Trafficking in India a big concern | The Asian Age

Trafficking in India a big concern | The Asian Age

Trafficked tribal girls forced to conceive, deliver babies for sale

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/tribal-girls-forced-to-conceive-deliver-babies-for-sale/article1-1320239.aspx

From the time she was 13, Phulmani (name changed) was forced to act as a surrogate mother and deliver six children by human traffickers from Jharkhand, widely considered a hotbed of modern day slavery.

Phulmani, now 31, was made to breastfeed the children – all born in consecutive years in Delhi – for about six months before giving them to the agents who sold them off.

The resident of Patru village in Gumla district was rescued by rights activists and returned to Jharkhand last year. Her experiences have left her emotionally and physically scarred.

“They treated me like a money minting machine. My will never mattered to them, all they wanted was me to deliver babies for them," she said, avoiding eye contact.

Phulmani was lured to Delhi by an agent from her village with the promise of a job in the national capital. She worked as a domestic help in a posh locality in her first year in Delhi before the inhuman treatment began.

She has no idea who bought her babies or what became of them. But now she is seeking justice and has filed a complaint with the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Gumla.

Rights groups have complained for long that well organised rings have been trafficking girls and young women from Jharkhand. According to civil society groups, about 10,000 children are trafficked from Jharkhand every year to either work as domestic help or sex workers, but trafficking for forced surrogacy has never been heard of before.

The CWC in Gumla came across another case of trafficking for surrogacy from Lotwadugdugi village in Palkot block. The girl was trafficked to Delhi when she was just eight years old. Now 29, she returned to Jharkhand last year and alleged that she was forced to deliver at least 10 babies, said Alakh Singh, a member of the CWC.

"It is not a regular pattern, but we have come across a few such cases in the past. It is a major concern if such practices are happening in the state," said additional director general of police (CID) SN Pradhan.

Like Phulmani, some more girls from Gumla and Lohardaga districts of Jharkhand were trafficked for conceiving children, local residents claimed. Some girls were even forced to conceive babies for sale in Jharkhand, they alleged.

Jagatram Mahato, an elderly man from Arahasa village in Lohardaga, said teenagers from his village had been lured to Delhi and some northern states for forced surrogacy.

"Some of them even gave birth to children in the village. Later, the agents came and took the babies," he said. While a few girls were paid a negligible amount for being surrogate mothers, a majority did not get even a penny, he said.

However, police said they could not act unless FIRs were filed about such cases. A majority of the girls did not bother to complain to the police, probably due to fear, villagers said.

The NGO Shakti Vahini says it has rescued more than 100 girls from Jharkhand in Delhi. Bachapan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the NGO run by Noble Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, says it rescued almost 80,000 children across India, of whom 15% to 20% were from Jharkhand and Bihar

Fits and Starts: Two School-based Approaches to Prevent Sex Trafficking

By Brittany Patterson

On a late winter evening about three years ago, Barbara Hernandez stood in front of half a dozen members of the Riley Elementary School Parent Teacher Association in Long Beach, Calif.

Surrounded by illustrated books, her fellow parents were seated in tiny chairs, their knees nearly hitting their chests, and Hernandez remembers their facial expressions shifting from curiosity to shock and, finally, to determination, as she spoke.

Keynote speaker Nicole Clark at the Youth Exploitation Safety Symposium in Long Beach, Calif. Photo credit: Crittenton Services for Children and Families

It was a short presentation, only about 20 minutes, but the message was an important one: What could parents do to recognize and prevent domestic minor sex trafficking?

“They were so open, embraced the information,” she said. “At the same time they were appalled it was happening in Long Beach.”

Within the U.S., California is home to three of the FBI’s 13 “High Intensity Child Prostitution” areas: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. It is hard to pin down a number, but experts estimate more than 100,000 children in the U.S. are impacted by child sexual exploitation, which includes sex trafficking, child pornography and child sex tourism.

Education is one key to preventing the sexual exploitation of minors – that was one of the recommendations handed down by the California Child Welfare Council in June 2013.

With varying degrees of success, two cities in California – Long Beach and Oakland – have leveraged local school districts to bring the commercial sexual exploitation of children, or CSEC, to the attention of the very students who could find themselves most vulnerable.

The adage ‘it’s easier said than done’ certainly applies in this case. It is not as simple as teaching parents and students about the commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Curriculum is scarce, and perhaps more problematic is the understandable reluctance of administrators to acknowledge the need to present information about this traumatic crime.

More than two years after the Child Welfare recommendations were released, Oakland Unified School District is still struggling to implement a trafficking prevention program to more than 2,500 seventh grade girls, despite widespread praise for the program and a recently renewed contract.

