Category Archives: SURVIVORS

Aug16

Summit couple aims to help sex trade victims in India

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Summit County residents Janice and Don Hughes have a lofty goal for their “retirement.” Instead of taking it easy, the two plan to devote the rest of their lives to rehabilitating girls rescued from the sex trade in India.
“We want to do something with the rest of our lives that counts … it’s daunting, but it’s doable,” Janice Hughes said. “Sometimes you just have to plunge forward and trust that it’ll happen.”The couple, who have lived in Summit since 2008, are in the process of setting up a residential home for minor girls in Assam, India through a charitable organization, Seven Sisters International. Over there, the sex trade problem is rampant, the couple said — young girls from small villages are often given away by their families to men who pretend to propose marriage, or make promises of a job in the city that will allow the girls to send needed money home. But instead of marriage or employment, “in reality, these (girls are) working sunup to sundown in a brothel,” Janice said. “Human trafficking is one of the most profitable crimes that there is … now it has surpassed arms trafficking. A human being is a reusable asset.”

There are groups that rescue the minors, but there’s still a problem: There’s very limited aftercare, and some don’t believe the girls have much worth after escape. “Police would say to us: ‘What’s the point of rescuing them, there’s nowhere to put them,’” Janice said.

A home for girls

The Hughes lived in India from 2005 to 2007 where Don, a former police officer, set up a new field office for International Justice Mission, a human rights organization that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression. The couple recognized that need for aftercare and, recently, found a 3,000-square-foot home they could use in Guwahati, Assam. The space, which can accommodate 20-25 girls, will hopefully be up and running by the beginning of next year. Here’s how it will work: Clients will be referred through the Child Welfare Committee of Assam, and partner organizations throughout India, and brought in for an evaluation. Seven Sisters staff will conduct home studies to see if it’s safe for victims to return to their families — sometimes there was abuse, sometimes the families knew what the girls were getting into, and sometimes, the girls just don’t know where they came from — and if not, they’ll live at the Seven Sisters site. At the home, the girls will be given education, medical care and counseling by trained staff, but above all, love.

“We want to treat these girls like they’re our own,” Don said. “We want them to have a high view of their prospects.” Don said he and Janice were inspired by a rescue home they visited a few years ago in Nepal, run by a Brazilian couple. The homes were bright and cheerful and clean, and “they were like sisters, the girls,” Don said.

That Seven Sisters atmosphere will be a far cry from previous conditions for the young girls rescued in India; The Hughes told the story of a few minors, only 11 and 12, who were saved from a trafficker soon after their capture. They had been given a pair of new earrings and a sari by the criminals — items many young women dream of, the couple said — so “they thought they hit the big time,” Janice said. “They didn’t know they were going to be repeatedly raped and abused.”

When they’re initially rescued, the girls are often terrified, sullen, and distrustful of their rescuers — they’re worried they’re being sold somewhere else, Janice said. Sometimes they’re pregnant, or infected with disease.

“We have seen results of love and care, and it’s remarkable what happens,” Don said. The Hughes estimate the home will cost them $8,000-10,000 a month, money that right now, they’re trying to raise. They pay their own expenses from their pockets.Sometimes people say that the problem is too big, too big to make a difference, Don said. But that’s not a reason to ignore it in the couples’ eyes.“If we can help this one girl, her life is changed forever,” he said. “If you stepped back and looked at the big picture, you wouldn’t do anything.”

Fundraiser, and more info:

> For more information about the Hughes’ efforts, go to www.7sistersinternational.org. Donations can be made on the website, or send checks made out to Agape Outpost (the Hughes’ home church) to: Agape Outpost, P.O. Box 1423, Breckenridge, CO 80424. Attach a note to designate the gift to Seven Sisters.

> The Hughes are holding a fundraiser and Indian Tea from 3-5 p.m., Aug. 25 at The Church of Agape Outpost, 15404 Hwy 9, in Breckenridge. There will be a presentation, and Indian appetizers and chai tea will be served. For more information call (970) 453-1247.

