Showing posts with label The Report. Show all posts
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Four girls sold for 1.20 lakh each rescued
Four teenage girls who were sold in a brothel in Uttar Pradesh have been rescued and brought back to their village in 24 Parganas (South) district of West Bengal today.
The four girls were lured by one Manna Sheikh who promised them jobs in Ukhra of Uttar Pradesh last year with the consent of their family but since then their whereabouts were not known, the police said.
Early this month, the father of one of the girls, Barkatuddin Laskar informed the Basanti police station and, went to Ukhra and with the help of the local Ukhra police rescued the four from a brothel. The girls claimed they were sold for Rs 1.20 lakh each by Sheikh. Sheikh is absconding and police is in search for him.
Updates from TOI
KOLKATA: A villager from Basanti in South 24-Parganas has single-handedly succeeded in rescuing his teenaged daughter and three other girls from his village from a dance bar in remote Uttar Pradesh. The girls had been trafficked last October by a tout who is also the rescuer's brother-in-law. It was a train ticket that accidentally fell out of the tout's pocket that led the father to the girls.
A complaint was lodged against the tout at Basanti police station on Saturday.
Last October, Mannan Sk turned up at Chaprakhali village and told brother-in-law Barkat Laskar that he was looking for some young girls to serve as helps in 'respectable' homes in Delhi. The pay, he quoted was much higher than what Barkat could hope to earn in a month. Barkat readily agreed to send one of his daughters with Mannan. He also arranged for three other girls from the village.
"They left for Delhi in October but never called home after that. Mannan would turn up every few months and hand over money to the families. He would assure us that the girls were well and their employers are satisfied. If questioned further, he would get irritated and ask how would the girls be sending home money if they were not in safe hands? But he never got them to speak to us," Barkat said .
In the first week of June, Mannan returned to Chaprakhali and met Barkat and the other parents at a tea stall. He paid them what the girls had apparently earned, but Barkat wasn't convinced. Even as Mannan was bringing out the cash from his pockets, a piece of paper fell to the ground. Mannan didn't notice, but Barkat picked it up after the tout left. It turned out to be a train ticket from a remote town in UP to Howrah. Barkat claimed the town was Ukhao or Ukhau.
Without informing Mannan, Barkat left for this location the next day. He claims he spent the next 10 days scouring all red light areas and every dance bar in that part of UP. He also got in touch with people involved in trafficking of girls from West Bengal and Nepal. Finally, he located his daughter in a dance bar. The three other girls were also with her. The desperate father got in touch with the local police, who immediately conducted a raid. The girls were rescued and escorted to the station with Barkat to catch a train to Howrah. The group reached Basanti on Saturday.
"We learnt of the case only after the UP police got in touch with us and provided all assistance. A complaint has been lodged by Barkat and we have already initiated a search for Mannan," said Praveen Tripathy, SP, South 24-Parganas.
Updates from TOI
KOLKATA: A villager from Basanti in South 24-Parganas has single-handedly succeeded in rescuing his teenaged daughter and three other girls from his village from a dance bar in remote Uttar Pradesh. The girls had been trafficked last October by a tout who is also the rescuer's brother-in-law. It was a train ticket that accidentally fell out of the tout's pocket that led the father to the girls.
A complaint was lodged against the tout at Basanti police station on Saturday.
Last October, Mannan Sk turned up at Chaprakhali village and told brother-in-law Barkat Laskar that he was looking for some young girls to serve as helps in 'respectable' homes in Delhi. The pay, he quoted was much higher than what Barkat could hope to earn in a month. Barkat readily agreed to send one of his daughters with Mannan. He also arranged for three other girls from the village.
"They left for Delhi in October but never called home after that. Mannan would turn up every few months and hand over money to the families. He would assure us that the girls were well and their employers are satisfied. If questioned further, he would get irritated and ask how would the girls be sending home money if they were not in safe hands? But he never got them to speak to us," Barkat said .
