Esther Mandelstamm/February 1,2008/4:00pm/Gender Issues
This article is about human trafficking and the right again it. Authorities in eastern India are getting together with prostitutes to take on trafficking of girls into the trade. This is a “rare display” of official approval for the efforts in prostitutes in West Bengal’s Sogagachhi area (one of Asia’s largest read-light districts). In the past year, prostitutes’ organization has rescued more than 550 women and girls from traffickers. “The state government has no choice but to join hands with the sex workers as they seem to be doing a better job in tackling trafficking” said by Aamarajit Jana (an official from India’s Aids control programme). They try to help younger girls get back to their home and adult are placed in housing and job training. “I was kidnapped and forced to entertain old men, but now all of that is past as I am trying to make a new beginning in life” Anjili said, who is a 16 year old girl that the prostitutes rescued from one of the brothels. She was put in one of the new government-sponsored rescue centers along with hundreds of poor girls to learn embroidery and sewing along with other crafts. The DMSC, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya (organization founded in 1995 that represents 65,000 sex workers in West Bengal) and the government have joined forces to make all of these rescues possible. The DMSC put most of their effort into saving minors that have entered the trade. This is a very serious issue because about 20,000 women and girls are kidnapped and forced into prostitution in India every year! The law in India is against trafficking and profiting by selling a person for sex.
I believe this is a very serious issue! We all hear too much that women and children are being forced into the sex trade in many different countries, this is just one example in one country. I am very happy to hear that there is a plan to help some of these women, the article said that 550 women in the past year have been relived but that is NOT enough compared to the 20,000 that enter ever year. That number is very scary and I can only hope that it will start becoming smaller.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4352415a12.html
1 comment:
It really goes to show that police have little insight until they get to the level of those they are trying to help. This is a good effort to help women and children who are often forced into those lifestyles. I was glad to see solid numbers to show their progress. One thing I had to question though was where are these women going to work after they get these trade skills? They'll probably end up in a sweat shop making less money. This would bring them right back to being human trafficking, just not on a sexual level. They will be placed in a 'legal' global labor traffic. So even though they are helping these girls at the moment, in the long run they may have just as many problems on an agruably larger scale such as the EPZs.
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