Conference
Report
Asha-Odanadi Sanctuary Conference
Mysore,
December 14th-16th 2003
Credits: Odanadi Seva Samsthe
Introduction
...inagurated
the conference, speaking about the necessity of humane social justice, which
could offer choice and protection to trafficking victims and potential or
actual second generation sex workers. We are in a time of immense social changes,
and laws and facts which were previusly thought concete are crumbling.In response,
through fear of change, religions try to enforce old laws and 'morals' through
violenceor the threat of it. Children involved in trafficing and prostitution
are still considered by society, as lower than dalits, they face immense prejudice
and economic and psychological difficulties. We should ask the government
for reservations for them, in education and jobs.
The 'Asha
for Education' spokeswoman, Hansa Shah, explained that Asha is an organisation
for social change, though the medium of education, for economically underpriveliged
children. The goal of this conference is to document solutions to the problems
faced by child trafficking victims and children of sex workers, as well as
to forge new relations between different groups and crate a network, for long
term planning and collaboration. 95% ofchildren of sex workers end up being
sexually exploited themselves.
Stanley,
one of the directors of Odanadi, requested that we work together to focus
on conflict resolution and problem solving and increasing government awareness
and involvement. He then briefly introduced Odanadi, explaining that,from
amongst the southern states, Karnataka was the biggest supplier of trafficked
girls and women. He feels that rescue should be our first priority,as without
it, means of help cannot be implemented. Through his six years of experience
with such children,,he has began to understand their needs, and given the
chance, these children are capable of achieving anything.
Presentations
Vimochana
(Belagum,Karnataka)
Vimochana's
mission is to eradicate prostitution, the devadasi system, trafficking and
sexual abuse and to rehabilitate victims, through provision of training and
education nutrition and healthcare, allowing them to reintegrate into mainstream
society.
In their
area, superstition is rife, infant mortality is high and public health is
lacking. Vimochana's intervention project began in 1999, with 45 children
and 2 teachers. Today it is well equipped, situated on twenty acres of land,
providing free education and holiday camps, HIV camps and awareness programmes,
reproductive health programmes, employment training programmes, including
a school of nursing health and self help groups. Local income generating projects
have been started, such as food processing, dairy, poultry farming and handicrafts.They
also conducted a study of sex workers children in Bangalore.
Their projects
have been implemented thtough 'Peoples Participatory Appraisal', in order
to find out the problems, needs and solutions of and for the community. As
a result, the people themselves have ownership of the development project,
and it has fostered a feeling of community responsibility, that the community
must support itself.
Vimochana's achievments are many. The Devadasi
system has been erdicated in the taluk. 1200 young women have been married
'normally',100% immunisation has been achieved and literacy has risen to 65%
for men and 45% for women.So far over 300 people have been trained and 200
are now self employed
MICDA
(Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh)
MICDA works
with Mathamma children, girls from particular SC groups who are dedicated
to goddess Mathamma, becoming the common sexual property of the community.Such
girls are dedicted for life, and lose the right to marriage, children they
bear are very vulnerable and treated with contempt by the community. When
due to age, sex work is no longer economically viable, such women support
themselves through low paid agricultural labour. Mathamma women are destitute
and lacking any social support, and are highly vulnerable to STDs and their
poor nutritional status renders them very vulnerable to other health problems.
Mathamma women cannot be compared to Devadasis, as their status is much lower.
District
government efforts to rehabilitate Mathamma women have failed, and may have
even exaserbated the problem. A comprehensive community strategy is needed
to eradicate the practice, as well as sensitisation of the entire community. There is a need for the booking of responsible elders,
and a system of community policing. MICDA wants a sustainable approach, mobilising
the grassroots.
