A-Z of Shopping Fair Trade - 'H' is for Holding your Head High

All of our products come with wonderful stories of the people making them but the story of Hatti Bags is truly inspiring. These beautiful bags inspired with sari prints are made by girls rescued from Indian circuses by the Esther Benjamins Trust.

In 2002 the EBT sent research teams to the 30 major Indian circuses. At great personal danger, teams identified 232 children under the age of 14, 82% of them girls and nearly all Nepalese. Most of the children had been trafficked at the age of 8 or 9 (although some had been as young as 5). They told how their village communities had been preyed upon by professional agents who had tricked their impoverished and illiterate parents into handing them over to the circus for just a few dollars.

Thumbprints on documents that the naïve parents could not read condemned their children to an 18-hour per day, seven days per week routine for the next 10 to 15 years. Inadvertently they were also handing over their children to a life of malnourishment, harsh training schedules and vicious beatings by the circus staff. Frequently the girls would also be sexually assaulted.

Bold rescue teams were sent to confront the circus owners and use all legal means on the ground to secure freedom. This high-risk process led to the release of over 200 trafficking victims during the period 2003 - 2009. The youngest children who return from the circuses can mostly - and safely - be reunited with their parents and join school at an appropriate age.

For the older girls who might lack the academic ability or interest in joining formal education there is a skills training project to help them get back on their feet and gain an independent life, however, it has became evident that securing jobs for the returnees is virtually impossible due to the social stigma associated with being trafficked. So in 2005, instead of trying to secure outside employment for the girls the EBT, in conjunction with Hatti Trading (UK) set up a handbag production centre under Fair Trade conditions to provide a realistic economic alternative to being re-trafficked.

In June 2007, Hatti took on responsibility for the production centre and set up an independent private, but not for profit, company called Hatti Production Pvt Ltd. They still work in exactly the same way, providing training and jobs for young women rescued by The Esther Benjamins Trust and the charity is still close on hand to look out for the girls’ welfare, but the production centre is now an independent entity.

What wasn't anticipated at the time was the impact it would have on the girls who worked there; suddenly, they transitioned from being ‘charity cases’ to independent professional young women working for a foreign organisation. Their self esteem went through the roof; finally they could hold their head up high when asked what they do. At the same time there was a move to a new premises so the locals had no knowledge of what they had come from, and the girls could at last truly move on from their past.

Hatti started with 8 girls, there are now 17, plus Ritu, the Production Centre Manager, Shanti, the House Mother and two security guards. Some girls are now living with relatives locally and there has even been a wedding recently. The main difference now is that the girls are empowered to make their own choices and have the confidence to do so.