding, giving survivors a voice to campaign and raise money themselves.

“We were skeptical in the beginning,” says Haseena, a slavery survivor from Andhra Pradesh and senior official at ILFAT, to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “But now we feel that people care about us and we are optimistic that the awareness will increase and our problems will reduce.”

Aside from raising awareness on slavery, the $7,000 raised will also help the forum cover legal costs, file appeals and finally access victim compensation.