In the first week of June, Mannan returned to Chaprakhali and met Barkat and the other parents at a tea stall. He paid them what the girls had apparently earned, but Barkat wasn't convinced. Even as Mannan was bringing out the cash from his pockets, a piece of paper fell to the ground. Mannan didn't notice, but Barkat picked it up after the tout left. It turned out to be a train ticket from a remote town in UP to Howrah. Barkat claimed the town was Ukhao or Ukhau.
Without informing Mannan, Barkat left for this location the next day. He claims he spent the next 10 days scouring all red light areas and every dance bar in that part of UP. He also got in touch with people involved in trafficking of girls from West Bengal and Nepal. Finally, he located his daughter in a dance bar. The three other girls were also with her. The desperate father got in touch with the local police, who immediately conducted a raid. The girls were rescued and escorted to the station with Barkat to catch a train to Howrah. The group reached Basanti on Saturday.
"We learnt of the case only after the UP police got in touch with us and provided all assistance. A complaint has been lodged by Barkat and we have already initiated a search for Mannan," said Praveen Tripathy, SP, South 24-Parganas.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Trafficking is the violation of gross human rights: Gogoi
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in his address on the second day of Anti Trafficking-in-Persons Conclave 3: Moving Forward organized by the American Center, Kolkata and Impulse NGO Network at NEDFi House, Guwahati said, “Anti trafficking offers serious challenges whether it is in South Asia, East Asia or anywhere else. Even in Assam with borders along Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal the issue of trafficking is on the rise without doubt. The Government of India has shown it concerns on the matter and it is our obligation and duty to ensure that everybody lives with full dignity, every child, every woman, every individual. They must enjoy human rights and live with honor which is the basic objective of our constitution.”
Reasons for trafficking are many from poverty, lack of unemployment opportunities, migration, drug trafficking, business and labor. Sometimes they are forced to be trafficked. Other times insurgents force children to join them and in some cases some are kidnapped also. Trafficking in women and children are going on in Assam, he informed.
Saying that trafficking is the violation of gross human rights he expressed his eagerness to work with all concerned to address the issue.
The Day 2 of the Anti Trafficking-in-Persons Conclave 3: Moving Forward was kicked off with a Welcome Address by Rachel Sunden, Deputy Director, American Center, Kolkata and an Introductory Note by Hasina Kharbhih, Chair of Board, Impulse NGO Network & MD, Impulse Social Enterprises.
Special Guest of the session, Helen Lafave, Consul General, US Consulate addressing the gathering said, “The issues of trafficking speak of the complexity, the need to collaborate, the need to work together across the regions, provinces, national boundaries. It brings us here together today.”
The other distinguished speakers presenting their observations, expertise and suggestions were, Cristina Albertin, Representative, UNPDC, Regional Office for South Asia, Dr. P M Nair, IPS, Former DG, NDRF, Dr. Praveen Kumar Singh, Director, Ministry of Home Affairs (HMA) and Jitesh Khosla, Chief Secretary, Government of Assam.
The third panel discussion Need for SOPs regarding Repatriation of Cross-Border Human Trafficking Victims had speakers, Dr. P M Nair, IPS, Former DG, NDRF, Indrani Sinha, Director, SANLAAP, Salma Ali, Director, BNWLA and Florrie Burke, Chair, Emeritus of the Freedom Network. The panelist included S. Suresh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Roksana Hasin, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Bangladesh, Sonam Penjor, Chief Program Officer, Women Division, National Commission for Women and Children, Bhutan, Sunita Nepal, Under Secretary, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, NCCHT, Nepal, Chandra Kumar Ghimre, Consul General, Nepal. The panel was moderated by Krishan Varma, Special Secretary (Retd), Government of India.
The panel examined the status of the finalized SOP between India and Bangladesh, the necessity of multilateral or bilateral SOPs in the region, issues of connectivity- repatriation between India and Myanmar overland, status of the existing SOPs between countries- avoiding the overlapping that ensure consistency and the legalities necessary to initiate the SOP development process.
Syed Miraz Ahmed is a researcher at the Centre for Development and Peace Studies and can be reached at syedmirazahmed@gmail.com. this article was first published on assam times
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Rescued kids reunited with their parents
Imphal, November 29 2013 : Altogether 36 children, who have been rescued from Grace Children Home, Bangalore, were handed over to their respective parents during a handing over ceremony held at Takyel Children Home here. The rescued children included 15 (11 boys and 4 girls) from Senapati, 11 (7 boys and 4 girls) from Ukhrul, 8 from Churachandpur and 2 from Bishnupur district.