Jul23

Traffickers pushing girls as house helps

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

Faizan Haider & Mallica Joshi, New Delhi, July 23, 2012

In a dilapidated ‘placement agency’ in Delhi’s Kotla Mubarakpur, the fate of an 11-year-old girl is being sealed. “She can wash, sweep and cook. She is hardworking and will not give you any trouble. If she does, you can come back for a replacement,” says an agent who fixes deals, selling hundreds of minor girls as domestic helps every year.

In return, all that’s required is a one-time fee of Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 2,500 per month thereafter. What’s not required is the girl’s consent. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, while trafficking of minor girls has increased, the number of girls being sold and bought for prostitution has gone down. Instead, leading NGOs claim that trafficked minors are being increasingly employed as domestic helps.

“In 2011, 862 cases of trafficking were reported in comparison to 679 in 2010 – an increase of 27%. During the same period, selling and buying of girls for prostitution decreased by 13.1% and 65.4% respectively,” said a police officer.

Money, it seems, is the driving force behind this shift. “Out of the 325 children rescued by us in 2011, 162 were working as domestic helps. An agent earns between Rs. 5,000- Rs. 10,000 for selling a girl to a brothel, while he can get a commission of at least Rs. 20,000 if he sells her to a household,” said Rishi kant, executive director of NGO Shakti Vahini.

Girls, mostly in the age group of 10 to 15, are smuggled by organised gangs from Jharkhand. After speaking to several placement agencies, Hindustan Times found that the price range and age of domestic helps can be negotiated, with agents even willing to come home and talk.

The Delhi government is yet to enact a law that makes registration of placement agencies mandatory. A survey by NGOs of the 2300-odd agencies in the city revealed that only 364 of them were registered under the Commercial Establishment Act.

(Inputs from Neelam Pandey)

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Jun19

Trafficking in Persons Report 2012 lauds the role of Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTU)

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AHTU Training Programme to combat Modern Day Slavery

INDIA (Tier 2)

US TIP Report 2012 recognizes the work undertaken by the Ministry of Home Affairs initiated Anti Human Trafficking Units to combat Trafficking in India.

India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. The forced labor of millions of its citizens constitutes India’s largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories. A common characteristic of bonded labor is the use of physical and sexual violence as coercive tools. Ninety percent of trafficking in India is internal, and those from India’s most disadvantaged social strata, including the lowest castes, are most vulnerable. Children are also subjected to forced labor as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, agricultural workers, and to a lesser extent, in some areas of rural Uttar Pradesh as carpet weavers. There were new reports about the continued forced labor of children in hybrid cottonseed plots in Gujarat, and reports that forced labor may be present in the Sumangali scheme in Tamil Nadu, in which employers pay young women a lump sum to be used for a dowry at the end of a three-year term. An increasing number of job placement agencies lure adults and children for forced labor or sex trafficking under false promises of employment. Indian boys from Bihar were increasingly subjected to forced labor in embroidery factories in Nepal.

Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of forced prostitution. Religious pilgrimage centers and cities popular for tourism continue to be vulnerable to child sex tourism. Women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh, and an increasing number of females from Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Russia, are also subjected to sex trafficking in India. There were increasing reports of females from northeastern states and Odisha subjected to servile marriages in states with low female-to-male child sex ratios, including Haryana and Punjab, and also reports of girls subjected to transactional sexual exploitation in the Middle East under the guise of temporary marriages. Maoist armed groups known as the Naxalites forcibly recruited children into their ranks. Establishments of sex trafficking are moving from more traditional locations – such as brothels – to locations that are harder to find, and are also shifting from urban areas to rural areas, where there is less detection.

Some Indians who migrate willingly every year for work as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers find themselves in forced labor in the Middle East and, to a lesser extent, Southeast Asia, the United States, Europe, Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and other countries. In some cases, such workers are lured from their communities through fraudulent recruitment, leading them directly to situations of forced labor, including debt bondage; in other cases, high debts incurred to pay recruitment fees leave them vulnerable to labor trafficking. Nationals from Bangladesh and Nepal are trafficked through India for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation in the Middle East.

In March 2012, a U.S. court entered a default judgment of $1.5 million in favor of an Indian domestic worker who sued a former Indian consular officer who had employed her while assigned to duty in the United States; no appeal was filed. The domestic worker accused the Indian diplomat of forcing her to work without adequate compensation for three years and subjecting her to physical and mental abuse.

