A discourse on child trafficking

C­atholic nuns from five countries flew into the city to take part in a four-day annual body meeting from November 6-9. The nuns are members of Asian Movement for Religious Women Against Trafficking (AMRAT) from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A capacity building programme had Sunita Krishnan, co-founder of Prajwala, speaking. “At least one person is trafficked every ten minutes in India and 45 per cent of them are children,” said Sunita Krishnan.

“Every year 45,000 children go missing and only 11,000 are rescued from the beggary racket. In the racket they are mutilated. A child’s whole profile is changed for beggary. About 2.3 million people are trafficked in India. It is an $ 850 billion industry,” explained the 42-year-old woman, who began social work as an 8-year-old, teaching dance to mentally challenged children.

To drive home the gravity of the problem, Krishnan pointed out that in Hyderabad alone, the beggary racket earns Rs 2.5 million daily using children between 2 and 10 years.

Krishnan, who has been working among slum dwellers, said that the trafficked are used for adoption, organ trade, labour, circus, beggary, domestic work, camel jockeying and prostitution. Krishnan gave a call to equip oneself to fight these crimes with right skills and strategies. “Break our silence, break our structures, break our culture of tolerance,” she asserted.

Bethany Sister Jyoti Pinto, one of the founders of the movement, said, “The annual general body meeting this year focussed on capacity building programme and on prevention, advocacy and networking. Deliberations during the meeting highlighted the processes in the rescue and rehabilitating of victims.”

AMRAT is a member of Talitha Kum (Little Girl, get up), an international network of consecrated life against human trafficking and is an initiative of UISG (International Union of Superiors General). Started in 2009, it has 50 religious women congregations from south Asia as members. Some 90 delegates from these countries attended the Hyderabad meeting.

Sr Pinto said that the member of the organisations collect data on trafficking and disseminate the information, and approach the right government officials to rescue the victims. “After rescuing, we build the capacities of the victims to bring them up with dignity and confidence to become empowered citizens of the nation,” she added.

During the four-day meet, the participants also heard from David Raj, Andhra Pradesh state programme co-ordinator of UNICEF, and Sr Jessy Kurian, a lawyer of the Indian Supreme Court.

David explained several acts and programmes against trafficking and highlighted on integrated child protection scheme for protecting children from violence, abuse, exploitation, forced separation from family and neglect. Sr Kurian explained the legal provisions to combat trafficking and spoke of the implications on legalising prostitution. “If prostitution is legalised, trafficking would increase and it would be difficult to fight for the victims, as the traffickers may take legal protection,” she concluded.