Patna, June 25: The fight against sex-trafficking has got a boost with France deciding to confer the prestigious Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite (Knight of the National Order of Merit) insignia on Ruchira Gupta.
The feminist and activist with roots in Forbesganj in Bihar's Araria district, is being honoured for her commitment to end sex trafficking. Ruchira works at the global level, assisting governments and international agencies like the UN to form anti-trafficking policies.
With this honour, Ruchira has joined a league of eminent Indians who have been honoured by the French government, like Nobel laureate Amartya Sen (Commander of the Legion of Honour), filmmaker Satyajit Ray (Legion d'Honneur), flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters), Amitabh Bachchan (Officer of the Legion of Honour, the highest distinction France can confer on a French citizen or a foreigner) and Shah Rukh Khan (Knight of the Legion of Honour) among others.
"The French government has thought it fit to support my cause to create a world in which no girl or woman is bought or sold," said Ruchira, who was in Patna today to participate in the Asian Development Research Institute's four-day international conference on social statistics in India. "I am doubly honoured as the award has come from a country whose leaders and philosophers have inspired me, and I hope that this honour would take the cause forward. Simone de Beauvoir (French writer, existentialist philosopher and feminist) and Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher and writer) are two people from France I admire the most."
Born in Calcutta, Ruchira holds a Master's degree in English from Calcutta University. After spending a few years in her youth in journalism, she got actively involved in the anti sex-trafficking campaign and worked with the United Nations in countries like Thailand, Nepal and Iran. She founded Apne Aap Worldwide, an Indian anti-sex trafficking organisation, in 2002 and is also a visiting professor at the New York University.
The French government informed Ruchira about the honour being conferred to her two days ago and the official bestowal ceremony would be held in a few weeks. "The French government changed the anti-trafficking law on June 2, the same day they sent a letter to me informing me about the Knight of the National Order of Merit being conferred on me. A couple of years ago I spoke in the French Assembly on anti-sex trafficking. I have also worked with US government in forming their first law on anti- trafficking," Ruchira said.