The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) continued to establish Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs), which were responsible for combining law enforcement and rehabilitation efforts. The Central Bureau of Investigation launched an anti-trafficking unit in the reporting period and gave investigation authority under trafficking-related laws to all its police officers. Challenges remain regarding overall law enforcement efforts against bonded labor and the alleged complicity of public officials in human trafficking.

Recommendations for India: Develop a comprehensive anti-trafficking law or amend anti-trafficking legislation to be in line with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol, with adequate penalties prescribed by the UN Transnational Organized Crime Convention; increase prosecutions and convictions on all forms of trafficking, including bonded labor; prosecute officials allegedly complicit in trafficking, and convict and punish officials complicit in trafficking; encourage states to establish special anti-trafficking courts; improve distribution of state and central government rehabilitation funds to victims under the Bonded Labor (System) Abolition Act (BLSA); improve protections for trafficking victims who testify against their traffickers; encourage AHTUs to address both sex and labor trafficking of adults and children; encourage state and district governments to file bonded labor cases under appropriate criminal statutes; improve central and state government implementation of protection programs and compensation schemes to ensure that certified trafficking victims receive benefits; and increase the quantity and breadth of public awareness and related programs on bonded labor.

Prosecution

The government continued to make progress in its law enforcement efforts to combat human trafficking in 2011, but concerns remain over the uneven enforcement of trafficking laws and alleged official complicity. India prohibits most forms of forced labor through the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the BLSA, the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, and the Juvenile Justice Act. These laws were unevenly enforced, and their prescribed penalties are not sufficiently stringent. India prohibits most forms of sex trafficking. Prescribed penalties for sex trafficking under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) and the IPC, ranging from three years’ to life imprisonment, are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. The ITPA also criminalizes other offenses, including prostitution, and has some sections that are sometimes used to criminalize sex trafficking victims.

The government did not report comprehensive law enforcement data, and the challenges of gathering accurate, comprehensive, and timely data make it difficult to assess law enforcement efforts. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs established scorecards for its AHTUs in June 2011 to improve the availability of real-time data. A variety of sources noted that there were many investigations, including inter-state investigations. In Mumbai, in 2011, there were 242 sex trafficking cases prosecuted in the special ITPA court; 125 sex trafficking offenders were convicted with sentences of up to three years’ imprisonment. Two NGOs reported that six trafficking offenders were convicted for forced and bonded labor. Four offenders were sentenced to one year in prison – these sentences are being appealed – and two offenders were charged with fines. Most government prosecutions were supported in partnership with NGOs. A senior government official noted that while trafficking rescues and registration of cases have increased, convictions remain low. However, conviction rates were low across the penal system. Some NGOs continued to criticize the categorization of trafficking crimes as bailable offenses, which in some cases resulted in the accused absconding after receiving bail. Enforcement of trafficking laws, particularly labor trafficking laws such as the BLSA, remained a challenge.

NGOs continued to report that official complicity in trafficking remained a problem. Corrupt law enforcement officers reportedly continued to facilitate the movement of sex trafficking victims, protect suspected traffickers and brothel keepers from enforcement of the law, and receive bribes from sex trafficking establishments and sexual services from victims. Some police allegedly continued to tip-off sex and labor traffickers to impede rescue efforts. Some owners of brothels, rice mills, brick kilns, and stone quarries are reportedly politically connected. The Indian government reported no prosecutions or convictions of government officials for trafficking-related offenses during the reporting period; NGOs said this was due to a lack of sufficient evidence. In September 2011, the police arrested a member of the border security force for trafficking. He was released on bail as of December 2011, but there is no further information on that case. There was no information on the status of an arrest of a former member of parliament or an investigation on an Indian Administrative Services officer – as noted in the 2011 TIP Report – for his involvement in human trafficking.