Speaking on the occasion, Social Welfare Minister AK Mirabai stated that many children are tortured and discriminated outside the State after taking them away from their parents in the name of giving free education, jobs and other facilities and urged the parents not to fall prey to such false promises.
The Minister pointed out this is not the first time that children of the State have been rescued from children homes in other parts of the country where they were made to live under unhealthy environment and condition.
The Social Welfare Department in collaboration with CWCs will continue to launch crack down on such children homes.
Maintaining that the department will keep those children whom their parents are not willing to take back to their homes including orphans at children homes run by the department, the Minister assured that the children will be provided free education and other necessary facilities under the SSA.
Minister Mirabai also appealed the parents/guardians in all the districts to consult the District Child Welfare before sending their children to outside to get rid of discrimination and exploitation.
Today's ceremony was also attended by L Ibobi, Director of Social Welfare Department; Joy, Deputy Director of the departments, staffs and chairmen of CWCs.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Labour Exploitation, Main Reason for Human Trafficking, Says IOM Report
Switzerland - Half of the human trafficking cases brought before IOM for assistance in 2011 involved victims of labour exploitation according to IOM’s first report on counter trafficking and assistance to vulnerable migrants.
The report which looked into human trafficking trends in 2011, by way of assistance, collected information from more than 150 IOM Missions.
During the period, IOM provided assistance to some 3,014 victims of labour exploitation, which represents a 53% of all recorded instances of assistance sought by victims of human trafficking.
By contrast, only 27% of the cases assisted by IOM involved trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Since 2010, labour trafficking has overtaken sexual exploitation as the main type of trafficking, seen in cases assisted by IOM. IOM keeps the world’s largest case level statistics on human trafficking.
Labour trafficking is a feature of many economic sectors, particularly those requiring manual labour such as agri¬culture, construction, domestic work, fisheries, and mining. In many cases, the exploitation takes place under the guise of legal and contractual work, but with degrading conditions of work which are different from the promises given to the workers.
Though assistance to female victims of trafficking has remained fairly on the same level as that of 2008, the report says there has been an increase of demand for assistance from male victims of trafficking from 1,656 individuals in 2008 to 2,040 in 2011.
Women however, says the report, continue to represent the majority of trafficked persons receiving IOM assistance, making up nearly two thirds (62%) of cases assisted by IOM. This includes cases involving sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, and a combination of sexual and labour exploitation.
During the 2011 period IOM provided help to around 2,700 trafficked and exploited migrants, the majority, 835, were Ukrainians.
The figure shows a decline of seven percent in assisted cases, compared with the number of persons assisted in 2010. The decline is attributed to external factors rather than being a reflection of the actual drop in cases of human trafficking.
The main countries of destination for human trafficking victims according to the report are the Russian Federation, Haiti, Yemen, Thailand and Kazakhstan. Top countries of origin were named by the report as Ukraine, Haiti, Yemen, Laos, Uzbekistan and Cambodia.
IOM provides a wide range of assistance to victims of human trafficking including legal and medical assistance, voluntary return , reintegration assistance , protection and shelter prior to voluntary repatriation.
For access to the full report, please visit: http://www.iom.int/files/live/sites/iom/files/What-We-Do/docs/Annual_Report_2011_Counter_Trafficking.pdf
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Stree Shakti: Saving 'Paros' of Mewat
Women like Fazila were undergoing severe exploitation and abuse as brides before they were rescued by this man Shafiq Khan and his group Empower People. “Bride trafficking is a form of trafficking where girls are deceived in the name of marriage and sold to other buyers. These girls are then kept by buyers as their sex slaves and exploited as laborers,†Shafiq Khan, Founder, Empower People, said.
