Sanlaap

Last updated

Sanlaap is an Indian feminist non-governmental organisation, established by Indrani Sinha in 1987 in Calcutta. [1] Based in Calcutta, the group aims to protect the human rights of women and girls. [2] Sanlaap is a developmental organisation that works towards correction of social imbalances which present themselves as gender injustice and violence against women and children. The primary work is focused against trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and forced prostitution. As part of its work, the group starts shops to train girls to make a living and foster their independence. [3]

Contents

History

In 1987 a group of researchers and teachers decided to work for the rights of women and female children. In 1989–90, a study of sexually abused females in Calcutta and its suburbs revealed that girls who were sexually abused when they came in search of work as domestic help and in other forms of employment, often ended up in red light areas. The plight of girls who had been trafficked, tricked and forced into child prostitution became the focus of Sanlaap's work.[ citation needed ]

Interacting with women in prostitution (WIP) revealed the need of these women to find a safe place for their children while they were busy during evening hours. The idea of a Drop in Centre (DIC) came out as a need expressed by the women in prostitution. Today, Sanlaap runs 14 DICs (drop in centres) in 11 red light districts of Kolkata and its outskirts under its Education Programme (SOPAN).[ citation needed ]

Mothers in the red light areas of Kolkata voiced concerns that their girls in the age group 12–13 years drop out of schools and get married, and are eventually deserted by husband, often left with a child. They then join the women in prostitution for survival. The women living there also explained how they were trafficked by their husbands, families and friends using the false leads of marriage and employment. They wanted their female children to be safe and out of prostitution and the sex industry.[ citation needed ]

The idea of a shelter home evolved through this experience, and the first shelter home was started in July 1993. There are three—SNEHA ("Affection")—Shelter Homes in Kolkata and the two districts which house more than 150 girls who are minors rescued from prostitution, children of women in prostitution and vulnerable girls rescued from sexual abuse. Mental Health Intervention Programme through Counselling (1995–96), Vocational skills leading to production (SRIJONI) and economic empowerment, dance as therapy (SANVED), formal and non-formal education are some major interventions and projects of the organisation.[ citation needed ]

Networking is seen as an integral part of Sanlaap Activities; it is believed that Human Rights of individuals or groups cannot be achieved and trafficking cannot be stopped unless and until all groups network with each other and protest the violence of trafficking and forced prostitution, where major victims are under 18 years of age. Sanlaap also networks with the different Government structures and the Panchayats stop trafficking of children and women.

Sanlaap believes that trafficking and forced prostitution is organised crime and prostitution cannot become work in the South Asian Region. Women and children discriminated by the family and society are bought and sold as commodities in this region and although there are legal bans on traditional and religious prostitution, the implementation has been very weak and female children are forced into brothel prostitution. Natural calamities, political disturbances and civil wars force hundreds of women and girls to take to the streets and many are trafficked for prostitution and dangerous bonded labor practices in the South Asian Countries. Female children and women are often uneducated and unemployed, hence undergoing discrimination at all levels. As a consequence they have vulnerabilities which force them to migrate and many are trafficked during this time. Corruption is rampant at every level and if prostitution is accepted as work, the madam-pimp-brothel owner-trafficker nexus will be strengthened and more girls will find their way into forced prostitution. The demand age for prostitution is the age of sixteen.

The core of Sanlaap's campaign against trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation is to provide psychosocial rehabilitation of child victims of prostitution, whether they or their mothers are engaged in it. Interventions in Calcutta's red light areas are aimed at building access to communities where prostitutes live and providing services to such women and their children to ensure their access to education, health and protection from abuse and exploitation.

Sanlaap runs two homes for children rescued from, or vulnerable to, prostitution, a hostel for young working women, and a receiving centre for girls rescued from prostitution. The organisation also works with the Panchayats in source areas for trafficking, developing systems and mechanisms to protect vulnerable women and children from being trafficked and to ensure safe passage for those migrating in search of work or because of marriage. Sneha is a home for girls rescued from prostitution, and the female children of women engaged in prostitution who may be vulnerable to second-generation prostitution. The home aims to allow the girls to assess their situation while also dealing with various health issues.

