SUNLIGHT spilled through the window of the Mumbai hotel room as a young Indian woman painted an intricate henna pattern up my arm.

Dressed in a dark purple sari, she carried herself with an elegance and grace that made it difficult to imagine the harshness she had endured.

After she finished decorating us with the traditional Indian body art, the 25-year-old would have to go back to the brothel where she had worked since being lured from her family as a teen.

Muskan* had been taken from her home town by a neighbour’s relative, on the pretence that she would be given a job as a maid.

Instead, in a story that is all too common in India, he sold her to a pimp, who forced her to work in his brothel to pay off the so called ‘debt’ incurred when he’d ‘bought’ her.

Local anti-trafficking group Oasis India had brought Muskan to visit us and practice her henna painting skills, which the charity had helped her learn as a way to one day support herself in a new life.

The going rate for a henna painting session was 1200 rupees, or $AU24 — enough for Muskan to feed herself for a week, once she had regained her freedom.

Sitting across from her, so close that our knees were touching, I was struck by an awareness that she was just like me.

While in the abstract, human trafficking and slavery can seem like something that happens to people who are not like us, the reality was right before my eyes.

Graceful, quiet and humble, Muskan looked like any other Indian woman of her age.

The only sign of brutality was the scarring on her brow, which her case worker explained was from when she had run away to get married, but was captured and beaten along with her husband. Muskan was pregnant with her daughter at the time.

Back at the brothel, she had no choice but to keep working off her 20,000 rupee ($AU398) debt, which never seemed to get any smaller.

An afternoon spent painting the hands and arms of 12 young British and Australian women was a rare diversion.

When the time came to pay Muskan for her work, we came to a chilling realisation.

Among us, we’d gathered 12,000 rupees to pay the young woman — just 8000 rupees, or $AU160, short of the price of her freedom.

Together with the Oasis worker and Stop the Traffik group leader, we hastily hatched a plan.

We quickly gathered together the full 20,000, plus a bit extra to get Muskan on her way. Train tickets were booked online.

As we saw her out the door, it was impossible to predict what would happen, and Muskan appeared circumspect about a second bid for freedom.

But a few weeks later, we would receive confirmation that, incredibly, we had succeeded.

The Oasis worker had taken Muskan and the envelope filled with 20,000 rupees back to the brothel.

She’d paid the owner while Muskan went to her room and packed her things, and put her on a train back to her home town.

It was that easy.

AN INCREDIBLE VICTORY

Travelling through India with antislavery group Stop the Traffik, I was bombarded with scenes of injustice, exploitation and misery.

Before meeting Muskan, we’d visited Hyderabad and seen India’s heartbreaking caste system at work.

We learned that Dalits, also referred to as the “untouchables”, were not considered human in traditional Hindu thought, justifying their consignment to the lowest rung of society — including being sold into prostitution.

We’d marched through a Mumbai slum along with Oasis workers holding placards protesting human trafficking.

And we’d walked through the red light district, past brothel after brothel where trafficked sex workers sat out the front, seemingly resigned to their fates.

So when we got the news that Muskan had been saved, it was huge.

It can seem like so overwhelming that there are so many people who are in that situation, but to just see one person’s face as they’re going free was really, amazingly fulfilling.

Oasis confirmed that Muskan had called from her home town, where she was safely ensconced with her young daughter.

Her mother knew what her situation was and she was supported — a relief to hear, as many trafficking survivors struggle to be reintegrated to their families.

This is not only due to the type of work they’ve been doing, but because it’s often a family member who sold them.

In Muskan’s case, her family remained unaware of her fate until it was too late.

As the oldest of three sisters and one brother, she grew up with a father who worked as a porter in a hotel, and a mother who was often sick.

Under huge financial strain, the family struggled year after year to eat and to provide an education for their children.

When a neighbour’s brother suggested to Muskan’s father that he send her to Mumbai to get a job as a housekeeper, it seemed like a godsend.

He offered to take her on the train to Mumbai, where he was heading anyway. And he gave Muskan’s father what he said was a month’s advance wages.

Believing that she would be given a job doing household work, her father allowed her to go.

This is a typical example of how trafficking and slavery happens. A sophisticated human trafficking industry operates underground throughout India and other countries where severe poverty exists.

Former sex slave opens up on horrific childhood Appearing on Fox News, 'Somaly Mam' talks of her experiences as a young sex slave worker. Courtesy: Fox News

HELP STOP TRAFFICKING

Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable, desperate, and uneducated in poor communities promising them jobs and a better life. But once the victim is in their hands, they are sold into sex slavery or into manual labour.

They are held until their purchase price is repaid with interest, however they are paid such low wages that buying their freedom is almost impossible.

It’s difficult to estimate how many people are trafficked, but current information available to Oasis is that a child is trafficked every 20 seconds in India.

The charity is one of many organisations in India working hard on the prevention of human trafficking, as well as supporting those currently working in slave-like conditions.

They undertake interventions where they can, rescuing about 35 trafficked children each month, and run drop in centres in the slums where victims can come for support and to learn skills.

Oasis also provides childcare for children of those caught in prostitution, to give respite from the unfortunate situation where kids are forced to see or hear their mothers servicing clients.

The charity continues to support Muskan in her integration at home, and reports that she is relishing time with her daughter and planning her new business.

While my henna tattoo has faded, I’ll never forget the day I met Muskan, a beautiful young woman full of promise and grace.

* Not her real name.

Kate Nicholl is an ethical supply chain expert at The Ministry Consultants. She visited Mumbai in January with a Stop the Traffik, a global coalition campaigning against human trafficking.

@supplywatch