They call them women of love', but the lyrical beauty of the term has a hidden dark side: a workforce of very young girls tasked with feeding their families by offering up their bodies for sale. The girls belong to the Nat which includes some of India's very poorest. For centuries, the Nat men have sent their daughters, sisters, and wives into sex trafficking. Baby girls are welcome arrivals in these towns of love -- everyone knows that one day, they will be the breadwinners. As a Nat, you are untouchable, despised by Indian society. How would anyone dare break free of this legacy of prostitution, when it also would mean being shunned by your entire family? Tamanna dares. As a nineteen-year-old, she breaks free and runs away. But it costs her dearly -- she is forced to leave her five-year-old daughter Rupa behind with Jabbar, in the house with the big gleaming knife. Eight years later, Tamanna knows that time is running out for Rupa. She demands help, both from the police and from the underfunded aid organisation Pukaar. And who could look a mother in the face and argue that saving her daughter isn't worth risking everything? With insight and brutal honesty, Anne Ch. Ostby paints a vivid picture of some of the world's most vulnerable women and children. And the "women of love" do exist in India today, in the northern state of Bihar, where the author has travelled extensively and come to know them. Town of Love is a raw and gripping story that is guaranteed to leave you breathless. With a Preface by Ruchira Gupta, founder of the Indian NGO Apne Aap on which Pukaar is based.
Anne Christine Ostby received her BA from the University of Trondheim, Norway, in 1982 and was a journalist for various newspapers and magazines. She has been involved in women's projects and initiatives all over the globe. World-renowned anti-trafficking activist Ruchira Gupta, invited Anne to India to visit one of the village projects run by Ruchira's NGO Apne Aap (""self-help""). This is how Anne came into contact with the Nat women in Bihar. Immediately gripped by their stories, she realised she was unable to turn her back on these women, and knew she wanted to write about them. Anne Ch. Ostby lives in Fiji and Norway and is the author of seven other titles for children and young adults. This is her second adult novel.
"Having personally met the survivors of trafficking about whom this is written, I know that Anne Ostbys novel deserves world attention. It is the essence of a terrible truth that must be exposed." -- Gloria Steinem
This tale is raw but honest, it's current and, in the words of writer and feminist activist Gloria Steinem, "a terrible truth that must be exposed". Katrina Kincaide-Sharkey, North and West Melbourne News
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