The Central Bureau of Investigation established a dedicated federal anti-trafficking unit in January 2012 whose police officers have nationwide investigative authority. The government continued to implement its three-year nationwide anti-trafficking effort by disbursing funds to state governments to establish at least 107 new Anti-Human Trafficking Units in police departments during the reporting period, for a total of at least 194 AHTUs. Some NGOs believed that some units were more focused on sex trafficking than labor trafficking, including bonded labor. Some units appeared to focus on child trafficking rather than on the trafficking of both children and adults. Some units continued to be understaffed, which hampered efforts. The government funded more than 500 police officers to participate in a six-month anti-trafficking course at the Indira Gandhi National Open University. The government reported that it covered transportation and lodging expenses for over 5,000 government officials who participated in NGO-organized anti-trafficking trainings.

Protection

India made efforts to protect and assist trafficked victims. The MHA, through a 2009 directive, advised state government officials to use standard operating procedures developed in partnership with UNODC to proactively identify trafficking victims and refer them to protection services; however, the implementation of these procedures is unknown. The government continued to fund over 100 NGO-run hotlines that help assist vulnerable people, including trafficking victims. The Ministry of Labor and Employment reported 865 bonded laborers rescued and the equivalent of almost $170,000 distributed in government-mandated rehabilitation funds in 2010-11, the latest data available. This represents a small fraction of the millions of Indian citizens subject to bonded labor. There were some NGO reports of delays in obtaining release certificates, and distribution of rehabilitation funds was uneven across states. There were numerous reports that sex trafficking victims were rescued, most often in partnership between police and NGOs. There were increased reports of inter-state coordination among the AHTUs resulting in rescues. In one case, the Manipur, Rajasthan, and Kerala AHTUs collaborated in the rescue of 33 trafficked children.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) allocated the equivalent of $118 million for 2011-12 to fund 153 projects in 17 states under the Ujjawala program – which seeks to protect and rehabilitate female sex trafficking victims – and 58 new Swadhar projects – which help female victims of violence, including sex trafficking. Some NGOs have cited difficulty in receiving timely disbursements of national government funding of their shelters under these programs. India does not provide care for adult male trafficking victims. Conditions of government shelter homes under the MWCD varied from state to state. NGOs reported that a number of shelters were overcrowded and unhygienic, offered poor food, and provided limited, if any, services. There were some NGO reports that some shelters did not permit victims to leave the shelter purportedly for security reasons; this violates international principles on the protection of victims. In some cases, traffickers continued to re-traffic victims by approaching shelter managers and pretending to be family members to get the victims released to them, although this practice is declining. Some Indian diplomatic missions in the Middle East provided services, including temporary shelters, medical care, legal assistance, and 24-hour hotlines, to Indian migrant laborers, some of whom were victims of trafficking.

There were some reports of trafficking victims being penalized for acts committed as a result of being trafficked. Section 8 of the ITPA (solicitation) and Section 294 of the IPC (obscenity in public places) continued to be used to criminalize sex trafficking victims. Reports indicated that some victims are punished for being undocumented migrants or for document fraud. Foreign trafficking victims were not offered special immigration benefits such as temporary or permanent residency status, although some NGOs reported that foreign victims had the same access to care as domestic victims. Foreign victims are not offered legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they may face hardship or retribution. In most cases, NGOs assisted rescued victims in providing evidence to prosecute suspected traffickers. Many victims declined to testify against their traffickers due to the fear of retribution by traffickers, who were sometimes acquaintances. Some NGOs continued to report the government was increasingly sensitized against not treating victims as perpetrators, and law enforcement activities against victims decreased. There were some reports of police treating victims as perpetrators, not using victim-centric policies, and not improving victim-witness security, which hindered victim testimony and prosecutions.

Prevention

The Government of India continued to make progress in its efforts to prevent human trafficking. The MHA’s Anti-Trafficking Nodal Cell continued bimonthly inter-ministerial meetings on trafficking, which also included participation of anti-trafficking officers from state governments. The Ministry of Home Affairs raised public awareness on trafficking though radio talk shows and press conferences; the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs continued to work with state governments to conduct safe emigration awareness campaigns; and the Bureau of Police Research and Development organized a workshop on the linkages between missing children and human trafficking and encouraged all police officers to track cases of missing persons.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment continued its preventative convergence-based project against bonded labor in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha, but not in Haryana. The government reduced the demand for commercial sex acts in the reporting period by convicting clients of prostitution. The government continued its multi-year project to issue unique identification numbers to citizens; more than 100 million identify cards were issued in the reporting period. Training for Indian soldiers and police officers deployed in peacekeeping missions reportedly included awareness about trafficking.

