Aarambh India

Last updated
Aarambh India
Formation2012
FoundersUma Subramanian
Type Non Profit Organization
Focus Child sexual abuse, Child-Friendly systems, Victim care & support
Website www.aarambhindia.org

Aarambh India is a non-profit initiative working in Mumbai, India. It focuses on child protection and issues related to child sexual abuse and exploitation. The organization was established in 2012. It partners with other organizations and stakeholders and works across levels from implementing the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2011 on the ground for organizing trainings and workshops, providing care and support to the victims and engage in research on child sexual abuse, public education and advocacy. [1]

Contents

In 2014, Aarambh India launched its website which became India’s first online resource center on child sexual abuse. [2] In 2016, it partnered with Internet Watch Foundation to launch India’s first internet hotline to report images and videos of child sexual abuse online. [3] [4] [5] On 14 November 2017, Aarambh India received the National Award for Child Welfare (Institution category) by the President of India Ram Nath Kovind, “in recognition of the valuable services to the community rendered in the field of child welfare”. [6]

Principal Activities

The current activities of Aarambh India include:

India's first hotline to report Child Pornography

Aarambh India partnered with Internet Watch Foundation and in September 2016 launched India’s first reporting button for child sexual abuse images and videos on the internet. [8] [9] The national hotline for reporting child sexual abuse imagery works closely with the government, police and internet industry in India and enables citizens to report offensive content anonymously. If the content reported is found to be illegal, it is blocked, taken down irrespective of where it is hosted and the information is shared with the police for prosecution. The removed content is assigned a unique identification number ensuring that it is not uploaded in the future. [10]

Other programs

Mumbai Children’s Safety Initiative – MCSN was started in 2013 in collaboration with Forum Against Child Sexual Abuse (FACSE) in order to help NGOs understand and provide direction on prevention and case management in slum communities. The network is led by Aarambh India and run by youth living in slum communities trained in child protection, prevention of abuse and reporting in Mumbai. [11]

Child-Friendly Systems – Partnering with UNICEF India, Aarambh started a pilot initiative to create child-friendly systems in Mumbai in 2015. The initiative aims at ensuring that child-friendly procedures prescribed under the POCSO law are put into practice. Under the initiative, the organization works with Child Welfare Committees, government hospitals, police, District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) and local NGOs.

Over the years, Aarambh India has partnered with organizations including UNICEF, IWF, Enfold, Stairway Foundation and others to ensure maximum impact on the issue.

Related Research Articles

Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an Australian government statutory authority within the Communications portfolio. ACMA was formed on 1 July 2005 with the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Australian Communications Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child prostitution</span> Prostitution involving a child

Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial sexual exploitation of children</span> Commercial transaction that involves the sexual exploitation of a child

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) defines the “umbrella” of crimes and activities that involve inflicting sexual abuse on to a child as a financial or personal opportunity. Commercial Sexual Exploitation consists of forcing a child into prostitution, sex trafficking, early marriage, child sex tourism and any other venture of exploiting children into sexual activities. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the lack of reporting the crime and “the difficulties associated with identifying and measuring victims and perpetrators” has made it almost impossible to create a national estimate of the prevalence of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States. There is an estimated one million children that are exploited for commercial sex globally; of the one million children that are exploited, the majority are girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trafficking of children</span> Form of human trafficking

Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, and/or receipt" kidnapping of a child for the purpose of slavery, forced labour, and exploitation. This definition is substantially wider than the same document's definition of "trafficking in persons". Children may also be trafficked for adoption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the Philippines</span>

Human trafficking and the prostitution of children has been a significant issue in the Philippines, often controlled by organized crime syndicates. Human trafficking is a crime against humanity.

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, with a regional presence in the United Kingdom, Europe, Turkey, Africa, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Caribbean, Southeast Asia, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australasia, is a private 501(c)(3) non-governmental, nonprofit global organization. It combats child sexual exploitation, child pornography, child trafficking and child abduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection</span> US nonprofit organization

The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is an American nonprofit organization that fights Internet child pornography and works to help parents prevent children from viewing age-inappropriate material online.

