Report presentation program On Status and situational analysis of Human Trafficking in Cross Border districts (Indo- Nepal) of Bihar Date: 12 th January 2011 Venue: Father Tong Memorial Hall, BVHA, LCT Ghat, Patna Presented By A Joint Initiative of
Introduction: Every year, millions of men, women and children are trafficked worldwide into conditions amounting to slavery. Among this many thousand are young women and girls lured, abducted or sold into forced prostitution and other forms of sexual servitude. It has been estimated that up to 8,00,000 people, all round the world each year Trafficking is undoubtedly an egregious and profound human rights abuse, a form of modern day slavery and a particular form of violence against humanity. India is a major hub of human trafficking in forced labour and sexual exploitation, especially of children, noted the U.N State Department in a report released recently. India s major cities and towns with tourist attractions- including religious pilgrimage centers- continue to be focal points for sex tourism. Each year, about 1.2 children are victims of human trafficking and prostitution. More than 100 million people are forced to work in slave-like conditions. Sex tourism continues to be highly profitable. A fair-skinned eight year old girl can fetch US $ 2,500 a night. Underage female prostitution is now become a billion dollar industry. Rational: The United Nations issued the protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the UN Protocol) in December 2003. The protocol constitutes what is widely considered to be the first globally recognized document to completely define human trafficking, describing the crime as: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, or harbouring or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation, including (at a minimum) prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor, forced services, slavery and practices similar to slavery, servitude, and the removal of organs. Alongside this UN effort, both India and Nepal have drafted their own national, regional plans of action, designed to curb the spread and existence of human trafficking in their specific country or region. In other words, are governments implementing the interventions and achieving the results envisioned in the legal documents that they have signed? In context of Bihar, the Indo-Nepal cross border districts of Bihar is prone to trafficking problems. India is a country of origin, transit and destination for trafficked persons. Such as Nepalese are trafficked to India, Indians are trafficked to other countries in Asia, the middle East, and the West, Nepalese are trafficked through India to other countries like the Gulf states. Every year approximately 5000 to 7000 Nepali girls are trafficked into the red light districts in Indian cities. Many of these girls are barely 9 or 10 years old. 2,00,000 to over 2,50,000 Nepali women and girls are already in Indian brothels.
This issue being kept in mind ATSEC Bihar was conducting a study about status and situational analysis of human trafficking in cross border districts of Bihar, with the support of a research organization named IMPACT partners in Social development and with the joint initiatives of save the Children, Plan (India), Action Aid and BRC (CWS). Background of the organization: ATSEC (Action against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Women) an international network started in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Presently it is being implemented in different countries of South East Asia like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. The office of national chapter of ATSEC for India is situated at Kolkata. Out of 26 state chapters in India including Bihar Chapter, ATSEC- Bihar is the state chapter of Bihar which was initiated in November 2001. ATSEC, Bihar, a network of NGOs working in all 38 districts of Bihar is taking steps forward to crusade against unprecedented increase in human trafficking in partnership with government, judiciaries, police, PRI representatives, opinion makers and community. In Bihar, ATSEC chapter is focusing to curb illicit and clandestine movement of persons across national and international borders in name of trafficking. We do this by resource mobilization, information dissemination, skill development and organizational effectiveness of our partner organizations. ATSEC- Bihar has a mission by year 2020 i.e. CHILDREN & WOMEN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION FREE SOCIETY. Supporting NGOs: 8 NGOs were contacted and visited covering 8 cross border areas in Bihar to have indepth discussion with their officials on various types of interventions being implemented by their organization. Following are the names of the of the organizations; 1. Adithi 2. Berojgar Sangh 3. Lakshya Trust 4. Mandan Bharti 5. Nirdesh 6. Prayas Bharti Trust 7. Rahat 8. Sakhi Objective of the program: 1. To present the through report of 8 cross border districts of Bihar. This helped out to found the current situation of migrants and their position in society. 2. To highlighted the actual scenario, problem analysis of these districts instead of their caste and religion. 3. Several Suggestions, recommendation and feedbacks of the participants will immensely helpful to create a definite and detailed action plan for future work.
