<p>Anson Thomas, a former Mumbai Customs goalkeeper, is producing a movie called, &lsquo;Pledge to Protect&rsquo;. The 130-minute film, getting ready for an <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/regional-indian-cinema-news/article/hattrick-for-ram-kamal-on-ott-23182674">OTT platform</a> is now at dubbing stage; work is on at a studio in the Western suburbs.</p>
<p>The movie, which is self-funded by the ace hockey custodian, is a biopic on Thomas&rsquo;s 30-year journey in the red-light districts of Mumbai and outside the city. Thomas made it his life&rsquo;s mission to rescue women, &ldquo;I considered them my sisters&rdquo; from a life caged as commercial sex workers, and accord them a life of freedom and dignity.</p>
<h2>The rescue</h2>
<p>The Kharghar resident chuckled as he said he left his government job &ldquo;with it all the perks and prestige&rdquo; in 2010 to do full-time social work. Thomas said, &ldquo;I have rescued girls and women, at least 800, from brothels across India. I started from <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/web-series/article/meera-chopra-starrer-kamathipura-postponed-for-new-ott-platform-regulations-23162879">Kamathipura</a>, went on to Pune and Kolkata, tackling this vile trade. It has been a journey fraught with danger, from verbal threats to being physically chased by men armed with iron rods&hellip; I have tried to show the very dark world of human trafficking in this movie. The canvas is not limited to India but a sweeping view of modern-day slavery.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The sportsman, who played for both Mumbai and India Customs, claimed realisation of the wrongs came to him in the early 1990s. &ldquo;I used to drink socially. After a priest chided me publicly for drinking on a picnic, I introspected and decided to give up what I thought was my weakness. I used to carry the Bible with me from thereon.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/mumbai-bmc-builds-powai-bridge-in-a-record-5-months-23176575?infinite-scroll=1">Who will think about us: Vasai sex workers</a></strong></p>
<h2>Stinging replies</h2>
<p>Thomas noticed that commercial sex workers would line the roads in south Mumbai &ldquo;with potential customers eyeing them like prey&rdquo; on his way home from work. &ldquo;By then, I had started social work, so I used to tell the men about AIDS, I would tell them you can hide from everybody, but not from God.&rdquo; Thomas said he was met with stinging replies and threats of violence from men who did not appreciate being &ldquo;lectured on morality&rdquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was 25 at that time. I spoke to some of these sex workers, and the women told me, give me Rs 5 lakh, I will quit this work forever. I learnt they have no choice. I then visited Kamathipura late one evening, and it was the long, dark night of the soul. I witnessed women, pimps soliciting. Several pimps came up to me, literally chasing me and asking if I wanted minor girls, girls of a certain complexion. It was chilling and devastating.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>Deep corruption</h2>
<p>Thomas started working towards rescuing girls, it is a path too long to document here, but he witnessed the deep insidious corruption that keeps the human trafficking network alive. He remembered, &ldquo;A girl was sold into sex slavery, rescued and resold thanks to the connivance of some very powerful people. I got at least one of them arrested, with death threats, threats like booking me under the anti-conversion law hanging over my head. A young woman was promised a job as a nurse in Mumbai, shown the picture of the outside of a building which was actually a brothel, but was told it was a hospital where she would work. Once here, she was sold into prostitution.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The hockey player took a football into the lanes of Kamathipura and started playing football with the kids. &ldquo;Sports has the power to change lives. With nothing else to do, the children of sex workers will become pimps, or find some other work here. If they are shown a world outside, they will find a way, like some of them have.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Thomas who is 55 years old today said &lsquo;Pledge to Protect&rsquo; is self-funded &ldquo;as I wanted to have control of the movie. I have a pension, my wife works, I do not need much. I have a commitment to the cause and to God, it is He who has acted and made this film, not just me&rdquo;. The film has actors Govind Namdev, Ganesh Yadav, Sunil Pal, Vaishnavi and Bhakti Chavan in the star cast.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the end, the former Customs officer, said, &ldquo;I have seen some preachers and politicians talk from their respective pulpits. They often do not practise what they preach. &lsquo;Pledge to Protect&rsquo; will show it is not enough to take a pledge, like all Indians are my brothers and sisters, but act on that too, and protect them,&rdquo; he finished. Hearing the passion to protect in his voice, you know there is no doubting, Thomas.</p>

Former Mumbai Customs officer and hockey ace’s movie on life’s work rescuing sex workers at dubbing stage; to drop on OTT platform soon

Living the pledge

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