U.S. Ambassador Supports Fight against Trafficking in Nepal (September 11, 2013)

U.S. Ambassador Peter W. Bodde visited the Maiti Nepal check post at the Nepal-India border crossing in Rupandehi on September 11 in order to support the fight against trafficking in persons.  During the visit, the Ambassador spoke with Maiti Nepal border monitors who told him that the Nepal Police’s strong support makes their job easier.

“We all must join hands to fight this modern-day slavery. Every country in the world has this challenge that we must defeat… I am signifying my continuing advocacy in the aggressive campaign in trafficking in persons fight,” he said.

Trafficking in persons is a worldwide social problem whose dimensions go beyond both national and sectorial contexts. In many areas the problem is associated primarily with the economic and political changes in the countries, and with the lack of economic prospects in developing countries and the emerging flashpoints of crisis in various parts of the world. Established social and cult differences enhance the diversity of views on this issue and of approaches to dealing with this phenomenon. 

Nevertheless, the international community has defined several forms taken by slavery exploitation in the 21st century. There is also a growing awareness of the dangers posed to modern society by this phenomenon of violation against fundamental human rights and freedoms. The fact that this is no new phenomenon is clear from the history of international documents seeking to deal with the problem of trafficking in persons, so far.

The efforts of the majority of international organizations in the fight against trafficking in persons are geared towards standardizing national legislation on preventing, suppressing and punishing trafficking in persons, and towards assistance for the victims of this phenomenon.

Peter W. Bodde is the United States Ambassador to Nepal.  Before coming to Nepal he served as the Assistant Chief of Mission for Assistance Transition, U.S. Embassy Baghdad.  He served as the United States Ambassador to Malawi from 2008 to 2010.  Prior to that assignment, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad from 2006. 

 Maiti Nepal is a Nepali anti-human trafficking and women’s rights NGO, specializing in preventing trafficking and rehabilitating trafficked girls and women.  It recently completed work on a $500,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of State to assist trafficking victims and support safe migration.

Anti-trafficking crusader wins global recognition

Kolkata, Sept 5: She was married off at 12 for fear of getting trafficked, narrowly escaped from getting 'sold' by her in-laws. Nothing could deter this indomitable woman's fight against human trafficking. Finally, she has now won international recognition.

While the West Bengal Women's Commission has feted her as an anti-trafficking crusader, Monika Sarkar, 32, will now rub shoulders with leaders from various fields at the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the US next year.

 "I'm happy my efforts have now got international recognition. I am happier still to see the smiling faces of parents who have got back their trafficked daughters," says Sarkar.

Sarkar, who grew up amid constant fear of trafficking, began her crusade almost a decade ago, joining some NGOs in North 24 Parganas district.

 The mother of two started her fight collecting data about missing girls from in and around her village, Sayestanagar, to discover a startling fact - more than 5,000 minor girls had been missing in the past few years and yet hardly any police complaint was filed.

 Police refused to register complaints, saying the girls went willingly "Police would refuse to register missing complaints saying the girls have willingly gone out for work. It was difficult, but we continued our fight. As more women joined the fight, police had to relent," said Sarkar, whose efforts have now brought down trafficking cases.

 Her efforts at educating families against traffickers - mostly local youths - soon took the shape of a movement. With the help of a city-based NGO, she now runs her own Samya Shramajibi Samity.

 NGO Prantakatha has guided her efforts to end trafficking in the district. "She has been single-handedly fighting a social evil. She is a true leader," said Bappaditya Mukherjee of Prantakatha.

 It has not been an easy path for the woman who now lives with her two daughters and works as an artisan. She left her husband some years ago after he and her in-laws almost sold her off when she failed to bring dowry.

"The lure of a job for their daughters is too tempting an offer for the poverty-stricken population here. Moreover, the traffickers are often too powerful and it is very difficult to fight them," says Sarkar, who has been attacked several times.

 While her efforts have forced the administration to act - nabbing traffickers and rescuing the trafficked girls in the district - her battle post-rescue is no less challenging.

 She tries to get the families and society accepts the girls, most of them having been pushed into the flesh trade.

 Counseling the families and the rescued girls are an integral part of her campaign. Social pressure is a big obstacle.

"While some rescued girls are living a new life, have got married and have families, others had no option but to return to the flesh trade as their families refused to accept a girl who was a sex worker," said Sarkar.

 Some girls have voluntarily returned to the sex trade preferring a more "affluent life" to the daily struggle for meals.