HELP
(Chilkaluripet and Ongole, Andhra Pradesh)
HELP focuses
on the prevention of second generation prostitution.It is involved in activities
like birth registration, immunisation, promoting safe birth practices and
health and nutritional support. Andhra is a major supplier of trafficked girls,
to metros all over India. HELP has started drop in centres in red light areas,
which encourage attending children to join mainstream schools, as well as
running residential schools. It is forming child rights groups within schools,
and at a wider community level.
HELP realises
the extremely complex factors, both local and global which cause child trafficking. On a global level,
globlisation and the accompanying liberalisation reforms hit poor groups hardest.
Social sector spending is reduced and traditional occupations are dissappearing
and crop patterns are shifting in favour of cash crops. Processes of production
have become increasingly institutionalised, leaving no space for
unskilled rural femle labour.
The new
occupational skills required by the new economic system are not aquired through
traditional means of education, so economically weak groups remain unskilled.
Children are pulled into prostitution through various means, the public demand
for domestic labour and prostitutes, police protection of, and collaboration
with perpetrators, the existence of informal family based networks and the
demand for child labour, as prostitutes, domestic servants and other jobs,
is high, as they are cheap and don't assert their worker's rights. HELP proposes
that NGOs working in this field should ensure 50% of their employed staff
are ex victims and that state level coordination committees should be formed,
which meet every three months.
ARZ
(Baina beach, Goa)
ARZ approaches
the issue of trafficking as a crime, it doesn't have a stand on prostitution.
ARZ works in the fields of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation, running
centres and contact points within a red light area and neighbouring slum,
as well as doing outreach work. One centre is for 6-9 year olds, another for
10-18 year olds, and an adolescent girls programme for girls aged 12 plus,
focusing on resilience and self esteem building and behaviour change, recreational
activities, help with education and a tailoring programme. ARZ acts as a link
between schools and parents. As the project has developed, parents have moved
from indifference, to a stage of dependence on ARZ , to finally today mobilising
themselves. Religious dedication of girls in this are has completely stopped,
as has the inflow of Karnatakan women and girls.
AKSHADEEP
( BudwarPeth, Pune and Mumbai)
Akshadeep
feels that we cannot isolate women from their children. As a metro, Pune attracts
many migrant families,whose children
find it difficult to get admission to school, we run alternate schools, with
the aim of enrolling the pupils in mainstream schools when they are prepared.
Budvar Peth is a central, red light district, with a lot of migrants from
Andhra Pradesh, we work there in tandem with the People's Health Organisation.As
there is no school in the area, we run a special school there. Our balwadi
caters for 3-12 year olds. Children in the area have no open space to play
in,and grow up amongst adult company, hearing very adult language, they are
lacking in intellectual stimulation. Mothers traditionally had to take childcare
support from their own network of women, in order to go out to work. The balwadi
offers nutritional meals and quality play equipment. Children are able to
express and work through their problems through theraputic play in our home
corner. We find that once support is given girls who leave prostitution rarely
return to it. In future we would like to open a night shelter in the area.
TRY
(Chennai)
TRY aims
to address the needs of thechildren of sex workers. They identify children
who are orphans or semi orphans and house and shool them, and assess and treat
their psychological needs. TRY feels that solutions to this problem require
the realization and understanding of the problem by sexworkers,clients, pimps,
government and wider society, and that all need to cooperate and bring about
change in order to address the many levels of the problem. From this conference,
we hope to share our solutions.
CHILLA-FIRM
(Trivandrum, Kerala)
FIRM supports
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered people and sex workers. We also organise
conferences for sex workers. We approach the issue from a 'rights' based perspective.