The youth programme's peer support groups among the children of women in prostitution continue to meet regularly. The Kidderpore group has formed a working relationship with the local police to identify trafficked girls and older women who force children into prostitution. Sanlaap intends to support this group further so that its members can take control of situations as they arise in their area.

The success of Sanlaap's legal counselling centre at the Watgunge police station in Calcutta has increased demand for similar services at other police stations. Sanlaap continues to agitate for reform within the juvenile justice board. It has joined a network that aims to set minimum standards for quality of care in institutions for children. Sanlaap's legal aid wing also continues to pursue the speedy disposal of legal cases involving girls living under state custody.

AIDS

More than 19% of the girls rescued from brothel prostitution living in Sneha Shelters are HIV positive, discarded by their families and the Government Homes. Some have given birth to children at the age of fourteen and fifteen.

SALAH ("advice"), the Legal Aid Wing was born in 1996 to provide assistance in cases of domestic violence, maintenance, child custody and women's rights for all women (except property and tenancy disputes). The focus in 1999 shifted to Campaign and Advocacy initially in the source areas. The Campaign and Advocacy (SAHAYOG) sets up Child Protection Units (CPUs), works towards safe migration and networks with Community Based Organisations in the source areas. From 1998, Sanlaap began working with the Panchayat and the District Administration, Police and he Border Security Force, sensitising them and motivating them into taking measures for protection of children and women vulnerable to trafficking and ensuring safe migration. Economic rehabilitation of survivors of trafficking has special importance today where Sanlaap works in collaboration with the Private and the Public sector.

SUNDAR

SUNDAR was initiated in 2000 as a support group for Women in Prostitution to address the problems of WIP in the red-light areas. The women are supported to attain their identity in the form of voters’ identity card and ration card and are also supported to live a life with dignity without being abused and exploited by local hoodlums, pimps, customers, police and their live-in boyfriends or husbands.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking</span> Trade of sexual slaves

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).

Prostitution in Bolivia is legal and regulated. It is only permitted by registered prostitutes in licensed brothels. Prostitutes must register and must undergo regular health checks for sexually transmitted diseases. The police are allowed to check whether the prostitutes are registered or not, and have attended a clinic during the previous 20 days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Bangladesh</span> Sex work and its regulation in Bangladesh

Prostitution is legal and regulated in Bangladesh. Prostitutes must register and state an affidavit stating that they are entering prostitution of their own free choice and that they are unable to find any other work. Bangladeshi prostitutes often suffer poor social conditions and are frequently socially degraded.

Human trafficking in India, although illegal under Indian law, remains a significant problem. People are frequently illegally trafficked through India for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced/bonded labour. Although no reliable study of forced and bonded labour has been completed, NGOs estimate this problem affects 20 to 65 million Indians. Men, women and children are trafficked in India for diverse reasons. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage, especially in those areas where the sex ratio is highly skewed in favour of men. Men and boys are trafficked for the purposes of labour, and may be sexually exploited by traffickers to serve as gigolos, massage experts, escorts, etc. A significant portion of children are subjected to forced labour as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agriculture workers, and have been used as armed combatants by some terrorist and insurgent groups.

Indonesia is a source, transit, and destination country for women, children, and men trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. The greatest threat of trafficking facing Indonesian men and women is that posed by conditions of forced labor and debt bondage in more developed Asian countries and the Middle East.

Sex trafficking in Thailand is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Thailand. Thailand is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sex trafficking. The sexual exploitation of children in Thailand is a problem. In Thailand, close to 40,000 children under the age of 16 are believed to be in the sex trade, working in clubs, bars, and brothels.

