Preventing trafficking of women

Preventing trafficking of womenBy Rita BhowmickFri, 28 Jul 2006, 09:11:00



Women and child trafficking is not only for prostitution but also for pornography which wasn't included in the SAARC Convention, according to the theme presenter Prof. Ishrat Shamim, President, Centre for Women and Children Studies, Bangladesh and she also highlighted that according to ILO Convention no.182 and Second Optional Protocol CRC Article No.3- child pornography is an offence, but it was not also included.Centre for Social Research of New Delhi and Community Action Centre of Nepal jointly arranged a Regional Consultation on "Effective Implementation of the SAARC Convention on Trafficking" on 5 July 2006 in Kathmandu. Nepal with the financial support of South Asia Regional lnitiativel Equity Support Programme, AED.Prof. Ishrat Shamim further said that in the Ninth SAARC Summit, held in Male, the capital of Maldives in 2002, the member countries expressed a combined commitment against the trafficking in women and children and the Member States signed a Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution.

In 2005, the Member countries ratified and agreed to fulfil the assigned commitment.In her paper titled "Trafficking of Women and Children in Bangladesh : Prevention and Protection", the Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Government of Bangladesh Dr. Yeameen Akbory said her Ministry is doing a lot of work to combat trafficking of women and children. She said that a task force has been created to tackle the problemme of trafficking under the project 'Coordinated Programme to Combat Child Trafficking' to combat child trafficking, followed by the Counter Trafficking Framework Report: Bangladesh Perspective, a training module has been developed and training has been arranged for the law enforcement officers such as Police, BDR, Ansar, etc. She also said that to reduce trafficking of young girls, a training module named 'Life Skill Management' has been developed and girls are being trained. Underprivileged and poor women are also included in the training programme to increase their level of consciousness.

Through the Information Ministry, TV spots, drama and folk songs these are transmitted regularly. Besides these, the elected members of the local govt. are helping community leaders and Imams to increase consciousness against trafficking and implementing similar projects. Posters and leaflets are also been circulated to make people conscious.President of the Centre for Social Research of India, Dr. Ranjana Kumari said that in all countries, gender imbalance is the main cause of women depression, such as torture, rape, family quarrel, sex victims, etc. Trafficking is also a matter like this. A victim of trafficking is more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. These women are being forced to become prostitutes. Media is also helping to make women a sex object and as a result young boys and girls are easily attracted to indulge in sexual relationships. Now-a-days tourism is also helping the sex business.South Asia Network Against Trafficking (SANAT) is working in the member countries to combat trafficking, but time has come to work in the very interior regions of these countries.

Discussions and dialogues should be done on a regular basis within Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. On the other hand, media should step forward with all its resources to increase massconsciousness. Law making and its implementation is also a very important work to combat trafficking.Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child of India Nandita Misra said, trafficking violates the basic human rights. So, we must take trafficking as a serious matter. The main objective of this meeting is to combat trafficking, reducing it, compensating it, giving the victims their life back and identifying regional task force. Every year 5 to 7 thousand girls are being trafficked to India because India is the transit, as well as a destination country, she said.Police Super of Delhi, India Mr. Sankar Sen said, girls of 12 to 20 years are being trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal by alluring them a dream of better life. But ultimately they are being sold to the brothels. Because of the beauty, the Nepali girls have more demand than others. He said that the traffickers have good connections, but the police have no coordination. As a result, to combat trafficking we have to work jointly. He suggests to build coordination among law enforcers working in the border areas, as well as to involve people to combat trafficking by making them conscious. It can be done by a joint venture between government and the civil society, instead of blaming each other for the failures. Mr. Sen also said that the law enforcers, the prosecutors and the court are not giving importance to this matter which must be changed. To eradicate this, a social revolution is needed.The President of Community Action Centre (CAC) of Nepal

Mr. Tulasa Lata Amatya said, now-a-days trafficking in South Asian countries is increasing. Research shows the grave reality in Nepal which is very tragic. In all the SAARC Summits, the traffciking agenda has been discussed, but no joint step has been taken yet. Though a national action plan and a road map have been developed in all SAARC countries, but the implementation has never been undertaken. It is necessary to act jointly by the law makers, planners and ministries.A SAARC Convention on Trafficking of Women and Children in the South Asian region recently has been held in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. Different problems of trafficking, possibilities and what to do in the SAARC countries (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives) were the main topics of this regional consultation. The representatives of SAARC countries promised to work together to solve the problem on the basis of the existing issues in their own countries.
by The New Nation

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