May31

Assam lags in victim relief

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TRAFFICKING IN ASSAM

TRAFFICKING IN ASSAM

THE TELEGRAPH , GUWAHATI

Mizoram among 18 proactive states

Guwahati, May 30: Assam is lagging far behind in preparing a compensation scheme for victims of rape and human trafficking. While 18 states in the country have approved schemes for payment of compensation to victims of rape and human trafficking, Assam is yet to start the process of preparing the scheme.

Ravi Kant, a member of the Central Advisory Committee on Combating Trafficking, told this correspondent today that despite Assam being a source area for human trafficking, the state government was yet to formulate any scheme that could go a long way in rehabilitating the victims.

He said in the Northeast only Mizoram has prepared a compensation scheme while Meghalaya was in the process of notifying one. “But in Assam, the social welfare department, which is to prepare the scheme, is yet to initiate the process,” he added.

It is mandatory for all state governments to prepare the victim compensation scheme in consultation with the Centre and notify the same in accordance with Section 357(A) of the CrPC. Kant said the ministry of child and women development had written to all the states in November last year to prepare the scheme.

Altogether 18 states have approved such schemes so far, he added.

Kant said the absence of such a scheme in Assam was making it very difficult to rehabilitate rescued victims of human trafficking.

The central advisory committee, which was formed in 1994 with the secretary of the ministry of women and child development as its chairperson, was the result of a Supreme Court directive that a committee be formed at the Centre to look into human trafficking.

Kant said it was essential to have a compensation scheme for victims of rape and trafficking because they need to be restored to a position of dignity and self-confidence.

“It is this principle of restorative justice that must form the basis of efforts to address the trauma that victims goes through and it must entail compensation in the form of financial assistance and support services such as counselling, shelter, medical and legal aid,” he added.

He said besides mental anguish, rape victims also suffer financial agony as they become too traumatised to remain employed.

“In case of trafficking, since most of the victims are from impoverished families, sometimes their parents refuse to accept them after they are rescued from the clutches of traffickers. In such cases, government compensation can play a big role in their rehabilitation,” Kant said.

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Feb12

Girls fall in placement agency traps

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Girls fall in placement agency traps
Girls fall in placement agency traps
DECCAN HERALD Sugandha Pathak, New Delhi, February 11 2012,
West Delhi’s Shakurpur area is home to over 200 placement agencies for domestic helps, catering mostly to posh Punjabi Bagh areas. Among them is the `notorious’  Laxmi Placement Agency previously called Bensa Manda Tribal Welfare Society.It has a reputation of bringing minor girls from villages to the big city and placing them into exploitative work conditions. The agency is run from a three-storey house; its gate remains locked even during day time. “We do not keep minor girls anymore. Police have become strict and there are continuous raids. The girls are usually from Jharkhand. They look young but all of them are adults,” said Sunita, one of the owners of the agency.

Child right activist Rakesh Sengar said most placement agencies tend to change their address and name every three to four months – since they are involved in illegal activities. Laxmi Placement Agency keeps tribal girls inside the house. Once we got a call from one of the girl who was pleading to be rescued but by the time we raided the place, we could not find any girl there,” said Shivani, another activist. Hoping for a better life, girls come to city with agents to help them find jobs as domestic workers. The agents hand them over to the placement agencies. A labour department estimate says Delhi has around 2,800 such agencies. Out of them less than 300 are registered. They usually charge Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 as commission.

According to activists, no money reaches the girl in most cases. “The agencies take around Rs 10,000 from the household where a girl is placed. They also take about three months of the girl’s salary as their commission,” says Sengar. Chirag Delhi’s Amit Domestic Servant Services gets girls from Orissa. “We can arrange a minor but that will take time. We do not keep the girls at the office. The agent keeps her till the deal is fixed,” said Vijay, a worker there.  “The placement agency owner is usually from the same or the neighbouring village. He gets some relatives to work as as agents at the villages. Since checks at the stations and bus stops have now become more frequent, the agents usually bring two to three girls at a time every month,” added Sengar. The girls mostly come from remote villages in states like Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, where they live in abject poverty. While they are mostly financially exploited in Delhi, several incidents of sexual abuse are also reported.

“There is no specific law which makes it compulsory for these placement agency to register. If they do not, they have to pay a fine of just Rs 200. There are agencies which deal in prostitution, sell girls abroad and abuse them. In our last raid at a south Delhi agency, we found a pregnant girl who was raped by the agency owner,” said Sengar. A rescued minor victim hailing from Assam is still trying to forget her ordeal. “I came here with a relative on the promise that I will get Rs 5000 per month as a maid. That is a lot of money for us. The agency owner kept me for few months at his place. He tried to molest me whenever his wife was not around. Once he raped me. When I told his wife she called me a liar,” the victim said.

Later, she was placed in a Mayur Vihar house. After learning that no money was given to her, the house-owners gave her three months’ salary in advance and arranged somebody to take her back home. “I was lucky but there are many who are missing, even from my village. The parents keep asking about their daughters’ whereabouts. The agents say the girls have run away,” she said over the phone. Rajendra Ravi, member of the National Domestic Worker’s Union, said there are about 4 to 5.5 lakh workers in Delhi, out of which around three lakh work part-time, going from one to five homes every day. Around 2 to 2.5 lakh domestic workers are from villages. Some 15 to 20 per cent are minors.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/226513/girls-fall-placement-agency-traps.html

Feb12

Trauma stays with them for life

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Trauma stays with them for life

Trauma stays with them for life

Jyotsna Singh, New Delhi, February 11 2012, DHNS\
Nimesh Desai, director of Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences says a children who have been trafficked go through tremendous trauma.

Suicidal behaviour and depression are common among them. They get psychotic too.

“Delhi gets maximum number of trafficked girl children from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand. The rescued among them suffer from severe mental disorders and have to be counselled throughout their life,” said Rishi Kant, head, Shakti Vahini, a non-governmental organisation working among sex workers.

A 27-year-old girl, who was rescued by Shakti Vahini, was orphaned during earthquake in Latur, Maharashtra in 1993. She was trafficked to Delhi and was put into prostitution where she was forced to please 10 clients a day.

“When she came to us, she was in a very bad mental shape. With constant counselling, her condition improved. Recently she won a case against her former brothel owner, in which Tis Hazari court gave four years imprisonment to the accused,” said Kant. Psychological counselling made her strong. However, even a minor physical illness brings the traumatic experiences back and she gets restless and her mental disorders re-surface.

“Recently we have recognised the role of mental health in dealing with child abuse, especially trafficking. A study conducted by IHBAS in 2007 for National Commission of Women established 50-55 per cent of abandoned women, most of them trafficked, suffered from serious mental illnesses. After a Delhi High Court Order, finally we have a mental health unit in home for destitute women in Delhi. This has to be encouraged further,” said Dr Desai.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/226515/trauma-stays-them-life.html

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Feb4

Ministry of Home Affairs Announces Awards for work on Anti Human trafficking Units

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MOST IMMEDIATE

F.No.15020/08/2007-ATC
Government of India
Ministry of Home Affairs

To
Chief Secretaries of all State Govts/UTs
DGPs of all State Govts/UTs
Nodal Officers (Anti Human Trafficking) of all States/UTs

Sir,

I am directed to refer to the subject mentioned above and to say that in order to encourage the good work done by the State Governments, Officers of the States/UTs and NGOs, it has been decided to give awards for the outstanding work done in the field of Human Trafficking. Accordingly, a Committee of three eminent persons has been constituted. Following are the three categories in which awards have been recommended:

1.   Category I-   Rs. 2 lakhs each for 2 States/UTs
2.   Category II-Rs 1.5 lakhs for each of the three officers of States/UTs. The officers would also be given a commendation.
3.   Category III-Rs 75,000 each for two NGO/CSOs

 States/UTs will apply under category I. States/UTs will nominate officers under Category II. NGOs/CSOs will apply through State Governments with an advance copy to MHA. All applications will contain details as per criteria and any other relevant facts for consideration. Criteria for nominations for each category is enclosed for ready reference. In view of the above, it is requested that wide publicity may be given to this effect for widest dissemination. Nominations complete in all respects on the basis of the criteria in respect of all the categories may be sent to MHA by 05th March, 2012 positively. No nomination will be entertained after the closing date, in any case.

