Ashley Judd takes part in Apne Aap fund raising to fight sex trafficking
Apne Aap is a charitable trust founded by Ruchira Gupta in 2002 to fight girl and women trafficking.
Ashley read out a piece called ‘The Last Customer’ from a book named ‘River of Flesh and Other Stories: The Prostituted Woman in Indian Short Fiction’, an anthology of short stories edited by Ruchira Gupta.
One of the surprising elements of the evening was Ashley taking out a sanitary napkin from her bag which she claims to have been taught by a girl named Uma, who thinks sanitary napkin is a “recession proof good.”
Ashley urged the audience and said: “We must contribute to these girls to get the inputs necessary for the manufacture of sanitary napkins.”
Speaking about her own experience with Apne Aap, she said: “I came to India in 2008 and my work with Ruchira began in 2009. Apne Aap has given me this absolute grassroots grounding and how transformation does begin with the internal activation of a person’s natural talents, natural abilities, self efficacy and growing their personal agency to stand on their own.”
Ruchira Gupta, Founder and President of Apne App, said: “We believe in Gandhian principles like upholding the final destiny and ahimsa because prostitution is violence.”
Speaking about their objectives, she added: “We are only holding a candle at the top. Our approach is not to kick every brothel and rescue a girl but working on the whole ecosystem.”
(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh, Images by Avishek Mitra)
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