Used as sex slaves, sold and resold, these hapless victims come from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds, an easy prey for bride traffickers. “In the pretext of marriage and declining sex ratio the brides are bought as bonded labourers or to put them into sex trade. In some cases they are also used by group of men within the same family,†Shafiq Khan said. Shafiq has been creating awareness about these trafficked women for the past six years. Watch his story on Amazing Indians this weekend. Source
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Trafficking of humans through sea on the rise: Report
The intelligence agencies have alerted the coastal police that with the high seas and the increase in rainfall, the activities of the human trafficking rackets are high during the season.
The officials said that the human trafficking bid by cashing in on the Sri Lankan Tamilians increase during the high seas as it will be difficult to track the vessels crossing the Indian waters. In the last three years, the state police had busted four such attempts to transport the Sri Lankan Tamils from various ports to Australia.
“During the rainy season and the high seas, the Tamils can easily cross the country. Such rackets operate during the monsoon season and in November-December, which is a time of high rainfall. The people are seafarers and can survive the high seas for a long time with little food. But their bid had become futile after they were arrested from Kerala by the police all the time,” the intelligence official said.
With the frequency of the checks increasing in Kerala and the arrest of several key men of the racket, they stopped operating from the Kerala coast. This time, the ports in Karnataka are being used for such activities. The Mangalore police had arrested several Sri Lankan refugees for making such attempts a few days ago. Similarly, the Kerala police had also arrested the agents of a fishing vessel from Mangalore found near Vypin, for allegedly abetting the trafficking attempts.
The rackets operate by cashing in on the discontented life of the Sri Lankan refugees living in various camps in Tamil Nadu. Last year, the police had arrested a key person, named Shenthiran, of the human trafficking racket. He submitted that the group used to take Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000 from each person for getting transported to Australia. 0The racket had planned to drop the refugees on an isolated island in Australia. Australia was chosen as it is easy for the refugees to get a citizenship there.
The group choose Kerala and Karnataka ports instead of Tamil Nadu, as there is a high possibility of getting identified from the latter location. The racket is being operated by people belonging to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. IBNlive
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Monday, August 20, 2012
North Korea: Human Traffickers and the Chinese Market for Brides
Steven Kim, an American businessman from Long Island, New York, may be the world’s leading expert on the market for North Korean brides. He acquired this expertise accidentally. He likes to say it was God’s plan.
Kim, a practicing Christian, became a regular attendee. One Sunday he noticed two shabbily dressed men seated in a corner of the room. After worship, he went up to them, said hello, and learned to his astonishment that they were from North Korea. They had escaped across the Tumen River to northeast China and traveled 2,000 miles south to Guangdong province, a journey that took two months. They hoped to find a way to slip across the border into Hong Kong. “They came to church asking for help,” he says. “But the church would only feed them, give them a few dollars, and let them go.”
That was the start. Kim began to assist North Korean refugees clandestinely. He provided safe houses, food, clothing, and money; eventually he organized secret passage across China to third countries. Before long, he gained a reputation along the new underground railroad as someone North Koreans could count on for assistance. Many of them turned out to be women fleeing from the Chinese men who had purchased them as brides.
Today he runs 318 Partners, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to rescuing trafficked women in China. It’s named after Article 318 of the Chinese criminal code, the law under which Kim was arrested in September 2003 as he led nine North Koreans in a prayer meeting at his apartment. Convicted of helping illegal migrants, he spent four years in a Chinese prison. His home office now, on a quiet street on suburban Long Island, is a luxurious contrast to the Chinese prison cell he shared with a dozen felons. On the morning of my visit, his cellphone rings repeatedly with calls from South Korea, China, and Southeast Asia regarding a rescue operation in the works. It is not until lunchtime, when most of Asia is asleep, that his phone finally goes quiet.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Human Trafficking Online: The Role of Social Networking Sites and Online Classifieds
Human Trafficking Online: The Role of Social Networking Sites and Online Classifieds, a CCLP report that presents a comprehensive examination of the role of social networking sites and online classified ads in facilitating human trafficking and delivers recommendations for developing technological innovations to monitor and combat trafficking.
Download the report
Human Trafficking and Technology. A framework for understanding the role of technology in the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the U.S.