The priority
of the sex worker is the protection and care of their children. However, for
often destitute sex workers ths is very difficult. They often face two stark
choices, either continuing to live on the streets with their children, often
using beggars as child care, and with all the accompanying dangers of street
life, or admitting their children to orphanages, and in doing so losing their
motherhood and rights to visit or get back their children. Chilla tries to
address the needs of homeless street sex workers children, by providing a
roosting place for children, where they can live together, not as orphans,
but as the children of sex workers. We
function as a daycare centre, night shelter and short stay home, and provides
education, recreation, library, computer and internet access and sports and
cultural opportunities. The Kerala Sex Worker's Forum decides which children
will be admitted. We don't take ownership of the children, they are always
their mother's children, mothers are free to visit, stay, and take their children
on vacation. We support mothers in the long term aim of setting up their own
homes. We don't judge the sexworkers, or condemn their work, but try to make
alternatives possible. We acknowledge that according to some women, life as
a sex worker is preferable to married life, as they have the freedom to choose
their partners, go to bars and out at night, and are not privy to the many
restrictions imposed on married women in our culture.
Odanadi
(Mysore, Karnataka)
In
1992 we conducted research into women in prostitution and then started to
focus on women and children in prostitution.
Odanadi
started very informally in 1995, with five goals in mind
We believe that the issue of child trafficking
and commercial sexual exploitation is intrinsically connected to class, caste
and globalisation.
In the early
days things were very difficult due to the stigma attatched and hostility
from pimps and the non cooperation of the public. With time more and more people got involved and we are
finding that slowly people's attitudes are changing
We introduced social policing in the field of
rescue operations and have busted 26 trafficking networks. Education is essential,
we operate a bridge system at Odanadi, incorporating formal, non formal and
theraputic education, on site for the under 7's and older residents who need
to catch up. Other residents go to govenment schools and colleges. We equip
and orient our children with the knowledge and confidence to tackle the societal
predudice they will and do face.
Rah
(Natpurwa, Hardoi District, Uttar Pradesh)
Natpurwas
is a village of traditional prostitutes. It's a common belief that prostitution
is an urban phenomena, and that village women travel to metros for prostitution,
but prostitution does happen in villages and small towns, in both traditional
and temple forms and a blend of traditional and modern commercial forms, with
larger towns and cities often acting as congregation points. Villages with
prostitution traditions become source areas for town prostitution, and traffickers
move in.
The Ra programme
started children's centres and self help groups in Natpurwa. They hold discussions
on sex education and HIV awareness and have begun a campaign against child
consumption of alcohol, paan, tobacco and other drugs. The village youth started
a cleaning campaign. Now Ra has started work in two other villages and has
plans to open a women's college and hostel. Today in Natpurwa, of 150 households,
45% continue their traditional prostitution profession. Today 85 children
regularly attend the village school. and of these,45 are children of prostitutes.
Guria
(Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)
Guria began
in a red light area of Varanasi in
1993, its main focus being education, rehabilitation and the prevention of
new girl prostitutes entering the profession. We try to take a holistic approach,
not just based on rescue, but trying to address every part of the problem.
We are trying to weaken the powerful nexus (of police, traffickers, brothel
keepers, pimps...) ,we first took on the police, as the softest target in
this nexus, and through them the rest of the nexus is disturbed. Women in
prostitution are bound to this nexus
through their dependence on it for small necessities like medical help and
food. This red light area of Varanasi has now been officially declared 'child prostitution free', though we have not
yet suceeded in preventing the entry of new girls ito prostitution.
Our holistic
approach argues for a system of toleration, not legalisation or decriminalisation.
Individual women should be decriminalised, as the women who want to or need
to continue in prostitution require an exploitation free environment and freedom-
economically, physically and regarding their children. We have found that
there are very few truly inependent women in prostitution, and that the leaders
of the nexus,brothel owners and pimps support legalisation, and coerce women
to support the cause.
Our attitude
to rehabilitation holds that rapport, a meeting of hearts is essential, and
that rehabilitation ideas should not
be imposed from outside, but should come from within, from the women's own
ideas, skills and traditions. From this came the concept of rehabilitation
through traditional forms of singing and dancing.. The festival of 'Women
in Prostitution' began, and now eight festivals have taken place, with a team
of 30-40 women from all over India, functioning as a great awareness campaign
for the wider public, allowing women to tell their own stories in their own
ways, as well as gaining acceptance and respect from their own and the wider
community.
