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Reddy's 'sex slaves' may stay on in US

Seventeen-year-old Chanti Prattipati is long gone, carrying the illegitimate child of 63-year-old Lakireddy Bali Reddy.

She was cremated over 14 months ago, following her accidental death due to carbon monoxide leak in a building owned by Reddy. In fact, she died in the very room in which Reddy used to have sex with her, her younger sister and a friend.

But her younger sister and a friend, both teens, who gave the authorities candid details about how Reddy got them smuggled into America and used them for sex and cheap labor, are still in America.

And the sex slaves -- as they are called by the media -- could stay back in America, become citizens and start a new life.

The Prattipati sisters and their friends are among 50,000 migrants smuggled into America every year for sex and cheap labor. A study conducted by the Clinton Administration estimated smuggling of all migrants had created a $7 billion underground economy, up from the $5 billion in 1993.

Till recently, the Immigration and Naturalization Service deported all smuggled women when caught, even if they could prove they were victimized in America.

But things began changing from October 28, when President Clinton signed a Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act to help victims of domestic violence and sex slavery.

So as Reddy, once the most powerful landlord in the university city of Berkeley, awaits in a California prison the formal sentencing, his victims continue to be counseled by Indian women's groups who are also helping their legal case.

Their presence will also be required for a civil court the American Civil Liberties Union and a private lawyer has filed on behalf of their parents. Reddy's fortune is estimated to be $70 million, some even believe it is worth $100 million.

Jayashri Srikantiah, an attorney with ACLU, is personally involved with the case. She believes it has wider implication. She notes that the Reddy case should be a warning to smugglers and those who abuse immigrant's human right.

Each year, more than 90,000 people are arrested on prostitution-related charges in America, a study by Newsday publication shows. But only about a dozen major sex trafficking cases have been prosecuted by federal officials in America since 1995, the newspaper adds.

Reddy, who had stoutly maintained his innocence initially, admitted to smuggling of teenage girls for sex in a plea-bargain arrangement in an Oakland, California, court last week. Srikantiah gets indignant when she talks about Reddy - and the response of many Indians to his arrest about a year ago.

"What drew me to the case was that I'm from an immigrant background and this is concerning the South Asian community, which I belong to," she says. "So I was very interested in getting involved, and I really believed that trafficking in people, especially women and children, is a problem on the rise, and unfortunately gets swept under the rug in Asian American communities in this country for a variety of reasons-cultural, economic."

"I really think it's important that it stops happening," she says, echoing the thoughts of many men and women who support such groups as Sakhi, Manavi, Workers Awaz and Narika which seek to empower South Asian women.

"The only way for it to stop happening is that the communities themselves hold the traffickers accountable, and recognize that behavior as reprehensible ... so we flush out the people who are doing such things."

San Francisco-based Srikantiah says she was "very surprised at the initial pro-Reddy reaction from the community... I think this is one of the main things that made me realize how much attention has to be drawn to trafficking, how big of a problem it is."

According to Congress, 50,000 people are trafficked into this country last year, and yet, "when it happens in our community, the members rise to support the trafficker."

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