16 mn women in India forced into sex trade

It is well-known that Andhra Pradesh tops the list in human trafficking and sex workers, there are a whopping 6,88,751 “registered” sex workers in the country and AP leads the list with more than one lakh registered female sex workers as per the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare. Dasra’s ‘Zero Traffick’ Report highlights high-impact and scalable solutions to tackle the crisis

• 3 million women (2.48%) are engaged in Commercial Sex Activity (CSA) in India, a 50% rise from 1997

• Over 60% of those trafficked into sex trade are adolescent girls in the age group of 12—16 years

• More than 35% girls in India enter CSA before 18 years of age

• India has 3 lakh brothels in 1,100 identified red-light areas, housing nearly 5 million children in addition to commercial sex workers

• More than 25% of women in CSA in India are situated in Maharashtra (14.20%) and West Bengal (13%)

Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, The Hummingbird Trust and Kamonohashi Project launched “Zero Traffick”, a report on sex trafficking in India. Despite increasing public outcry against violence about women in India, systematic large scale abuse in the name of commercial sex work remains socially acceptable. The report aims to draw attention to the growing victimisation of women, highlights high impact nonprofits working on the issue and the outlines the role of philanthropy in scaling their efforts.

Speaking at the international launch of the report at Trust Law Conference in London last week, Clare Mathias, Chair of the Board, The Hummingbird Trust, said “Amongst other reasons, economic disparities and discriminatory cultural practices make young women and children particularly vulnerable to being trafficked. It is important we tackle these issues at source areas”.

Over the last six months, Dasra’s team worked closely with the report sponsors to follow a comprehensive diligence process. They engaged with sector experts, reviewed over 80 non profit organisations in key source and destination areas of West Bengal and Maharashtra and identified top 13 nonprofit organisations with the most potential to create sustainable impact.

Talking about the need for non profits, policymakers and philanthropists to work together, Keisuke Motoki, co-founder of Kamonohashi Project, said, "We took the integrated approach in Cambodia to eliminate minor sex trafficking; establishing a community factory in a vulnerable area, as a social enterprise, to create employment for the vulnerable families to human trafficking, and strengthening the law enforcement through capacity building of police in partnership with the Cambodian National Government. We are eyeing good partnership with local NGOs and philanthropists to bring the substantial change in sex trafficking.”

Neera Nundy, partner and co-founder Dasra said, “40% of the victims are adolescents and children, some as young as nine years old. The long term social and health impact of this crisis is frightening”. Pointing to Dasra’s findings, Nundy added, “Trafficking can and must be reduced through the effective implementation of the 4P framework: prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership in source and destination regions”. Over the next few months, Dasra, The Hummingbird Trust and Kamonohashi Project will work together to create awareness about the issue and build an ecosystem of funders, policymakers and nonprofits to create impact at scale on the problem.