Guria also
publishes a magazine, whose major theme is love and relationships
Recently
we have started working with and living in a Bedia village (a community involved
in traditional family based prostitution). We try to work spontaneously, person
to person, never lecturing about morality and rehabilitation, instead simply
living, talking, singing and playing together.
We want
to perpetuate an attitude to development and women in prostitution that is
humanistic and tolerant and resulting in happy and well fed people.
Saathi
(Mumbai)
Saathi work
with street children and runaways, in Mumbai Central Station and other areas.
We do outreach work and run a daycare centre offering non formal education
(basic literacy), counselling- group and individual, and income generating
activities. We work with street and runaway girl children, on whom very little
data exists. Such girls are on the street for many reasons,abuse, trafficking,
poverty, love affairs. The need of such girls are many and complex, and we
have discovered that mere 6 month traning courses for them are insufficient.
When possible and desirable, we help repatriate girls, we provide such girls
with postcards to stay in touch, and teach them special secret symbols to
communicate with us so the can inform us if they are in danger.
We have
run police sensitisation programmes,
and now the police cell at Mumbai Central station allow us a base there.
We also
run a project called 'Quality Institutional Care for Children and Alternatives'
which aims to ensure quality care in residential institutions for children
ndin facilitating family and community based alternatives for social reintegration
and deinstitutionalisation.
-Offers
of assistance were made from Kolkata based NGOs regarding training for girls
-Other NGO's
suggested greeting card making as an income generating activity that has proved
very popular with adolescent girls
Tomorrow's
Foundation (Kolkata)
We started
informally in 1991, working with children from high risk groups, working with
an attitude of partnership with the community. We work from lifecycle approach to child development, working
with children according to their needs. Among other things we offer education
and midday meals, vocational training, afterschool tutorial centre, saturday
culture programmes, psychological and career counselling, an adolescent dropout
programme and a parents learning programme, and card making and screen printing.
We also facilitate international cultural exchanges, with schools in France
and Africa, as well as producing books to raise funds.
We want
to start exchanges with other groups across the country and have plans for
a future computer literacy programme and a halfway home programme.
Prerana
(Mumbai)
We work
in the Kamatipura red light area with the children of prostitutes. We try
and regard the women we work with as women, no just as prostitutes or mothers.
Initially we formed a women's focus group and asked the women what they wanted
and needed for their children. They responded that they wanted their children
out of the red light area. We started a three creches and night care centres
in three different red light areas, catering for 95 children each night,where
children can come at 5-30 in the evening , sleep and have a bath and breakfast
before going to school the next morning. We encountered a lot of resistance from institutions, who refused
to accept the children of prostitutes. We run a child guidance clinic for
behavioural problems, working with children and their mothers.We strongly
feel that a clinical psychologist is an absolute neccesity when working with
child victims of sexual abuse. We have published a training manual for people
who work with adolescent girls.
Our anti
trafficking work has started the 'Network Against Commercial Exploitation
and Trafficking' and we have staff working in trafficking and prostitution
source districts, on watershed management and other preventative measures.
There is a real need for greater public awareness of the difference between
migration, trafficking and missing children.
