Virtual Reality brings sex trade to viewers in India

Virtual Reality is  used in gaming to bring players close to the action is for the first time being deployed to fight human trafficking, with a documentary.

“Virtual reality is a powerful form of storytelling and the cause will get more attention from the world over,” Hannah Norling, of My Choices Foundation, The non-profit foundation partnered with the charitable arm of a U.S. virtual reality tech firm, Oculus, to make the film, which will premiere at a Texas film festival this month.

The documentary uses so-called VR technology to immerse viewers into the reality of life for a young country girl who is married off by her father then trafficked into a brothel.

The team hopes to zero in one life to create greater empathy with all victims of trafficking, estimated to total nearly 21 million people worldwide. Of these, an estimated 4.5 million people are forced into sex work, most of them women and girls.

‘Notes to My Father’ tells the story of one such victim, who narrates to her father the horror of being trafficked.

The 11-minute documentary gives a 360-degree view of village life as she recounts her abduction-to-escape journey that spans the two Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

“Using virtual reality was a strategic choice as it gives a first person experience of another person’s experience. It is emerging as the number one tool to help people engage and react,” said Norling.

The film can be viewed using a VR headset that gives viewers the perception of being physically close to the characters.

The documentary will be released on Facebook by September and screened in rural India, Norling said, part of a wider campaign to educate fathers about sex trafficking.

A My Choices Foundation study found 90 percent of trafficked girls came from the most marginalized communities, and that any decision to release a girl usually rested with the father.