(Dr.(Smt.) Praveen Kumari Singh)
Director (SR)
011-23092961

Copy to:

  1. Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi for information and dissemination.
  2. Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi for information and dissemination.
  3. Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi.

Copy to State/UT Nodal officers through e-mail also.

(Dr.(Smt.) Praveen Kumari Singh)
Director (SR)
011-23092961

Criteria for nominations – MHA

Awards Human trafficking MHA.

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Jan17

Prostitution racket busted; seven held

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Prostitution racket busted; seven held

Prostitution racket busted; seven held

Ghaziabad: The police today claimed to have busted a prostitution racket with the arrest of seven persons, including three callgirls, in Sahibabad area here. Following a tip-off, police raided a flat in Sahibabad and arrested the alleged kingpin of the racket, three prostitutes, all in the age group of 20-25 years, and three customers, including a Delhi-based advocate, Assistant Superintendent of Police Amit Verma said.

A Russian girl involved in the racket managed to escape, he added. The police said the kingpin Raj Kumar had called the three customers and the girls from Delhi in the rented flat.The racket also used to provide call girls from countries like Russia, they said.

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/UP-prostitution-racket-busted-seven-held-2753256.html?PRVNX=

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Jan11

CARE AND SYMPATHY

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A recent Supreme Court order calls for the strict implementation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000. Is the government listening, wonders Sonia Sarkar IN THE TELEGRAPH KOLKATTA

Life was never the same again for 16-year-old Jitesh Sen (name changed) after he spent a month in jail with a bunch of adult criminals. The police caught him for theft in the Sealdah area of Calcutta. It took more than a month for the cops to get an ossification test done, which eventually proved that Jitesh was a juvenile. And only then was he sent to a juvenile home. But by then, the boy had become more violent and stubborn, thereby lowering his chances for reform and correction.

Jitesh is not alone. There are many juveniles in conflict with the law who have been mistaken as adults and thrown into adult jails by the police. “Juvenile delinquents are often arrested and sent to jails. They are sent to juvenile homes only later, but by then their exposure to adult criminals reduce their chances of reform,” says Calcutta-based lawyer Debasish Banerjee, who deals with juvenile cases.

And that’s the reason the Supreme Court passed an interim order in October last year, directing states to set up juvenile police units in every district as per Section 63 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. The order says that these police officers should “frequently or exclusively deal with juveniles” or should be primarily engaged in the prevention of juvenile crime or handling of juveniles. This interim order was passed while hearing a case (Sampurna Behra vs Union of India) that sought strict implementation of the JJ Act.

The JJ Act stipulates that when a juvenile is charged with an offence, he or she should be produced before a juvenile justice board to hold the inquiry in accordance with the provisions of this law. Unfortunately, neither the law nor the Supreme Court order in this regard is being taken seriously in most parts of the country.

In West Bengal, for example, there is not a single juvenile police unit, reveals Banerjee. “And that’s one of the reasons it takes longer to establish that the offender is a juvenile,” he adds.

Government officials in West Bengal, however, say that the juvenile justice system in the state is perfectly on track. “There are juvenile justice boards and child welfare committees in every district in the state,” asserts T. Kumar, principal secretary, women and child development and social welfare department, West Bengal. “Police officers are also designated to handle juvenile cases. Since the police officers get transferred to other departments, there is an impression that the juvenile police units don’t function. But these posts never remain vacant and the work doesn’t suffer.”

Bengal is not the only state, however, where experts allege lack of implementation of the JJ Act. In Delhi too, lawyers who deal with juvenile delinquency cases say that there are no police units devoted to handling these cases. “No team or officer is being designated exclusively to deal with juvenile cases,” says Anant Asthana of Human Rights Law Network.

Asthana presented Tihar Jail’s reply to an RTI application filed by the non government organisation HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, at the Delhi High Court recently. The reply stated that at least 114 juveniles were lodged in the jail between October 2010 and August 2011. They were shifted to observation homes across the city only after family members and lawyers protested that they cannot be put behind bars because they were yet to attain adulthood.