Proceedings of the program: Before proceedings of the program, to follow the Indian culture, this meet was started with lighting of the lamp so that we could also have light of knowledge. In the active presence of different participants from different partner NGOs, police officials as well International and national NGOs of the state, the workshop was inaugurated by Hon ble Minister Mrs. Parveen Ammanulla, Social Welfare, GoB with influence presence of Hon ble chairperson Mrs. Nisha Jha, State child Right Commission, GoB., Hon ble Chairman Mr. Ramdeo Prasad, Child Labour Commission, Mr. Manbendra Mandal, advocate SCI cum High Court, Kolkata, National Convener, ATSEC- India, Ms. P. Nagasayee Malathy, Programme Manager/ Head of Office, IOM, Hyderabad by lightening of holy lamp. From the very beginning, Mr. Y K Gautam, State Convener, ATSEC Bihar, started with welcome greetings to all Hon ble dignitaries for participation and raise their voices against trafficking. He highlighted the vulnerable scenario of Bihar in context of human trafficking in cross border districts of Indo- Nepal. He requested to Mr. Manabendra Mandal to spoke something about the matter as he had a vast experience and working knowledge in this ground. Being National Convener of ATSEC India, Mr. M.N Mandal shared his enormous experiences regarding human trafficking and the different challenges faced by survivors of trafficking or in other words, victims of this offence. He stated different workings of ATSEC National Chapters as well ATSEC Bihar to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation of mainly women and children. He gave his heartiest thanks and gratitude to ATSEC Bihar and the implementing organization IMPACT, New Delhi to organize and conducts such type of study which highlighted the current status and scenario of human trafficking in cross border districts of Bihar, In addition to this he said about AHTU, Astitva Action plan, Balmikinagar workshop the machineries to fight against trafficking. Mr. Mandal highlighted the current status of child and women
prostitution, and now the number of women prostitution has become approximately 3 million in our country. Referring this he extends his speech by telling the numerous issues of women and girl child trafficking relating to women s rights and the position of women in society. He also quoted that majority of the persons trafficked into sweat shops and brothel are women and girls. Trafficking in human being is a multinational crime problem of ever growing proportion. Weak institutes and inadequate legislation limit the capacity of Governments to suppress criminal activity and to prosecute offenders. At the end of his speech, he requested to all to come forward and work jointly in each and every level to combat this crime of humanity. To continue the subject matter, Mr. Sanjay Gupta, IMPACT, New Delhi, then gave his presentation which includes different aspects of human trafficking in cross border districts and situational analysis of the current status of migrants. His presentation was full of essential content and data of migrants of different specific source and destination points of trafficking. In his presentation he emphasized on Status of migration, Reasons for leaving home, Countries/areas of migration, Awareness on place of migration, Costs incurred prior to departure, Sources of money to cover migration costs, Type of work promised, Type of accommodation, Mode of transportation to reach at border, Training prior to departure, Risk perception, Family Status and monthly income range of the migrants, Recruiters details, Knowledge and practices on HIV/AIDS, Knowledge and practices on STDs, Awareness on Human Trafficking, Knowledge on trafficking aspects (among those who are aware) which includes; Reasons for success in trafficking, Opinion on status of trafficked people, Community s behavior towards trafficked returnees, Major facilitating factors in trafficking, Community s behavior towards victims of human trafficking. In this presentation he showed the diverse opinion of migrants male, female both about their experience with migration, experience of work place and such related fields. He extends his gratitude to 8 partners NGOs and above all ATSEC Bihar, whose undivided support was made the study completed and helped to find out the loopholes of law enforcement agencies and the several challenges faced by the people staying at border districts. After the through presentation on status and situational analysis of human trafficking in cross border districts of Bihar, Hon ble Minister, Mrs. Parveen Ammanulla, Social Welfare, GoB gave her valuable suggestion in this regard and was ensured the help from her side as much as she can. She given her thanks to Gautam
jee and other partner NGOs of Bihar and the supporting organizations of the project to took this loyal initiative and she also gave her heartiest thanks to the implementing partner IMPACT, New Delhi, to their positive approach and proper dimension to shape the project. She emphasized to change the mentality of human being otherwise this problem will never be eradicated from the society. The next dignitary Hon ble chairperson, SCRPC, GoB Mrs. Nisha Jha, requested to all stakeholders of this project to continue working joint hand in this way to combat human trafficking from the society. She gave her valuable feedback for the presentation of the study report and extends her wholehearted thanks to ATSEC Bihar for conducting the study and organized the presentation program in this vulnerable being issue kept in mind. To share her feedback in this regard, she said that after seeing this current status of trafficking victims as well migrants it is now possible to sketch proper action plan to combat human trafficking especially women and children and trace the traffickers. She shared her personal experience in her working field. She also promised to all that she will try herd to reduce this malpractice from society as much as she can. Hon ble chairman Mr. Ramdeo Prasad, Child Labour Commission, GoB, delivered his speech by telling how important and necessary this study is in today s context while working in this field and gave emphasis on human trafficking as well how it became a serious problem of human society. In addition to this he said about child need and child rights, and how child Rights are diminished by human trafficking and afterwards sexual exploitation. He also pointed out the loop holes of govt. functionaries and drawback of law enforcement bodies, so he suggested that the actual implementation of law and joint hand initiatives of NGOs, INGOs and all other stakeholders. All other dignitaries and participants were shared their views regarding the matter and gave their valuable suggestions for the same. In this program Ms. Chetna Desai from UNICEF, Patna, Ms. Nikhat Qusim, Consultant, Social Welfare, GoB, Mr. Saif Ur Rahman, Consultant, Labour Resources, GoB, Mr. Akash, Plan India, Patna Office, Mr. Praveen Jha, Plan India, New Delhi, Mr. Sanjay Nandan, Save the Children, Patna, Mrs. Puspasaree Debi, Action Aid, Sister Rosita, Secretary, IRPF, Bihar Ms. P Nagassay Malathy, Head of Office, IOM, Hyderabad, Mr. Ajay Kumar Singh, BRC (CWC), Mr. Sanjay Sarangi, SSB, Frontier Hqrs., Dr. Mukhtarul Haque, State Convener, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Patna, were participated and shared their views and feedbacks in this burning issue. All members of partners NGOs were shared
their problems and challenges while working in cross border districts, generally while surveying and filling their questioner format. It was a brilliant interactive session probably it will lead to develop an appropriate action plan for further working in this field. Conclusion: Mr. Y.K Gautam, State Convener and Mr. Praveen Chanda, Project Director, ATSEC Bihar, gave vote of thanks to all dignitaries as well participants. They thanked to Mr. Sanjay Gupta, IMPACT, New Delhi, for his endeavor to successful completion of this project. At the end, Mr. Gautam said the pathetic truth of human trafficking and afterwards bitter agony of victims. He also stated his unanimous and continuing endeavors to combat trafficking over the last several years along with his coworkers. Referring this he said the different plans and policies of ATSEC Bihar regarding the anti trafficking. Relating this he said that the victims and their families are vital stakeholders in the fight against trafficking. At conclusion, he gave his earnest thanks and gratitude to all the supportive INGOs and partner NGOs. Concerning this he added that Governments need to periodically reassess their anti trafficking strategies and programs to ensure they remain effective to counter new methods and approaches by traffickers.
List of Participants: