Ajeet carries out tremendous work on behalf of other people.

He displays exceptional courage in the face of

threats and intimidation and great personal danger. Every day he puts his life on the line in defense of the rights
that we take for granted.
Mary Lawlor, Director, Front Line Defenders.

Summary
Guria is a grassroots charity based in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, which has made a huge impact over the last 28 years
in fighting the horrific and growing problem of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Guria is one of very few organisations which undertakes dangerous legal work, rescuing children from brothels and
prosecuting human traffickers along with providing holistic support to victims and those at risk. Guria is led by founder
and director, Ajeet Singh, who has pioneered Gurias successful and innovative model.

Awards
Nari Shakti Award 2015 was awarded to Guria by the President of
India.

Life OK Channel of Star Network awarded Ajeet Singh with their

Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rani Laxmi Bai Award 2015 was presented to Guria by the Chief
Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The Week Magazine named Ajeet Singh Man of the Year in 2011.

The Freedom Fund selected Guria as a partner and invited Ajeet

Singh as their Keynote speaker at the Freedom Fund launch event
in New York in 2014.

CNN and IBN awarded Ajeet Singh the Real Heroes Award in
2011.

Front Line Defenders selected Ajeet Singh as 1 of 5 finalists for the

Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders At Risk in 2010.

News Asia Channel in Singapore named Ajeet Singh Asian of the Year
in 2010

One of the biggest challenges in the fight against slavery is the impunity that traffickers enjoy or at least, that
they used to enjoy In Varanasi, I visited Ajeet Singh and the brave team he leads at Guria, an organisation that
is using the Freedom Funds investment to pay for a team of lawyers to file legal cases against traffickers. Just a
few years ago not a single trafficker had been convicted. Now there have been 31 such convictions.
Dan Vexler, Director of Programs, Freedom Fund

Legal work
Rescue work & criminal cases
Rescued 2,473 persons from slavery including commercial sexual exploitation and bonded labour.
Pursued 2,837 criminal cases against 1,317 human traffickers.
Secured 685 bail rejections of human traffickers.
Secured 42 convitions of human traffickers.
Witness protection to 211 victims and livelihood/govt. entitlements to 1,844 victims.
Secured seizure of 9 brothels at Varanasi and 61 brothels at Allahabad.

Changes affected in the law

Set a precedent through the Supreme Court which denies giving bail to human traffickers.

Public Interest Litigation

Prepared a a biannual national status report on police misconduct in 100 cases of sex trafficking, child prostitution
and rape which has compelled the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to order an enquiry - used to support public
interest litigation.
Filed and pursuing public interest litigation in the Honourable Supreme Court seeking rescue of 1.2 million minor
trafficked girls, enslaved within brothels across India.
Filed 11 public interest litigations in the Honorable High Court on issues including: illegal detention of minor girls at
police stations; misuse of high court protection orders to traffick girls; victim compensation fund; rescue of bonded
labourers; mandatory registration of complaint by female officer in cases of sexual violence against women and
children; justice and compensation to a 3 year old rape victim; rescue of minor trafficked victims from brothels within
red light areas of Uttar Pradesh.
Policy
Advisory roles
Guria has been nominated as a member of the Central Nodal Agency to combat trafficking (Govt. of India); Central
Advisory Committee on combating trafficking in women & children for sexual exploitation (Govt. of India); State
Advisory Board (Govt. of UP) on effective implementation, evaluation, advice on the Juvenile Justice (Care and
Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012; Allahabad High Court
and inter-ministerial committee (Govt. of India) to formulate the first ever legislation on human trafficking.
Member of the Core Group on Human Trafficking formed by National Human Rights Commission.
Guria was invited for suggestions by the parliament standing committee on the Immoral Traffick (Prevention)
Amendment Bill in 2006.
Guria was a member of two inquiry committees investigating the trafficking of minor girls set up by the National
Commission for Women.
Guria was consulted on the draft Child Policy 2011 & The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill 2011.

Sensitising
Guria sensitises the judiciary, NGOs, advocates and police on human trafficking through the National Legal Services
Authority of India and National Institute of Public Cooperation & Child Development.
Guria has trained the Anti Human Trafficking Unit in Uttar Pradesh.

It is because of Singhs efforts that Shivdaspur* has become the countrys first child prostitution-
free area. The Week Magazine
*Shivdaspur is the red light area of Varanasi and one of the largest in Uttar Pradesh.

Awareness and Community

Education
Guria is currently supporting the education of over 350 children, of which 180 have been admitted to formal
schools - total children supported now over 800.

Alternative livelihoods
Through Guria, around 50 women in prostitution have formed an independent cultural team performing traditional
music and dance. They have performed at the World Social Forum (Mumbai) and the Sri Ram Centre and have been
discussed in Cambridge and Oxford University Press articles.
Guria enables vulnerable people to engage in altenative livelihoods through training and support, including an
innovative goat bank scheme.

Community engagement
Guria organised a landmark event attended by circa. 25,000 women from Eastern Uttar Pradesh united against the
rising crime of rape and sex trafficking; 200 victims and their families attended and presented their cases.
Guria held a foot march of 800 km from Varanasi to Nithari Padyatra against sex trafficking with victims families.
As an innovation, Ajeet is part living in a bedia village, a community involved in family based prostituion, in Madhya
Pradesh for 15 years.

Global Awareness
Guria featured in a number of documentaries; Guria, Gossip and Globalization by ethnomusicologist Amelia
Maciszewski; War and Peace by Anand Patwardhan; and Unheard Voices of India by Sayeed Akhtar Mirza.
Guria hosts interns from Princeton University and Smith College and other global programmes.
Gurias Freedom Now global campaign raises awareness about human trafficking through an annual art exhibit
held in schools around the world as well as other events including concerts and sporting activities.

Guria manages a Non-Formal Education (NFE) center at the heart of the red light district in
Varanasi. This center has become extremely successful and has changed the lives of hundreds.
The children in this center study more than just arithmetic and English; they study meditation as
well as coping mechanisms to deal with the trauma of their childhood The safe and enriching
environment that Guria provides has allowed people to move past their misfortunate backgrounds
and assimilate into the rest of the world. Asha for Education
Partnerships &
Endorsements
Guria has garnered support
from the UN Economic
and Social Council, Asian
Human Rights Commission,
Front Line Defenders, The Freedom Fund, Geneva Global, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Lawyers Rights
Watch, UN Rapporteurs on Trafficking and State of Children, and the UN Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in
Geneva.

Guria acted as a resource consultant for the Liberal International Conference and the United Nations Global Initiative
to Fight Trafficking (UN GIFT) in 2007 in New Delhi.

11 US Congress and State Department members visited Guria in August 2010 to discuss their work and findings on
human trafficking.

The day you realise you are just a speck of dust is the day you will begin living your life the
way it should be. Ajeet Singh, Director, Guria

Media Highlights
BBC World Service interviewed Ajeet Singh in June 2016, Taking on Indias Sex Traffickers
The Daily Mail published an article about Guria and the personal stories of trafficking survivors in 2016.
Blush Originals released a film about Guria in July 2016, entitled Gudiya.
101 Underground released a film about Guria in 2016, entitled Busting Varanasis Child Prostitution Racket.
BBC Radio Asian Network interviewed Ajeet Singh in April 2015.
The India Times published an article about Ajeet Singh and Gurias successful anti-human trafficking model in 2016.
The Times of India published an article about Guria being awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar by the President of India.
Thomson Reuters Foundation and The Freedom Fund cited Gurias work as an example of a successful anti-trafficking
strategy in their report Putting Justrice First: Legal Strategies to Combat Human Trafficking in Northern India in 2014.
Philanthropy Age published a feature article on Guria, Slavery: a modern trade in 2015.
The Hindustan Times published an article in 2015 about Gurias work in rescuing human trafficking survivors.
The Times of India published an article about Gurias 2,000 pages of evidence documenting police misconduct in 100
cases of Sex Trafficking, Child Prostitution and Rape in 2014.
The Times of India and The Pioneer featured an article on Gurias successful passing of Public Interest Litigation about
rape and trafficking in the Indian Supreme Court in 2014: Times of India article and the Daily Pioneer article.
Gurias huge awareness rally of 25,000 women united against sex trafficking and rape was reported widely including in
The Times of India in 2014.
Radio Australia broadcast a show about Varanasi, which features Guria and an interview with Ajeet Singh in 2013.
The Week Magazine published a feature article, Hope in the Holy City, on the work of Ajeet Singh and Guria in 2011.
Ajeet Singh was interviewed by Pat Kenny on RTE Radio in Dublin Ireland in 2010.
An article about Ajeet was featured in The Weekend Leader in 2010.
Guria and Ajeet Singh were featured in a documentary by Paradigm Shift Project entitled Breaking Chains, Building
Community in 2012.

For more info please contact Sarah Wraight:

sarahwraight@guria-uk.org or Ajeet Singh:
guria.freedomnow@gmail.com or +91 9616334433