The JJ Act also lays down that the police units that deal with juvenile cases should have at least two social workers on board. This too is rarely implemented. In Delhi, for example, each unit has just a police inspector as its member and the deputy commissioner of police of the particular district as its head.

But Delhi police officials say that efforts are now being made to implement the law in its letter and spirit. “We are running a pilot project in four districts where social workers are also inducted into the police unit,” says Suman Nalwa, additional deputy commissioner of police at Delhi’s nodal police unit that looks after the functioning of the other district units.

Again, though one of the major tasks of the juvenile police units is to investigate and nab those who lure children into organised crime, “in the absence of sufficient number of police units, this too is not being carried out,” reveals Asthana.

The situation in Maharashtra is as deplorable, say experts. In fact, the Bombay High Court issued a notice to the state government after a public interest litigation was filed by a Pune-based lawyer, Rajendra Anbhule, stating that the government has failed to act upon the provisions of the JJ Act.

The PIL alleged that special homes for children in the state were not working properly. Besides, although the act calls for special homes to be set up by the state for the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents, there is just one such special home in the state, the petition states.

Says Mumbai-based senior advocate Maharukh Adenwala, “The biggest problem is the wrong assessment of the age of the offender.” Moreover, the insensitivity of the probation officers to the juveniles often make things worse, she adds.

“The act lays down that when a juvenile is arrested, the special juvenile police unit to which the juvenile is brought should inform the probation officer to enable him to obtain information on the family background of the juvenile to assist the board in its inquiry. But in reality, the probation officer barely spends sufficient time with the child. Also, these officers are often hostile,” she says.

What’s more, the lack of qualified members in the state’s child welfare committees adds to the problem. “In most cases, the committees don’t have the required five members as stated in the act,” points out Indrani Sinha, director of Sanlaap, an NGO that deals with the trafficking of young women.

Clearly, when it gave its order last October, the Supreme Court tried to set right the problems assailing the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act. In its order, the apex court also stated that the police officer in the juvenile police unit should be adequately trained to handle such cases. And the training will be provided to them under the guidance of the state legal services authorities and secretary of the National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa).

“Police officers should understand the circumstances in which children come into conflict with the law and be oriented to work on the prevention of juvenile delinquency,” says U. Saratchandran, member secretary of Nalsa, which has recently sent the training guidelines to the state legal service authorities.

India is not only a signatory to the UN Convention of Child Rights but it has also ratified the same. “Yet our juvenile justice boards and child welfare committees lack sensitivity,” says Saratchandran.

Clearly, unless the attitude of the police and the social welfare department changes, juvenile offenders will continue to receive a raw deal in our country.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120111/jsp/opinion/story_14990746.jsp

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Jan11

Six arrested for pushing woman into flesh trade

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Six arrested for pushing woman into flesh trade - SHAKTI VAHINI

Six arrested for pushing woman into flesh trade - SHAKTI VAHINI

HINDUSTAN TIMES

Six persons, including a woman, were arrested in a joint operation of Delhi and Kolkata police for forcing a woman into prostitution by kidnapping her two sons. Police said the 24-year-old woman was brought to Delhi in November on the pretext of getting her a job. “The gang first tried to force her into prostitution. When she refused, they kidnapped her sons and sent her to Jaipur. On December 30, she managed to escape, took her elder son from Sangam Vihar and went to Kolkata,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini NGO, which assisted the police in the rescue operation.

The woman informed the Kolkata police that her two-year-old son was still with the traffickers and a team reached Delhi on January 6.

“A raid was conducted at Sangam Vihar and Govindpuri and six persons, identified as Sameer, Sartaj Khan, Kafil, Shibu, Zeeshan and Rehana were arrested,” a senior police officer said. During interrogation, the kingpin — Sartaj Khan — told the police that the woman’s son was in Uttar Pradesh’s Gajraula district and a team was rushed there immediately.

“The child was soon rescued and handed over to his mother,” Rishi Kant said. The victim was a vegetable vendor in Kolkata and was brought to Delhi by Rehana. Police suspect the hand of a bigger gang in the matter. All the arrested persons have been taken to Kolkata for further investigation.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Six-arrested-for-pushing-woman-into-flesh-trade/Article1-794385.aspx

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