Sunday, February 21, 2016
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Telangana: Couple bought minor girl for just Rs 250, forced her to beg
In a gruesome incident a couple from Basheerabad mandal of RR district of Telangana bought a 13-year-old girl for just Rs 250 from Mumbai and forced her to beg in Hyderabad.
The 13 year old minor identified as Puja. According to the report, she had been begging for the last three months.
The report quotes Ranga Reddy SP Rema Rajeswari as saying the couple – V. Basamma and V. Ramulu – bought Puja in Mumbai while they were working there as labourers. Since she was an orphan, the girl didn’t know anything about her parents and was sold off by an unknown person.
According to Police the couple made her do household work then later started sending her out to beg. She used to finish the housework in the morning and then go to the Tandur bus stand where she would beg till evening. The girl gave her earnings to the couple save the bus fare to the bus stand.
On January 7, the police reportedly got a tip-off and rescued the girl. The report adds that the police have now registered a case against the couple for human trafficking and forced labour and have arrested Basamma’s father
http://www.siasat.com/news/telangana-couple-bought-13-year-old-girl-just-rs-250-forced-beg-914404/
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Friday, August 21, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Going undercover as a Sex worker article forwarded
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/06/magazine-undercover-sex-worker-human-trafficking-150610072623672.html
Thursday, June 04, 2015
Lost and found missing children web site launched by Government
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-india-launches-lost-and-found-website-to-find-missing-children-2015-6?IR=T
www.khoyapaya.gov.in
www.khoyapaya.gov.in
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
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.
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
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
Thursday, February 19, 2015
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.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Friday, February 13, 2015
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.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Monday, February 02, 2015
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
I am resource person for one book synergy in human trafficking for this diploma course
Friday, January 30, 2015
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
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/
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/01/not-without-our-daughters-lambada-women-fight-infanticide-and-child-trafficking/
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