Tunisia is a source, destination, and possible transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. In 2009, one Tunisian female was rescued from forced prostitution in Lebanon. In 2008, two women were rescued from forced prostitution in Jordan and three men from forced labor in Italy. Based on limited available data, some Tunisian girls may be trafficked within the country for involuntary domestic servitude. In 2009 a Tunisian academic published a study on Tunisian domestic workers. The study, conducted in 2008, surveyed 130 domestic workers in the Greater Tunis region and found that 52 percent were under the age of 16; twenty-three percent claimed to be victims of physical violence, and 11 percent of sexual violence. Ninety-nine percent indicated they had no work contracts and the majority received salaries below the minimum wage. These conditions are indicators of possible forced labor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea</span>

Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Women and children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude; trafficked men are forced to provide labor in logging and mining camps. Children, especially young girls from tribal areas, are most vulnerable to being pushed into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor by members of their immediate family or tribe. Families traditionally sell girls into forced marriages to settle their debts, leaving them vulnerable to involuntary domestic servitude, and tribal leaders trade the exploitative labor and service of girls and women for guns and political advantage. Young girls sold into marriage are often forced into domestic servitude for the husband’s extended family. In more urban areas, some children from poorer families are prostituted by their parents or sold to brothels. Migrant women and teenage girls from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to forced prostitution, and men from China are transported to the country for forced labor.

Peru is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Several thousand persons are estimated to be subjected to conditions of forced labor within Peru, mainly in mining, logging, agriculture, brick making, and domestic servitude. Many trafficking victims are women and girls from impoverished rural regions of the Amazon, recruited and coerced into prostitution in urban nightclubs, bars, and brothels, often through false employment offers or promises of education. Indigenous persons are particularly vulnerable to debt bondage. Forced child labor remains a problem, particularly in informal gold mines, cocaine production, and transportation. There were reports the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, recruited children as soldiers and drug mules. To a lesser extent, Peruvians are subjected to forced prostitution in Ecuador, Spain, Italy, Japan, and the United States, and forced labor in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. Peru also is a destination country for some Ecuadorian and Bolivian females in forced prostitution, and some Bolivian citizens in conditions of forced labor. Child sex tourism is present in Iquitos, Madre de Dios, and Cuzco. Traffickers reportedly operate with impunity in certain regions where there is little or no government presence.

Human trafficking in Nepal is a growing criminal industry affecting multiple other countries beyond Nepal, primarily across Asia and the Middle East. Nepal is mainly a source country for men, women and children subjected to the forced labor and sex trafficking. U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017.

Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons including forced labour and forced prostitution. The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watchlist" in 2017. Trafficked people, particularly women and children, are recruited from within and outside the country's borders – for involuntary domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, street hawking, domestic servitude, mining, begging etc. Some are taken from Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, primarily Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, Chad, Benin, Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Gambia, for the same purposes. Children from other West African states like Benin, Togo, and Ghana – where Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rules allow for easy entry – are also forced to work in Nigeria, and some are subjected to hazardous jobs in Nigeria's granite mines. Europe, especially Italy and Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, are prime destinations for forced prostitution.Nigerians accounted for 21% of the 181,000 migrants that arrived in Italy through the Mediterranean in 2016 and about 21,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Italy since 2015.

Iraq is both a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Iraqi women and girls, some as young as 11 years old, are subjected to conditions of human trafficking within the country and in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iran, and possibly Yemen for forced prostitution and sexual exploitation within households.

Victims of human trafficking in Ecuador are generally women and children trafficked within the country from border and central highland areas to urban centers for commercial sexual exploitation, as well as for involuntary domestic servitude, forced begging, and forced labor in mines and other hazardous work. Ecuador prohibits human trafficking in its penal code, and penalties are commensurate with other serious crimes. Despite robust law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking, conviction rates remain low. The Ecuadorian government has ensured trafficking victims' access to legal, medical, psychological, and shelter services, in large part through its partnership with a network of NGOs. The government has also undertaken advertising campaigns against human trafficking, particularly child labor and child sex tourism. U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in the United States</span>

Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.

Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. China, the world's second-most populous country, has the second highest number of human trafficking victims in the world. It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

Sex trafficking in Myanmar is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Myanmar is primarily a source and transit country for sexually trafficked persons.

Sex trafficking in Laos is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Laos is primarily an origin country for sexually trafficked persons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in Cambodia</span>

Sex trafficking in Cambodia is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Cambodia is a country of origin, destination and transit for sex trafficked persons.

Sex trafficking in Japan is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the country. Japan is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

References

  1. ↑ ""One Woman Against the Tide: Indrani Sinha"". Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
  2. ↑ V. Kumara Swamy (24 June 2009). "Sex, lies and loopholes". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012.
  3. ↑ "Gender power brews in special cafe corner". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. 19 March 2004. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.