Social workers’ role key in curbing trafficking

Andhra Pradesh is still a hub of sex trafficking. Every day the police arrest a number of traffickers and rescue the victims including minors. It is an established fact that the human trafficking racket has links to Gulf countries and Mumbai and other places within the country. On receiving phone calls and during raids, the police book a good number of cases of trafficking of women; and apart from traffickers, customers are also arrested. During the operations, it is said that few minors, who are forced into sex racket, are also rescued.

Certain initiatives taken by the government and police department play a crucial role in curbing the menace of human trafficking. The CID’s anti-trafficking units are trying to curb the menace. It has been observed that the local sex racketeers have turned hi-tech and are contacting clients through mobile applications, Whatsapp and social networking sites like Facebook. Several incidences that were reported reveal that in these sex rackets busted at various places of the State, the women were flown in from New Delhi, Pune and Mumbai.

The organiser used to send the pictures of the women through the Internet. For the last few years, we have been witnessing several high-profile sex rackets. To cite examples, the police arrest industrialists, business magnates or other professionals and rescue the victims. It can be further observed that apart from local gangs, there are cross-border gangs trafficking women to the city from Bangladesh via Kolkata. From Kolkata they are taken to Biwandi in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad by train. Several Bangladeshi girls were rescued in the past.

Trafficking of young women from the State to Gulf countries including Dubai, Kuwait and Oman and forcing them into the sex trade has to be stopped. Usually these women who are trapped in the racket are promised jobs as maid servants and baby-sitters in Gulf countries. Ultimately they become victims of human trafficking. A Number of women and minor girls become victims of the game.

Social work and intervention
The need of the hour to tackle the issue of human trafficking is to adopt a mechanism wherein coordinated efforts are to be made by the government and non-governmental agencies. Team work can yield better results and as one of the members of the team, a social worker can play a crucial role in mitigating the problem. Social workers in collaboration with the district administration and local NGOs could set up a data base of trafficking routes, traffickers, and trafficked minors and women in order to help make effective interventions.

Social workers can focus on community mobilisation and prevention. They can facilitate establishment of village-based anti-trafficking committees comprising local youth, self- help group members and elected representatives. These committees monitor, follow up and counsel girls and women who are approached by relatives or friends in the guise of offering employment.

The committees should also initiate action against traffickers by registering police cases against them. With the support of the local administration, they have to link vulnerable women and girls to development schemes. Social workers can work with minors and women and train in livelihood skills and help them find alternative options.

A variety of conditions compel women and children to take up sex work. These range from acute poverty, family's inability to pay dowry, desertion or widowhood, or promise of jobs by tricksters, to an overall lack of skills as a result of little or no education. Hence, the social workers could adopt an individualised approach in dealing with victims of human trafficking, be it a woman or a minor girl. (The writer is an Assistant Professor-Sociology & Social Work at Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur)

By Dr Saraswati Raju Iyer