Move to stop trafficking http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080807/jsp/jharkhand/story_9656454.jsp Aug. 6: The state government and the corporate sector has to work together to save young girls from becoming sex workers. Around 70-80 per cent of adolescent girls — all victims of trafficking — are found in red light areas across the globe as bonded labourers and sex workers. Besides, two years ago, 470 adolescent girls were rescued from a Delhi brothel. In Haryana, due to a skewed male-female ratio, girls were brought from Jharkhand and Bengal for getting married in a family of five brothers. These girls are sold by an agent between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 and become a slave for the family. These points came to the fore during a discussion on public-private partnership to check trafficking. NGO Action Against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Women (ATSEC) organised the meet at a city hotel today. Representatives of 12 NGOs were present on the occasion. Nandita Baruah, South Asia co-ordinator of United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), spoke on the global initiative taken to fight human trafficking and how corporate sectors could join hands to solve the problem. “Corporate partners, the government and the development sector can opt for a public and private partnership so that girls can learn the soft skills and earn their livelihood here. They will be saved from unscrupulous agents, who contribute most to trafficking,” Baruah added. According to a planning commission report, there is an 80 per cent shortage of soft skill workers in the country, said Baruah. Besides, industrial growth has also created employment opportunities. “If a girl is socially and economically independent, no one can exploit her,” Nandita said. The chief reason for trafficking is the lack of livelihood, social and economic disparity and also gender bias in the community, she addressed. While Manju Hembrom, the member of the National Commission for Women (NCW), New Delhi, said holding such workshops would solve the problem of human trafficking. “We should go to the interiors and discuss the trafficking issue as most girls who migrate are from rural areas,” Hembrom said. Besides, the villagers should also be apprised of middlemen. “When a girl leaves her house, parents should know where she is being taken. I got information about a girl Rosilla Kujur from Haryana, who was found dead in the house. The police denied to carry out a post-mortem and her dead body was lying neglected for long. We are still investigating the case,” Hembrom added. She said according to a CNT Act, the village head (pahan) is powerful but he does not have the power to conduct such workshops. “We have asked the district magistrate to assign work to pahan for conducting the workshop,” she added. R.C. Kaithal, the additional director general of police (ADGP) and chairman of ATSEC, said human trafficking is still prevalent in the state. “No concrete steps have been taken to prevent this menace due to lack of co-ordination between the government and the administration,” Kaithal said. “One needs to be responsible to stop human trafficking. But even the government has failed to formulate a policy to bring a stop to this. We have formed a women’s police station and a women desk to lodge complaints but still not much has been achieved. But we shall pursue the matter,” Kaithal added.