Despite promise, program stalls in Oakland

It is estimated that 100 children are sold for sex in Oakland each night, according to West Coast Children’s Clinic, a leading provider of mental health services to children and youth who have spent time on International Boulevard, which has been notoriously dubbed “the track.”

In May 2012, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors allocated $60,000 to Love Never Fails, a non-profit dedicated to the prevention, rehabilitation and education of youth involved in human trafficking. A small part of that grant money was allocated for the implementation of an education program the group created called Love Never Hurts.

The program meets the California Department of Education public health standards for middle and high school. Oakland Unified School District announced they would begin teaching all seventh-graders the Love Never Hurts program. Students would experience a classroom presentation or assembly focused on healthy relationships as well as exploitation.

Those who are at greater risk for exploitation would be eligible for a six- to eight-week group program with individual mentoring.

The Dublin, California-based organization has educated more than 3,000 Bay Area students through Love Never Hurts. After a successful implementation at one middle school in Oakland, the group was asked to speak to the Oakland City Council. From there, Bonita Hopkins, education director for Love Never Fails, said they began training staff at OUSD.

“It was supposed to happen last school year [2013-2014],” Hopkins said. “This past summer [2014] we pushed them, but we’re still waiting.”

Barbara McClung, director of Behavioral Health Initiatives for the school district, told The San Francisco Chronicle the program would cost $40,000 to $50,000 a year to bring to all of the district’s middle schools, money that they do not have.

In an email response to The Chronicle of Social Change, McClung said: “I regret that we do not have significant progress to report yet. We are still recruiting schools and working out implementation timelines. Delivering the program remains a priority but we are still in the early stages of preparation.”

Meanwhile, Hopkins said Love Never Fails has been running the program without OUSD staff. Last fall they worked with ninth grade girls through an after-school program at Oakland High School.

“It’s very important to get education out there to students and parents,” she said “This population is real and very prevalent in the Bay Area. Prevention is the key.”

Grassroots effort bears fruit in Long Beach

It was 2011 when Barbara Hernandez approached the principal of her daughter’s school and pitched the idea of providing some sort of education program for sixth grade girls on healthy relationships. The idea was that if young girls knew what a healthy relationship looked like, they would be less likely to fall into a relationship that could lead to sex trafficking.

Long Beach school board members and Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe at YESS 2015. Photo credit: Crittenton Services for Children and Families

Often, pimps, or exploiters as they are also called, begin a relationship through romantic overtures. These “Romeo pimps” often give their “girlfriends” gifts and money, which is followed by isolation from friends and family as well as other control tactics like physical and emotional abuse. For a host of reasons, many survivors of sex trafficking report they did not even realize it was happening, or if they did they did not have the resources to escape. Often, witnesses report, they have endured trauma that has impacted their self-esteem, which makes them more likely to accept such a patently unhealthy relationship.

“More than 90 percent of the time survivors have experienced a level of trauma, often multiple traumatic experiences,” Hernandez said. “This really impacts the brain development, especially as a youth.”

Hernandez would know. She is the vice president of Community Based Services at Crittenton Services for Children and Families, a non-profit social services agency that works with commercially sexually exploited children. She has worked with minors in the child welfare system for more than 15 years.

According to a report published by the state’s Child Welfare Council in 2012, it is estimated that between 50 and 80 percent of trafficked girls were in foster care. Most commercially sexually exploited children have a history of abuse and trauma prior to being victimized.

When Hernandez didn’t get any traction with her daughter’s principal, she decided to take her offer to the PTA.

“They were way more open and wanted training,” she said.

Word spread and Hernandez began spending her evenings in school gyms all over Long Beach presenting what she calls “CSEC 101,” which includes information on the subculture, language and data. She also has an extended version of the presentation that includes how the brain is impacted by trauma.

Last year, word got back to the Long Beach Unified School District School Board, which then asked for the training. Last month, a Youth Exploitation Safety Symposium, which was spawned in part from both the district’s and parents’ desire for more information, was attended by nearly 400 community members.

Hernandez said the superintendent of schools “gave us everything we asked for and more” for the event. The Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force, Long Beach Unified School District and Long Beach PTA partnered to bring more than 80 organizations, workshops and speakers together with the goal to educate parents, students and teachers on human sex trafficking, safety and empowerment.

“We work daily with law enforcement and many community partners to keep our students and schools safe,” said LBUSD Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser in a press release. “As an extension of that work, we’re partnering with the city’s task force on this symposium, which will provide important information for students and parents. Our aim is to help prevent human trafficking through dialogue, education and increased awareness.”