The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, officially designated as Republic Act No. 9208, is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 2444 and House Bill No. 4432. It was enacted and passed by Congress of the Philippines' Senate of the Philippines and House of Representatives of the Philippines assembled on May 12, 2003, and signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on May 26, 2003. It institutes policies to eliminate and punish human trafficking, especially women and children, establishing the necessary institutional mechanisms for the protection and support of trafficked persons. It aims "to promote human dignity, protect the people from any threat of violence and exploitation, and mitigate pressures for involuntary migration and servitude of persons, not only to support trafficked persons but more importantly, to ensure their recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration into the mainstream of society."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Watch Foundation</span> Registered charity in Cambridge, England

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is a global registered charity based in Cambridge, England. It states that its remit is "to minimise the availability of online sexual abuse content, specifically child sexual abuse images and videos hosted anywhere in the world and non-photographic child sexual abuse images hosted in the UK." Content inciting racial hatred was removed from the IWF's remit after a police website was set up for the purpose in April 2011. The IWF used to also take reports of criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK. This was removed from the IWF's remit in 2017. As part of its function, the IWF says that it will "supply partners with an accurate and current URL list to enable blocking of child sexual abuse content". It has "an excellent and responsive national Hotline reporting service" for receiving reports from the public. In addition to receiving referrals from the public, its agents also proactively search the open web and deep web to identify child sexual abuse images and videos. It can then ask service providers to take down the websites containing the images or to block them if they fall outside UK jurisdiction.

Child pornography is erotic material that depicts persons under the age of 18. The precise characteristics of what constitutes child pornography varies by criminal jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ECPAT International</span> Non-governmental organization

ECPAT is a global network of civil society organisations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children. It focuses on ending the online sexual exploitation of children, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes, the sexual exploitation of children in prostitution, child, early and forced marriages, and the sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry.

CHILDLINE 1098 is a service of Ministry of Women and Child Development. Childline India Foundation is a non-government organisation (NGO) in India that operates a telephone helpline called Childline, for children in distress. It was India's first 24-hour, toll free, phone outreach service for children. Childline 1098 service is available all over India. It is available in 602+ districts, 144+ railway stations and 11 bus terminals have Child Help Desks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street children in India</span>

A street child is a child "for whom the street has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood; and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults".

Child sexual abuse laws in India have been enacted as part of the child protection policies of India. The Parliament of India passed the 'Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill (POCSO), 2011' regarding child sexual abuse on 22 May 2012, making it an Act. A guideline was passed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, India. The rules formulated by the government in accordance with the law had also been notified on the November 2012 and the law had become ready for implementation. There have been many calls for more stringent laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prerana</span> Indian non-governmental organization

Prerana is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works in the red-light districts of Mumbai, India to protect children vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. It was established in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pravin Patkar</span> Indian academic, social scientist, writer and human rights activist

Pravin Patkar is an Indian academic and human rights activist. He co-founded Prerana, an NGO working for child protection & anti-human trafficking. In 1999, he founded Asia's first Anti-Human Trafficking Resource Centre supported by the US Government. He has served as an expert on several national and international agencies working in the anti-human trafficking sector. He has been in the teaching profession for over 40 years in both formal and non-formal education sectors. He has written books, published articles and created PSAs to prevent organized violence against women & children.

Canadian Centre for Child Protection is a Canadian registered charitable organization dedicated to the personal safety of all children. More specifically, its goal is to reduce the victimization of children by providing programs and services to the Canadian public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNICRI Centre for AI and Robotics</span> Organization of the United Nations

The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) was established to advance understanding of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and related technologies with a special focus on crime, terrorism and other threats to security, with the goal of supporting and assisting UN Member States in understanding the risks and benefits of these technologies and exploring their use for contributing to a future free of violence and crime.

Cybersex trafficking, live streaming sexual abuse, webcam sex tourism/abuse or ICTs -facilitated sexual exploitation is a cybercrime involving sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and/or rape on webcam.

References

  1. ↑ "Child Online Protection in India" (PDF). Unicef India.
  2. ↑ "An online portal for Child Sexual Abuse info". Afternoon.
  3. ↑ "Maneka Gandhi launches India's first internet hotline for reporting online child sexual abuse images". India Today. 19 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "In A First, India Launches Hotline to Report Online Child Pornography". She The People.
  5. ↑ "In A First, India Launches Hotline to Report Online Child Pornography". NDTV.
  6. ↑ "President of India gives away National Child Awards 2017 on occasion of Children's Day today". Press Information Bureau Government of India.
  7. ↑ "Breaking a culture of silence". The Hindu. 3 November 2016.
  8. ↑ "IWF Aarambh India Reporting Portal". Internet Watch Foundation.
  9. ↑ "India's 1st hotline to report child pornography goes live next week". The Times of India. 13 September 2016.
  10. ↑ "India launches first internet hotline to tackle surge in child porn". Reuters.
  11. ↑ "Prerana-Aarambh".
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