A recent framework developed by Microsoft Research Connections described the Internet as the number one platform for buying and selling women and children for sex in the United States: “Victims trafficked through pimp-controlled sex trafficking, escort services, in-call and out-call services, chat rooms, pornography, and brothels disguised as massage parlors are commonly marketed on websites”.
There is little empirical research into the role that technology plays in human trafficking. As a result, we need to develop innovative ways of using technology to address the horrors of human trafficking.
Download the report
Friday, August 17, 2012
What Anti-Trafficking Advocates Can Learn from Sex Workers: The Dynamics of Choice, Circumstance, and Coercion
For the last year I've been trying to get my head around different aspects of human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of minors. I've been meeting with a variety of relevant actors, including anti-trafficking advocates, law enforcement officers, researchers, and sex workers. I've talked with survivors and buyers, observed online traces, and scoured the literature. Throughout all of this, I've developed a very uneasy feeling about the way language is leveraged in this domain. In particular, I'm deeply bothered by the ways in which the concept of "trafficking" is employed by different groups in ways that confuse and obfuscate different aspects of commercial sex. There is no doubt that the politics around sex work and trafficking are ugly, but if we're actually going to help those who are abused and exploited, we need to get beyond coarse categories and try to understand the messiness.
The Language of Choice, Circumstance, and Coercion
Commercial sex is not a homogenous practice. In talking with various sex workers and sex-positive activists, I often hear the language of "choice, circumstance, or coercion" employed. Although I've heard a variety of different definitions, I've come to understand this language as a spectrum. On one end you have choice, where individuals with a high level of agency and capital (social, economic, cultural) choose to engage in sex work, often because they hold pro-sex attitudes and believe that the world would be a better place if people were more open and honest, sexually. Terms employed by these sex workers (and their clients) include "sex workers," "escorts" and "high-end prostitutes"; those who identify as such are often engaged in pro-sex public narratives. On the other end of the spectrum, you have coercion, where individuals lack any form agency or capital and are directly or indirectly forced into the trade through manipulation or force. In between, in a category that describes what I suspect is the bulk of commercial sex, is circumstance. Circumstance itself can also be treated as a spectrum. On the end closest to choice, you have individuals who believe that they should have the right to sell any part of their bodies for financial gain. The logic is simple: Why should one's genitals be off-limits when one is allowed to sell one's brains, hands, or back for labor? The bulk of circumstance has more to do with challenging economic issues, including poverty or financial desperation. Finally, closest to coercion, there are individuals who are financially hard-off and those who are grappling with serious mental health issues, including drug and alcohol addiction, a history of abuse, and/or co-dependency.
Many anti-trafficking advocates, including second-wave feminists and religious individuals, view all forms of commercial sex as being coercive in nature. Many who cite religious beliefs in condemning prostitution focus on the issue of morality, either drawing on texts that condemn prostitution or arguing that people who engage in such sinful acts must not be in their right mind. Feminists who are opposed to all forms of sex work highlight that the structural conditions of oppression -- including a long history of sexism, racism, homophobia, and classism -- make it impossible for low-status individuals to freely choose to consent to sex for money.
The language of choice, circumstance, and coercion can get murky for precisely the reasons the feminists highlight. Plenty of oppressed individuals believe that they are engaged in sex work by choice, even when they're grappling with mental illness and abuse. And the history of inequality and structural oppression means that many low-status individuals see few opportunities beyond commercial sex to make ends meet.
While this framework -- choice, circumstance, and coercion -- is primarily used to describe adult sex work, talking about youth is more complicated. On one hand, it makes sense to talk about youth as coerced, regardless of how they see themselves, for teenagers definitely lack legal agency, typically lack social agency, and are often unaware of how their circumstances create conditions in which they cannot consent to trading sex for money. Nevertheless, in talking with teenagers, especially those who do not work for a pimp, it's clear that many see themselves as making a choice that's predicated on circumstances. Some, but not all, teens see commercial sex as a mechanism by which they can achieve financial independence in light of existing oppression.
