'Streetwalkers show the way': reframing the debate on trafficking from sex workers' perspective

Challenging the dominant discourses on trafficking that fail to include or reflect the experiences of those who are trafficked into a range of labor markets every year, & deny the trafficked "victims" any possibility of autonomy or voice, Durbar, an organized forum of sex workers based in West Bengal, has intervened into the debate on trafficking & has offered creative, inclusive, & effective ways of thinking about & acting on the issue. The article recounts the stories of women who had once been trafficked, to understand why & how some women get trafficked, & more critically, how they exercise their agency to get out of the trafficked condition. In analyzing these stories & Durbar's position on & intervention against trafficking, the article also explores the ways in which a marginalized group of poor women can claim citizenship rights by participating in public discourses & voicing & actualizing their demand for self-determination. Adapted from the source document.