Patricia Feaster/flickr. (CC BY 2.0)
‘Problematising ‘rescue’ from a feminist perspective means asking two questions: ‘What does the term rescue mean’? And, ‘What is the purpose of rescue and rehabilitation?’ From the anti-trafficking standpoint, rescue means simply saving a person from bondage and rehabilitating them back into society. From the feminist standpoint, it means attending to existing power relations in support of an individual’s safe, wilful social transition. The present article draws on fieldwork that I conducted with ‘rescued women’ in Assam, India to examine the contemporary politics of rescue and rehabilitation, showing the dangers and drawbacks of mainstream anti-trafficking approaches.