As I struggle to make sense of how to understand teens' self-perception, I started to realize that addressing the intwined issues involved in trafficking requires starting with where people are, regardless of how we feel about their own self-perceptions. In other words, rather than externally evaluating where someone is on the choice, circumstance, and coercion spectrum, it's important to begin by asking them where they see themselves. Why? This spectrum of commercial sex doesn't just provide a roadmap for understanding how people perceive their own practice; it also provides a framework for thinking about interventions.
Intervening: The Value of Choice, Circumstance, and Coercion as a Model
In order for an anti-trafficking intervention to work, it needs to be situated in context. All too often, we hear about cases of foreigners who are trafficked for sexual purposes, then "rescued" and repatriated, only to be once again trafficked. Upon investigation, these cases almost always turn out to be driven by circumstance. For some, the financial gain of being in the life outweighs the abuse that it entails. This is horrible, but ignoring this does little to combat it.
Regardless of how someone feels about sex work, treating all commercial sex as coercive does little to address the underlying structural and social conditions that produce it. By focusing on how someone sees themselves across the spectrum, it's easier to start imagining different kinds of interventions. For example, if someone has the social, economic, and cultural capital to make a choice to engage in sex work, the intervention that's needed is very different from what's needed to help someone who lacks these capacities.
There is no doubt that legal interventions are needed to get at the heart of coercion and the resultant trafficking that occurs. Unfortunately, this is where it becomes clear how broken our legal structures are. In far too many states, those who have been forced into commercial sex are the ones who are prosecuted when they get caught. And those who exploit these people, either by buying or selling them, are rarely prosecuted. This creates a situation where those who are coerced can barely tell the difference between their abuser and the state. From their perspective, at least their abuser offers love and support alongside the abuse. If we want to make a difference in the lives of those who are coerced into commercial sex, we need to make certain that they are supported, not punished. And we need to make sure that exploitation is one of the riskiest things that people can do.
Nevertheless, as we move across the spectrum toward circumstance, it becomes clear that our lack of social services is haunting us. Far too few people have access to mental health services, let alone have the support structures to address the demons that haunt them. Foster care is fundamentally broken, the cost of mental health care is inaccessible for many, and there is very little in the way of social services for those who are struggling. People slip through the cracks all over the place. It's no wonder that most youth who get into the life are "runaways" or "throwaways."
If we want to make a difference here, we need to construct social services that can truly help those most at-risk, long before they end up in the life. Once they're there, they need social services even more, regardless of whether they see themselves as trafficked or simply engaging in circumstance-based sex work. We can't expect those who are dealing with serious mental health issues to magically be OK once they've been identified. Still, in far too many environments, that's exactly what we expect. Given this, it's no wonder that abused individuals keep returning to commercial sex long after they're adults.
Moving out of the realm of direct abuse, there are other serious components to circumstance. I do not believe that we can address the issue of sex work by circumstance without seriously reflecting on the economic state of our society. When people have limited economic choices, they often make difficult trade-offs. And when faced with a stark reality of minimum wage labor that doesn't pay a living wage, countless individuals seek alternative financial opportunities, including selling parts of themselves that they would prefer not to. I will never forget talking with a teen who turned to sex work because she could figure out no other mechanism to help support her injured, undocumented mother and younger siblings. From my perspective, sex work by circumstance is all too often a byproduct of deeply flawed economic policies. We cannot expect to prosecute our way out of this. Most adults that I've met who engage in sex work by circumstance understand the risks and have made a hard and troublesome calculation that the risks outweigh the alternatives. Most youth feel as though they have no other option. The cost of poverty runs deep in our country, especially for children who lack parental support and for women of color.
I'm not saying that the practices of those who exploit children or adults who enter into the life out of circumstance can or should be justified, but I think that it's important to recognize that not all exploitative sex work takes the form of an abusive pimp engaged in physical oppression. Far too often, the exploitation that is occurring is a result of social and structural conditions that we've created as a society. Collapsing choice, circumstance, and coercion into one category of sex work or trafficking erodes the nuances that explain people's engagement with sex for money and obfuscates the dynamics that configure people's practices. If we want to intervene in a meaningful way, we need to draw out these nuances and build a more complex intervention model.
