A new season, a new mindset: As we gear up for Season Two of “Tainted Love” I can’t help but to think back on last summer’s trip to India. Most of this journey will be chronicled in a few episodes of this upcoming season, but there is one particular moment I would like to point out here. I think everyone of us have those life changing, paradigm shifting moments. This was without a doubt one of mine.

I will never go to India…?

I never thought that I would find myself undercover, inside of the dark, nasty brothels in India.  Well, I did. I remember standing in an eight-story high Mumbai brothel that housed more than 5,000 women and children. With the size of the problem looking me dead in the eyes I recall thinking that doing a simple “show” on sex trafficking was such a waste of time. However, like most of any of my thoughts…I was wrong.

Brothels and nightmares

The stairway leading up to this Delhi brothel was about three feet wide and it was pitch black dark. With no idea of where we were stepping or what we were stepping into, my fellow producers (Marshall Nord and Tyler Garnett) and I, made it up to our first brothel. The moment we had enough light to see I hoped that it would become dark again. We found ourselves in a tiny room packed with Indian women and men, the victims and the buyers. Men “waiting for their turn” carpeted the room; literally we had to watch where we were walking. Every few minutes you would see a woman walk from the small, wet and rusted cellars on the balcony.  The man would come out soon after. Let me point out that you could buy sex in this brothel for about the price of a Pepsi so to put it mildly, business was a booming.

Getting to know you

We sat down with this lady. She was shocked to see us there. Not because she wasn’t used to seeing men, because the fact is she was getting raped by about 40 of them every day. She was shocked to see us because we were not there to have sex with her. We were there because we cared about her story. We sincerely wanted to know who she was.

Bad credit

This particular woman was now in her 30s, but she had been trapped inside of this brothel since turning 12 years old.  She had a “price” put on her head and until she was able to pay this amount she would not be allowed to leave the brothel. It was an amount that she could never repay. She went on to tell us her story.

A story you will never get “ok” with

Hers was a heartbreaking story like many of the others I’ve heard. However, this time it was different. This time I was standing inside of this brothel as a victim was baring her soul to us. With every word she spoke another buyer would walk out as another one walked in. None of this fazed her because this was the hell she called life. As gut-wrenching the circumstances were sadly she seemed numb to it all. After she finished her story we prayed for her. More than asking God for physical peace, because that seemed like an unattainable goal, we asked for spiritual peace. She cried and then said something to us that I will never forget. It was something that I hear everyday, but for some reason hearing it this time was soul shocking. With all sincerity in her heart she looked at us and said… Thank you.

Thank me?

What did she say thanks for?  Thanks for praying for me? Thanks for listening to me? I believe she was saying thanks for all of this, but also something more. This woman had spent 20-plus years as a slave. She had been used and abused every second of every day since she was a child. The fact someone had come to India to speak with her because they cared was more than she could handle.  Each tear that ran down her face represented a man that she had been forced to perform sexual acts on. She was grateful that someone treated her like a human.

A voice to the voiceless

I would love to say that we rescued this woman from the hell she was in, but I can’t. I can tell you that we left that brothel with a piece of that woman. We left with her voice. This is when I realized that our little series did mean something. We can give voice to the voiceless. Being treated like a human should not be a privilege.  You should not have to say, “Thank you.” Every victim that “Tainted Love” can give a voice to makes us one step closer to ending this catastrophe. Welcome to “Tainted Love: Season Two.”

-Richard Clark, Jr.