What is Sex?

She asked, “What is Sex?”
Posted on June 12, 2012

The Indian Rescue Mission team had been working on a major rescue operation for several weeks. As the time grew close to when the rescue would take place, there was a great amount of anxiety. Why wouldn’t there be? The life of a 14 year old virgin girl from Mumbai, India was at stake. Her name is Sapna. If anything went wrong, the female pimp who represented Sapna’s mother and aunt (who bought her) would find another “customer” who would gladly pay the $2,000 asking price for her virginity and ultimate life in a brothel. I couldn’t let that happen. Sapna was slightly mentally challenged. Her purity and innocence was still intact. You could see it in her face and from the words she spoke.

On the night the transaction was to take place, everything was arranged. JOY International had already sent an advance payment to the Director of Operations, and the field operative negotiated a time and the place to meet. It would be in a restaurant in an upscale part of Mumbai. In the restaurant was a section with 3 tables. Perfect. One table had the team members posing as customers, another table had 2 undercover policemen with 2 female social workers. The 3rd table had me and 2 more field operatives as back-up.

All that was missing was the pimp, the aunt and Sapna. We waited nearly 45 minutes and they arrived. After some negotiating and finalization of the transaction, one of the policemen stood up after placing a call. At that point, 8 Mumbai special task force police came in, surrounded the table and arrested the pimp and aunt. The 2 female social workers surrounded Sapna.

During the interview, we later found out the depth of Sapna’s purity and innocence. When asked by the social worker if she knew what was happening, Sapna said “No” and was quite surprised by the arrest of her aunt. When they told Sapna she was being sold for sex, her response tore at my heart. She asked, “What is sex?”

Can you imagine the nightmare that would have been if Sapna was sold to anyone other than our team? It would have been the end of her innocence, the end of her purity and it would have started her new life of pain, abuse and unimaginable suffering at the hands of those who would pay to sexually abuse her several times a day… day after day.

Sapna was not the only child rescued on this night. As a result of the pimp being arrested, there were 2 sisters who were stopped from being sold and countless others in the future as this pimp was a major figure in child trafficking in Mumbai.

I learned the pimp, aunt and yes, the mother who was later arrested at her home are now in prison and will be there for a minimum of 10 years! Thank God!

I’ve been told by some that I shouldn’t be sharing the details of this rescue. Maybe not, but it’s something you need to hear. We cannot turn a blind eye to this atrocity. There are hundreds of thousands of Sapna’s out there yet to be rescued along with millions more currently being abused.

Today, Sapna is in a safe place. Her innocence took a beating due to the revelation of what was happening to her along with the emotional strain – but I know this – her purity is intact and she now has hope for her future.

For me, the true JOY I felt when I saw the social workers embrace Sapna and knowing she is safe, along with so many others who were spared from being forced into a life as child sex slaves is indescribable.

I hate that I have to do this work, but as long as there’s another Sapna out there – I’ll never stop.

Dr. Jeff Brodsky