Anti-trafficking Continuation Project, mid-year report 2009
Project Report Anti-trafficking Continuation Project,
By Ananya Chakraborti, India Chapter I started working on three components of the continuation project as soon as we received the funds in May 2009. I started work on:
We started working on the Anti-trafficking Continuation Project in collaboration with Hijliya Janakalyan Samity. The specific action plan for this project is to achieve the creation of a platform for rural women to address the issue of trafficking and violence against women in the community, the "poorest of the poor" BPL (below poverty level) migrant population and informal sector labourers. The first meeting was held on 14 June 2009 to discuss the issue of trafficking and related matters that is the working area of our project, the present condition of those places, specific objectives of our program, the strategies we are going to apply and expected outcomes etc. We had subsequent meetings on 15th, 16th, 18th, 22nd, 23rd, 25th and 26th. The date for the first workshop was fixed at 30th June 2009 at Rajendrapur Gram Panchayat (village council office), Basirhat, close to the Bangladesh border. At the workshop the root causes of trafficking were identified as gender inequality and poverty. It was discussed how the lower status or position of women in the society makes it difficult for a rescued person to be re-integrated into the mainstream. There was a great deal of emphasis on the rehabilitation and repatriation aspect. It was discussed that to eradicate the gender inequality we have to sensitize the young generation. It is essential to have a strong campaign at the community level to empower women and to sensitize the members of SHG group, ICDS including the panchayat members, BSF, local police etc. about trafficking and their role in prevention, rescue and rehabilitation. We decided that the key components would be to strengthen the bond between the AT (Anti-trafficking) committee and the panchayat block as well as the community. We would have to arrange awareness camps with the panchayat Pradhan (village council chief), and also activate the AT committee which exists in the booth level. At the workshop we screened excerpts from my film. The proceedings were documented on camera. There were 65 people present at the first workshop. The second workshop was held on 21 July. Six more workshops are scheduled in different parts of North 24 Parganas, in villages close to the Bangladesh border, in the next few months. Along with this we are also working on documenting the traffic routes in North 24 Parganas. We will start with the tea gardens in a few months from now, as there is a great deal of political unrest in the hills right now. Incidentally, this is also one of the reasons why the economies of the tea gardens are affected, which in turn is assisting the traffickers in their designs. The sensitization workshop for students is likely to happen in the third week of August. We are inviting students from approximately six colleges for this workshop. We aim to hold it for two days. Apart from this I would like to make further prints of the media guidelines, and also make Bengali translations for the media in India and Bangladesh. I would request the IAWRT board to consider transferring some of the funds originally allotted for this work to worldview (which they have declined) to me for this purpose. |
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