 Sarkar has not forgotten the importance of education. Having dropped out of school after her forced marriage, she later resumed her studies. She is currently pursuing her graduation.

 "My dream is to see every girl lives freely, gets educated and leads a decent life," she said.

Human Trafficking and Sex Trade

Human trafficking has been defined as the commercial trade of human beings, who are subjected to involuntary acts such as begging, prostitution or forced labor. The United States (US) has placed India on the Tier-2 Watch List for human trafficking for the 5th consecutive year as India has failed to take effective measure in combating it. According to its report, India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.

The report also says that the numbers of persons affected could be anywhere between 20 to 65 million. According to some estimates, the estimated annual turnover of human trafficking in India is around 20 billion rupees. What is distressing is that out of the total number of persons affected by human trafficking; as many as 80 per cent are women and 50 per cent are children (all the persons below 18 years of age come in the category of children). 

The causes are obvious. Despite 60 years of independence, the benefits of economic development have not trickled down to the marginalized sections of the society and millions of people still live below the poverty line. The poverty and hunger makes children and women belonging to the poor sections of the society highly vulnerable to human trafficking.  

Recently a Case Happened in Mumbai which shocked entire India:

A 22-year-old photographer was gang-raped by five men inside an abandoned textile mill in India’s financial capital Mumbai, police said yesterday, and evoking memories of a similar attack in New Delhi last December.

The woman, an intern in a local magazine who suffered multiple internal injuries following the assault, is undergoing treatment at a city hospital where doctors said her condition was “stable”.

One of the five suspects, a man in his early 20s, has been arrested, while police were yesterday combing the port city for the other suspected perpetrators, using sketches based on descriptions provided by the victim and by a male colleague who was with her prior to the assault.

The incident comes just eight months after a 23-year-old woman was gang-raped by five men in a moving bus in Delhi while her male companion was beaten up. She died a fortnight after the attack.

A trial is in its final stages in that case, which sparked countrywide protests and resulted in the enactment of stricter anti-rape legislation.

It also led to tougher laws against other forms of sexual harassment and crimes such as voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks on women and trafficking females for prostitution.

But women activists said these measures had not deterred rapists nor reduced sexual harassment cases across the country, which were in fact proliferating.

The rape in Mumbai sparked anger on social media websites, and scores of journalist organizations protested in the city with many holding placards that read: “Mumbai: India’s New Rape Capital”.

We can stop human trafficking in our lifetime.

The good news is not only that we can end human trafficking around the world, we can end it within a generation. But to achieve that goal, everyone needs to work together. Already, activists around the world are launching and winning campaigns to hold governments and companies accountable for human trafficking, create better laws, and prevent trafficking in their communities. You can also fight trafficking by buying from companies that have transparent and slave-free supply chains, volunteering for or donating to organizations fighting trafficking, and talking to your friends and family about the issue. Together, we can fight human trafficking … and win.

Repeated Victimization in Human Trafficking (Commercial Sexual Exploitation) – A case study from project TAPAS software in South India.

In a subject “Analysis on Human Trafficking – Commercial sexual Exploitation” (courtesy: TAPAS-project), repeated victimization was represented on the maps below.

Figure 1 – Map showing Hot Spots on Google Interface – indicating the summary of – source, transit , destination.

a. Hot dots (places where victims, repeatedly trafficked are living) are more from a district Anantapur, registered as 31%.

b. Hot spots (places where offences occurred, repeatedly) are more from district Guntur registered as 44.8%.

c. Hot Products (places where the combination of various factors of demand such as age, complexion, physical features, multi-language speaking, etc.) work together, are registered as 7%.

d. Hot Targets (places where victims based on their livelihood and modus operandi of the offender, method, process, time, etc) are registered as 17.2 %

The software TAPAS was developed from a detailed research based on the social and technical aspects, to enable the government and law enforcement agencies to fully leverage the robust processes of anti trafficking management by storing the identities, and to help further investigation by the Anti-human trafficking units(Police).TAPAS is an initiative of Neer Interactives  supported by Plan International ( INGO)  and Govt. of AP-WDCW modeled with GIS, Biometrics, Information technology, Spatial Analytics, Environmental Criminology.

The concept was executed successfully in the pilot project and is now in the implementation phase for the entire state of Andhra Pradesh. It is also observed that the existing mechanisms and regulations were not effective in solving the challenge thrown by the situations today. Sophisticated investigations, analyses and prevention tools such as TAPAS triggered by multi disciplinary studies, are required to keep a constant check on the offender(s) as well as the victim(s) to avoid repetition.