By: Santosh Digal

Punjab: Sisters Adorers would open its first house in the diocese of Jalandhar, northwestern Indian state of Punjab to rehabilitate sex workers and victims of human trafficking.

“Punjab is one of the states in India, where prostitution in growing in a higher rate. We have decided to work for these fallen women and make efforts to curb the menace of human trafficking,” Sister Susan Joseph, a member of Sisters Adorers of Calcutta province, told Matters India.

Initially four Sisters are appointed and they would arrive in Jalandhar diocese in July 2017, she said.

“We are committed to rescue and rehabilitate these fallen women providing them skills and vocational training they need to earn their living as alternative means, and have dignified life in society and free from the shackles of sin and slavery of prostitution,” Sister Joseph said.

Prostitution is rampant in many places in Punjab and many industrial areas in the state are becoming centres for trafficking of women and prostitution.

According to the police, migrant women are lured into this flesh trade. Girls are recruited from other states as well, such as West-Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and Nepal.

Jalandhar diocese consists of the civil districts of Amritsar, Faridkot, Fazillika, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludiana, Moga, Muktsar, Nawanshahar, Nangal and Anandpur Sabib Tehsil of Ropar, Pathankat, Tarn Taran in Punjub and the neighboring four districts of Himachal Pradesh state. On its east, it borders Pakistan.

The Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, known as the Sisters Adorers,  is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in 1856 by Saint María Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament in Madrid, Spain.

They mainly work for women who have been involved in prostitution or human trafficking.

At present they are working more than in 22 countries, including Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Nepal, the Philippines, and most Latin American countries and Europe.

In India, Sisters Adorers work in Bengal, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.