A father and daughter save young women in India from sex slavery
At 73, Ray Umashankar likes to stay active. He walks four miles around his Tucson, Arizona, neighborhood every day and works out at the gym with his wife three times a week.
That鈥檚 not the only way he鈥檚 unstoppable. Along with his daughter, Nita, Umashankar is responsible for having educated more than 1,500 women and children rescued from human trafficking in India through a project called Achieving Sustainable Social Equality through Technology (ASSET) India Foundation鈥攁 project he took on less than a decade ago.
Exact numbers are difficult to find, but the U.S. State Department estimates that between 20 million to 65 million Indian men, women, and children are forced into hard labor and sex trafficking, from rice mills and embroidery sweatshops to domestic servitude and sex slavery. Experts estimate that millions of Indian women and children are victims of sex slavery.
It鈥檚 a huge problem, and solving it entirely will take time and effort. But it鈥檚 an effort Umashankar was willing to make after Nita brought him the idea of training girls rescued from sex trafficking and children of sex workers in higher-paying technology jobs when he was 64. Though he could have retired instead, he readily accepted the challenge.
鈥淣ita gave me a purpose for my life,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow I鈥檓 in daily contact with her."
That alone is enough to inspire admiration from one major donor in India, a multimillionaire who sold his company to a major IT company and tells Umashankar that he hopes to build something with his daughter someday too.
鈥淭his guy is living in a mansion, driving a Ferrari, and he wants something that I have,鈥澛燯mashankar said.
Umashankar鈥檚 program teaches vulnerable young women ages 14 to 28 basic English and marketable tech skills, such as data entry and office-suite software applications, that help them open doors where taboo about their past may have locked them out of opportunities.聽
In 2008, two years after the father-daughter team started the project, Nita was busy with her master鈥檚 degree and Umashankar was sending relentless emails to CEOs and millionaires to get his story heard and get funded.
鈥淭here was a foundation president in D.C. who kept putting me off,鈥� he remembers. 鈥淔inally, I had to go to a wedding in Virginia. I called her up and said, 鈥楬ow about we meet?鈥� 鈥�
The woman put Umashankar off, saying she needed to take her daughter to piano lessons and run errands. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楪reat! I have a rental car. I can pick you up, and we鈥檒l run errands,鈥� 鈥澛燯mashankar recalls.
When he left her home, he had a check for $10,000 in his hand. This never-say-no attitude is exactly why he was awarded a prestigious Purpose Prize from 聽in 2008, an award given to inspiring over-60 individuals who take on tough social problems in creative ways.
鈥淣ow I send a link to the Purpose Prize in my emails to CEOs,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t has a tremendous impact in establishing credibility that our work has been recognized by Encore.鈥�
Seven years later, Umashankar has been able to leverage the Purpose Prize to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and equipment donations and solidify partnerships with luminaries such as . This year, Umashankar and Satyarthi are embarking on a joint project to bring a traveling education program to 400 Indian villages, so young women and children can learn their rights and how to protect themselves from human traffickers.
His projects go a step further than education. His next venture has ASSET partnering with the inventor of a low-cost sanitary napkin that can be distributed to schools all over the country.
鈥淚 looked into why they stopped going to school,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 asked the girls, and the girls were very bashful, and then I asked the social workers, the teachers. In rural India, when the girls start menstruating, they use dirty rags, and they get sick, and out of embarrassment, they stop going to school. Providing proper sanitary napkins, making them available, that鈥檚 going to keep them in school.鈥�
He makes pacts with ASSET students鈥� mothers now, holding the whole family responsible for the progress of the girls. He tells them that any obstacle they have, whether it be travel costs or help at home, ASSET will help these girls finish school.
鈥淚 came to the U.S. when I was 26,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen I鈥檓 in India now, they want to question my motives and why am I doing what I鈥檓 doing. I tell them life in the U.S. is like eating dessert three times a day. This is what I tell the students: You鈥檒l get tired and sick if you eat dessert three times a day.鈥�
He thinks showing by example how he supports his daughter through her own struggles鈥攋uggling a new baby, a professorship, and ASSET鈥攁lso gives the families confidence that if they follow through, Umashankar will help.
In 2013, he even quit his assistant dean position at the University of Arizona to focus on setting up ASSET financially so Nita can continue her work with India鈥檚 women and children far into the future. He quit watching TV, quit watching sports鈥攅ven his favorite team, the Redskins鈥攁nd devoted his life to ASSET. It鈥檚 the ultimate gift a father can leave his daughter, but Umashankar insists it was Nita who gave him a gift of inspiration.
鈥淣ita was a classically trained dancer, and at the end of her training, tradition is that she gives her first public performance, and people give her gifts. But she said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to give any gifts. If you are interested, you can give a donation for this home for abused women and children.鈥� She got $7,800 to donate. This was all her. It鈥檚 what makes me feel greatest as a parent, as a person.鈥�
鈥� A Wolfe has covered arts, entertainment, and politics for Good, Vice, Flaunt, and other publications.
鈥� at , a leading source of socially relevant news, features, opinion, entertainment, and information 鈥� all focused on the issues that shape our lives. Visit .