Exploitation and Violence
Nearly everyone is comfortable condemning the violence that occurs when people are explicitly, directly, and coercively forced into being exploited. The common presence of violence and abuse is part of why those who are opposed to all forms of sex work conceptualize it all as trafficking. Nevertheless, it's important to untangle the ways in which violence operates in sex work and exploitation. Some sex workers are never violated or victimized, but, sadly, violence is all too common. This does not mean that it's acceptable. Regardless of how someone perceives their engagement with sex work, it is never acceptable for them to be violated, abused, or raped. Period. And we need to make sure that those who are are supported and helped. I get furious what I hear people shrug off rapes of sex workers with comments like, "Well, it's her job, she deserved it." No one deserves to get raped or to have sex against their consent, regardless of whether or not they choose to engage in sex work.
But in some ways, that's the easiest side of violence surrounding sex work and exploitation. When people are accustomed to being abused, they stop seeing it as abuse. One of the heart-wrenching aspects of the commercial sexual exploitation of minors is that many of them were violated long before they entered into the life. It is all too common to hear stories of rape by family members -- father, uncles, brothers, cousins -- that predate their commercial sexual exploitation. What kills me is hearing stories about how much "nicer" their commercial exploiters are than their own family.
It is important to recognize the ways in which violence and abuse operates around and within the contexts of commercial sexual exploitation -- and the role that it plays in shaping people's decisions to get involved in sex work. It still boggles my mind that we do so little in this country to address familial abuse and then are surprised when it results in seriously problematic dynamics. If we want to curb commercial sexual exploitation, we need to counter all forms of sexual exploitation.
What Sex Workers See
I've never spoken with a radical, pro-sex sex worker who's not absolutely horrified by commercial sexual exploitation. Even those who are pushing for legalization of prostitution are outraged that people are being exploited for commercial gain. Many who identify as sex workers actively work to combat trafficking. It's not like those who believe in sex work believe in rape. These are fundamentally different things.
Folks in the anti-trafficking worlds need to recognize how valuable sex workers can be as allies. Regardless of how any anti-trafficking group may feel about sex workers, one thing is clear: Sex workers often have more access to the worlds in which the majority of commercial sexual exploitation takes place. This access can be leveraged to find victimized youth, help do interventions, and identify exploiters.
What sex workers see can be of great value to combating sexual exploitation, but leveraging this knowledge requires collaborations between unlikely parties. My hope is that anti-trafficking advocates and sex workers can find ways to work together to combat commercial sexual exploitation. They have a lot to learn from one another about the complexities of the issue. When it comes to sexual exploitation, pro-sex advocates are not at odds with anti-trafficking organizations. They may see the world from a different perspective, but both groups want to end exploitation.
Of course, this all presupposes that the goal is to actually combat commercial sexual exploitation, change structural conditions to minimize oppression, and otherwise address the crux of the issue, which, I admit, is a bit optimistic given the highly political nature of all of this.
But to the degree that the disagreement comes down to ideology and framing, I think that a lot could be gained from making a concerted effort to find common ground and to hear why each group is using the language and models that they are to make sense of the nuanced experiences and situations that they're encountering. At the end of the day, I hope that we can agree to help address the structural and social conditions that shape desperation, abuse, and exploitation. In order to make a difference, we need to not get caught up in political and ideological battles but work to develop a nuanced understanding of the ecosystem. This means taking a multi-prompted, complex systems approach to understanding what's happening and why. And it means building connections and listening to voices that approach the issue from a different perspective.
As more and more organizations get involved in anti-trafficking advocacy, I really hope that folks will take a moment to listen to and learn from those who identify as sex workers. The language and frames that they use may seem foreign, but I would argue that they're quite helpful in getting at different aspects of the issue. And we really need to be building large networks of allies committed to combating exploitation if we're going to make a difference in this complex problem.
(I am deeply indebted to Melissa Gira Grant for pushing me to think critically about these issues. For those interested in learning more about the politics and legal issues surrounding sex work, I recommend reaching out to her. And I'm also thankful to Jennifer Musto of Rice University for helping me understand the framing debates.)