Sanlaap
(Kolkata)
We run sixteen
drop in centres in light areas in Kolkata, starting them only when people in the area requested
it. We talked to women in prostitution, they voiced their need for help in
preventing abuse and harrassment, and expressed fears about how they would
survive when they were old. They said their priority was their children, and
that we should work with them, women wanted their children in formal education,
but many dropped out, due to teasing from teachers and students, and a lack
of space to do homework and a lack of help with homework. Many children also
miss dinner in the evenings whilst their mothers are working, many boys spend
their time running errands for clients, whilst girls are paid to dance for
clients in their rooms, sometimes naked. We
provide safe spaces for children to do their homework, have a nutritious snack
and attend evening classes in things like painting, dance and karate. We have
found that youth groups cn be a powerful tool for change, for example in West
Bengal, where there is a long history of informal and formal groups, youths
have successfully pressurised brothel owners to stop exploiting minors. We
also run shelter homes for girls. We
feel it is essential to link up all
NGOs in this field, so that all rehabilitation cases can be properly followed
up, wherever they might be. The status of HIV positive girls is paricularly
vulnerable, as they are often rejected
by their families due to stigma, we reccomned that NGOs employ them as staff
where possible. There is also a great need to work with other NGOs and government
hostels about HIV awareness and safe practices, so that the stigma can be
lessened. We
also run a documentation centre, recording all relevant media and newspaper
articles, from across India, which can be used for research purposes.
We feel there
is a great need for training workshops for activists on how to properly file
an FIR and thus secure convictions. In our experience it is also possible
and effective to take apointments with magistrates judges (not in the High
Court)
Panel
Discussions
When
Culture is the Culprit
Here are
some of the points raised in this discussion:
-people
don't necessarily want to change and lose their traditions, for example, when
Devadasis were asked why they practice their profession, they reply "Its
our culture, its our life, its come from our ancestors"
-one method
of bringing about change in a culturally sensitive manner is to utilise a
cultural form which is acceptable to people and use it to benefit society
(like Guria festival of women in prostitution)
-don't assume you know what is right for other
people
-tailor
your method of reaching people according to your target group, eg books, leaflets
to literate, cinema, TV, radio to all, literate and non, adults and children
-start village
magazines to raise consciousness and lessen stigma on issue (like Guria magazine),
villagers can contribute articles and
ideas
-produce
a national magazine on the issue
-documentary
filmmaking- show in villages
- other
films, very poular medium with wide audiences (egs 'Manoos' (marathi) and
'Aadmi' (hindi) (directed by Shantasanu) old films on prostitution)
-work directly
with temple priests who have power over devadasi system (like 'Vimochana'
has)
-educate
against superstition (which exacerbates traditional and temple dedication
and prostitution), promote scientific beliefs,
-to change
culture, open schools in every village
-encourage
free open discussion of issues in the home, schools, wider community
Raising
Awareness
The general
public views trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children
as a problem, yet has very little awareness of the reasons behind it. There
is a great need to combat stereotypes, and raise awareness among local communities,
and society as a whole, among the media, and in schools and other educational
institutions (teachers and pupils), and of course among victims themslves.
One of the major problems in preventing child trafficking and prostitution
is lack of public awareness, however there is no single clear cut solution
to this exploitation and public awareness alone may not stop it.
Here are
some of our suggestions for awareness raising and some examples of effective
awareness raising:
-mobilise
and sensitise existing organisations like Lions, Rotary and other social support
groups
-openly
conduct seminars and conferences on
the issues, to encourage society to start talking freely about them, destigmatise
