The Cost of Looking Away: Society’s Silent Complicity | Dipesh Tank

Every year, tens of thousands of girls disappear without a trace. They do not vanish into thin air; they are absorbed into a system that survives on silence, demand, and social denial. Public spaces meant for safety become hunting grounds. Red-light districts continue to thrive not because the law is weak, but because society looks away. This episode confronts an unsettling reality: exploitation does not persist in the shadows; it survives in plain sight, protected by convenience and collective indifference.

At the centre of this conversation is Dipesh Tank, a social development practitioner and founder of Youth for People, whose work spans two decades across youth mobilisation, anti-human trafficking, and grassroots social intervention. But this episode is not about individual heroism. It is about the systems that repeatedly fail and the uncomfortable role society plays in sustaining them.

The discussion begins with a hard truth: social decay is not new. It has simply become normalised. Harassment at railway stations, on public transport, and on the streets is dismissed as routine. Trafficking is treated as an unfortunate but inevitable by-product of poverty. Rescue operations are celebrated, while the machinery that replenishes exploitation remains untouched. As long as demand exists, supply will follow. The question no one wants to confront is not how trafficking happens, but why it continues to be profitable.

The conversation dismantles the myth that this is merely a policing or governance failure. At its core, this is a social and cultural crisis rooted in entitlement, patriarchy, and early conditioning. Gender roles are reinforced before children learn empathy. Boys are taught dominance; girls are taught compliance. Respect, consent, and rejection are never part of formal education, leaving young minds to learn about power and intimacy from toxic substitutes. When human interaction is not taught, exploitation fills the vacuum.

A sharp distinction is drawn between choice and coercion. The narrative challenges simplistic views of sex work by exposing the Indian context, where most women in red-light areas have no real agency, no healthcare, no freedom to exit, and no safety net. Many are trafficked as minors, trapped in cycles that drastically shorten life expectancy. Rescuing survivors without dismantling the economic and social forces that drive demand becomes performative at best, and dishonest at worst.

The episode also exposes the hypocrisy embedded in modern philanthropy. Corporations speak fluently about impact, yet avoid funding survivor rehabilitation because there are no optics, no photographs, no brand stories, no smiling faces to place in annual reports. Survivors, by law, cannot be showcased. As a result, rehabilitation remains underfunded, shelter homes struggle, and rescued girls are often pushed back into vulnerability. Charity, when driven by visibility rather than responsibility, becomes another layer of abandonment.

What emerges is a call for radical rethinking. Education systems must teach children how to live, not just how to compete. Governments must design survivor-centric policies that prioritise dignity and long-term rehabilitation. And society must confront its own complicity, because exploitation is sustained not only by criminals, but by everyday indifference.

This episode is not easy to listen to, and it is not meant to be. It forces a reckoning with a fundamental question: If humanity is reduced to convenience, what happens to those who cannot afford to be ignored?

*Disclaimer: The perspectives expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of our platform. This discussion is intended solely for knowledge-sharing and should not be interpreted as endorsement.

Produced by Global Indian Series for the Global Indian Network.

Script by Rajan Nazran
original idea: Rajan Nazran

Introduction music: (https://freesound.org/people/SilverIllusionist)