That is not to say there have not been challenges. Hernandez said when she does the training she sometimes hears parents say things such as “it doesn’t happen here,” or “my kid doesn’t run around with those type of people.”

“When they get through with the training it opens their eyes,” she said.

Critttendon staff and Long Beach Trafficking Task Force at the January symposium. Photo credit: Crittenton Services for Children and Families

For example, one statistic that she says often shocks parents is the average age of entry into sexual exploitation: Between the ages of 12-14.

Increased reports of violence associated with sex trafficking over the last few years might have sparked more openness from parents on the subject.

“Maybe our community is ready,” she said. “I also think a lot of people thought it had to be a gruesome talk, but the takeaway from the trainings is what makes for a healthy relationship, what are boundaries and what are the effects of trauma.”

Prevention, Hernandez adds, is the key to not losing girls to exploitation.

“Once a girl is in it, it’s a lot harder to get out,” she said.

Kidney racket through social media busted - The Hindu

Kidney racket through social media busted - The Hindu

DU girls concerned over gender issues

12 Feb 15 The Deccan Herald DU girls concerned over gender issues Feb 12, 2015, Dhns I don't want my body to be a taboo which is talked about only after it is violated. This moment offers me the powerful feeling of liberation, strength and love and it is an offer I can’t refuse," says Ishani Banerjee, a 1st year student. "I have realised that I am not the only one. It made us come together and rise for ourselves. We are one for all and all for one,” says Manaswani, another undergraduate. On February 9, hundreds of representatives from Delhi University came together to raise their voice and concern over violence against women and other forms of gender oppression, followed by rally and flash mob at the university. Kamala Bhasin, feminist activist, South Asia Coordinator, One Billion Rising Campaign,and Mahesh Bhagwat, IPS, Hyderabad, addressed the student representatives urging them to help create a just and egalitarian society through the message of love. The students marched from Miranda House to three different centres in the North Campus. There were many events like music, dance and slogans performed by children, which was followed by performances by college students. Speaking on the occasion Kamla Bhasin said, “Only five per cent men are rapists, but the most depressing is the fact that the rest 95 per cent good people keep quiet and never do anything to change the situation.” She also added that “it is high time we stop raising rapists in our families by not ignoring unacceptable behaviour of the boys from young age.” Speaking about the patriarchal society and the rigid mindsets with respect to women, she said “men were not born violent, patriarchy made them so. Rape is seen as a tool or a weapon to subjugate women.” Supporting the campaign Mahesh Bhagwat emphasised the need for synergy between all stakeholders, like NGOs and Police, working towards the same goal to make the society safe and secure for everyone, especially women and girls. He also said that there was a crying need in our society to inculcate gender sensitivity when bringing up boys. One Billion Rising, the largest global action to end violence against women has entered its third year with One Billion Rising: Revolution, a new escalation that calls for a radical shift to end the global epidemic of abuse that women face worldwide. Billions of people are rising everywhere to take a public stand against violence.

“One Billion Rising” is here - The Hindu

“One Billion Rising” is here - The Hindu

IGNOU - School of Law (SOL) - Programmes - Distance - Certificate in Anti Human Trafficking (CAHT )

IGNOU - School of Law (SOL) - Programmes - Distance - Certificate in Anti Human Trafficking (CAHT )

I am resource person for one book synergy in human trafficking for this diploma course

13 child labourers rescued from paper mill - The Hindu

13 child labourers rescued from paper mill - The Hindu

Poor implementation of laws helps human trafficking: NHRC chairman - The Hindu

Poor implementation of laws helps human trafficking: NHRC chairman - The Hindu

Don't act mechanically with child trafficking, SC tells government - India Gazette

Don't act mechanically with child trafficking, SC tells government - India Gazette

Board plea to curb child trafficking

Board plea to curb child trafficking

Combating trafficking of women and children -"Project Aasara": Not Without Our Daughters: Lambada Women Fight Infanticide and Child Trafficking

Combating trafficking of women and children -"Project Aasara": Not Without Our Daughters: Lambada Women Fight Infanticide and Child Trafficking

http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/01/not-without-our-daughters-lambada-women-fight-infanticide-and-child-trafficking/

Not Without Our Daughters: Lambada Women Fight Infanticide and Child Trafficking

Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before?