them
-involve
women themselves in educating the public, telling their own stories
-NGO's open
their doors to the public, hold sensitisation programmes, and discussions,
utilise existing friends to spread awareness
-women can
express realities of their lives to 'civil' society through organising concerts
of their traditional forms of music and dance. This exposes 'high' culture
audiences to the issues (Guria organise such festivals of 'Women in Prostitution'
with great success)
-explore
alternate avenues beyond TV and newspapers, utilise radio, pamphlets, theatre,
puppetry
-work with
gram panchayat members on sensitisation
-involve/join
broader progressive movements, eg World Social Forum ( in Goregaon, Mumbai,
Jan 16-21st- a conference there will be held on'Sexuality, sex work and migration),
Dalit and other peoples movements
-involve
police in programmes,conduct police sensitisation and training, let girls
and women tell their stories and help police empathise (Odanadi have experience
of this ,over the last 10 years, withsome, but not toal success)(Andhra police
run sensitisation programmes at all levels)
-feminise,
humanise, dem'macho'ise police training and behaviour ('Akshadeep' in Pune
have experience of chidren of prostitutes in a red light area becoming more
trusting of police)(a Kolkata police programme involved police teaching such
children, and the children losing their fear of them)
-police
and NGO's work together (eg 'Saathi', who use part of the 24 hour police cell
at Mumbai's central station as a contact point for street children and staff
base from where outreach work is conducted, and where counselling is available)
-work at
getting anti trafficking strategies within police jurisdictions
-make a
big public case in the Supreme Court on behalf of such children
-sensitise
NGO's and others who work with children, worker education
-organise
a nationwide public awareness campaign (one idea, do a national kilometres
long painting on the issue by artists, like Odanadi did in Mysore)
-start November
31st as 'anti trafficking day' (preceeds World Aids Day, 1st Dec)
-signature
or pledge campaign
-publicising
examples of sex worker's children's success stories, as role models
-work with
potential victims to raise their awareness
-demand/introduce
informative sex education in schools, encourage frank discussions
-involve
youth and youth groups/clubs, eg youth run radio shows, street theatre, magazines,
film making, upcoming 'Youth World Social Forum' in Bangalore
-writing
books, poetry, articles, comics, magazines, newsletters, wall magzines to
be displayed in institutions and elsewhere
It was suggested
that as NGO's working in this field, we should all try and agree on some sort
of national unified campaign, to be further discussed in future
Individual
need
[A very
short discussion discontinued due to time constraints]
What is
a model residential place?
How do we
make it homely?
What do
residents need?
-youngsters
need family like support
Government
Policies - What Works and What Doesn't
Some laws
available:
Immoral
Trafficking Act
Indian Penal
Code
Juvenile
Prevention Act
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
Convention
on Rights of the Child
Forced Labour
SIDA
laws against
Devadasi system and dedication
and many
many more (see the booklet listing them and see 'Child Rights in India- law
policy and practice' by Asha Bajpai , highly recommended and available in
Mumbai, another publication is 'The Child and the Law')
Devadasi
Act, this includes Mathumma act (which hasn't yet been used due to lack of
governemt officials)
Some
of our thoughts and ideas:
-we need
awareness about SC rulings
-we need
legal information available in regional languages (MARG publications have
been translated into Marathi by AKSHADEEP)
-CBI can
help regarding interstate trafficking
-Police
training on women and children is absent, so police are not sensitised to
issues.
-crime against
property is considered more important than crime against children
-there is
a dearth of lawyers, either they don't have enough knowledge or are simply
not interested
-Swardtha
programme (under the department for women and children) for women and
children in difficult circumstances is very good,a very progressive and holistic
provision. It provides both prevention, rehabilitation, reintegration, sensitisation
and rescue, as well as offering institutional care and providing funding.
