Rani Hong at the American Center. (Amit Datta)

Calcutta, Sept. 15: From a village in south India that she is uncomfortable naming, she has visited Washington’s corridors of power. Perhaps a less painful route would have been better.

Rani Hong was born into a family that became impoverished when her father fell ill. A villager, a family friend, told her mother she would look after one of the children to help the family. Rani, then seven, went to live down the street with the woman.

One day, her mother was told that Rani would be gone for a few hours. Such days became more common.

Speaking at the American Center, Rani, now in her late 30s, speaks in a deep voice, a little haltingly, as if selecting her memories. She says she tells her story everywhere in the world in the hope that less children may fare like her.

The woman sold Rani to a man, who became her “owner”, across the border in Tamil Nadu.

“Bad things happened to me. When I used to cry for my mother, they used to ask me to shut up. I had no value. I had no voice. I belonged to them. It is slavery,” says Rani.

She says that was the worst part of being trafficked — one became no one. “Then the child inside you breaks down. Yet I was innocent,” she adds, showing a picture of herself at that time. Her hands and feet were severely bruised.

She fell ill and was sold again. “They wanted to make some money out of me again, so they sold me to an organisation that arranged for international adoption illegally.”

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Rani’s adoptive mother was told that the girl was an orphan whose family was dead. In 1979, eight years old, she reached Washington and taught herself to believe that her family was dead, too. She blocked out her past.

Only in 1999 could she visit India as a “tourist”. She couldn’t remain one. Through a series of events that she doesn’t like to elaborate on, she met her family. She has visited them five times since.

That was also the beginning of her activism. With her husband Trong Hong, who she met on a blind date and who is another survivor — as a nine-year-old he fled from the communists in Vietnam on a boat — she founded Tronie Foundation to work against trafficking.

Rani has been responsible for influencing opinion at the government level. She played a part when Washington became the first US state to pass an anti-trafficking legislation. The state later passed more such legislations, which the Hongs hope will be followed by all US states.

Rani has been on The Oprah Winfrey Show and has won several awards, including the United Nations Human Rights Award in 2008.

On a more personal note, does she want to meet the persons who damaged her childhood? Does she want to go there? It is a difficult question for her to answer.