Tuesday, May 13, 2008

t-1week

So I thought I would figure out how to do this now so I wouldn't have to stress about it when I am in Delhi a week from today...Hopefully this blog will help me keep in touch with the friends and family (actual fam, college fam, shalalicrave, lamda delta fam, and my room/soulmate S. Grant)

So the general idea of what I will be doing is helping A2W2 to develop a training module on gender and trafficking to conduct trainings for its members. The training module will make linkages between gender relations, violence against women, masculinities, caste discrimination and the vulnerabilities women face as trafficked victims and in forced prostitution. The development of the training module will require field work in the Bihar and Kolkota A2W2 field offices.

For any one who is interested, here is the description of the NGO that I am working for, their mission and approach as well as some general statistics about the sex trafficking industry in India:

Apne Aap Summary

The Issue:

There are approximately 15 million prostitutes in India. Bombay, not Bangkok, houses Asia’s largest sex industry center. What is causing alarm both in governmental and Non Governmental Organizations’ circles is that the numbers of those trafficked is going up and the ages are coming down. 60 per cent of those trafficked into prostitution are adolescent girls in the age group of 12 to 16 years. These figures are corroborated by a study done by the Department of Women and Children.

These figures have a significant impact on India’s overall development.

1. The majority of girls and women end up with HIV and AIDS as they are mostly in slave-like situations and cannot negotiate unprotected sex with their “clients.” This in turns compounds the AIDS epidemic as men go back with AIDS and pass it on to their wives and finally it is a huge health burden on the state exchequer.

2. Increasingly India’s productive work force declines as more and more young girls are enslaved in brothels without education or job skills and more children grow up in red-light areas.

3. Organized criminal syndicates become more powerful as human trafficking gives them access to ready cash, huge turnover and control over enslaved human beings whom they use for petty crimes as their foot soldiers.

4. It tears apart the fabric of families and destroys social capital in India which in turn will lead to instability and violence and an unsafe business environment.

The issue of human trafficking for prostitution or child labour is no longer a disease –it is a malaise. It cannot be ignored. It will chip away at human capital and erode our social capital.

The Response:

Emmy-winning journalist Ruchira Gupta established an all India NGO, Apne Aap Women Worldwide (A2W2) in 2002 to confront human trafficking with some success and acclaim. She has been awarded for her work at the UK House of Lords and the White House and has been nominated by the Government of India to sit on the Steering Committee of the Planning Commission for the 11th Five Year Plan, the Working Group of the Ministry of Women and Child and the Task Force of the National Human Rights Commission.

In its short six-years, Apne Aap’s work has had a significant impact on reducing human trafficking by setting up easily accessible community centres in red-light areas that provide legal

protection and education to more than 5,000 prostituted women and children directly and transform the lives of over 25,000 people every single day. It has:

1. Broken the cycle of inter-generational prostitution ie daughters of women in prostitution are no longer pulled into prostitution like their mothers but are enrolled into mainstream schools and protected from perpetrators in safe hostels or community centres run by Apne Aap even among communities like Nutts, Bediyas and Devadasis who are marginalized into inter-generational prostitution.

2. Created viable and sustainable options for prostituted women to exit their exploitation by creating small self-help groups (cooperatives) of women in prostitution that are provided with livelihood training and market linkages.

3. Shifted the focus of Indian policy makers to dismantling the organized crime networks running the trafficking chain by training police officials and prosecutors all over India on use of the Indian law to address the Demand for human trafficking and lobbying with stricter laws against traffickers in Parliament. Apne Aap has already successfully lobbied the UN on this and the UN protocol on trafficking, Especially of Women and Children very specifically targets the demand for Human trafficking.

This three pronged attack on the trafficking industry of prevention, protection and prosecution has already begun to yield results with a minimum cost. Apne Aap spends about $ 250 per woman or child for a FULL year and leverages education and legal protection.

Its model of organizing self-help groups in red –light areas not only facilitates leadership among women and children, but transforms into small community based organizations, managed and led by community members. Apne Aap does not set up homes and shelters but is in the process of transforming entire communities in red-light areas so that the areas become non-red light areas. Its first success has been in Khawaspur, Bihar.

A2W2 today has 5,000 members and works in Bihar, Delhi, Mahrashtra and West Bengal and eight community centres to provide:

  • Education: literacy classes to children and adults, girls hostels to provide bridge education (catch-up classes) in safety
  • Vocational training and setting up small scale collectives/cooperative ( self-help groups) for women and girls so they have livelihood choices other than prostitution
  • Legal protection to women and children in the red light areas and slums so that they can safely stop engaging in prostitution

Uniqueness of approach: Apne Aap has developed an innovative strategy to counter human trafficking which has several different components-each one inter-connected and equally innovative. For example we have the Kishori Mandals in each red-light district where we form teenage girls groups with their own office bearers and provide rights training and help with education, combined with building resilience through art. These girls now cannot be seduced tricked or forced into any situation of exploitation. But the success of this is linked with our other strategy of forming self-help groups of prostituted women with their own bank accounts, training in production of goods for markets and linkages with markers. These self-help groups are also mothers groups who are trained in understanding their own rights. The empowerment of the mothers helps the mothers take decisions to protect them from prostitution and participate in the Kishori Mandal activities.

This strategy is then inter-linked with establishing easily accessible community centers in the red-light districts and not taking away the woman and girls to shelters and homes. These centers provide legal protection and education both vocational and literacy, plus a safe space for the women and girls to organize. And as the women and girls get more empowered the community watches and learns- so the transformation is at all levels, even in the community itself.

These successes hinge on the art resilience programme that we follow as well-which build self-confidence through, dance, drawing, mime and music to victims and survivors

Our achievements have been two-fold with this strategy:

a) Breaking the cycle of inter-generational prostitution

b) Creating sustainable, viable options for women to get out of prostitution.


-----------------

Alright I think that is enough for now :)

6 comments:

Lili said...

phi mu fam??? what about lambda delta fam? who do u think you are. really. this is not ok claire. i expect you to start a branch of lambda delta in india

Claire said...

ohhh ducheennneee. my little croissant.
see edited first post

Unknown said...

first blog! yayayay send me the link to your india info so i can post it on MY blog!

Andrea said...

1. i vote yes to making lambda delta go global. and public. thats right public and i havent even taken micro
2. i think i will start checking this with the frequency i check the times, my email and gwaker. whcih katie will testify is a disgusting amount

mom said...

hi bear--- anxious to read more now that you are there....... be safe!

Unknown said...

I second that which Aunt Mom said.