Rescue just in time - Jayashri, India

Jayashri's* childhood afforded her few opportunities: she was never able to go to school and instead worked alongside her uncle, making spoons at a steel factory - work she began at such a young age that she can never remember a time without it. Her father was dead and her mother had abandoned her as a toddler, leaving her with her grandmother and a young uncle in Mumbai.

But her life grew even darker when a local trafficker took interest in her.

Uttam, a career pimp, sold young girls in and around Mumbai. He suggested to Jayashri's uncle that the 15-year-old girl could be prostituted in Mumbai's sex trade. Uttam would arrange everything.

IJM's investigators work throughout Mumbai to uncover traffickers and bring the protection of the law to their victims.

When Uttam was approached by two customers, who were looking to secure young girls for an associate of theirs, Uttam confidently told the men he could provide at least six young girls, including Jayashri. The men negotiated a price and agreed that the transaction would take place at a beachside hotel.

But what Uttam did not know was that his new "customers" were undercover investigators working for International Justice Mission - and they had been watching Uttam for months.

Immediately, IJM's investigations team alerted Mumbai police, and together, they developed a plan to rescue Jayashri and the other girls Uttam was selling.

"Timing Would Be Everything"

Uttam had all the girls he intended to sell into prostitution tricked into believing they were being taken to watch the filming of a Bollywood movie at a Mumbai hotel. On a warm, rainy August night, Jayashri dressed in her best clothes, and excitedly left her home for the filming.

The hotel was a luxurious place for an impoverished girl; Jayashri looked around in awe and excitement as her uncle brought her upstairs to room 705. In the suite, several other girls, including her 12-year-old friend Florence*, were awaiting the promised start of the movie shoot.

Uttam told all of the girls to line up in a row. Jayashri moved swiftly, ready for things to begin.

While Jayashri waited for the filming, next door in room 706, the IJM team and Mumbai police awaited the start of the carefully-planned operation. One IJM investigator, Brent, who was playing the role of a decoy customer, was already in the suite with Uttam and the girls

"It was amazing that we were able to rescue her."

- Brent*, IJM Investigator

IJM undercover footage: Jayashri grows anxious as the promised Bollywood film shoot does not begin.

Timing would be everything. The clock hit 5.30pm . The IJM team knew Brent was moving into action.

Operation Underway

In room 705, Jayashri noticed that one man seemed to be negotiating something with Uttam - she wondered if perhaps he was an actor in the film shoot that had yet to begin.

After a few minutes of conversation, the man - Brent, IJM's decoy customer - pointed Jayashri out from among the row of girls, and passed a fistful of rupees to Uttam. He took Jayashri by the arm and led her toward the bedroom connected to the suite. Jayashri was nervous and bewildered. What is happening? she wondered.

They had scarcely been in the bedroom a moment when, suddenly, the door opened, and policemen filled the room.

Uttam and several other adults who had brought girls to offer for sale were placed under arrest. IJM social workers were on the scene immediately, comforting the girls - who had been spared a terrible fate.

Just in time

Rather than spending her days in a steel factory - or worse yet, in forced prostitution - Jayashri is now in school, studying history, geography, languages, maths and science. She lives at a loving aftercare home and works half-days with a micro-enterprise organisation, where she is learning how to make beautiful and intricate jewellery. She remains close to her friend, Florence, who has also lived at the same aftercare home since the rescue operation. She told Sheela, her IJM social worker, that her goal is to work someday as a beautician, and that her desires for her future are not extravagant, simply "a good job and a good life."

Through the dedicated work of IJM Mumbai's legal team, Uttam and three other adults complicit in Jayashri's trafficking, including her uncle, have been convicted and jailed for their crimes.

Today, many girls live in danger of traffickers and pimps who seek to exploit them. Join IJM in our fight to find and rescue these vulnerable girls.

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IJM social worker Sheela sees clearly what the rescue has meant in Jayashri's life: "I can see in her a light and hope for her future." And Brent, the IJM investigator who "bought" Jayashri in the operation, still marvels at the timing: "It was amazing that we were able to rescue her before she faced the atrocities of forced prostitution."

Pictured above: Jayashri