Emotional Experience of Women Post-Rescue From Sex Trafficking in India

Sex trafficking is a form of slavery, and it is a human right issue that keeps going despite being illegal. Since it persists, there is a need to look into it to understand the impact of the same on the female survivors. The present study aims to explore survivors' experiences before and during sex trafficking and to comprehend the emotional experiences of survivors post-rescue from sex trafficking. The participants were ten sex trafficking survivors, ages 18 to 24 years old. A phenomenological approach was used. The researcher utilized thematic analysis to identify themes within the data collected. Findings revealed that the main factors that contributed to the entrance of the participants in sex trafficking were poverty and broken family. The experience of life during sex trafficking was marked by rape and torture. Participants described life as unhappy, hard and as hell. The emotional experiences are mainly psychological distress such as feeling angry and sad because of the past. Survivors have feelings of guilt and fear. Lack of understanding is predominating in all participants. Survivors' experiences are not all negative. With rescue, they have got a better life. The positive emotions are happiness, faith in God, hope, new identity and value. They experience happiness because the new life is good. They have faith in God and have hope for a better future.