In a centuries deep sea of clichés despairing that 'prostitution will always be with us', one country's success stands out as a solitary beacon lighting the way. In just five years Sweden has dramatically reduced the number of its women in prostitution. In the capital city of Stockholm the number of women in street prostitution has been reduced by two thirds, and the number of johns has been reduced by 80%. There are other major Swedish cities where street prostitution has all but disappeared. Gone too, for the most part, are the renowned Swedish brothels and massage parlors which proliferated during the last three decades of the twentieth century when prostitution in Sweden was legal. Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before? In addition, the number of foreign women now being trafficked into Sweden for sex is nil. The Swedish government estimates that in the last few years only 200 to 400 women and girls have been annually sex trafficked into Sweden, a figure that's negligible compared to the 15,000 to 17,000 females yearly sex trafficked into neighboring Finland. No other country, nor any other social experiment, has come anywhere near Sweden's promising results. By what complex formula has Sweden managed this feat? Amazingly, Sweden's strategy isn't complex at all. It's tenets, in fact, seem so simple and so firmly anchored in common sense as to immediately spark the question, "Why hasn't anyone tried this before?" Sweden's Groundbreaking 1999 Legislation In 1999, after years of research and study, Sweden passed legislation that a) criminalizes the buying of sex, and b) decriminalizes the selling of sex. The novel rationale behind this legislation is clearly stated in the government's literature on the law: "In Sweden prostitution is regarded as an aspect of male violence against women and children. It is officially acknowledged as a form of exploitation of women and children and constitutes a significant social problem... gender equality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit women and children by prostituting them." In addition to the two pronged legal strategy, a third and essential element of Sweden's prostitution legislation provides for ample and comprehensive social service funds aimed at helping any prostitute who wants to get out, and additional funds to educate the public. As such, Sweden's unique strategy treats prostitution as a form of violence against women in which the men who exploit by buying sex are criminalized, the mostly female prostitutes are treated as victims who need help, and the public is educated in order to counteract the historical male bias that has long stultified thinking on prostitution. To securely anchor their view in firm legal ground, Sweden's prostitution legislation was passed as part and parcel of the country's 1999 omnibus violence against women legislation. An Early Obstacle in the Path Interestingly, despite the country's extensive planning prior to passing the legislation, the first couple years into this novel project nothing much happened at all. Police made very few arrests of johns and prostitution in Sweden, which had previously been legalized, went on pretty much as it had gone on before. Naysayers the world over responded to the much publicized failure with raucous heckling, "See? Prostitution always has been, and it always will be." But eminently secure in the thinking behind their plan, the Swedes paid no heed. They quickly identified, then solved the problem. The hang-up, the place where their best efforts had snagged, was that law enforcement wasn't doing it's part. The police themselves, it was determined, needed in-depth training and orientation to what the Swedish public and legislature already understood profoundly. Prostitution is a form of male violence against women. The exploiter/buyers need to be punished, and the victim/prostitutes need to be helped. The Swedish government put up extensive funds and the country's police and prosecutors, from the top ranks down to the officer on the beat, were given intensive training and a clear message that the country meant business. It was then that the country quickly began to see the unequaled results. Today, not only do the Swedish people continue to overwhelming support their country's approach to prostitution (80% of people in favor according to national opinion polls), but the country's police and prosecutors have also come around to be among the legislation's staunchest supporters. Sweden's law enforcement has found that the prostitution legislation benefits them in dealing with all sex crimes, particularly in enabling them to virtually wipe out the organized crime element that plagues other countries where prostitution has been legalized or regulated. The Failure of Legalization and/or Regulation Strategies This Swedish experiment is the single, solitary example in a significant sized population of a prostitution policy that works. In 2003, the Scottish government in looking to revamp its own approach to prostitution enlisted the University of London to do a comprehensive analysis of outcomes of prostitution policies in other countries. In addition to reviewing Sweden's program, the researchers chose Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands to represent various strategies of legalizing and/or regulating prostitution. The researchers did not review the situation where prostitution is criminalized across the board as it is in the US. The outcome of that approach is already well known. The failures and futility of the revolving door of arresting and rearresting prostitutes is all too familiar the world over. But the outcomes, as revealed in the Univ. of London study, in the states under review that had legalized or regulated prostitution were found to be just as discouraging or even more discouraging than the traditional all round criminalization. In each case the results were dramatic in the negative. Legalization and/or regulation of prostitution, according to the study, led to: A dramatic increase in all facets of the sex industry, A dramatic increase in the involvement of organized crime in the sex industry, A dramatic increase in child prostitution, An explosion in the number of foreign women and girls trafficked into the region, and Indications of an increase in violence against women. In the state of Victoria, Australia, where a system of legalized, regulated brothels was established, there was such an explosion in the number of brothels that it immediately overwhelmed the system's ability to regulate them, and just as quickly these brothels became a mire of organized crime, corruption, and related crimes. In addition, surveys of the prostitutes working under systems of legalization and regulation find that the prostitutes themselves continue to feel coerced, forced, and unsafe in the business. A survey of legal prostitutes under the showcase Netherlands legalization policy finds that 79% say they want to get out of the sex business. And though each of the legalization/regulation programs promised help for prostitutes who want to leave prostitution, that help never materialized to any meaningful degree. In contrast, in Sweden the government followed through with ample social services funds to help those prostitutes who wanted to get out. 60% of the prostitutes in Sweden took advantage of the well funded programs and succeeded in exiting prostitution.* * The full Scottish government report on prostitution policies can be seen at www.scottish.parliament.uk So Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before? Why, then, with Sweden's success so clearly lighting the way, aren't others quickly adopting the plan? Well, some are. Both Finland and Norway are on the verge of making the move. And if Scotland takes the advise of its own study, it will go in that direction too. But, the answer to the question of why other countries aren't jumping to adopt Sweden's plan is probably the same as the answer to the question of why governments haven't tried Sweden's solution before. In order to see prostitutes as victims of male coercion and violence it requires that a government first switch from seeing prostitution from the male point of view to the female point of view. And most, if not virtually all, countries of the world still see prostitution and every other issue from a predominantly male point of view. Sweden, in contrast, has led the way in promoting equality for women for a very long time. In 1965, for example, Sweden criminalized rape in marriage. Even by the 1980's there were states in the United States that still hadn't made that fundamental recognition of women's rights to control her own body. The Swedish government also stands out in having the highest proportion of women at all levels of government. In 1999, when Sweden passed its groundbreaking prostitution legislation, the Swedish Parliament was composed of nearly 50% women. Sweden's prostitution policy was first designed and lobbied for by Sweden's organization of women's shelters and was then fostered and fought for by a bipartisan effort of Sweden's uniquely powerful and numerous female parliamentarians. Nor has Sweden stopped there. In 2002, Sweden passed additional legislation bolstering the original prostitution legislation. The 2002 Act Prohibiting Human Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation closed some of the loopholes in the earlier legislation and further strengthened the government's ability to go after the network of persons that surround and support prostitution, such as the recruiters, the transporters, and the hosts. And Why Can't We Copy Sweden's Success Here? While it's probably true that we and other countries are still much more steeped in patriarchal darkness than Sweden, there's no reason we can't push now for the policy changes that Sweden has made. The beauty of it is that once the ground has been broken and the proof of success has been established, it should be ever much easier to convince others to go down that path