This post was originally posted on Apophenia, danah's personal blog.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
In Andhra Pradesh, 22 women go missing every day
HYDERABAD: Hinting at the existence of a large-scale human trafficking network, state police have found that at least 22 women and girls have gonemissing every day in the state this year. In what is a matter of great concern, the total number of women and girls that have gone missing in the state in the last four years stands at a staggering 23,760.
The combined data collected by state police and the women and child welfare department clearly hints towards rampant trafficking in women and girl children in the state. A total of 47,181 persons have gone missing in the state since 2009 including 16,787 children and 12,882 women.
Of the total number of missing children in the state since 2009, about 66% (10,938) are girls. And, the number of missing girls seems to be only increasing as, till July 2012, another 2,786 children have gone missing with over 70% of them (1,955) girls. That means that about 10 girls go missing each day. Similarly, 2,519 women were missing till July this year, which means every day 12 women go missing.
The alarming fact is the number of women and girls that remain missing in government records in the past four years. Since 2009, a total of 23,760 girls and women have gone missing in the state and they are yet to be traced. This hints at the possibility of these victims being caught in the clutches of human traffickers.
To help the family-members track down these missing persons, police have launched a website displaying their case details — http://missingperson.ap.nic.in. Explaining the usefulness of the web portal, additional DG VSK Kaumudi said that one can search for the missing or found person's details on the said website and approach the concerned police station or other government agency for further assistance. The website also features the details of unidentified bodies.
Apparently, railway police find many of these missing children at railway stations and, with the help of NGOs, either rehabilitate or hand them over to family-members.
"If someone finds a missing boy or girl, they can upload the photograph on the website with the person's details after cross-checking the same on the missing persons list. We hope that this facility will help some missing persons to reunite with their families," the ADG said.
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Friday, July 6, 2012
Manipur sleeps over human trafficking issue State 2nd highest in human trafficking cases
Imphal, July 02 2012: Although Manipur has earned the dubious extinction of being second highest state from where cases of human trafficking to Goa has been reported just after Mumbai, none of the State officials participated in a consultation programme on human trafficking held at Goa recently.
Even though invitation for the consultation had been reportedly sent to the Director, there was no participation from the side of the Directorate of Social Welfare Department, Manipur, thus indicting the kind of concern that the state officials have over the issue.
During the consultation it also came to light that a large number of victims from Manipur get re-trafficked due to lack of rehabilitation services back home or pressure of traffickers who operate in Manipur.
It was strongly felt that there was a need for active participation from the social welfare department and police from Manipur in combating human trafficking.
The two-day long consultation programme was organised by Arz, (Nodal - NNGO Anti Human Trafficking Unit, of Goa police) in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development, Goa for the service providers working towards combating human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation from Goa and source states at the Goa Secretariat from June 26 to 27 .
Inaugurated by Keshab Chandra IAS, Secretary, Women & Child Development, Goa, the consultation was attended by the police officers, representatives from Social Welfare Department and NGO's from Goa, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, West Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
From Manipur two NGOs, New Life and Fxb Suraksha participated in the consultation.
During the consultation Arun Pandey, Director of Arz shared that Goa is mainly a destination state, where girls and women from different parts of India are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation.
The states from where the victims are trafficked to Goa include Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
He further shared that, in Goa the government and the non-government organizations have taken various steps towards the rescue of trafficked victims, rehabilitation of the victims and the repatriation and reintegration of victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
While explaining the purpose of the consultation, he observed that the problem of human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation in Goa can be properly addressed if there is a proper sharing and coordination between the government and the non government organizations in Goa and the agencies in the source states.
He further added that the workshop aims for a platform for the government and the non government agencies from Goa and the source states to share challenges faced for home investigation, rehabilitation, re-integration, follow-up, prosecution, etc.
Opportunity to service providers from the source state to share about the support they can provide to address the challenges faced by service providers in the destination state was also discussed.
During the workshop Pandey shared about the phenomenon of human trafficking in Goa and also presented statistics of the rescued victims in the last three years.
According, to the data presented a total of 179 victims were rescued by Goa police.
Among the rescued girls Manipur is the second largest with 31 and Mumbai with 39 .
Among the North east states, Manipur is the highest. Source
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