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 The
scale and extent of traffic in women and children
remains little-explored in the South Asian and
Indian contexts. It is however undoubtedly a
grave and widespread problem which condemns
many to lives of servitude if not slavery.
Women
and girl children in particular are vulnerable
to trafficking within and into India due to the
adverse sex ratio which is creating a deficit of
women in certain regions. Regions such as Punjab
and Haryana are the destinations for many women
and girls, trafficked from poorer states such as
Assam, Jharkand and West Bengal1.
The
practice of trafficking seals the fate of many
of India's poorest women; whether they are
enticed by the prospect of employment or sold by
their own families, they are sentenced to a life
of bonded labour, forced marriage or forced prostitution.
This predicament deprives them further of
education, of their right to bodily integrity,
of their rights in general.
CSR is
a member of the Central
Advisory Committee to Prevent Trafficking in
Women and Children set up by the
Government of India
to monitor the progress made by various efforts
of the States.
CSR
is a founder member of
the Committee
Against Trafficking (CAT), a South Asian
regional advisory committee set up by civil
society groups to lobby the SAARC secretariat
and the relevant national governments.
SANAT
 The
extent to which transnational trafficking
takes place in South Asia, especially across
porous borders such as that between India and
Nepal are of particular concern to CSR.
CSR
is the convener of the South
Asia Network Against Trafficking (SANAT).
The main aim of SANAT is to promote the
development of regional communications networks,
which will facilitate the monitoring, and
control of activities relating to trafficking in
persons.
We
are engaging ourselves to encourage
co-coordinated social movements against the
trafficking of women and to lobby with SAARC
governments to develop appropriate legislation
for implementation of SAARC Convention of
trafficking, which pays particular attention to
the rehabilitation of
trafficked victims.
Missing
Children
CSR
is playing a lead role in setting up a network
to protect missing
children (which includes the child
victims of trafficking). CSR along with Women
Power Connect has also made major
recommendations before a Parliamentary Committee
on proposed law on ITPA.
CSR
also brought out a Police Training of Trainers
Manual, ‘Restructuring Change’ focusing on the issue of trafficking of women
and children in 2005 and is currently preparing a manual
for the UNODC to be used for training police in
the handling trafficked victims.
1
'Female
Foeticide, Coerced Marriage & Bonded Labour
in Haryana an
Punjab
; A Situational Report'. Shakti Vahini 2003
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