Naa Bangaaru Thalli Audio Launch Live Streaming

Local Organization Educates Henrico Teens on Sex Trafficking - 8NEWS - WRIC | News Where You Live

Local Organization Educates Henrico Teens on Sex Trafficking - 8NEWS - WRIC | News Where You Live

Trafficker arrested, lens on Maoist link

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Trafficker-arrested-lens-on-Maoist-link/articleshow/44807788.cms

Supreme Court of India directs registration of over 75,000 cases of missing children

Supreme Court of India directs registration of over 75,000 cases of missing children

Teamwork ammo against trafficking

Teamwork ammo against trafficking

Immoral trafficking: Only spl officers can investigate, says HC

KOCHI: Police investigation in immoral trafficking cases would be invalid if the probe is not conducted by police officers specially authorized for dealing with such cases as per Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, the Kerala high court held. The ruling by Justice P D Rajan came after considering a petition filed by C P Raju of Pampady in Kottayam challenging investigation in a case registered against him accusing him of immoral trafficking by the sub inspector of Keezhvaipur police station. As per the Act, state government has to appoint police officers not below the rank of inspectors as special police officers to deal with offences under the immoral trafficking prevention law. In the case in question, the FIR was registered by circle inspector of Mallappally, who was the special officer designated for the area. After search and arrest, further investigation was entrusted to Keezhvaipur sub inspector. Power of investigation in offences under the immoral trafficking prevention law is a mandatory one and such power cannot be delegated to other subordinate officers unless the law says so, the court held. "A non-empowered officer without conferring any power under the Act has no power to investigate or detect or prevent such acts which is clear in Section 14. However, any special officer can seek assistance of a police officer under him which does not mean that the assistant police officers are competent to investigate the offence, since they are not specially appointed by the statute," the court held. Quashing the final report filed by the SI, the court held, "Considering that legal aspect, the investigation conducted by the SI of police, Keezhvaipur, is invalid according to the Act and the final report submitted by him is not in accordance with law. If that be so, a trial based upon the charge is a mere abuse of process of court." http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/Immoral-trafficking-Only-spl-officers-can-investigate-says-HC/articleshow/34449350.cms