Name: Ruchira Gupta (picture left by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

Claim to fame: She has been a spokesperson on the issue of trafficking at the UN Security Council. This is par for the course for the woman whose NGO, Apne Aap Women Worldwide, works with 1,350 women in prostitution.

Gupta has played a crucial role in starting the discussion on trafficking in India. She has worked hard on it, in the country and abroad. Today she considers herself a “world leader” on the issue, whose opinion is taken into account by the highest international bodies.

Beginning: After starting her career with The Telegraph and covering the Babri Masjid demolition as a reporter, Gupta won the Emmy in 1997 for her documentary on women in Mumbai brothels. The film exposed how young women and girls were being smuggled across the border. Her experience led her to form the NGO.

Firm belief: “A staunch Gandhian”, Gupta believes in “being the change you want to become”. Her NGO’s motto is “ahimsa and antodaya”.

She has definite views about trafficking. She feels that prostitution cannot be brushed under the carpet as a “social phenomenon”. “Today’s policies try to prevent the spread of HIV while doing nothing to prevent prostitution. Distributing condoms in brothels by cutting deals with pimps and brothel managers can never be a solution. Women are often not in a position to ensure condom usage,” explains Gupta.

Signs of success: Today, Apne Aap has six community centres, two resource and training centres and three re-integration centres in red-light areas and slums in Bihar, New Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The organisation works with once-nomadic tribes like the Nutts, Devdasis and Berias.

At their Calcutta centre, many children from families in red-light areas are taught professional skills. One of the successful courses is carpentry, and both boys and girls are encouraged to take it.

Hectic schedule: Gupta doesn’t like frills or fusses. Everything seems weighed according to its priority in her scheme of things, in which the NGO is at the top. She admits that her work leaves her time to meet husband Sunil Narula, the director of the UN Information Centre in Iran, “only once a month”.