-National
Comission for Women is trying to compile all state policies relating to children
and trafficking
-sex tourism
is a fast growing area of commercial sexual
exploitation, Goa now has the 'Goa Children's Act', which was made jointly
with NGO's and children, and is a child friendly act
-policies
can be just eyewash by government to pacify NGOs, we need actual action plans
too, and all policies should have a time frame
-efforts
are being made and many states are working on policies, change is happening
-civil society
must tke responsibility in order for government policies to work, and to give
meaning to such policies
-victims
must be encouraged to tell their stories clearly to the judge
-victims
must be taken to the judiciary as soon as possible
-legal process
must be swift, or witnesses may become hostile
Existing
Networks and Other Initiatives
Here follow
some of our ideas and thoughts:
-we need
to ecourage links between NGOs and public people's progressive movements
-however,
we mustn't lose the focus of our work, and keep in mind that no one of us
can deal with all aspects of the issue, we should work together to clearly
understand the issue, and then define roles for ourselves, and see how we
can all fit together to form an answer to the problem
-we need
local support networks of NGOs to help each other
-ATSEC isn't
working anywhere, it needs good leadership,resources, computers, and a secratariat
-we need
to continually analyse failiures and successes
-networks
need to have genuine links with villages, most are too city based
-networks
are needed on three levels: 1) at grassroots level, 2) at judiciary level,
need network involving the law and
police, 3) at government level involving officials who form
policy
-a problem
with networks is that they tend to become dominated by the organisation that
set it up
-power levels
in networks don't work, eg bosses, assistants etc
-informal
networks develop over time
-conferences
act as networks and spaces for networking
-there is
a difference between funded and non funded networks, funded networks may have
lots of facilities yet still not function (Moitree network is non funded but
makes use of organisations that are funded)
-we should
all share what we have
-we can
form larger or smaller local networks
-we can
form issue based networks
-we need
an interstate network, which should be formal and planned, so all members
know its aims and objectives
-networks
can fail if too big and loose, issues get diluted
-small networks
are better for action oriented interests
-big networks
are better for policy making
-network
policies and codes of conduct make working easier
-network
causes should be concrete and clear
-networks
should decide unanimously who you are working for, and who your target group
for health is
-be careful
when forming partnerships for networks, you need to all have the same priorities
-NGOs with
different agendas can still come together and network on certain focus points
-involve
people's movements in your networks
Some
existing networks:
-West Bengal
has a network of women's organisations, called 'Moitree', it has a rotating
secretariat and monthly meetings as well as other issue based meetings
-NACSET
is a Maharashtra network
-Tamil Nadu
has a functional NATSAP organisation which works in rehabilitation, it also
has networks of panchayats
-there is
a Bombay network for resource exchange and sharing, it holds monthly meetings
-'Stri Vedi'
is the Keralan women's organisations network
-Goa has
no formal network, but informal exchanges work
effectively
-Andhra
Pradesh has informal networks for helping each other
-Kolkata
has an ACSET chapter formed, but it is not functioning
-Pune child
rights network doesn't work well, as NGOs don't have time for common activities,
so it end up being directed by a few
-Thailand
has a global network against child trafficking
Action
items
-we need
to compile resources on all laws and
legal aspects relating to the issue (Priti has compiled two books on this,
if you want email or write to her, she can send it electronically)
-we could
compile a start up kit for new NGOs and workers
-we need
to innovate faster than the traffickers
Networking
- Need, Willingness, Direction
Some of
our ideas:
-jointly
organising a spectacular PR effort to raise national awareness, eg a 400km
long human chain
-sharing
of information regarding rehabilitation and training
-sharing
of ideas for women's economic sustainability
-a marketing
channel or brand for the produce of rehabilitated women and girls, could offer
more than just marketing, such as health support etc
-block printing
by women for government emporiums has been successful for one NGO
-there is
an organisation which is doing business models for underpriveliged women,
which aim to compete with 'normal' buisinesses, these businesses are owned
by the women themselves, this organisation could help NGO's like ourselves
-we need
training sharing, apprenticeships or training courses for NGOs and their staff
-we need
coordinated shared policies on how to deal with rescues, and post rescue
-we need
to document whats worked and what hasn't for different groups (Saathi have
started this, and will publish a booklet)
-we also
need to share what's currently happening elsewhere, information sharing
-we can
document and share training information
-if we create
a information network, we will all need training on documentation
-we can
put it on the net, and can then add to it
-Ashoka
fellows already have an e-group
-if it's
in email or web form, then we should regularly publish it on paper too, as
small NGOs may not have net access, or may not have electricity
- we should
all take responsibility to document our experiences and send them in
-we must
ensure that everyone participates,and that it doesn't become dominated by
bigger groups
-we need
one person to compile/dissemate the information
-(various
people volunteered to get involved) they will get together over the next month
and brainstorm the idea by January the 20th
-someone
from Asha will coordinate, a year at a time